SCHOOL TRIP

Luke had his first school trip last week to Liverpool. I was a bit apprehensive about him going all that way on his own for his first trip so when his teacher asked if I would go along and supervise, I jumped at the chance. I thought I was the only neurotic parent worrying about the distance but it seemed all the parents were feeling the same.

The children have only been in school for 2 terms and know the drill of their routine when they arrive in class, so when they were told to sit with their lunch bags and coats on, many of them were confused. They all then had to put on high visibility tabards to walk to the coach. They all looked very cute walking to the coach hand in hand in twos.

I had never heard of 'Underwater street', it is situated in Water Street, Pier Head. I'm certain I was probably more excited than any of the children. It is an interactive Discovery centre for children with 6 zones, an art area where there was an actual mini cooper which the children could paint, a construction area with mini diggers and a ball pool and foam bricks to build a wall, imagination village which was 4 booths. These consisted of a pet parlour, where there were a number of cuddly dogs, a shop with a working till and money and post office, a pizza parlour, where the children could make a pizza with felt ingredients and a dressing up booth. Physical zone which included a climbing wall and balance beams, sensory area and a lab area.

We arrived at approximately 10.15am and left at 2.15pm, with a short break for lunch we still probably didn't get round all of it. All the children were well behaved and sat so well for both journeys, if I was travelling in the car with Luke for an hour I would always make sure I had plenty of activities to keep him entertained but for 28 children to travel without anything to keep them amused, they did brilliantly. I didn't hear 'Are we there yet?' that many times either really!

I am planning on taking Luke back there so he can show his daddy what he missed out on.

If you are interested in taking your little one check out the website http://www.underwaterstreet.com/

BUMPS, BABES & BEYOND IS COMING BACK

After much deliberation and peer pressure from fellow Mumpreneurs, I've decided to organise another 'Bumps, Babes & Beyond Show' in Nantwich. It will be held at Nantwich Civic Hall on Saturday 23rd June from 12pm till 5pm. A free goody bag will be available for the first 100 through the door and all proceeds on the day will go towards the 1in11 appeal for Leighton Hospital's new Neonatal unit.

At the previous show's there have been demos and over 40 exhibitors with products and services from bump to baby.

There is a website being built as we speak by Nicki Francomb so as soon as it goes live I will report back.

If you would like to book a stall email me sharon@hullabalookids.net

HAPPY 2012!

Happy New Year to one and all, 2011 was a busy year and I'm hoping 2012 will be the same.

Hope you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year, ours was most enjoyable, Luke was so excited and as you can see from the photo, he was a very lucky boy. I remember filming him opening presents last year and him taking forever, this time it was over like a shot! He couldn't wait to get into them and anything soft was tossed aside. I remember doing that when I was a child too!

Christmas day was spent with my parents, Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and extended family. There was around 40 of us sitting down for dinner, was pretty hectic but good fun. The gingerbread house wasn't demolished as I'd expected just merely picked at.

It's all back to normality now, we have taken down the decorations and we can no longer bribe Luke with Santa. Oh well, not long 'til the Easter bunny comes!! hee hee

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I know everyone says it buy seriously, where has this year gone? Luke has been at school for a whole term and boy was it a busy one! We had a letter virtually every day asking for something or other ie/ Christmas fair, shoebox appeal, sponsor forms etc.

He also performed in his first ever school Christmas play, it wasn't the traditional nativity play but the '12 days of Christmas'. I offered my facepainting services and in return was given front row seats. Luke was one of the 12 lords a leaping and in rehearsal had refused to play his air guitar and jump around. On the day though he came up trumps and made mummy, daddy and Nannie very proud. And yes, as you would expect I cried!

We are on the countdown for Christmas now and only 2 more sleeps till the big man arrives. I love doing craft and have made a conscious effort of making festive things with Luke. Yesterday, I asked him if he would like to make a Gingerbread house. I had seen a few 'make your own' kits around but Luke decided he wanted to make our own from scratch. It took ruddy ages, I was so stressed with it but it came together wonderfully and I'm so proud of it. We're taking it to the family get together on Christmas day to be demolished by kids. At that point I will be crying!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Redshift Radio on FM - Part 2

It really has been a whole month since I last posted. Ooooops. I'm working virtually 7 days a week and when I do have a day off I have to step away from the laptop.

Luke has settled into school much better since the half term, he did have a wobble one day and cried for half an hour after I'd left but the teacher called me and reassured me he was calming down. It was about half an before I was due to go on air on 'Toddler Talk' so as you can imagine it was quite difficult, as the saying goes 'The show must go on'.

It is fantastic news that Redshift Radio are again on 87.7 FM from 21st November to 18th December, this is my second FM broadcast! I am so so proud to be part of the team and such a professional set up. If you are 10 miles radius of Crewe you should be able to pick us up in your car, otherwise you can still listen on www.redshiftradio.co.uk

BARGAIN BREAK

Back in February, the Sun Newspaper had the offer for £9.50 holidays. I'd never done it before but have heard many people who have, so thought I'd collect the tokens and send off for a long weekend break. You don't get to chose the date or destination but they offered us 21st October for 3 days at Haggerston Castle, near Berwick-Upon-Tweed, with Haven Holidays.

At the time, I was unsure when school holidays were so when I found out Luke's school were having an inset day on the 21st October that was even better!

We set off at 10am on Friday and arrived around 3pm, a 5 hour journey with a 4 year old was much easier than we anticipated, especially as we had borrowed a DVD player to keep Luke occupied.

We arrived at a sunny Berwick and although our caravan wasn't ready straight away, we were still able to use the facilities on the park. There was a fantastic arcade, swimming pool, outdoor pursuits area, restaurants and a shop on site. Also, there was a 9 hole golf course, boating lake and pony trekking. The children are kept entertained with many different activities, Luke enjoyed the Letterland treasure hunt, archery and especially loved meeting 'Bradley Bear' for breakfast and watching the evening entertainment shows.

We had a busy but at the same time, relaxing weekend (well I did as Luke was all for daddy again!) The site is also dog friendly so our family pet, Fizz came along too.

I'll definitely be looking out for the vouchers again for another bargain break, it was well worth it!

STILL WOBBLY

Since my last post things have not gotten any better. Luke is still not over enthused about going to school. Every day last week he uttered the dreaded words 'I don't want to go to school' my heart sinks every time I hear them and my only way to deal with it is to divert him with another conversation.

Once he's at school he is fine but then when I pick him up again he is like the devil child and refuses to listen to me and is having meltdowns over the slightest thing. For example, he had a hole in his jeans the other day and totally freaked out shouting and screaming. Also, he is running off ahead of me when we walk home from school and I spend my whole time yelling at him to 'Stop'.

On Thursday night, he woke at 10pm after being in bed for 3 hours and he just cried for an hour. He didn't have a temperature, he was just upset but we didn't know why. The only way we managed to settle him was to put him in our bed.

It's another Monday morning tomorrow and we all know how that feels. I am already dreading what it will bring. I have volunteered to read with the children and tomorrow is my day so hopefully that will cheer him up. The school breaks for half term on Friday and although I am looking forward to having my baby boy at home with me again, I'm also dreading battling with him trying to get him back to school after half term.

The joys of parenthood eh?!.........saying that, I wouldn't change it for the world!