45 DAYS OF SUMMER

45 DAYS OF SUMMER

The school holidays will soon be upon us, those heavenly 6 weeks that we get to spend doing fun things with the kids……and then a week in and they are all bored with nothing to do, YES those holidays

Well not this year!  inspired by lovely Di over at superlucky.me who set out a list to do 40 things to celebrate her 40^th birthday, not only did this make sure her day was going to be full of things to do, it also looked like she had a great time achieving those 40 things.

So here’s the plan, I have had a count up and my children have a grand total of 45 days of no school, so we are going to aim for 45 things to do throughout the school holidays

I’m hoping this will keep the children entertained and create some fun memories so I shall be updating with a photo diary throughout the holidays.

1.    Go swimming in the sea

2.    Play a board game with all the family

3.    Go on a Picnic at the park

4.       Go on a bike ride

5.       Have a Sandcastle competition

6.       Go geocaching

7.       Have a water fight

8.       Have a family meal out

9.       Bake a cake

10.   Go to a fun fair

11.   Ice cream at the beach

12.   Feed the ducks

13.   Popcorn and movie day

14.   Crafts day

15.   Visit somewhere new

16.   Go on a boat

17.   Go on a treasure trail

18.   Rock pooling

19.   Go fishing

20.   Paddling

21.   Xbox Kinect  with all the family

22.   Throw a party for no reason

23.   Have a BBQ

24.   Visit a maze

25.   Hold our own sports day

26.   Visit relatives

27.   Take the dogs on a hike

28.   Visit a museum

29.   Make a Tee Pee and go indoor camping

30.   Fish and chips on the prom

31.   Visit a farm

32.   Make a kite and fly it on the beach

33.   Go on a train

34.   Dance in the rain and jump in puddles

35.   Make a scarecrow

36.   Family parkour

37.   Visit a car boot sale and find a bargain

38.   Play Hide and seek

39.   Visit an amusement arcade

40.   Pyjama day

41.   Hold a talent show contest

42.   Have a disco

43.   Plant a seed and see who’s grows the biggest

44.    Send someone a postcard

45.   Science experiment

I am excited to see if we can complete the list

Remeber to check back to see how well we are doing, and whilst you are waiting, why not make your own list.
You may have also noticed that my list does not include any extravagant things, as a mum of 4 we like to keep things as low cost as possible, below is my top 10 Holiday Budgeting tips

1: Look for free/cheap events in your local area , often schools host summer fairs that make a great day out

2: Tesco clubcard points can be used for days out vouchers and can be worth upto 4 times there original value

3: Leisure centers sometimes have holiday discounts, for instance our local one offers a swimming pass that can be used throughout the summer holidays for the price of £20.

4: Check your shopping packaging for offers, 2 for 1, adult free and so on

5: Why not have a clearout and make some money in the process, my children love clearing out toys and having a car boot sale especialy as they get to use the money to do something fun

6: The cinema can be an expensive day out, check out saturday morning kids clubs or orange wednesdays that make it a little more bearable, also some cinemas will let you take your own snacks, but check before

7: Going abroad? If you dont mind booking just before you go there are plenty of last minute bargains to be found online

8: City passes, these are worth looking into if you plan on going somehwhere for a day or 2 and want it to be full of things to do, for instance you can buy a york pass that gets you into lots of attraction for a one off fee.

9: Day trips, alot of schools, charaties and clubs sometimes offer day trips over the summer holidays, this usualy is at a discount price and includes your travel, check your local notice boards and see what's on offer

10: Number 10 and probobly my most favourite tip is to search for free things, the local park, beach, paddling pools,some museums, all these things are FREEEEE.

Happy holidays.

Happy National Cleaning Day! Get the kids involved

So it's National cleaning day today, hmmm so what do we call the other 364 days of the year?

So Today Mother On a Mission is going to chill out with a cup tea.

I shall let the kids and the husband clean up,
I mean Kids love nothing more than cleaning, right?

Their spotless rooms just prove this, I can imagine it now, smiling as they happily clean the skirting boards, mop the floors, Vacuum, wash the dishes, They will have so much fun....

Hmmm think I better put down my tea and start cleaning

Flappy Bird Canvas Painted Shoes, DIY Tutorial

 So we have all heard of the flappy bird app and most people have managed to download the app before the sudden removal from the market.
Now those who have played it know how annoyingly addictive this game is, my kids play against each other battling it out to see who is going to achieve the highest score.

So the other day whilst out shopping I spotted some plain white canvas shoes for under £5 so thought I would see if I could create some flappy bird shoes, DIY style!

First I hand drew the pictures onto the shoes in pencil knowing any mistakes could be easily erased if needed,

I then got out my Uni Posca pens and painted the shoes. Now for those who don’t know, Posca’s can write on almost anything and are used widely for painting on surfboards.
They are an acrylic paint but in a pen form and come in a range of sizes and also in a metallic/glitter range,

As these are going to be worn by my daughter I opted to use a lot of the glitter paint to make them a little more girly.
After I completed all the painting I then left the shoes to dry overnight before spraying them with a coat of scotch guard.

 
I have to say my daughter adores her shoes and had quite a gathering when wearing them to school the following day, all her friends wanted to know where they too could get a pair.
These are so fun to make, you could even let the children do their own design and create their own style shoes.

4 Children live here (poem)

Prints on the wallpaper, pen on the chair

4 children live here, come in if you dare

Watch where you’re walking, don’t step on those toys

4 children live here, so please mind the noise

Don’t slip in that puddle, don’t worry its juice

4 children live here and there on the loose

Please take a seat dear, not there that’s their den

4 children live here and their camping again

What did she say then? Oh no, you’re not fat

4 children live here and they say things like that

Don’t look at the sides or the pile of pots

4 children live here and they eat lots and lots

Excuse the clothes basket just there overflowing

4 children live here and their constantly growing

“What you are leaving?” you only just came

4 children live here, will we see you again?

WORLD BOOK DAY UNPREPARED

 So as every parent knows and probably has known for the last week or so, today is world book day.

In true organised mummy style, for the past week I have visited almost every online fancy dress retailer, questioned other parents, asked on Facebook and read blogs all in the aim of creating/buying the perfect outfits for my 2 youngest children…..

And then it was Wednesday

Now I’m not sure who stole the rest of the week away but they did, suddenly I remember how its world book day TOMORROW!!!

So off I go to every shop and supermarket within 10 miles, searching for either, A: a couple of plain red t-shirts that I can swiftly turn them into Thing 1 and thing 2, or B: a readymade costume suitable for the day.

Having trudged around the shops for most the day and finding neither of these items, I was starting to lose patience so off I headed home,  I the decide after  picking the girls up from school we would dive into the dress up box and see what we could put together

So the girls come home, we have tea and then go on a search

The eldest of the girls tells me she wants to be Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, and the younger child wants to be Alice in wonderland

So we search, we search and then we search a bit more. Nothing!

I beg with the youngest to go as a nurse, we have 2 nurse outfits,” NO!”, she doesn’t want to be a nurse,

What about Angelina ballerina, I have a lovely little tutu that she would look lovely in, “NO!”, well that’s that out of the window

We play this game for most of the night, going through every costume and item of clothing they both own,

It’s almost the girl’s bedtime and here I am sat amongst a mountain of clothing that now must all be folded and put away

I tell the girls to get ready for bed and as they are doing so they pull out their onesies from the draw, one tiger and one monkey,

Hmmm, In one last attempt I say “how about you go as the Tiger who came to tea and the other goes as the monkey from the jungle book?”

I couldn’t really believe it when they both replied yes, Result!

So this morning my girls got dressed into their pyjamas and off they went happily to school to celebrate world book day.