My toddler is Thomas the Tank Engine mad. He also likes making things so I thought we could combine the two. On a recent day out we saw the Troublesome Trucks and thought it would be fun to make them ourselves. We used some mini cereral boxes, which we painted grey. You can see I was really lazy and turned the boxes inside out as the paint wouldn’t stick to the shiny side of the cardboard. You could also cover boxes in grey paper, dependant on how impatient your toddler is. We then went through old issues of Thomas the…
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This week I have been on a bit of a roll, making home-made tomato soup as well as apple and blackberry crumble, thanks to our trip to the Pick Your Own farm at the weekend. A couple of weeks ago I picked up some Stork Easy to Mix Baking Liquid at the supermarket. I love trying new products but it has sat in the fridge for a good few weeks, with me lacking baking inspiration. This week is National Cupcake Week however, the perfect time to fill the cake tin, which everyone enjoys in our house! There are some handy…
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I can’t believe the summer holidays are nearly over. We’re going away visiting family next week so I thought I should pull out all the stops to ensure we’ve had lots of inexpensive fun this week. We’ve been dodging the weather and making sure we spend as much time outdoors as we can. I bought the toddler a box of chunky chalks and he’s been having great fun drawing on the patio. Don’t forget there are lots more ideas for inexpensive play from Play England on Morrisons website. Yesterday we made our own modelling putty for the first time. I…
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I can write about our love of Lego ad infinitum. At the moment it seems all encompassing which is great because as a parent I believe it’s a great educational toy. We’ve had lots of fun with Lego. We make endless towers, houses, tunnels, bridges, and manage to use it alongside other toys such as cars and trains too. We’ve been trying to think outside the box and made Lego crayons, Lego biscuits and even painted using Legos. We started off with some pots of paint and chose some different sized bricks and figures. Initially the toddler started off…
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I don’t need to tell regular readers that my son is a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan. I spotted a vintage Thomas duvet cover in a charity shop and snapped it up for a couple of pounds. When I got it home I wasn’t sure how to use it – re-size it as a toddler duvet, a bean bag cover or cushion cover. Instead I thought it would make two fun fitted sheets. The ones we’ve been using have been plain blue and these would be a little different. It was quite simple to make. I unpicked the duvet…
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BritMums challenged me to find three great looks for the toddler for £30 at TK Maxx. Part of the challenge was to pick three outfits, all tailored to different occasions. The toddler has a busy social life so I chose scooting round the park, our summer music class and back to school. We’re lucky that we have a TK Maxx in our local shopping centre so arrived nice and early to make sure the toddler was in a good mood. He’s a bit temperamental so you have to make sure he’s in the right frame of mind if you want…
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We’ve lived in Wood Green in north London for the last 6 years but have only visited the handful of charity shops a couple of times. However, last week we popped into Oxfam and were rewarded with a haul! First up were two new-to-us Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. There was no way the toddler could not have these so we snapped them up. As I was paying I noticed a big bag of Brio by the counter. The toddler just loves his trains and already has a good Brio collection so we bought this too! You can never have…
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I looked at my toddler the other day and realised he was dressed head to foot in Thomas clothes – hat, jumper, tshirt, shorts, socks <sigh>. I love him to bits but his Thomas obsession is everywhere! Fortunately for him we were sent some brilliant sugarettes from JustBake who sell all kinds of cupcake decorations, featuring the little blue engine and two of his friends to use at our next baking session. Hard to believe right now but last week it was raining so we got out the measuring bowl and got baking. We made some simple fairy cakes (using…
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I’ve been having a good think about the food I give the children recently. It’s really hard ensuring two children of different ages get the nutrition they need. The 7 month old has really taken to weaning but unfortunately at the expense of her milk. She’d much rather have some healthy fromage frais or pureed fruit than a boring bottle of milk. The toddler is going through a difficult stage. He never wants to eat the food I’ve lovingly cooked but will happily sidle up to me when I’m eating my microwaved dinner and try to pinch something from it!…