The lucky winner will receive a copy of Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle once they contact me with postal instructions.
Well done!
Rock Puppy Rules!
Are you a fan of Bookaboo? If not, why ever not?! It’s a children’s TV show that airs on ITV in the UK and CBC in Canada. What on earth does it have to do with children’s literature you ask? Well, it features a rock puppy who just can’t perform unless he hears a story. Aimed at 3-6 year olds, it aired new shows recently and we’re big big fans!
The new series features 14 picture books in total read by celebrities who read them aloud to Rock Puppy so that he can perform on stage in his rock band. I love it because it’s fun, engaging and it’s sole purpose is to feature fabulous stories that children will engage with and enjoy. To be honest, I’m not sure they really need celebrities to turn up each week for the reading-actors maybe as they have more ability (hopefully) to put interest into the reading, but I’m nit picking.
Rock Puppy is a brilliant creation and they feature some lovely books. One of which is on my all time favourites list ‘Aliens Love Underpants‘. A genius of a picture book. Written in rhyme and accompanied by lovely illustrations, it tells the story of what happens to those mysteriously disappearing underpants from your washing line-yes, it’s the aliens that love to have them. They wear them on their heads and use them as trampolines, apparently.
A wonderfully warm and funny tale that is lovely to read aloud and perfect for sharing. If the Bookaboo series introduces more people to this story then I’m all for it! This is one occasion where TV and traditional story books combine to bring the joys of reading to a whole new audience. If you have a moment to spare and enjoy picture books why not check out both the book and the programme? If you’re not the proud (yet tired) parent of younger children, you may want to record it as it airs at 7.25am over the weekend!! It’s not just for children in my opinion!
Image courtesy of bookaboo.co.uk
This much I have learned
I get things wrong, all the time. Obviously I try not to, but I know I regularly don’t succeed. I have also realised eventually (and after being repeatedly told this by many others over the years) that I’m my own worst enemy as the cliche goes. There is no one harder on me, than me. I have spent many a day or longer worrying about a potentially misguided email or unintentional comment.
Since becoming a parent I’ve realised that being a happy human being is fundamentally what it’s all about. Even when life throws all it can at you to put you off your stride, if you can maintain your inner happiness, it will give you strength to fight whatever comes your way. Whether what tries to thwart you is self inflicted or beyond your control, you can control your own happiness to keep it at bay.
I am constantly wracked with self doubt, see judgements by and from others that probably aren’t there and make my own judgements about others based on my self doubt. It’s not helpful, but since becoming a parent I realise it’s something I can control in myself and I can certainly make sure that whatever hang ups my children have, self doubt isn’t one of them!
I want my children to have so much inner happiness that it positively bursts through and can barely be contained, so that when things don’t quite work out the way they want it to they have so much happiness that the world will only dent, not crumple them.
As for myself, I still have my moments of self doubt, but they are shorter and I can move them out of my head much much easier than I ever could pre children. They are my inspiration to keep positive and banish self doubt. I have learned to be happy and enjoy the moment thanks to my children. It’s just one of many great gifts they have given me.
Interestingly I wrote this piece in my notebook before I went to the Tots100 Blog Summit where Andy Cope (author of Spy Dog) delivered an inspirational and thought provoking talk about happiness. It was nice to think that I had already started on that path towards being a top 2%er! I thought I’d go ahead and publish it anyway as it still has a resonance for me and hopefully for others out there too.
Silent Sunday
Sweet treats
What do you do on a rainy day? Well in our house, bake of course! We’re getting pretty good at coming up with baking ideas to fill those rain soaked hours. However, I’m always on the look out for new things to try and whilst browsing through my Twitter messages I came across this idea. Can’t believe I’d forgotten all about dropped scones! Easy to prepare and quick to make-perfect for a baking activity with a toddler.
Our inspiration came from Bella and Will. Check out the site as it’s lovely, and you’ll find the recipe and instructions there for dropped scones too.
Fun mixing up the ingredients:
Even more fun, adding some golden syrup before eating:
Yum!
A Day Out at Middle Earth
Enjoying the mysterious secret dragon in his lair.
Vikings Battling it out at Middle Earth!
The little Hobbits watching the Vikings fighting!
Peppo-here be Hobbits.
There be Dragons.
So, after my motivating Saturday at Tots100 Blog Summit, here’s my first foray into making more use of my camera.
We went to visit Middle Earth Weekend at Sarehole Mill in Birmingham.
This year’s theme was dragons. Everywhere we went we saw dragons, Hobbits, wizards and even Vikings fighting!
The picture of my lot peering through a window having fun is taken in a Hobbit Home-yes it really is possible to have your own Hobbit house in the back garden.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Organics
Once upon a time there was a family who lived in a house with a red front door. In the family lived a mummy, daddy, a big girl and a little boy.
The big girl was ever so slightly picky about her food. There were lots of things she didn’t like to eat and family meal times could be very interesting for her mummy and daddy.
The little boy was very different to his big sister and would eat just about everything that his mummy put in front of him, except celery but mummy quite understood why he didn’t fancy eating celery.
The children’s mummy had quite a difficult job finding food the whole family could enjoy together at meal times that didn’t involve either crisps or chocolate.
One day Peter Rabbit Organics sent the family some food for them all to try. The little boy who normally ate everything, tried the apple fruit pouch but didn’t like it. He pushed it away very firmly after having a taste. Oh dear thought mummy!
Luckily he loved the pear juice drink and that disappeared very quickly, ‘hmm, nice’ the little boy said when he had finished sucking every last drop from the carton.
Mummy decided to sneak some of the Garden Vegetable sauce as the base for a homemade pizza and see what happened. To mummy’s joy, everyone ate all their food that evening, including the big girl.
When mummy told the big girl that she had just eaten garden vegetable pasta sauce, the big girl was very proud of herself. She beamed from ear to ear. The big girl was even more thrilled to think that she had eaten carrots from Peter Rabbit (she thought that Peter must have put carrots into his sauce as he is so fond of them, and do you know what, organic carrots are indeed one of the ingredients in the sauce.)
Mummy was delighted and they all went to bed that night very happy and with full tummies. Mummy will definitely be making more pizza and using the Italian Vegetables sauce next time.
Author’s note:
I would have taken a photo of the pizza but it literally disappeared off everyone’s plates before I got the chance. Normally this only ever happens with cakes and biscuits!!
Instead, here’s a picture of our rice and sauce dish which I made the following evening:
(The fish finger is there because big sister was having them with rice-sadly no sauce this time for her but little brother wants what big sister has….)
Mummy’s homage to Peter:
We were sent these products for the purposes of this review. We did not receive payment and the views and opinions expressed are our own. Thanks for reading.
