Pages

Sunday, 28 September 2014

Rag Heroes Here's To A New Chapter!



Rag Heroes Parents Group
Come And Get Stuck In!

What is Rag Heroes?

Rag Heroes was ultimately a business set up by a lovely lady named Maria Albertsen  and has won various awards such as 

Rag Heroes are gorgeous handmade rag dolls suitable for boys to play with as well as girls.

Here is Rag Heroes Mission...

OUR MISSION: To develop a range of products that enable children to express and nurture their emotions, increasing self-esteem, confidence and well being.

At RagHeroes we want to challenge the concept that little boys should not play with dolls. In fact, we actively encourage it and so we decided to make our own unique range! Of course, we love to see little girls playing with our dolls too!

We developed a range for boys as we believe that little boys should have a means to express and nurture their caring side and we believe our dolls promote this!


So Just What Is Changing?

Well quite a lot in fact firstly and sadly Rag Hero dolls will cease to be made any more.... I know such a shame! But you can WIN one as well as a clean 9 body cleanse. But we'll come back to that in a bit.

So What Else Is Going on At Rag Heroes?

Well there is now a Rag Heroes Parents Group which focus's on various aspects of children's emotional and physical well being,

There will be competitions like the one I mentioned previously which will be drawn when the group reaches 500 members, Promotions, and Special offers.
The group can be found HERE

Also Maria's talented son's have created a series of books that will be published and they are looking for parent reviewers so do keep an eye on this.

Also up for grabs is a £10 Amazon voucher each month for blog post's regarding various parenting aspects so lots to get stuck into.

But right now we're aiming for those 500 members so do get stuck in and one lucky member will be winning not only the last ever Rag Hero but also a Clean 9 body cleanse for Mum or Dad,


So with that what are you waiting for?
Pop on over and say hi, We look forward to meeting you!

Friday, 26 September 2014

School Expenses And How To Manage Them?!

Aah the new school term begins and so too do the letter's home couple of pound here for this couple of pound there for that,
it's pretty common right!

But just how do you juggle all the costs as well as running a household of 6 as well as bills ect it can very easily get crazy.

Thankfully up until now where we lived in London they didn't d a lot of school trips but those they did tended to be free or cheap enough for those you had to pay for so that was fine.

Now we've moved and already we have two residential trips coming up in the next couple weeks.
Firstly I'm nervous as they've never been on a residential trip their only time being away from myself and hubby is with Nanny and Grandad and even then I'm calling morning and night despite knowing they are safe.

so my 7 year old is off first to a place where he will sleep in dormitories, do lots of walking/hill climbing which should be fun given he cannot take his wheelchair there. they will be learning outdoors, making camp fires and toasting marshmallows for 2 days. to say I'm dreading it is an understatement he still seems so young but after a lot of consideration and extensive conversations between my hubby and I we decided that it would benefit him in not only cementing friendships but it will give him a sense of independence, and show him we have trust in him to be a well behaved boy.
he is mega excited and cant wait, and at £30 for 3 days 2 night's with accommodation and food we felt it was good for him.

Next comes the letter for lil Miss L, again 3 days 2 nights at a activity centre where she will take part in abseiling,rock climbing, zip wires, to name a few, she will also be sleeping in dormitories and building camp fires ect,
One slight difference with this trip though it's £100 of course it's got more activities so understandable but here's my query, how can school charge us £100 when the centre's website says for a 3 day 2 night course it's £23! slight price difference there!

But that said how much fun will they both have?!
To be honest I will likely be the saddo mum wiping a tear as I wave them off on the coach and will be so sad when i don't get to tuck them in at night.
Also I'm now waiting for Mr J to come home with a letter for a trip which I'm sure he will so how much will that one be?

So what age doe you think is acceptable to go on a residential trip with school?
Do you feel they're beneficial to children? and if so why?
And how do you budget for these?

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Ooh A New Hobby Maybe?!

So since moving here I have become friends with a lovely lady named Nadia Day who I feel I should give credit to for my new found skill as she taught me!

Book Folding!


What an artistic way to give old unused books a new purpose.

I am far from professional but i had fun making them and I love that they're unique in their own way and all handmade by myself!

My Mr J even had a go and it really is interesting so here's my take on book art.

not bad for first and second ever time huh?...... cmon be nice now!






Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Our Big Move

Hello you lovely lot I'm back!

Been so so busy these past few months since we did go ahead with our big move.

We moved from London to Oxfordshire back in June and been overwhelmed with the work we've had to do.
Starting with ripping up the flooring in every room. quite why people want to live in urine,poop,vomit and chewing gum full carpet's I don't know but hey each to their own!
The wall's too were covered in drawing and chewing gum, blood splattered up the bathroom tiles.

The kitchen wow let's just say it took me a month of solid of scrubbing copious amounts of bleach and even my wallpaper steamer to lift the grime BUT we got there and it's now looking lovely and fresh with new flooring and decor.


Next came the garden wow the bush was almost back to our window and huge well the bush was more like tree's the size of the stumps so that took me forever to hack down but we got there.

As for the area I can't personally fault it we've had no issues everybody seems friendly enough and it's lovely to be out of London and breath cleaner air.

The school.. well hmm where shall we start lil Mr K has been getting picked on since day one and seems class teacher doesn't want to address it so I've gone to the head teacher and although some days are bad it seems to be getting better.

Overall our move has made us happier and we're glad we done so but it is very different to London that's for sure.