Foodie Penpal....

I heard about Foodie Penpals through Twitter and decided I'd really love to have a go at it. You can read more about how it goes on here and here but basically you give and receive foodie packages. I was partnered with the lovely Caitlin and here is the package that she sent!

It was so beautifully packaged I couldn't wait to tuck into it! Here are the delightful gifts that were inside.

Caitlin had recently been to Italy so I had so bits from there including tiny pasta, a chilli purree, chocolate, minestrone mix and sesame bars. I'm really excited about making some of these soups and luckily with the weather we've had it's still soup weather! There were also a few local delicacies from where she lives in Cornwall. These were Shortbread biscuits, Curry crackers and a cornish pasty recipe postcard. She also included some teas from her travels and some delicious home made Ginger cookies. I'm not a fan of ginger so was dubious about trying them but they are delicious! I've eaten nearly all of them! There were also a couple of recipes that I'll blog about as soon as I have tried them! I can't thank Caitlin enough and can't wait to join in again next month!

If you've never tried this please go over and sign up, it's great fun!

Sensory Tub Number 1 and a muffin....

One of the things I've been really excited to start introducing with Nathan are Sensory Tubs. There are some amazing ones out there and I decided that the first one I wanted to start him with was one with an Ocean theme. Last week I headed to Ikea to buy some bits and pieces for our homeschool environment and this included lots of containers a perfect size for this sort of activity. Here is our first one!

I used water beads as the base, these feel absolutely gorgeous-to me that is. Nathan has declared them sticky and yuck! I have also added a few of his sea toys, a little scoop to pour and an egg cup to pour into. Here he is having a look at it.

This lasted all of 5 seconds before he told me he didn't like it and wanted me to put it away! I felt very disappointed with his reaction as I had hoped he'd just divc straight in. Not fair really, considering he's never really played with textures or had any organised type of play before. I'm going to persevere and keep it in his sight so that he might develop an interest. If he doesn't then I'll try a new theme until I find something that strikes a cord with him. It could be that he doesn't like the wet of the water beads, or it could of just been the wrong time to introduce it!

In other news the loft conversion is completed today and I will be taking some pictures later. As a thank you to our builders I made White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins this morning. Here they are!

They really are rather yummy! Anyway, what's your news? Any delicious bakes to share? Any experiences of sensory tub rejection?!

Thanks for reading and watch out for a post coming up about my foodie penpal swap!

Lisa x

Starting slowly.

In a bid to start to add a bit of "learning with purpose" I've been looking at ways that I can start to introduce a few things. This that will excite Nathan into the world around us in a geographical sense. Just to make him aware that there are indeed other countries. I've been struggling with this as it's really not my strong point. Cue Culture Swaps. I've actually signed up to two. One here at Chasing Cheerios and the other here at The Worldwide Culture Swap. I'm very excited about these although I am feeling the pressure as some that I have seen are amazing!

I've also been looking at this fantastic website which has some great resources in it for toddlers up to older children. I've been losing a lot of time reading and printing from this and future posts will follow as I start to introduce the lapbooks and preschool packs!

Here are a couple of pictures of me introducing a sensory idea to Nathan whilst we were away. I was limited by what we had to hand but he was occupied with this for several large chunks of time.

These are a small take on the sensory bins, but like I say it was just making the best of what I had to hand. A "proper" one will be made next week. I'm thinking Ocean theme as Nathan is so into this at the moment.

I also made the decision to not go ahead with the distance learning course. I had a long chat with Kenny and at the moment it will put too much pressure on me. I'm so excited at the moment about or coming weeks and can't wait to share how we get on. I'll also be posting pictures of the finished loft conversion soon as it's in it's last week now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa x

Our Haven Holiday.

As some of you guys might be aware we have recently had a loft conversion begin on our house. I made the decision that for the first two weeks I would take our boys away so that the mess and noise didn't disrupt them too much. Plus we hadn't had a holiday as a family yet! It was difficult to decide where to go, everything was looking so expensive. The cheaper option was to go to our apartment in Spain but once you looked at a hire car and their passports it balanced out to the same as here and I've always said I don't want to fly whilst the boys are still so young. Haven Holidays was recommended to me by a good friend so I started to look into that. My husband was going to be away for 9 days of it and then join us for the last part so my mum came along. Here are a few snaps.

The day we left this is how it looked.

Nathan enjoying the amazing adventure playground.

Our trip to a farm had us surrounded by these little fellas.

My mum showing Nathan a roly poly.

And then showing him how to do it!

Ethan loving the swings.

I have to say that I cannot praise the Combe Haven Park enough. Everywhere was clean, the staff were helpful and the food we had was great. The way the boys came on in the two weeks was astounding. Nathan had new found confidence and became an adventurer. Normally he would only go on swings which has been hard in the past if they are already taken but here he was climbing great big ladders and going down big slides like this covered one without a second thought. His language has developed at an alarming rate too. He's always had a good vocabulary but he's now putting together long sentences in the right context! Ethan, well he grew a new tooth and started to stand and walk around the furniture. He was also so excited at the new experiences.

It was hard spending 9 days solid with my mum but for no other reason than we were with each other all day everyday and sometimes it felt a bit confined. On the other hand though it was nice to spend so much time with her. She truly amazes me as well. I don't think I have ever known anyone to be so selfless and have such an endless supply of energy. I'm truly grateful to her for coming on this holiday with us. When Kenny came to stay, he came late at night so was there for when the boys woke up. The look of realisation on their faces was one I will always carry with me. I just wish I'd had the camera to hand to capture it. I'll leave you now with a couple of shots of what happens after 2 weeks running around, swimming and climbing. Oh and in case you're wondering, we've booked to go back in April :-)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for popping by!

Lisa x

Help!

I can't believe it's been so long since I last blogged! We've been so busy this last month and have just returned from two weeks away at a Haven holiday park. We had a wonderful time and I saw both our boys unfold and develop at a remarkable rate. It was as though the change of scenery really did them some good! I'll blog about that tomorrow when I have some pictures to hand.

I've also been busy going backwards and forwards with an important decision. I recently enrolled on a distance learning Montessori course. This was for no other reason than I think it will help me teach our boys with this method and also help me gain confidence in presenting new things to them. Having received the course materials, I'm now wondering if this is just too heavy a course for me. I love my crafting and also enjoy the usual, catching up with blogs and Twitter etc and I wonder if I take this on will I lose this time?

If any of you lovely people reading this have studied this course could you please let me know if you think it would be worthwhile or if I could get by just fine with a few books and blogs?! I need to make the decision in the next couple of days so any help would be greatly received......

Thanks in advance!

Lisa x