Not the half-term I had planned

I had been so looking forward to this half-term.  We'd had a difficult week beforehand with our boiler breaking down leaving us with no central heating and hot water, and we were looking forward to getting away from our chilly house and taking advantage of other places' warmth!  Ian had booked the week off work and we had a four night family holiday booked. Freddy had been invited to two birthday parties, which he was excited about and I'd also planned a lovely meal and activities for Valentine's Day on the Saturday to kick off a week of family fun.

Sadly, fate had other ideas.  Freddy woke up on Saturday morning unable to swallow and with a temperature.  We thought a syringe of Calpol might knock it on its head but as soon as the medicine went into his mouth, Freddy promptly threw up all over my bed.  Once we had stripped the bed we gave Freddy a sip of drink and again, as soon as it hit his tonsils he was sick again, this time over our cream bedroom carpet.  Cleaning up pink stained, Calpolly sick using a bucket of cold water (because of the broken boiler) was a low point of my day.  We had two extra loads of washing to do, with no central heating to dry any of it! Thankfully, we had lots of kind offers of help from friends and family and so with my sister's offer to tumble dry my bed sheets and a fan heater pointing at my clothes rack, we got by!

Freddy's poor tonsils were big and bright red and all he wanted to do was sleep albeit fitfully.  He missed birthday party number one and Ian and I put all our romantic candlelit dinner plans aside to look after our poorly boy. Freddy was up and down all night, waking every hour or so because he couldn't swallow his own spit. It's heartbreaking when they are so poorly.

By Sunday, Freddy had also come out in a rash, which I assumed was some sort of viral thing...although in hindsight could have been Scarlet Fever, which I've since read is doing the rounds. There is no way we could take him away on holiday when all he wanted to do was lie on the sofa under a duvet, sleeping or watching the occasional Nick Jr and eating nothing but ice lollies. So we made the decision to stay at home losing the money we had paid out. (Although initially a bit upset about this, I think we may have actually had a lucky break as we were going to spend four nights at Pontins in Southport.  Looking at their Tripadvisor reviews, which basically said things such as "cheap but not at all cheerful" and "stay at home"and "don't waste your money", I'm not sure it would have been the break we had in mind!)

Freddy did perk up a bit midweek, which meant we got to visit his sisters in Manchester, but as he still had no appetite, his energy reserves ran low pretty quickly and we wanted to be back home on his sofa, cutting short our visit. The same thing happened on Friday when we went to visit big brother Joe, who is sporting a triple toe dislocation, chipped bone and torn ligament injury from slipping down the stairs (but that's another story)! Again, when his energy run out, Freddy just wanted to be back in the comfort of his home. Unfortunately, this visit set Freddy back and he relapsed with tonsils swelling up and his temperature spiking again.

So, this weekend we have again been nursing a poorly boy with tonsilitis who just wants to sleep.  He tried to go to the second birthday party, but lasted five minutes before welling up and wanting to go back home.  Definitely not like him to ask to leave a party.  He returned to his spot on the sofa feeling very sorry for himself, but the party bag he was given by the party host's mum did soften the blow a little.

So today, Freddy has missed the first day back at school. He didn't sleep well last night because he couldn't warm himself up. I'm working on trying to get him eating again so he has some energy, but he is in better spirits and his temperature seems to be stable.  Fingers crossed for him being well enough for school tomorrow.  And our boiler is getting replaced tomorrow...so maybe things will finally look up after a pretty rubbish week!!

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!

One Direction, The Oscars and Monday Mornings.

I hate the first day back to school after the holidays.  Freddy is not an early riser and during the holidays he loves to lie in until he naturally awakens to the sounds of his sisters and wakes up happy and full of beans.  This morning he was unceremoniously yanked from his slumber and wore the saddest frown that broke my heart.  He has been poorly too with a lingering cough that has refused to shift.  Dropping him off at nursery gave me a heavy heart as his sad little face watched me leave and implored me to take him with me.  It took every fibre of my being not to scoop him up and bring him home for another day of doing nothing together, just enjoying each others' company.  But with the prospect of school beckoning in just 7 short months, I have to get him back into the swing of things.  Monday mornings are never easy.

To make me feel better about leaving my baby boy, I settled down to watch The Oscars that I had recorded on my Sky planner the night before.  It is my annual thing.  Recording it to watch while the kids are at school, noting down the bits I think the kids will enjoy so they can watch my specially chosen highlights later.  My eldest sister used to love the Oscars, staying up all night to watch them live.  I am not that hardcore but this is my yearly homage to my big sister's passion. However, just to compound my shitty morning, I discovered that I had actually recorded one of the pre-Oscar shows, failing completely to record the main event.  Searching through the listings in hope that the ceremony was repeated in full proved utterly fruitless.  There is a highlight show at 10pm tonight.  It just isn't the same and I feel genuinely sad about it.  By then I will know most of the results and the spark of excitement will be much fainter.  The Oscars always makes me feel close to my sister as I remember her famous Oscar parties and her zest for life.  I feel like I've lost my annual Oscar related opportunity to emulate the one person in the world that I miss everyday.  Sorry Carol.

As ever, when things don't go to plan I resort to carbs.  Half a Bakewell Tart, half a loaf of bread and half a dozen profiteroles later, I am wondering will I ever learn that a cake binge is never the answer?

On a much more positive note, I have had so much fun this week with my girls.  Kizzy's love of One Direction has taken itself to a whole new level after seeing them perform on The Brits.  We made the journey to Sainsbury's to buy the CD and stocked up on other Comic Relief merchandise which was fun.  I have heard the new 1D single at least 300 times in the past few days and mostly jump up to rock out with Kizzy to the One Way or Another/Teenage Kicks mash up.  How thoughtful of them to cover two old school songs so us mums can impress our kids by knowing all the words!

We've also watched some great films making the most out of our TV which was such a great investment.  We loved Looper.  It was a great watch and had a very cute kid and Bruce Willis in it.  What is not to love?  Taken 2 was pretty good for a silly action film, but Liam Neeson is just so cool.  Madagascar 3 in 3D was an unexpected triumph of feel good, eye-popping cartooniness.  While Paranorman was such a brave movie venturing into a brilliantly dark storyline, which left me moved and in tears. The long awaited return of Dexter to Fox last night was brilliant and lived up to my hopes for one of my favourite TV shows ever.  So it's not all bad.

Ian has what we hope is his final consultation with the surgeon that we hope will be doing his operation on Wednesday.  It has been such a long drawn out and complicated process.  The private health insurance route has been so difficult, but the NHS won't do the operation that he needs to be 'cured' of his problem.  They will only do another quick fix that will inevitably fail after another 12 months.  I just want this over with so we can get on with our lives.

I'm off now to go and pick up my son and I hope he will be happy to see me so I can bring him home for an afternoon of snuggles and Cbeebies.  I'm sure tomorrow will be better!

Once Upon A Wartime

Today we visited Manchester's Imperial War Museum.  The magnificent iconic building is situated on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in the Salford Quays area and is an impressive example of 21st century architecture with its free flowing forms and asymmetric geometry. It's a departure from buildings with traditional vertical lines and right angles!  Inside, the building disorientates you with its floor that reflects the curvature of the Earth's surface, but that somehow draws you into the exhibits which are based on the concept of a shattered globe, fragmented by conflict across the years.  It really is impressive.

The main exhibition space is home to a wealth of artefacts, documents, artworks and objects displayed around a timeline from 1914 to the present day.  Highlights include a Harrier Jump Jet, a T34 Russian Tank and a piece of the Twin Towers, which acts as a powerful reminder of the human cost of conflict.

Twin Towers Steelwork

The powerful exhibits focus on the human stories, revealing the people, places, ideas and events behind the conflicts.  We are challenged to look at war from different perspectives, which enriches our understanding of the cause, course and consequences and the impact on human life.

This half term marks the launch of a major new exhibition Once Upon A Wartime which explores five much loved children's books about war.  The interactive and dynamic celebration of storytelling includes special guests, creative activities and performances.  Like the rest of the museum, the exhibition is completely free!

Moving tales of loyalty, separation, excitement, survival and identity are brought to life.  Adults and children can find out about the true events that inspired these powerful stories.  We can climb inside the pages and discover the stories with hands on displays that are both fun and educational.

The five books are Michael Morpurgo's 'War Horse', Nina Bawden's 'Carrie's War', Robert Westall's 'The Machine Gunners', Ian Serrailier's 'The Silver Sword' and Bernard Ashley's 'Little Soldier'.  With books to read, things to handle, hideouts to sit in, tunnels to crawl through and weights to pull, you are immersed in the world of the stories.

The Machine Gunners Fortress

Crawling through the Tunnel.

Hepzibah's Kitchen from Carrie's War

Pulling weights like a War Horse

Reading the Books.

The exhibit is really child friendly.  My older children were familiar with some of the books already, having read them at home or at school.  The exhibits added to their knowledge and fleshed out the words.  Freddy who is two, enjoyed the interactive elements of the displays and had the freedom to run around and explore.

From 1-4pm throughout the holidays the museum has a children's craft and storytelling activity which takes place in the purpose built Learning Studio.  With a range of toys for even the littlest visitors, the activity session is suitable for all ages. It is a fantastic facility for families. My girls enjoyed a story about the experiences of a girl in the Land Army in WW2.  They also made a lovely keepsake book box.  Meanwhile Freddy played with traditional wooden toys.

Craft Activity

Wooden Toys

 To end our visit we went up the Air Shard, a lift that went up to a 29m viewing platform giving great views of the Salford Quays.  Even though it was a foggy day, the view was quite impressive, but the see-through metal grated floor was a bit nerve racking if you have a fear of heights!! (a small fee applies)

The Lift Up The Air Shard

Salford Quays in The Fog

The Imperial War Museum is a great free day out for all ages and is open daily from 10am to 5pm.  The Once Upon a Wartime exhibition is open throughout half term and until September 2nd.

Pay and display car parking is available and there is a lovely restaurant with panoramic views of the quays plus a very well stocked shop selling a selection of books, toys, T-Shirts, posters etc.

Big Fun with Little Trains at the National Railway Museum

My little boy loves Chuggington, Thomas the Tank Engine and any other 'Choo Choo Train' he comes across.  There is something about trains that children simply adore! So when we were invited to the National Railway Museum in York to visit their Big Fun with Little Trains event, we knew Freddy would love it!

Big Fun with Little Trains

From the 22nd to the 30th of October for half term, the National Railway Museum is hosting a free 9 day celebration of toys and model trains.  Visitors of all ages will be enthralled by the range of trains, both big and small that are on display.  The event is bringing together the biggest names in toy and model trains with hands on workshops and play sessions hosted by Chuggington, Meccano, Big Jigs and Tomica.  There are also dynamic displays from Bachmann, the Gauge 1 Society and from event sponsors Hornby.

From the moment we arrived, Freddy's face lit up at the sight of so many trains!   Ella and Kizzy were also awestruck by the Great Hall and all the exhibits.  It is an impressive display that greets you as you step into the museum!

"I like trains!!"

There is a vast array of models and toys around the museum alongside the full size steam trains and locomotives on display.  Everything is very hands on.  There are interactive story-telling sessions throughout the day.  My children enjoyed "Quick!  The Queen is Coming!" which was a story about Queen Victoria arriving at York Station on her way to the races in 1853.  They waved their Union Flags and joined in with the audience participation!  There are also talks, demonstrations and a fun science show for everyone to enjoy.

"Quick!  The Queen is Coming!!"

Other attractions included Pedal Trains, Big Jigs play tables, Meccano workshops, a "Meet the Author" experience with Chris Vine who wrote the Peter's Railway books, craft sessions to make a Halloween diorama and a Chuggington play area.  There are lots of impressive model train sets on display including one featuring Thomas and his friends.

Big Jigs train play tables.

Meccano Display

Caledonian Loco Model

Model Railway

In addition to the fabulous Toy Train event attractions, the museum boasts some 200 years of railway history and the collection includes over 100 locomotives, 250 items of rolling stock and thousands of other items of memorabilia.  We had a fabulous family day out. We rode both the indoor and outdoor miniature railways.  We also had a go on the train Simulator where you can do a London to Brighton rail journey at breakneck speed.  We had a ride in a steam locomotive which was incredible. Freddy was trying to grab the plumes of steam which billowed past the train carriage.  It was really magical for him!

Teddy the Steam Train

Indoor Miniature Railway

Outdoor Miniature Railway

Simulator

One thing I really loved was the fact that we were able to ride the Land Train from the museum into York.  It is a beautiful city.  We spent an hour exploring the Olde Worlde streets, enjoying street entertainers, specialist shops and the stunning architecture before catching the train back.

Land Train

York Cathedral

On the Land Train from York.

We returned to the museum and the children enjoyed the hands on educational exhibits including bridge building, public announcement making, shape puzzles and moving miniature cargo with miniature cranes!!

Loading the Cargo

Shape Puzzle

We enjoyed a meal in the restaurant dining next to some very fancy train carriages.  The food was very impressive!  There is also a cafe and other food and refreshment vendors on site, along with lots of picnic areas.  The toilet facilities are clean and modern.  There are good baby changing facilities and a buggy friendly toilet cubicle!  Families are very well catered for.

Good veggie meals!!

The National Railway Museum is an excellent attraction, perfect for a half term visit.  Admission to the museum is absolutely free of charge!*  Kids and adults will have a great day out exploring all the exhibits and enjoying all the fun of the toy trains!  My girls were just as enthralled as their little brother.

A Great Day Out

The Mallard

The National Railway Museum currently has a competition to win a £150 toy voucher by identifying whether three close up photographs are of big trains or little trains.  Take a look at the NRM Facebook page to find out more!


*A small charge is applied to some attractions such as the Simulator and train rides.
** We were treated to a VIP Day Out by NRM including lunch and rides, but we genuinely loved our day out and I adore York.