Reasons to be Cheerful: Week 48 ( #R2BC )

 

 

Thanks again Michelle for hosting this linky. It's great to stop and think positive.

1) Thinking of others

I am so glad that my children are learning to think about and do things for people less fortunate than themselves. My daughter raised £35 for Macmillan cancer by painting nails and running a game at our church fete this weekend. Even her brother let her paint his nails! We have also had a good clear out of their old clothes for their schools Bags2School fundraiser. Great to get rid of unwanted clothes to help both their school and people in need in Eastern Europe.

2) Proper Winter

The weather has really turned wintry this week. Temperatures are barely above freezing and we have had plenty of frost like on my shed roof:

 

Yes my washing froze on the line but at least it was dry enough to try and hang it out! Just glad I have a nice toastie electric blanket though and I'm not looking forward to the heating bill!

3) Mummy treat

I realised I am child free the weekend the Hobbit comes out so I have booked myself a seat to see the 3D version all on my own! I'm a big Tolkein fan and its been a long wait to get to see one of my favourite childhood books turned into a film:

 

Chill Factore - Blogger Party

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Back at half term my children and I were invited to the Chill Factore in Manchester for their blogger party. It was pretty exciting pulling up outside the building with its special shape to accomodate the ski slope. On entering the complex it was amazing what they had fitted in to make it a ski experience.

We were in a group with families with children from pre-school to early secondary age. All of us were kitted out with clothing, helmets and boots before being taken out to enjoy a taste of the activities on offer.

For my children and I our first taste was the tubing which is basically a giant inner tube that you sit in before being pushed down the slope! This was really good fun as it wasn't very scary but pretty exhilarating. My daughter had the maximum number of goes but my son only wanted 3 runs down.

He headed over to the adjacent sledging slope and was very happy to spend the rest of the session going down on there especially on the special seated sledges:



I came from the tubing just as my daughter came flying to the bottom of the luge! She had found it a bit too scary and advised me not to do it. So of course I went down it 4 times! It is pretty scary and I had bruised elbows but it was well worth it. I did take some pics and video of other people on the luge but can't get them on here at the minute as my laptop is broken... Luckily I had uploaded a partial video of what we did to YouTube so here it is including my squealing (and some sideways footage!):



 

For the youngest members of the group there was a Snow Play area where they could have fun in the real snow:

By the end of the session all of us were a little bit tired and a little bit wet but mostly looked happy:

We were more than ready to retire to one of the bar areas for pizza, chips and a view of the slopes:

Just at the minute my two aren't keen on the thought of the main slope for skiing and snowboarding but I'm quite tempted!

I would definitely recommend Chill Factore for a different family day out. At the minute they are having special Christmas events including Santa in a real snow grotto! For the rest of the time they have various packages to let you choose your activities. Its not a cheap day out but it is a lot of fun as a family.



Wordless Wednesday: Dockwray Iron Bridge

Mattel Fun Times: Pictionary

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Over the next couple of weeks I'll be sharing reviews on a range of board games I've been sent by Mattel to try out with my family. First up is an old favourite of mine that has had a makeover for its 25th anniversary (that is officially scary as I remember playing it when it was new!):

One major plus as compared to original pictionary is that it has special junior cards so that younger members of the family can play. It has an age range of 8+ so was well suited to my 9 year old daughter.

She was keen to give it a go even if strictly we should have had another team to play against! At her suggestion we chose to use one of the stop spaces to make it a shorter go. The board gives you 3 possible starting points depending on how long a game you want:

I haven't compared to my old version (currently in attic waiting for my children to be older!) but I'm sure it's much brighter and more funky. My daughter soon got the hang of it and we seemed to work well as a drawing/guessing partnership. Can you tell what any of our pictures were:

The game is available from £19 online and I'm sure most toy shops will stock it. A great addition to your family's board game cupboard especially if they are getting a little bit older and need more of a challenge.

Finding me time

As a parent especially a working single parent it can be really hard to find some quality time to unwind, relax and just be me. Life can sometimes seem a constant merry go round of balancing the demands of work, children and housework. Being able to just stop and do nothing can feel like mission impossible!

Since I increased my hours to include 3 mornings I've found that my me time is being even more constricted. I have to choose between spending my all to short free day time hours getting myself fit, healthy and destressed at the gym or trying to tackle my chaotic house.

After work I seem to be too often dashing here there and everywhere to fit in my tasks such as banking or collecting parcels before fetching my children from after school club. Then one or other of us has something outside school every night except Thursday!

Some of these activities are essentials such as swimming and others allow me to spend one to one time with a child whilst the other is out. Generally though by the time I've got the children safely to bed my free time doesn't start until after 9...

So I have some simple little bits that I use to unwind. Firstly on one day each weekend my children know to sneak downstairs (usually after a snuggle in my bed) to watch some TV so mummy gets a lie in. When they want me to get up they bring me a coffee from the tassimo:

 

 

At the other end of the day I like to sink back in my bed with a good book and read. Just at the minute my bedside light isn't working so I have the added soothing bonus of a scented candle:

 

 

These may not seem like much but it's amazing the difference they can make! What do you do to unwind?