School Uniform Nostalgia

I can hardly believe that come the summer holidays, my little boy Freddy will have one whole year of schooling under his belt. Remembering back to last September, my barely 4 year old son was about to begin his journey into formal education.  He is my youngest child, my baby boy and he seemed so little to be taking such a monumental step.

I secured him a place at a small village primary school, three miles from home in a beautiful rural setting.  The intake for reception was initially just seven children, who would join the twelve Year 1's under the care of their wonderful Mother Hen of a teacher.  Getting him in the perfect school for his personality and his tender years was immensely important to me.  This decision has seen my little boy flourish into the confident, friendly lad he is today.  I couldn't be prouder of him!

With his new found confidence, my timid child has become a roughty-toughty lad who loves to play hard in the playground and enjoys Friday mornings when the children swap the classroom for the woods where they build dens, search for minibeasts and hunt bears. He loves to play with the playground equipment, jumping, climbing and clambering around.  Freddy loves school (although he has said there is one thing he doesn't enjoy...the work!!)

Looking back on his first day of school, Freddy looked so smart in his school uniform.  With his grey trousers, yellow polo shirt and blue sweater, all in age 3-4, he looked the part. Seeing him as a schoolboy for the first time brought tears to my eyes.  Somehow, simply by donning those special clothes he went from being still a toddler in my eyes, to being a proper little boy.

At the start of his first term at school, even the aged 3-4 trousers were baggy and dragged on the floor.  Thankfully, Nana is a dab hand with a needle and thread and turned the hem up an inch or two.  The elasticated waist cinched in just small enough to keep his trousers from falling down if the polo shirt was tucked in.  A year on and we are looking to buy a whole new school uniform for him to begin the new school year in September, because he has grown so much.

George school uniform  from Asda is one of our favourite brands to buy.  Not only is it incredibly reasonable with boys' trousers starting at just £3.00 and polo shirts from £2.50 for a two pack, it also has a 100 day satisfaction guarantee.  This means that if the uniform fails to meet your expectations, you can return it with an original receipt for a full refund.  You really can't go wrong with that promise! 

This September also sees my youngest daughter Kizzy start secondary school, which will require us buying her the required school uniform including blazer, white shirt, school tie and regulation knee length skirt.  

It seems like only yesterday that she was a tiny little girl in an oversized school uniform just starting Infant School.

In a blink of an eye she was in Year 3 and starting at her new Junior School.

Now she is about to finish Year 6.

Looking back of photos of the kids from years gone by reminds me just how fast time flies by.  It is so important to live in the moment and make as many memories as you can, enjoying everyday of your children while they are still young.  Because before you know it, they will be grown-ups off to start their own adventures, and leaving  their schooldays far behind them.

After all. it seems like just 5 minutes ago that this was me, back in 1981, aged 12 and at grammar school.  And now I am a 45 year old mother of five!

This post was brought to you in conjunction with George but I retain full editorial control.

Dressing Up Ideas for Kids: World Book Day, 6th March

Most children love dressing up.  Many will have a dressing up box, filled with costumes and accessories and will enjoy spending many hours living out scenarios in imaginative games of make believe.  Little boys will enjoy the opportunity and freedom to express themselves and what little girl wouldn't love pretending to be a Pirate Princess in this great girl’s fancy dress outfit from Asda! (Unless of course they would prefer to be a soldier or a Power Ranger...anything goes when playing dressing up!)

While it’s a great game to encourage self expression and practice role play, dressing up is even better when there’s a reason for it. Take World Book Day, for example. Children nationwide will be able to participate in this global celebration of the written word, with many schools asking for the pupils to turn up to class wearing a fancy dress costume of some description, to commemorate their favourite book or comic. This fantastic annual event that has operated since 2007 continues to help promote reading and literature, and the importance of these elements in day to day life.

If your children need a costume for World Book Day, there are plenty of places to look for inspiration. If you’re feeling particularly crafty, you may have time to conjure one up with the magic of a sewing machine, or you could rummage through what they already have for a makeshift outfit. Alternatively, you could take a look at the options that are available in the shops – many of which are superb value, so you don’t have to worry about your purse. Here are some ideas:

Superheroes

If your children love comic books, use this as inspiration for a costume. It’s easy to find an outfit that matches your child's favourite superheroes – Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Thor – you name it, there’ll be a costume to suit. Many superhero costumes can be found in George at a reasonable price.  For example, this Thor outfit complete with hammer is just £12.50.

Princesses

Does your little girl love to read about her favourite fairytale princess? Perhaps she’s a fan of Disney movies and the princesses have inspired her to read about the original characters? Whether it’s Rapunzel, Snow White or Cinderella, princess outfits are an easy choice for girls who love a happy ending.

Wizards

'You’re a wizard, Harry!' You may have introduced the Harry Potter books to your children because you have read them yourself, or your child may have found them on their own, but dressing up as their favourite wizard is a great way for them to give a tip of their wizard hat to the ‘the boy who lived’. Just add a zig zag scar with face paint and they'll be ready for a day at Hogwart's!

I'm heading to Asda at the weekend, to buy a fancy dress costume for Freddy on his first World Book Day at school.  I'll have the camera ready to capture the moment!

On World Book Day, every youngster who is in full time education is given a £1 voucher that can either be used to buy a World Book Day book or used as money off a standard book that the child would like. Take advantage of the opportunity and spend some quality time reading with your child – in full dress up, of course! 

Halloween's Coming...Ooooooo! A Spooky Round Up!

Halloween or Samhain is one of my favourite times of the year.  It marks the start of the winter and celebrates the Feast of the Dead where the veil between the this world and the Otherworld is at its thinnest. I love some of the Pagan traditions, reflecting on changes that have occurred and remembering lost loved ones. But it is also a day that celebrates all things scary and horror related, my favourite genre of anything ever!  So I am also happy to indulge in the commercial side of the festivities, dressing up, making spooky food and having some frightful fun!

This year we are off to Alton Towers to partake in their annual Scarefest.  We love the horror mazes and the themed decorations and characters that can be seen throughout the park. We are getting the pre-bookable all-you-can-eat wristbands (at £29.50 each) enabling us to enjoy as much food and drink from the restaurants as we want:  unlimited hot chocolates, veggie burgers, fries, cakes and pizza, without worrying about the cost on the day! Given that a cup of coffee alone is over two quid, I'll definitely be getting my money's worth from this investment, enjoying breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner at the park.  Then we are staying at the hotel overnight. I love it when Halloween falls during half term!

Scarefest 2012

We have lots more planned over half term.  Kizzy is having a belated Halloween themed birthday party.  It is nice to make loads of homemade themed Halloween food, but it really lightens the load to use some shop bought goodies too.  Asda have a really great range of sweet treats that will look great on a Halloween party table. They will definitely save a lot of time and effort for me, the party host, and they will delight all the little monsters!

Halloween Treats from Asda

We bought a selection of Asda's  Halloween food range using a gift card we received.

Grusome Gooballs - fuzzy marshmallows with an orange gooey centre.

Perilous Pumpkins - orange marshmallow shapes.

Shocking Shortbread Bats - delicious choc chip shortbread bats.

Weird Witch's Hair - colourful candyfloss.

Exploding Eyeballs - individually wrapped chocolates filled with strawberry ooze!

Scary Skeletons - chunky chocolate shapes.

Graveyard Ginger Ghouls - box of 18 gingerbread biscuits.

Funsize Bags of Maltesers, Twix , Mars and Milky Way perfect for Trick or Treaters

Fiendish Fancies - Mr Kipling's fondant fancies get a Halloween makeover with orange and black icing. 

Witch's Cauldon - A brilliant black, handled witch's cauldron which makes a great container for keeping all the sweets in!

I love the Halloween bakery range which if I'm lucky might be mistaken for homemade gingerbread and shortbread (just don't tell my party guests!!)  It's nice to find such a good range of Halloween goodies available in my local Asda store all priced at £1 - it will definitely help with my Halloween celebrations this year!  (Check out asda.com for more spooky Halloween treats in The Big Shop of Horrors!)

When it comes to dressing up, I have collected a whole box filled with costumes ranging from witches to vampires to the Grim Reaper!  The girls love glamming up the outfits to create a fashion forward scary character!  This year my son's girlfriend Jade has got coloured cosmetic contact lenses in terrifying plain black.  They look really demonic!  She is working an outfit around them - a demon mermaid was one of her ideas!!  They will really make a huge impression this Halloween and take dressing up to a whole new level! Just look at this photo with one black and one blue eye...it's a bit freaky!  But jade is definitely rocking the look. (Thanks to my lovely future D.I.L for the photo!)

Jade wearing her Colour Contacts 

As for Freddy I could not resist this mummified Halloween Bandage Onesie from George.  At £9 it is a real bargain and is thick and warm with a zip up front.  He'll be wearing this to his first school disco tomorrow night!  It's cosier and more practical than flimsy fancy dress costumes so I won't worry about him getting chilly - and he looks so cute in it!

George Mummy Onesie

Ian and I have got World War Z on 3D Blu-Ray to watch on Friday night.  That will start our Halloween half term off with super scary bang.  We'll wear our Evil Dead and Hellraiser t-shirts, crack open a bottle of red wine and let the horror fest begin!

World War Z

So we have got a lot to look forward to this half-term.  Lots of top quality family time and all the spooky fun of Halloween with parties, discos and at Alton Towers' Scarefest.  We'll be eating spooky themed food and baking scary cakes and listening to our Halloween playlist and watching some good old horror films. Perfect.

Happy Halloween to everyone...however you plan to celebrate it!

Fit for a Royal Baby!

Asda have some new babywear fit for the little prince in your life.  The 'Born In 2013' short sleeved bodysuit is just £4. The 'King in Training' 4 piece outfit with a babygrow, bodysuit, gloves and a crown design hat is just £7.  Great value babywear that you don't need to be royalty to afford!

You can keep your little ones clothing clean, safe and soft with Persil Non-Bio and Comfort Pure which are available in limited edition royal baby packs to celebrate the arrival of Prince George.

They have also released a guide on how to raise your baby like a Royal, because all babies should feel like a prince or princess.  It is written by royal etiquette expert Jean Broke Smith.

Here are a couple of excerpts that I particularly liked.

First Portraits

"As we all know, once your little one arrives into the world people will be snapping away with their cameras and iPhones. So now is the time to decide whether you want your baby to be public-facing or not. Should you choose to, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook all provide valuable outlets to share your baby’s photos with close family and relatives, particularly those you see less often if they live far away. If you’d rather shy away from the public, set some rules with friends and family from the get go and ensure photography is strictly limited to the confines of a private photo album."

Hand Me Downs

"Babies usually grow very rapidly during the first year so hand-me-downs can prove rather fruitful, especially if they have a momentous story or historic moment attached to them. Take a photo of your baby and frame it next to the original clothing owner. Family history is of huge importance to royalty."


With all the celebrations surrounding the birth of the royal baby, you may want to enjoy the occasion with a nice cup of tea sipped from a commemorative porcelain mug from Asda!

asda.com

Asda Back To School 'Little Designers' Challenge

CHOSEN BY MUMS; TESTED BY KIDS; GUARANTEED BY GEORGE

We are always impressed with George school uniform.  The prices are extremely competitive, the styling is good and the quality is great.  With September fast approaching we have been getting some new back to school essentials for Kizzy and so when we were invited to take part in the Asda 'Little Designer' Challenge we were happy to accept.

Kizzy was supplied with a plain white rucksack and a selection of fabric paints to create her own design.  She also received some items from the George range to model with her finished rucksack!  

Today, Kizzy sat down to get creative and crafty with her rucksack.  She decided on a Jigsaw Puzzle design using the coloured paints and pens to add splashes of colour.  She pencilled on her design first then used the brush with black paint to go over the lines. She finished off by adding colour to some of her jigsaw pieces.  I think she did a great job!

Here is her finished design.

Kizzy's school uniform items that she was sent to try out include a green school cardigan (£4), ruffle front polo shirt (£4) and black bootcut stretch trousers (£7).  I love how grown-up the trousers look and the fit is great for Kizzy who is tall and slim.  The ruffle front shirt is so much more pretty than a plain polo shirt, and Kizzy loves it.  I really like that she looks fashionable and will feel confident, but that her clothes are still practical, easy to wash and good quality.

Bottle Green School Cardigan

Ruffle Front Polo Shirt

Teen Bootcut Stretch Trousers

Kizzy tried on the clothes and everything is a great fit.  She even got quite excited about going back to school, which is a good thing!

The idea of personalising a rucksack or bag for school is a really nice idea.  Having a unique bag amidst a sea of identical One Direction rucksacks will help Kizzy identify her possessions in the cloakroom.  The activity itself was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours and gave Kizzy a project to unleash her creativity on.  Fabric paints and pens are a great way to stamp your individuality onto things, something that is really important to youngsters who are keen to establish their own unique identity!

If you need convincing that the cheap prices of Asda's school uniform do not mean compromising on quality, give this video a watch.

George school uniform is covered by George’s ‘100 day satisfaction guarantee’ allowing parents to return it up to 100 days after purchase if they aren’t completely satisfied.  

Kizzy's design is now entered into the 'Little Designer' competition with all the other blogger's children's personalised rucksack designs.  I look forward to seeing all the other budding designers' creations!

An Asda Easter Outfit and an Easter Egg Hunt Competition

I enjoy a good blogging challenge so when Asda asked me to come up with an 'Easter Sunday Best' outfit from the George website with a budget of just £20, I was definitely happy to give it a go!  I chose to dress Kizzy in an outfit from George's range of excellent value Girls' Clothes.  With Spring now well and truly sprung we enjoyed pouring through the lovely summery lines including chiffon dresses, floaty tops and funky tees, to find the perfect look for 9 year old Kizzy that was trendy, fashionable and practical.

We chose a pair of turn-up washed denim shorts teamed with a gorgeous floral cotton top with metallic detail and a shaped hem.  As it is an Easter challenge we added a fun, floppy straw hat with a ribbon and flower detail.  We also got a lovely pair of summery pumps with pink laces and floral trim.  ALL FOR JUST £20!  Great quality, great value and the outfit looks great too!

But the fun doesn't stop here!!!  I am one of sixteen bloggers taking part in this challenge.  As well as receiving our gorgeous outfits we also were sent a number of colourful plastic eggs each.  My eggs are hidden in one of the pictures above.  Asda are inviting readers to count how many eggs  have been hidden across all sixteen participating blogs, in a virtual Easter Egg Hunt with gift cards up for grabs to the first five readers to count (or guess) how many eggs are hiding altogether!  Simply fill in the Rafflecopter entry form below! Good luck!!

What do you think of Kizzy's look?  Do you think supermarket clothes can look as good as designer labels??