It was an incredibly busy half-term vacation. Aaron broke up from school on Wednesday 21st October as the Thursday and the Friday were inset days in addition to a full week off.
Our holiday began with Aaron still being in school uniform as he helped me finish my Mars chocolate goodies for my Collective Bias Halloween blog post straight after school. It's safe to say I have totally nailed cupcakes, after making them a few times in the past couple of months. They now look AND taste good, finally.
Eeeek I did not take any photos on Thursday 22nd October and I rely on my camera to tell me what we did on any given day.... oooops! I did share an Instagram pic that day, but it is just Aaron dressed with a Spiderman hoodie and mask, which doesn't at all jog my memory. Ooops bad blogger!
Then it was an early start Friday morning to head off to The Baby Show in Kensington Olympia. I was nervous bringing Aaron as there was nothing there for him. Everything was bump/baby related but I needn't have worried as there was a brilliant creche which thankfully takes babies up to and including the age of 5, so Aaron just about got in - phew. The maximum time is 90 minutes but they let him have that both before AND after lunch as he was so well behaved - I've never been so proud and it meant I saw a lot more of the show than I otherwise would have done. Getting public transport with 8 bags of goodies was very tough so I then spent the evening on the sofa!
Saturday, I very nearly ignored the alarm, pulled the covers over my head and went back to sleep, but thank goodness I had the good sense to get myself and Aaron up and head off to an Easi Yo event, as not only was it lovely but it was great to catch up with other bloggers in such a beautiful venue. The facepaint and balloon making were both out of this world. I actually am yet to make the yoghurt it's been SUCH a hectic week but I will do, and will review it on KiddyCharts as it was Helen Neale who kindly passed me on the invite.
Aaron's cousin did not make it to the event, so we decided to visit them on the way home AND anyway, we'd got a yoghurt maker for them too so why not :-) take the chance to drop it off. They were thrilled to see us and we stayed the night. So I did see how easy it was to make the yoghurt, both in the event demo, and when my God Daughter made it the next day.
The Sunday I guess was a bit of a lazy day, as our only outing was to McDonald's on the way to visit Grandma. So this was chance to recharge my batteries a little which being heavily pregnant I needed. Baby bump is measuring +2 in weeks AND in the 4d scan, she was in the upper percentiles for head, abdomen and femur so is going to be a large baby just like Aaron.
That night, I blogged as I watched XFactor as it did not hold my attention, but Downton Abbey, as usual, got my 100% focus. As it will tonight too!!!!
Monday wasn't so much of an early start, as although we had an event, it didn't start till 1 o'clock. We were headed off to the BBC Worldwide Centre and I was very excited. I wasn't convinced that the BBC still had a presence in White City but as above they do. Not every single bit of it moved to Salford. The building we were in was as impressive (if not more so) than the Google offices in London.
The kids were very excited to be inside and I'd taken 2 of my nieces and Aaron. We had to wait in reception a while which was a great chance to absorb the atmosphere of the building. I took a little footage, but as we were led up, I felt bad to film people working, so I don't think I have enough to make a Vlog out of.... alas!
We went upstairs to our event, which was in a private meeting room. Here we got to munch on free Dominos Pizza whilst testing a new app that is launching soon - it teaches children emotional intelligence. We were also able to dance with the Karisma Kidz life size characters which was great fun.
Aaron took his app testing responsibilities very seriously and could not be parted from a tablet once he got his hands on one!
I did spend a while on a tablet too and was very impressed by Karisma Kids, so I will look forward to the app's release. I was a bit disappointed though that the children didn't have a tablet each to fully test the app each (as it said on Event Brite), but it was an enjoyable event nonetheless.
I did spend a while on a tablet too and was very impressed by Karisma Kids, so I will look forward to the app's release. I was a bit disappointed though that the children didn't have a tablet each to fully test the app each (as it said on Event Brite), but it was an enjoyable event nonetheless.
My nieces have been to Westfield Stratford lots and were very enthusiastic about seeing Westfield London for the 1st time, so we couldn't leave the vacinity without a visit and I'm so glad we did, for so many reasons. The Disney Store is spectacular but Aaron was very funny in there saying "Mummy if you don't want me to buy anything why did you take me in here?" followed by "we only go shopping when we have something to buy!" - oooops he needs training on the concept of window shopping. Once he realised I would not budge on the making a purchase front he asked to leave - funny funny boy. So mature and better than throwing a tantrum. He did take a long and slow route out of the store though so did not miss out on seeing anything ;-)
We had a good look around the shopping centre and when Aaron bored of "girl" shopping we thankfully found a Hot Wheels section which was free to play in. He loved it so much he cried on departure so we had to queue up to go again as the sessions were only 10 minutes long.
Gosh how tall my boy has become. Thank God I am pregnant or the end of his baby years would be making me very broody indeed!!!
On the way out of Westfield London we went to Burger King as the yummy pizza we'd ate at the BBC had long since worn off.
What delighted us was they now do refillable drinks!! I've only seen this in proper restaurants or in fast food, only Pizza Hut till now, but still they do plates and cutlery - so it's refreshing to see the boxed food gang join in on this. Great value for the customer and it's the proper machine that does different flavours of Cola. Not sure if it is something that every Burger King does though - this was quite a large one.
Oh and if that isn't great value enough, they were even selling a pack of TEN chicken nuggets for £1.49 so of course we got two of those (the bags you see in the pic)!
Tuesday Aaron had a very fun day with his cousins, which I guess again gave me a bit of breathing space to recuperate my pregnant self.
Wednesday we were back to being busy though, as we had two workshops to go to.
Circus Skills at school followed by an art workshop at the farm. Aaron adored circus skills and also went to it in the last school holidays. It was brilliant and they learned lots of tricks along with playing games.
Tea and coffee was provided so us Mums had chance for a good catch up too. Love that his school does things like this. They actually laid on activities Tuesday Wednesday AND Thursday.
His friends were then heading off to the farm so we did too. Here it was the Mums who ended up doing the art (I made Daddy a beautiful pink ornamental mask - must get a pic of it), as the kids wanted to run, free range, around the farm and that they did. Luckily there were farm hands around to help them feed animals so they were thoroughly entertained and occupied.
Thursday it was the same deal again: school followed by farm. Except this time, it was an art workshop instead of Circus Skills. Wow, what a workshop it was. On arrival we made a pumpkin face mask out of card for Aaron. Shortly after that we carved a pumpkin. As if all of that wasn't enough we then made a bat cape, that he could wear for Trick or Treat on top of his existing skeleton costume that still fits from last year. So the art workshop was much appreciated by us and a huge success.
A big highlight of half term was that it was Daddy's birthday meaning he had six days off, so that was wonderful for me and Aaron. The quality family time has just been superb. Facing back to the school run and the daily grind just won't be the same, but as Daddy keeps telling me, we have Bonfire Night and Christmas to look forward to and of course our little lady's imminent arrival.
Aaron wasn't very patient and before I bought the shop bought cards and gifts, he went about making Daddy a card. His hand writing (above) for a five year old is just marvellous and even today a few days later he has wrote a letter (without asking my help on what to say) to my Mum in Ireland, a whole letter and insisted that Daddy drives him (on a Sunday) to the local post box to send it on its way. Thankfully Daddy is traditional enough that he could provide the postage stamps required (personally, I couldn't tell you the last time I bought the things - I just pay the postage AT the post office itself while I am posting something).
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| Aaron and an actress from Little Table of Delights |
Friday 30th October, we were on the road again, but this time a road trip to Bath to see The Little Table of Delights. We were kindly invited by Yeo Valley who hosted a showing on 27th October. 27th October Yeo Valley hosted the show in their Head Quarters but we saw it in The Egg Theatre which is part of Bath's Theatre Royal. It was a beautiful venue. Adults sat in the circle balcony overlooking our kids who were sat at a dining table which doubled up as a boat and stage. They were enthralled having the actors always within a metre of them. It was 4d, with them getting squirted on with water pistols AND sampling the food the Chefs prepared.
The show started off as an adult show in Bristol and has now morphed into a fabulous children's show.
You can see a trailer of the adult Table of Delights below and the children's one can be viewed at their Little Table of Delights Crowd Funder page.
If you are a Londoner reading this, with a child aged 5-12 I can highly recommend it. You can still book to see it...
23rd November 2015 - 13th December and as far as I am concerned is a must see! I will do a proper review, but so you don't have to just take my word for it Jane at Practically Perfect Mums has reviewed it here: Little Table of Delights review.
We strictly weren't allowed to take pictures during the show, so I am so glad I grabbed the one above in the corridor :-)
And this is us after the show if you would like a bump update - thanks Daddy for taking the pic :-)
I've lost my makeup (yep my WHOLE bag of Bare Minerals) AND have lost the will to live with my hair so do excuse the lack of my usual pregnancy radiance. Hopefully I will regain my pride in myself to get a few nice shots in the remaining 12 weeks - sniff, my last time pregnant and it's going much too fast!
Saturday and Sunday we were at home, which was much needed after a very busy hectic half term. Although what am I talking about, Saturday was very busy with Halloween and Sunday, although I had some lazy time, I did a lot of housework.
Saturday before we commenced the Halloween preparations, me and Aaron walked to the shops and he busied himself collecting freshly fallen leaves to make into a bouquet for Daddy.
Below is my favourite pic of the two of us from Halloween although I like the one in my last (pumpkin) blog post too.
Aaron and Daddy did a lot of work in the garden:
What a lovely post liska, you should definetly do more of these catch up posts :) so glad you had a good half term with A he looks very pleased indeed! You look lovely despite saying you need make up and to sort your hair, rubbish! You look very well I hope the last 12 weeks pass a little slower xx
ReplyDelete27 weeks is looking good.
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