Sports day ( 1st time around )

When you are pregnant you can find so much information, from bump to birth and then on to toddler age you can find countless books, guides and helpful information. I have found that once your child gets to nursery age this help and information drys up! As a 1st time mum to a now 4 1/2 year old who will be starting full time school in September i thought i would share my views/tips on all the things you will face 1st time !

Today its sports day , Bodhi is only in morning nursery and last year when he was in afternoon's we was upset that they didn't take part in sports day, Knowing this year he would be taking part he was so excited ! Who could blame him they had been practising for the week leading up to sports day and on the Monday we was told that they would need to be in sports / P.E kit for the big event i asked Bodhi what he wanted to wear ( knowing full well what he would say ) So i popped into sainsburys to pick up P.E kit it was really good value with x2 pairs of shorts for £3 and x3 white t-shorts for £2.50 these will be perfect for his real P.E kit come September.

On sports day i dropped him off as normal and then popped home to meet my mum and dad , parents and family were welcomed to come and watch. It was only nursery taking part this morning but it was lovely to see a few of the other classes out on the field to watch. We sat down just as the 1st race was about to start. Now Bodhi isn't the fastest or best at sports but he did his best and had a smile on his face the whole time , They only did a few little races and then a relay. This was more then enough for them tho and after they had finished they all sat down so we could give them all a big clap.

He then lined up and got his trophy he was so happy ( As you can see from the photos ) they then all had a drink of water and the parents got a chance to take photos and tell them how well they all did, I really liked how they didn't have any winner and everyone got a trophy. We then went home and they had the rest of the day of nursery as normal. 

Top tips for your 1st sports day

* take tissues ( you can always blame your tears on hay fever )
* cheer all of the children on not only yours as some won't have anyone in the crowd
* put suntan cream on before the go into school ( School will not do this for them )
* try not to use the word winner/loser

Grow your own with your kids

I have always dreamed of picking my fresh produce from my garden for cooking and the idea of a few chickens for eggs, when in reality it isn't going to happen, last year I grew tomatoes that didn't ripen and my raspberry plant produced seven ( yes seven ) berries so I am putting the veg patch space to better use this year and just sticking to my little herb garden.

The other reason I wanted to grow our own is for feed our pet tortoise Tuc he eats salad leaves and green, I also wanted to get Bodhi a little more green fingered so I popped to the shops and picked up some cress seeds and Cotten wool.

You can't get any simpler then growing cress !! I had saved and old plastic egg box and this was perfect, bodhi pretty much did it all him self, from ripping up the Cotten wool to sprinkling the cress seeds onto the Cotten wool and lastly giving it a good drink !

After only a few days we had fresh cress growing and I had one very happy four year old and a very happy tortoise , you can pick cress seeds up from garden centres/pound shops and most supermarkets I got our from wilkos 

Dino garden - perfect summer play idea - #ToddlerApprovedTuesday.

 #Toddler approved Tuesday for this weeks post i am keeping it REALLY simple. we are in the middle of decorating our living and play space so poor Bodhi hasn't had much space to play so when i saw that summer dry weather was on its way i dragged out this plastic dinosaurs and got making a small world space in the garden,

For this i used items we already had in our garden, i found a shaded spot by our shed and added rocks/sand/and bark chipping down for different zones for the dinosaurs to live and play, i also placed an empty seed tray for Bodhi to add water to for either a bath or lake, this was all done while Bodhi was at morning nursery , Once we got home we headed into the garden i didn't tell him about the Dinosaurs, didn't take him long to find them, he so really pleased to have a game to play out in the garden, for a little while we just lay in our long grass ( yes i know it needs cutting ) and watched the Dinosaurs pretending we was at a ( in Bodhi's words ) " Dinosaur Zoo " 

Bodhi spent well over an hour playing with this simple set up ( i know this as i got to put washing on and out on the line with out a little helper ) we stopped for lunch and then i let him play with the water, we don't have an outside tap , but we do have a water but, he loves nothing more then filling and pouring water soon all of the dinosaurs were all in the 'sea' having a lovely time! 

I have just ordered a kids Tuff spot tray from Amazon for £14.99 i am sure something like this would be a perfect play idea for a tray ( but doesn't have to be ) i am looking forward to spending many an afternoon out in our little garden having fun and playing pretend games together. 

Simple Bird feeder cups #kidsinthegarden

I am linking you with the lovely LarabeeUK for a blog hop with 13 other bloggers each sharing a great kids in the garden post, we love spending time in our garden and lets face it we could all do with a little less screen time and more fresh air time!

If you would like to read the other #kidsinthegarden blogs please pop over to LarabeeUK blog to check them all out, it kicks off with dinosaur plant markers and my blog is day 5 !

Bodhi has been asking me for a few weeks now to feed the birds in the garden as he often sees our next door putting out bread on her grass. i really don't like doing this as we have a lot of cats in our road and the often catch the birds when they are eating from the ground, so we came up with the idea of making bird feeder cups.

what you will need - 

paper cups

garden string 

lard ( yum )

bird seed 

nuts

dried worms 

jug

scissors

spoon 

Now i let Bodhi play and mix all of the dried parts together on our kitchen table but this is up to you and how OCD you are with cleaning and mess! Body loved this and really wanted to try a worm! ( crazy boy ) 

1 - get your paper cup and make a small hole on two sides, thread the garden string to form a handle and a stand for the birds. 
2 -  mix all the dried parts into your paper cups
3 - ( grown up help needed ) melt the lard in a jug ( I just put the while block in for 2 mins and it was melted, it will smell !! ) 
4 - pour the melted lard over the dry mix and stir well
5 - leave overnight to full set 
6 - hang in your garden and enjoy bird watching. 

Paint by numbers

Who would have thought that something as simple as a paint by number kit from good old pound land would give me a chilled out afternoon during the easter holidays , I picked it up on a whim purely down it to being farm related as this is the theme Bodhi is covering this term at nursery school. Body has never done a paint by numbers before but i thought now that he is four and can recognise numbers i thought it would be a nice crafty project.

Bodhi was very keen to get started , He didn't fully understand the idea of only painting the parts with the same number all at the same time ( he is really into making the big old painty mess that then finishes with the black paint covering the LOT ) 

He soon got the hang of it and really enjoyed making his painting match the one on the packaging, the kit came with everything we needed. Paints / brush the paint by number ( on a canvas board ) and even a test sheet printed on paper ( we used this with felt tips after and it went in Bodhi's Easter scrapbook )

I only helped with the sheep feet the rest was all him, I am so proud that he worked all of the numbers and colour matching. I will defiantly be picking up more of these if i can find other designs , Two big thumbs up from us for this Paint by number kit from pound land, It has pride of place hanging in Bodhi's bedroom. Don't be scared to try out new things with your child even if Bodhi had painted the whole thing in green, Who cares?? it was a £1 and i got to drink a cup of tea while it was still hot and reply to some emails without mum guilt. 

Baby Bodhi is starting school in September !

Today is the day that we find out about lower school addmisions, I am SO pleased to say that when my inbox pinged the email stated that Bodhi has been given a place at our first choice school. This is also the school he attends nursery at and we also live in the next street to it, we moved house in 2011 while I was pregnant with Bodhi and one of the things I loved about the house we live in is that it was so close to a lovely little school 

So you could say I've been waiting for this email for over four years ( cause well I have ! ) I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't got the place we wanted ( pleased I don't have to even have to think of that tho ) some people arnt so lucky, in our area last year the schools changed from lower , middle , upper and became junior the to secondary school meaning Bodhi will be spending the next 7 years learning at this school. 

Bodhi started nursery last Easter so by the time he starts school he will have had a year half with in nursery doing only 9-12 he has a solid group of friends and I am starting to become friends with some lovely mums ( and dads ) I am crossing my fingers that they all will also join the boy in September 

My heart is a little sad that my baby boy and my old child will be going to full time school come September.. But on the other hand I know he is ready and I am ready for it he loves nursery and really enjoys learning at the moment his favourite things are letters and writing , I can't wait to start doing home work projects , book reviews the works with him and watch him become a little man. Today is a happy & sad day 

Bodhi's birth story ( 28/01/2012 )

So, Bodhi is four years old and I've never written or filmed my birth story so I thought I'd type it all out as no doubt in years to come I will forget details, 

Thursday 26th January 2012 

35 weeks pregnant, full day at work with midwife appointment at 11am so I went from work, midwife has a student with her for my appointment ( nothing new think I had always had a student at my midwife ) but happy for them to learn, but then they also had a head midwife checking the normal one so that makes 3 midwifes, me and lumpy ( that's what we called bodhi as we didn't want to know the sex of bump ) heard the heart beat and bump was measured as it should but lumpy was still breech ( now lumpy had been breach from our 20 week scan ) they had no really worries about this as lumpy still had time to turn on its own and if at my next weeks appointment was still breech I would be sent to the hospital to have baby turned. They all had a good feel of bump, 3 women pushing and poking the bump and then I went back to work in the afternoon I feel really sore and lumpy wasn't happy with me and was moving and kicking me a lot !! 

Friday 27th January 2012 

Day off from work ( thankfully ) had a rubbish nights sleep due to lumpy moving and kicking me all night long. In the morning I had some dull back pain and feel really off. I was texting my friend and she told me to go have a bath and fake some paracetamol, well I spent most of the day in the bath with my back pain getting worse and what felt like period pains. When Chris got home from work at 5 he really wasn't happy with how rubbish I was feeling, I thought I was just in pain after a full week at work on my feet but I called the labour ward and asked them for some advice they told us to come in for a scan as they said it might be that lumpy has turned and is no longer breech. ( Yaye ) we got to the hospital at around 6:30 pm I just took my handbag ( I hadn't even packed my hospital bag by this point with still having a week left at work it was on my todo list once I'd started maternity leave ) once we arrived I was hooked up to the monitor and stayed on it for over 2 hours, by this point ( 8:30 pm ) I was in some real pain and asked for help. A doctor checked me down below but nothing was going on but the pain where coming every 5-8 minutes and lasting around 30 seconds at a time. I was kept in over night and was booked in for a scan 1st thing in the morning. Chris went home and I was taken up to the ward at around 11pm I was given some medicine to help me sleep and also a tooth brush and tooth paste along with a hospital gown.

3am 28th January 2012

I woke up with such a pain I thought the baby was coming right that second! I pushed my buzzer and a nurse helped me to the bathroom , after going I felt no better and the nurse sent for the doctor. Once again I was check but this time I was 3cm dilated!! ( I was very shocked ) but the then went to say that the baby was limbs down breech and was coming feet 1st. They phoned Chris and he rushed to the hospital. We are lucky that our hospital is only 10 minutes from our house, once he arrived we was given our options I could try to push the baby out with a very high chance that he would get stuck leading to me being cut or having to have a c-section. Or we could just choice the c-section. We went with the section and after a phone call to my work ( as I was due in for my shift at 2pm ) I was taken down to theatre , Chris got his scrubs on and we was good to go. At 11:44 am my beautiful baby boy was born via c-section and at 5 weeks early he weighed a good 6.5lb he was taken to be checked over and he was fine , Chris cut the cord and I got to have my 1st cuddle. 

Growing up fast

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When I look at bodhi I find it easy to forget when he was so tiny 4 short years ago , it feels like a life time ago, can I remember a time when I didn't have him in my life ? Honestly.... No , I remember the lazy weekends the fuller bank balance but I don't really remember feeling whole. I love my son more then anything or anyone in my life. But time is flying by and I can't believe he will be starting school in September. He really is a little boy now, no longer a baby definitely not a toddler. He is a full on 4 year old and yes he pushes my buttons but he is my world and he is a kind and loving little boy.

Last week another very special family member had a birthday, my nan and bodhis granny ( great granny ) turned 90 , now to me this is a crazy age to reach. She has had a tough few years , she is being looked after in a small care home as she has needs that are greater then she or us as family can meet, her sight has been much all but gone. But on good days she is still my nanny seaside and I can clearly remember summers spent with her and my late grandad. I love my nan and I'm so pleased that bodhi also gets to love her, he is very kind and sweet to her ( and to the other lady's that also live in the care home ) 

We spent Friday afternoon with granny to celebrate her birthday, bodhi lead the signing and helped her to blow out her candles was heart warming to see the two of them together sharing such a moment,most of my friends arnt lucky like me I still have both of my nans in my life. And I really don't know how I will cope without either of them, I don't see or speak to them everyday but just knowing they are at the end of the phone or near by is a real comfort. 

So yes time is flying and everyone is growing up fast, the world needs to slow down just a little for me to enjoy more of this time with them all. I hope that bodhi will be creating memories of both his great nans.

I have shared this post over on what the redhead said for living arrows , she is a lovely person and write a fabulous blog go check her out at whattheredheadsiad.com 

World book day stress!

World book day is this week ! Whoops like really 3rd of March is this week?? I am still thinking we are in January, got the letter home from school on Friday and to be fair to the school I think they are doing it pretty well, have asked for only book characters and no "fancy dress" so bodhi and I sat down and looked at all of his book together sorting out a yes , no and hell no pile ( cat in the hat / box trolls / Thomas the tank engine ) 

The list came down to four books that I felt happy I could make a outfit from 

Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs - red jumper / jeans / bucket with plastic dinosaurs

Charlie bucket from the chocolate factory - old clothes and golden ticket 

The three ninja pigs - make pig mask / blue jumper / blue joggers 

Peter Pan - £15 job by from TU Sainsbury's !! 

I left the choice up to Bodhi as it would be him who would be wearing it all morning at school, in the end he picked to be a ninja pig ( even if he did want to be the yellow one not the blue ) after much explaining just how hard it is to buy yellow trousers he agreed to be the blue ninja pig for world book day 2016 ! Yaye 

So now onto Pinterest to find a simple pig mask that I could make before Thursday !! I went with this one as a base and I will add a blue ninja mask, and plan B he has a knight outfit so can go as a knight from the round table or something !!!! * ninja pig turned out pretty well so no need for the fancy dress outfit, hoping the handmade/home made world book day outfit will get me some brownie points with the teachers ! Ha ha ha 

I wonder how many will still go dressed as ironman and none story Disney princess ? One of the things I've been looking forward to with bodhi growing up was things like dressing up at school but it really is just a big pain in the bum isn't it ?? They are doing a prize for best outfit for each year group , not holding out any hope that bodhi will win, but I know he will be getting a book token so that's good enough for me. 

I'm really pleased with the outcome and so is bodhi !! What/who is your child going to school on world book day as? Bring it on world book day 2016 !! Who know what bodhi will want to be for world book day 2017 tho !!!