kids

Letters From Santa by the NSPCC 1

This entry was posted in Charity Christmas Competitions Crimbo planning / Gift guides Random and tagged boys children Christmas kids letters from Santa making Santa win on

I like to help charities, particularly ones I have experience of, and more so at Christmas! As a teen the NSPCC were my legal guardians, so rather than writing a letter from “Santa” for my boys I get a lovely one from the NSPCC website in return for a donation. The suggested donation is £5 and you can choose more or less if you wish. Every year online I see people selling “letters from Santa” where people are just printing out their own scripted letters and changing the names and ages – not very personalised really and that money goes straight to that seller. With the NSPCC letters to Santa the actual letters are awesome AND it’s not money to someone’s pocket, this helps real kids. (Trust me!) The Letters from Santa section on the NSPCC site lets you make your letter. You tell them some basics, first name, surname, favourite things, and a […]

A Family Friendly Garden 1

This entry was posted in Competition Entry Playground Tots100 Toys and tagged blog post chicken chickens coop cute fence freecycle Jen kids light play the kids tots100 trees on

We have two tiny gardens. The back garden is fenced and secure but a mess thanks to the pesky (but cute) chickens. This is the state of the garden, hardly any grass and waterlogged clayish soil. With the current rain it’s boggy out there! The front garden is smaller, and with no fencing but has better drainage and supports a lawn, woohoo. It’s good enough to keep trees alive and happy.

Oxfam Christmas Toy Range 2

This entry was posted in Charity Crimbo planning / Gift guides Games Reviews Sponsored Posts and tagged Charity gifts Christmas craft Devon dog fashion GB Help Charity Jen kids music play poverty on

Jen and D received a lovely retro gift in the post thanks to Oxfam. It is a boxed set of glass “days-gone-by” marbles, although marbles aren’t modern, and unlikely to appeal to the 3DS generation my lads like them. On our recent holiday to Devon Jen wanted to buy marbles from every little gift shop we went near. As we were camping we refused to buy any, as we knew if they were lost camping in the woods there would be many tears and sniffling. When these marbles came Jen was very pleased, “Ooooooh these are them things I wanted to buy in Devon Mum!” Although we’ve had these in the house for over a week life gets in the way sometimes, parents evenings, dog adoptions, play dates with little friends, and we’ve just got around to playing with them – sorry Oxfam.   Like me you might have been unaware […]

Christmas Shoe Boxes 5

This entry was posted in Charity Christmas Crimbo planning / Gift guides Good Causes Toys and tagged Belarus boys children Christmas cute Everything Rosie glitter kids postage on

After years being a bit anti the charity shoe box schemes I’ve decided I will give a box to a girl overseas. This change of heart is entirely MichelleTwinMum’s doing. Last year she went with Operation Christmas Child, (or OCC for short) to Belarus to see how they operate and who gets the shoebox parcels. You can read all about it on Michelle’s blog by clicking on the link here.

Oral-B

Dentists – Another of My Phobias 3

This entry was posted in BritMums Competition Entry Healthcare Products and tagged BritMums broken dental hygiene Gramps kids phobia on

Me and dentists are never going to be best friends. I started off badly, as a child I had dental issues – I had too many teeth! I had six front teeth, not four and that’s why my front teeth look odd to this day. The middle pair are big, the the outer pair being noticeably smaller than all the rest of my teeth. I remember being gased in hospital to have the smallest set removed, clutching my teddy bear, and trying to fight the gas by talking to my Nan and Gramps.

Spooky Fruit – Why Should Pumpkins Get All The Fun? 5

This entry was posted in Craft Halloween and tagged boys creative Jen kids pumpkin carving ideas on

I was asked if I’d like to take part in Alex and Alexa #SpookyFruit competition as pumpkins totally hog the limelight in October, and the rest of the fresh fruit and veggies are feeling left out! As we saw there were Lego storage heads in the first prize we had to join in. The rest of the prizes aren’t shabby either, with 3 prize sets on offer FIRST PRIZE: Everything you need for a truly terrifying Halloween with the kids. A cutely, creepy knitted toy from Lucky Boy Sunday Two Halloween kids’ costumes from Lucy Locket Two fabulous Lego storage heads for Halloween candy A selection of beautiful Halloween party supplies for kids from Meri Meri A set of cute Halloween figurines by wooden toy suppliers Le Toy Van Second and third prizes you just lose some of the package above, so still not bad.  

Christmas Shopping 5

This entry was posted in Christmas Crimbo planning / Gift guides Occasions Shopping and tagged Amazon boys Christmas kids photo photo gift Santa on

I’ve made an early start on Christmas presents and have a few people’s gifts sorted already. The gift I’m proudest of, and a blindingly good price are these photos for family. The photo collage prints cost 99p each for 10 x 8 inch on snapfish, and the frames are from poundland, and it’s a real glass window on it, not perspex as I would have expected of a cheap item.

Trespass or Inconsiderate Neighbours? 1

This entry was posted in Garden Home Life and tagged dishwasher fear kids play son on

This morning I woke in the night, as I often do. Still a bit sleepy I walk in to my kitchen for a drink, not bothering to turn on the lights as I can see enough from the orange glow of a nearby street lamp. I bent down to retrieve a clean and slightly warm mug from my dishwasher and I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. A woman is in my garden, walking past my window. I see her eyes towards me, shes looking in to my home, I duck but keep watch. Then a second shadow sneaks past. I hear whispered voices. They are standing still, in my front garden, right at my front door. I feel frightened. I shout loudly to Blokey upstairs “there are people in our garden” and I run upstairs to look from a safer place. Its not like opening my […]

Winning Weekends 4

This entry was posted in Competitions Linkys WinningWeekends and tagged blog competitions compers competitions Comping contests Julies Notebook kids prizes style win WinningWeekends on

Welcome to my second #WinningWeekend linky. The idea is link up any blog competitions you may be running, and more people will see your competition and enter. It also means followers of Julie’s Notebook have a few chances to win each weekend! In fact I won two prizes from the competitions linked up last week.   The “rules” will be simple, linky up a competition from your own blog or a friends blog (and host a badge if you want to). That’s it! You don’t have to comment, you don’t even have to enter anyone else’s contests and competitions. Just linky up. Pretty please make sure you only linky up competitions/contests is open to the UK and will be open until Monday or later. If you have a competition that runs a few weeks, pop back next week if you like.

Off On Our Hols 1

This entry was posted in Camping Devon Nature and tagged BBC Camping disappointed Fun IQ kids play River Dart tv Vango Airbeam on

I am typing from the M5 – no one panic, I am not the driver! We are off camping for a fortnight, and when we go camping it’s more like “glamping”. We have our new Vango Airbeam With extension porch, and a “footprint” and carpets. This is not just a tent, it is bigger than our garden. We do not have a big garden, but still! Best bits are it has inflatable tubes instead of fiddly fibre glass rods. The main structure is up in minutes as it has a powerful pump. It takes longer to peg in the guide ropes than put the tent up. Last big camp we still had our Vango Sungari, which although it was a lovely tent for a family it was a nightmare to put put. It resulted in arguments every single time we set up camp. We decided last time that enough was […]

Plant me

Plant Some Trees 2

This entry was posted in Nature Tree and tagged boys educational Forests Gloucester green kids supermarkets trees wildlife woodland on

I’m sure you’ve all realised I’m a bit of a tree hugger, with a huge 11 trees in my small garden (and a Bonsai indoors) I can’t quite cram any more in. So I’d like to encourage, nag, inspire or motivate you lot, my lovely readers, to plant a tree or two. Native trees would of course be better, but anything is a start. We are running out of woodland, and as a girl that grew up climbing trees I find it hard to swallow that in the area I live my boys have no trees old enough or strong enough to climb. The local council do have some big trees, along the edges of roads but these are lopped every other year so they never grow decent branches, they’ll never get much bigger. Of course this is preferable to them being cut down at ground level, a lopped tree is […]

Budget Bucket List 3

This entry was posted in Competition Entry Skydive and tagged Australia blogger Blogger Challenges boys competitions Formula One history ideas kids photo racing trees tv woodland on

Money supermarket have another blogger challenge competition running. The budget bucket list. Well I heard about this and wanted to join in. I intended to write this post before my skydive, as the MSM logo for this challenge shows a happy, calm skydiver. Skydiving could have been on my bucket list, but not anymore! I’ve done it, I really did it.   So new ideas! Extravagant I would love to swim with dolphins. In Australia. I went to Aussie a few years ago and I utterly fell in love with the place. One of the things we were meant to do was go swimming with Dolphins, near Adelaide. The day before we were due to go out on the boat, a horrible note was pushed under the hotel door, and under the doors of the rest of the group we were with. It said that as bad weather was reported for the next […]