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?

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!

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.

Our Easter Trip

Each Easter we tend to take the kiddies on either a weekend or a week break,

Usually we visit Haven or we've been Pontins a couple of times, But this year we took a weekend at Butlins in Skegness.

We stayed in the gold apartment which was a lovely 3 bedroom ground floor apartment.

The apartment itself was lovely and clean and plenty of room for us, Mr J was particularly happy that Mr K wanted to share a room with his sister Miss L, meaning J could alternate which bed he slept in each night as each room had 2 single beds, with a double in the main bedroom.

The children particularly liked the play park and the fairground and we found ourself there at least once if not more each day.

Little Mr D couldn't really join in as such being as he's not crawling or anything yet but he loved watching all the children run around, And the colors and lights of the fairground.. A babies delight I'd say.

The drinks from the bar were rather overpriced... £5.40 for a small glass of wine! 

No ta a bottle of wine from the Spar on site was my drink at £7 a bottle but as I don't drink that much, That and a bottle of WKD mix done me for the whole weekend.

Same with the sweets we were buying them from the Spar, although on the last day Daddy did take them into the 'super cool' sweet shop and they could chose whatever they wanted, 

Thankfully it wasn't too expensive with Mr J choosing a mix up costing £4 for a large cup full, and Mr K and Miss L chose a tub of candy floss for £1.75 each.

As lil Mr D only eats wotsits or milky bar as a treat now and then Daddy went to the toy store and got him a Barney which he loves!

Unfortunately we never got to watch ANY of the shows we wanted to which made for some very upset kiddies Lil Mr K the most, He gets very upset and unsettled when things don't go as we planned he likes things just so.

But unfortunately the ques were something else and there was no chance of us getting in.

So instead we went on an adventure to the Giant's beach in the hope we wouldn't get found and gobbled up, then back to the apartment where Daddy cooked us all a lovely meal.

That said though we did have a lovely weekend and met some characters which they loved even Mr D met them, He was particularly taken with Scooby Doo and Fireman Sam.

                   
                                  

Overall Butlins is good and we did have a lovely weekend away but having been there now we know you need a fair bit of money not only for the cost of the holiday but for food/drinks arcades ect.

Much as I liked Butlins I think we're Haven lovers at heart.

Ella's Kitchen 1st Tastes Review

We were recently sent some Ella's Kitchen goodies for little mr D to review,

Having tried Ella's Kitchen Wakey Wakey Strawberry Mango & Banana Porridge and lil man loving it we were happy to get stuck in.

We were sent a selection of their first Tastes range which is aimed at babies from four months and includes 9 yummy organic flavors each containing nothing but 100% organic fruit or veggie. and some Smoothie Fruits plus a pack of Wakey Wakey stage 1 baby porridge.

As you can see baby was eager to get stuck in! So much choice which to chose? Hmm The Green One I think.

The pouches are great for squeezing little amounts onto a spoon, or feeding on the go, or even letting baby hold themselves, Little mr D particularly liked feeding himself  like a big boy.

The pouches are perfect sized portions for little people.

The Ella's Kitchen fruit pouches retail at 79p for a 70ml fruit pouch or £1.09 for a 70ml veggie pouch which I think is a great price and similar in price to other brands of baby foods and can be found on the Ella's Kitchen website by clicking the image at the top of this post, And the magic pixies that live with your computer will take you right there, Or at most leading supermarkets.

We really liked the first tastes pouches we even put one each in the elder kids lunch boxes for school one day and they loved their smoothie's.

Little mr D's particular favorite was the white one, 

I must admit I tasted a little and it was delicious, I could quite imagine it frozen to a slush with some Malibu mmmm but clearly that's not baby friendly so back to the review..

Mr D's least favorite was the Parsnips, which doesn't surprise me as none of my sons like them nor does my husband so lets face it they didn't really stand a chance!

But mix it in with some butternut squash, courgette, carrot and chicken and he munched it.

I really like that they come with a screw cap meaning if baby doesn't eat it all no worries just pop the lid back on and store in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

The Wakey wakey baby porridge was very easy to use just mix it up with babies usual milk or as I done now mr D is almost 8 months I mixed it with some warm cows milk.

The Porridge comes in a 125g pouch with screw cap and costs £2.19 which is slightly more than I usually pay for his baby cereal but then it is organic and he does love it, Also it lasted us two weeks so it is good value for money when you look at it.

I would recommend Ella's Kitchen baby food to friends and in fact I have done so already.

Now that mr D is almost 8 months and has just began trying more textured foods and even some small soft lumps I'm looking forward to trying some of Ella's Kitchen's next stage up foods 

With so many different choices to chose from I know we will have great fun exploring as Ella's Kitchen baby food definitely gets A+ from us and lip smacking from lil mr D

It's all change soon!

We're Off!

Least we will be soon enough... roll on June I say.

We're moving out of London to a much better area much nicer to bring the children up in.

Hubby and I have been to view the house so last weekend we took the kiddies  and hubbies little sister to the area for the day.

We had a lovely day was gorgeous weather we enjoyed a nice walk around the town taking int he sights.. Very beautiful area.

Then we went to the local bowling entertainment complex, where they had bowling,amusements, sports bar, dance floor ect... Lil miss L said she felt like she was on holiday!

It was great fun here we spent a good few hours here and the kiddies loved the amusements, we had a few games of pool whilst Daddy watched the footy. and miss L had a boogie, The DJ even put on the disco lights for her.. she was the only one on the dance floor but did she care?! lil baby D even met his 1st character and loved it .... lets skip the part where he threw up right after all over the floor.. But it did miss doggy!

After all the fun we needed food and what better place than the on site Chinese Buffet yum yum!

We all got our bellies full all having 2 plates of food then dessert... Oh how our tummies hurt after but there was just so much yummy foods to chose from.

Despite the food being amazing we did find a little plastic in my sister in laws food. no biggie just a little shred so I told a member of staff just so they were aware and we continued our meal as the rest was gorgeous we just avoided the boiled rice!

When we left to pay the manager thanked us for not causing a scene and gave us 15% off our bill which was nice.

after the hour drive home we were all so tired so kiddies went to bed and we followed shortly after but we really had such a great day.

Even the little mr D had fun munching wotsits and milky buttons, He loved the lights and colors in the amusements but it was just too much fun!

We're all really looking forward to our move and a fresh new start... Not long now!

Half Term & What To Do?!

Mumm I'm bored!

Muuuum he wont give me.....

Muuuum she said.....

Muummm they done....

So we only broke up Friday and already we're getting this!

So far we've been quite chilled as Daddy has been working nights so it's pretty much consisted of movies, playing games on the PC/PS4, Drawing/Painting, Reading, Board games you get the jist.

We will be taking them to Butlins this week and we're all mega excited for that. So do look out for that blog post soon.
But that aside I don't really have much else planned, I mean yes we'll go to local park as ussual but what else to do?

Baking maybe? Spring crafts? I don't know

So tell me what free or rather cheap things are you guys getting up to this half term, or did you if you've already had yours?