September the time for New School Year Resolutions

After sixteen years in the British Education system it has been imprinted in my brain that September is when the New Year starts. You get a new start and you can be a different person to who you were before the summer. Every September you can reinvent yourself as someone who is studious, on time, interesting and in my case on top of things.

Of course its dead lucky that just four months later you get to re-make all these promises to yourself with your New Years Resolutions as that is how long it normally took for me to forget what I was aiming for and fall back to my normal forgetting to study, do my homework, be late, only talk about things I find interesting and nobody else does and of course let everything pile on top of me in some crazy hotch potch way.

This is not a photo of Top Ender on her first day of School doing homework that had to be handed in that day.

This year of course will be no different, I am going to make changes and stick to them, not just for me but as a parent and of course if Top Ender wants to make some then I will support her. And if it turns out that at the end of December we have to make the same personal resolutions again? Well then I will just know that I am consistent in my ways!

As a Mummy however I promise the following resolutions will not be forgotten until at least Easter...

1. We will get to school on time everyday. Yes I know I only live five minutes from school.
2. Top Ender will have clean uniform everyday and her shoes will be polished.
3. I will remind Top Ender to take her PE kit at the start of the week.
4. I will check Top Enders bag for permission slips and return them promptly.
5. Top Ender will have a nutritious lunch everyday.
6. Top Ender will take her bottle of water to school everyday.
7. I won't be late picking Top Ender up. Again, yes I know I practically live next door to the school.
8. I will write all appointments on the calender.
9. I will get Top Ender to do her homework.
10. I will remember to give Top Ender and Baby Boy a healthy after school snack

Yeah who am I kidding? I won't last two weeks.

Toyologists? What on earth is a Toyologist?

In the run up to Top Enders being born, Daddy and I would often go out of an evening and wander round a shop or two. Top Ender loved to be up late, and watching TV and staring at the same four walls whilst being kicked from the inside just wasn't cutting it for us. We used to drive to Toys R Us in Bedford as it had late night Christmas Opening times and walk round looking at all the toys and seeing what we would like.

Eventually in 2005 Toys R Us found a site for a store in Milton Keynes and Daddy and I were thrilled that we could start going to a local store instead with our baby. Several years later and we still love the Milton Keynes store, not only because it is HUGE but because all of us (Baby Boy included) love to walk round and look at the toys and what we would have if our house was bigger!

It was with great interest that I replied back to the email from Geoffrey (you know the Toys R Us Giraffe, of  "there's millions of Geoffrey's all under one roof" fame) about becoming a Toyologist. And after some careful consideration I agreed that Top Ender and Baby Boy would become Toyologists and Daddy and I would be their assistants!

We were invited down to Bucklebury Farm Park in Berkshire to meet the other Toyologists and to have a bit of a tea party and as Daddy was at work I took my Mum (AKA Granny). I had explained to her what it was we were going to and why and it was then that she exclaimed;

"Toyologists? What on earth is a Toyologist?"

"Not a what, a who. Your Grandchildren are going to be Toyologists for Toys R Us" I explained

"Is it to do with that blog thing you do?" she said (I could hear her eyes rolling)

"Yes Mum" I sighed

"Your going to put this conversation on there aren't you?" she said resignedly

"Yes Mum" I said Smugly (Love you Mummy!)

Top Ender and Baby Boy had a great time and Top Ender even discovered that TB (GlowStars and Urbanvox eldest) isn't evil despite being a boy! They played in the playground, in the sandpit, on the slides, sat next to each other and even talked in Horse to each other. As I was the only one who could translate Horse it might of just been me making things up, but they didn't care. Well, not until I announced that TB had just asked Top Ender to marry him...

Whilst we grown ups had a little question and answer session about how the Toyologist programme is going to work, Granny took Top Ender and Baby Boy to play on some of the fab things at the Farm (such as a huge jumping pillow, a lot of slides, a zip slide sort of thing and a playground) and also they went and talked to a few animals and snacked on the cookies and muffins that had been laid out for us all to share.

After this we were all brought back together as it was time to open our first box of toys. Top Ender and Baby Boy got Granny and I to remove the tape and then they dived in pulling toys from the box and working out what was the best thing to look at first. There was a lot of toys and both Top Ender and Baby Boy exclaimed "COOL!" more than once as they examined the contents.

After this we went on a Tractor ride to see the Japanese Sika, Axis and Fallow deer that are at the Farm. We were allowed to feed them and as you can see from the photos they weren't shy!

We went home, happy but tired and with a huge dollop of excitement over playing with some new toys. I hope that you will enjoy the reviews that we do over the next few months and remember that anything we say is the truth, we aren't being paid to be nice (we aren't being paid at all, but you know what I mean) and hopefully it might give you some ideas about Christmas gifts!

Tesco School Uniform

A Nice Lady from Tesco contacted me the other day and asked if I would like to have a box of school uniform sent over for Top Ender. Now I have been buying bits of School Uniform every week in my weekly shop, but there were still a few bits and pieces that I needed to get. And so I said YES PLEASE!

Then last week, in the middle of the night (well before I was awake), the doorbell rang. I was busy sleeping and so sent Daddy downstairs to open the door. He came back upstairs with a box. A box that I had no clue what was inside, mainly due to it being before I had woken up. Several hours later though when I was awake and dressed and understood what was going on I presented the box to Top Ender.

Top Ender liked the box. She liked it even more when she opened the box and found that inside was a new school uniform that her fashion conscious eye (Like the Bratz she has a passion for fashion) approved of and a set of pens, pencils and a small notebook for the essential notes that she writes.

 

 

  

 

Top Ender refused to put it on though, saying that it is bad luck to you put school uniform on before your first day of school. I think that she might of been pulling my leg, but just in case she was telling the truth I didn't want to risk it! All of the items seem great quality, I will know better after I have washed them all and Top Ender has worn them a few times!

Having brought most of Top Enders school uniform over the last couple of years from Tesco, I know that the quality is good, and I love that they have waist adjusters on the skirts and trousers as Top Ender doesn't have hips to keep her skirts/trousers up. I also love that if you hang them up after they have been washed, they don't normally need ironing either!

As part of the offer I get to tag someone else in this post who will then be offered some School Uniform too and I have decided that my old Pregnancy buddy Becky at Single Mummy will be my nominee! I was also given a voucher for clothing at Tesco and I think that I might be using it to buy some very lovely outfits for Christmas...

Breakfast - Bullseye Egg

I think that in other parts of the country this is called an Open House Egg. We call it a Bullseye Egg, because when we aim the sauce we yell "BULLSEYE!" If we get a direct hit.

First you need to heat oil in your frying pan, whilst that is doing cut a circle out of a slice of bread. Fry the bread and circle so that it is Golden Brown on one side and then flip them both over. When flipped over crack an egg into the hole in the slice of bread and fry until cooked.

When done put on a plate, squirt on some ketchup and add the circle of bread back on top.

One Bullseye Egg for breakfast!

Top Ender Giggles - Itchy and Jerry...

Top Ender and Baby Boy have been enjoying The Tom and Jerry Marathons that have been on the last few days in our house. Top Ender was trying to explain an episode to me that I hadn't seen as she had thought it very funny.

"Well Itchy was chasing Scratchy and then they turned round and were chasing the other way!" she giggled
"Tops, could you say that again for me?" I asked
"Itchy was chasing Scratchy and ..." she got before I interrupted
"Itchy and Scratchy?" I laughed
"Tom and Jerry I mean!" she giggled back

And to think we haven't watched The Simpsons in ages!

Wordless Wednesday - Boiling Eggs

Who is The Stig?

Some say that The Stig might be Michael Schumacher or Ben Collins or Julian Bailey but I say that rumours are all that they are and all they should ever be!

To those of us who watch Top Gear (and I believe it to be quite a lot around 7 Million tune in via TV, or the Web) The Stig is a mystery that not even Scooby and the Gang would unmask (they are fans of Top Gear I am sure) because it is part of the fun of the show. It is the fun of not knowing, the fun of Jezza taking the mickey out of him with his intros, the fun of seeing his "cousins" when the Top Gear team are in different countries, the fun that even the celebs say that they don't know who this man is, the fun of everyone being in the same boat (well car) and just marvelling at the fantastic driving that The Stig does each week.

Top Gear is one of those programmes that isn't just for petrol heads. I'm not a petrol head, in fact if Jeremy Clarkson ever became ruler of The World and declared that we must all be petrol heads, the only thing that would stop me from going to prison would be the obvious positioning of who I would put in the snog category of the three Top Gear presenters in the game "Snog, Marry, Avoid"!

I like to watch Top Gear because of the stupid boy projects that they carry out, I like to watch the laps that the Celebs do, I like to guess what insult is going to be used against James May and then feel sorry for him that everyone is picking on him. I like the guessing of how Richard Hammond is going to have his hair this week, or if his teeth are going to get another mention.

Its because we don't know who The Stig is that we can all build up mythical status for this man (or maybe a woman who knows!) and so I plead to you in the media don't reveal the secret, have a heart and let us keep one hero untainted!

Anyway, we all know that Baby Boy is The Stig. He has a T-Shirt to prove it and I think that this video proves it without a doubt...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dNaMrczhio)