Proud Mummy Moment

I don't tend to blog much about the children's achievements, but seeing as this blog is their diary for them to look back on as they grow older, I have decided that today's blog post is a very worthy subject to be writing about.

I am incredibly proud that this week, Ruby's teacher's have chosen her to be "pupil of the week"! I was not even aware that the school did this until Ruby came home on Monday beaming with smiles telling me she had a certificate.

I read the certificate and cried, my hormones have been all over the place this week and this really did set me off. I cannot put into words how proud I am of Ruby, she has settled into school so well, despite being one of the youngest. Her certificate states that she has been awarded pupil of the week for "settling into school well, with lots of enthusiasm!".

Not only did Ruby get a certificate, but as a special treat she was given a story bag to take home for the week. The bag contains a non-fiction book on ladybirds, a story about ladybirds, a puppet and a ladybird game - I thought this was an amazing thing to be given. Ruby's certificate has now been placed in the living room in view for all to see.

The book bag went down very well with Ruby and every evening we have been reading some of the book and story whilst also having a game of ladybirds.

I think Ruby will be sad to return this book bag next week, but as a special treat for being pupil of the week, I am going to get her a little treat as I am such an incredibly proud mummy.

Ruby is Handling it Better than Me!

This week seems to be absolutely flying by, how can it possibly be Thursday already? The weekend will soon be upon us.. Yay! Ruby has been at school for half days this week and she has thoroughly enjoyed putting on her uniform and has no problems going to school at all; yesterday for example, she ran straight into the playground and if I had not had shouted "Ruby where is mummy's kiss" I don't think she would have even looked back!

In a previous post I talked about the dilemma surrounding Ruby's homework, well I have spoken to Ruby's teacher, and explained that I had tried to get Ruby to draw a house, but I did not feel comfortable in pushing her too far in case it threw out of the window all her positive feelings about starting school; her teacher agreed with me that there was no need to push her into doing something she very clearly was getting upset over, this gave me a huge sense of relief but its also made me feel like a rubbish parent as I've not been able to get my daughter to do her first piece of homework. I suspect that the reason Ruby is not interested in drawing is because she finds it boring compared to other things she could be doing with her time, she has no problem being outside and using chalks to draw things that she wants to draw, I think she is also a little stubborn too, I wonder where she gets that from?

Whilst Ruby has been on half days at school, the house has been very quiet and I am sure Lottie has felt a bit off with not having her sister around to play with, as she has been a little madam at times. Even though Ruby has only been having half days at school, she is coming back home very, very tired and I am a little concerned at what she is going to be like next week when she is in for a full week. How do you manage your little ones when they are so tired from school; I could really do with some tips? I am making sure that she is having dinner early and going to bed at 7pm; she is sleeping for nearly 12 hours, but what else can I do?

The weather was absolutely beautiful when Ruby finished school yesterday, the sun was shinning and it was so warm that I put a pair of shorts on. Ruby and I had a fantastic time playing with the barbies in the garden, I'm going to miss being able to play all day every day with her; what has happened to my once little girl? She's grown up way too quickly.

Messy Play - Chocolate Playdough!

Ruby has really started to enjoy messy play; this week she has been enjoying playing with playdough... not just any old playdough, but home-made, pink, chocolate scented playdough!

I remember playing with playdough as a child, and I distinctly remember the yucky smell it has; I decided to try and make our own, and I pleased to say it was fairly straight forwarded and worked out really well. 

Ruby and I made it together; we started off by pouring one cup of warm water into a mixing bowl, followed by half  teaspoon of oil and some hot chocolate drinking powder.

We mixed it all together in one bowl, and added one cup of plain flour and half a cup of salt to a separate bowl before we then mixed the contents of the two bowls together.

Finally we kneaded the dough until it formed a giant squidgey dough ball. We repeated exactly the same steps to make the pink playdough.

Then the fun began! Ruby started off with playing with her hands.

However it was not long until she decided that she wanted to put her feet into the dough, jumping on it and making footprints!

Ruby even persuaded me to try and make footprints!

After about an hour of play, Ruby decided that she had, had enough; she was covered in playdough, so I decided that the best thing was to get her washed in the kitchen sink.

She loved playing with the bubble and even got into the washing bowl! 

I think its safe to say that home-made playdough has been a real hit! We shall certainly be doing this again! 

Don't forget I'm running a giveaway at the moment where you could win a Breastvest, more details can be found here.

Tuff Times, In More Ways Than One!

Ruby has been unwell over the last few days: it never usually seems to bother her when she is poorly, but this time was different; shes been plagued by a sickness bug that has been doing the rounds at playschool; I think it was only a matter of time until she got it. This was the first time that Ruby has ever been aware of being sick and as a mother it has been heart wrenching; all I want to do is make her better. Anybody who knows Ruby will be aware that she loves food; she went totally off it, not even her favorite jam on toast could entice her to eat! Ruby was so tired and looked so sad that I decided that a special treat was in order! I went off to my local DIY store and purchased a Tuff Tray (also known as a cement mixing tray). Nothing special about a cement tray and certainly not a treat you may think? Well I can tell you that this tray has already been used to have so much fun and in the process bring out lots of smiles and laughter.

There are so many different things that you can do with a Tuff Tray; you will be able to follow our adventures over the coming weeks and months. Messy play is very new to Ruby and I, we didn't do any when she was younger; I think I was too scared of the mess. At playschool, Ruby rarely used to paint or draw, instead favoring the home corner or dressing up! This all changed about a month ago when I decided to chill out more as a mum and jump into the world of messy play. As you will have already seen on the blog we have been using more paint and pens in our play times.

Yesterday we did some marble painting in the tray; I filled up pots with paint and then gave Ruby some marbles; she enjoyed counting them out and putting them into the paint. Ruby then swirled the paint onto the marbles before rolling them onto the paper. Lottie watched on whilst being sat outside of the tray; I think she really wanted to be in on the action as she kept reaching forward and grabbing the newspaper! After all the marbles were on the paper, I got Ruby to place them back in the right coloured paint pots; I cant wait to do this with Lottie as it will help her to learn to count and know her colours too.

I decided that it didn't matter if the girls got wet as it was near their bath time and they were due to have a bath. Next to go into the tray was some water and Duplo animals; I explained to Ruby and Lottie that as it was soon their bath time and the animals needed a wash themselves. I showed Lottie how to put the animals in the water, but she was far more interested in eating them! Ruby on the other hand knew what to do straight away and even invented her own little story and used the sharks to try and eat Lottie and I! After a while I suggested that Ruby might like to get into the tray; initially she was very unsure and then a few minutes later she went away and came back with her swimming costume! I put the swimming costume on her and she loved it, I struggled to get her out of it and she ended up being an hour late to bed!

Thankfully Ruby is back to her normal happy self and today returned back to playschool which she absolutely loves.

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, we had applied for Ruby to start school this coming September; well I am incredibly relieved that today we found out Ruby has a place in the school that we put as her first choice! I feel a massive weight has been lifted as I was a bit worried because the school is not in our catchment area and it is in demand as it was recently rated as outstanding by Ofsted. It does however mean that we are going to have to use the car as the school is not within walking distance, but I know that I am doing what is best for Ruby and giving her the best possible start I can.

Nana's Fun House!

Today the girls and I went over to my mum's (aka Nana to the girls). Nana's house is amazing as there is always so much to see and do, she also makes the best cup of tea too!

Nana's house is only a short car journey from our house but at times it feels too far; since having the girls I would really like to be nearer. Her house has two real fire places that were perfect to sit next to as it was so cold outside! Even the cat was curled up asleep when we arrived! 

There are so many toys at nana's but today Ruby played with some dolls; she has started to turn into a little girly girl since I had Lottie and loves to treat them as her babies! 

Lottie on the other hand was quite happy to sit and pick up duplo and try to eat it! 

After a cup of tea and a hot cross bun, nana suggested we go outside to help with some jobs. Ruby loves being outdoors and being able to run around, fortunately nana has 16 acres so plenty of space to play! 

We started off by feeding the chickens and collecting eggs.

We went poo picking in the horses field.

Whilst in the horses field we saw their was ice in the water so Ruby used her spade to attempt to break it. Normally when Ruby is near water she ends up drenched as she has so much fun but thankfully today she wasn't! 

We played with the small amount of snow left and mixed the horses food. 

 Finally before we went inside we filled the horses hay nets with fresh hay. 

It may have been cold outside but we had a lovely time playing outside at nanas.