Monday: Little Voices Choir

Tuesday: Gymnastics

Wednesday: Rainbows

Thursday: Gymnastics (at school will only be for 6 weeks)

Friday: Swimming

Saturday: Ballet and Tap

Sunday: Rest

I’m also looking for a piano teacher so she can start that soon.  Whenever I tell people the activities she is doing they all look at me with wide eyes and I have to laugh. Yes, she is doing a lot but I need her to find the thing she loves.  Then I think that some things she will always do, swimming being a good example.  She’s been doing Ballet/Tap since she was three and really loves it so I don’t see us stopping that any time soon.  LV Choir she does with her besties and absolutely loves it. Ditto for  Rainbows… ya see where I’m going here?  Gymnastics is the only wildcard at the moment. If she ends up not liking it I won’t be too sad. We’re also signing her up for piano lessons as soon as I can find a local teacher.

Do your kids go to a lot of activities? Are you compensating for something that was lacking in your childhood? I think that I am. I was the first born to very young parents. My mom was 20 my dad 21 and they were married less than a year when I was born (can we say honeymoon baby?) They didn’t have much money starting out, were new immigrants to the US and I was a very poorly child.  I only had asthma but was very ill with it as a child. The medical advice at the time was not to put asthmatics into sports. I’m also tone deaf so no Glee Club for me and I wasn’t chosen to play an instrument at school so I didn’t do that either. I think with Squidge I want her to find her passion so I’m exposing her to many things. What do you guys think? Am I doing it right? Am I having her do too much? Am I reliving my childhood through Squidge?

I hope everyone has a safe and chocolate filled Halloween!  For the first time ever Squidge was dressed in the “English” way. In the US we dress up as anything we like. Bags of M&M’s, bottles of Jack Daniel’s, princesses etc… In England it’s always always a spooky theme– witches, pumpkins, vampires, bats, mummy’s and that sort of thing.  Last year someone made Squidge feel bad for not being on “theme” so this year she really wanted to be a witch. I was going to go with a literary witch and have her go as Winnie the Witch but I ran out of time so she’s a Tesco’s witch. A cutie patootie either way!

Now onto the competition! I’m really really excited about this one as I firmly believe in it’s message. Kellogg’s are big supports of breakfast. I know, I know that’s such a surprise. A breakfast cereal company believes we should all eat breakfast. It’s easy to be cynical but in this case they’re putting their money where there mouths are and support breakfast clubs all over the country.  With government cut backs companies are having to step in and luckily for us Kellogg’s is a company with a great sense of corporate responsibility.  I was invited to a spa day for some pampering but before we got to the fun bits they talked to us about some new research they had done since the last time we met. You see, this is why I love Kellogg’s. After meeting with us last year they realized tht their data was a bit old and wondered if anything had changed. So they got together with a university to find out what was going on now with children and breakfast and what they’re eating. I think it’s fair to say most of us their were shocked. Not only with the data suggesting that kids aren’t eating but also what they’re eating, 25% of kids buying crisps, chocolate and burgers on the way to school.  The Daily Mail had an article where they mention the Kellogg’s research stating that girls are skipping breakfast all together as a way to stay slim. Now we all know that doesn’t work. It’s important that we all teach our children that eating breakfast is important. If you want to know more about how Kellogg’s is involved with breakfast clubs just check out their website. If you want to start a breakfast club you can apply for funding through Kellogg’s. I would wait to do that though… until after the competition!

So the details…

COMPETTION

Kellogg will be giving you the chance to win a year supply of breakfast cereal (approx 100 boxes) for your school.  In order to be in with a chance to win this, all you have to do is watch this video (what are breakfast clubs link) leave me a comment below telling me what the name of the little boy with hiccups was.

I will pick the winner by random number generator on Monday 7 November

Terms and Conditions:

• Competition is open to residents of the UK and NI only
• Prize is non-refundable and no cash alternative is available

• This competition will run from the 31 October to the 7th November 2011
• The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this page on 8th November 2011

I didn’t want to do any sewing and needed something that wasn’t going to weigh very much so I decided to make them out of crepe and tissue paper. I figured if they lasted the 30 minutes of the Ugly Bug Ball parade and parent morning we’d do OK.

They lasted the 30 minutes plus most of the day according to Squidge! Yay! I will say that by the time I picked her up they were in pretty bad shape but she didn’t care, she loved them and had a fantastic day! I am a little sad that the school year is coming to a close. She has loved every last minute of school and so have we. The school is fantastic. Her teacher is the best. She has made some really good friends and so have I. We also found out who her new teacher is for next year. She appears to be very lovely and I’ve heard great things about her.

Here’s to a wonderful beginning of a school career. My hope is that she continues to love school. That each year she will continue to learn and grow and become the intelligent, inquisitive and beautiful woman that the child promises she will be.

I started feeling unwell on Friday.  Very achy and the chills.  I googled swollen glands and joint pain only to be confronted with the possibility that I had HIV/AIDS. LOL be careful what you google!  In the end it was just the influenza virus!  I was pretty much bed bound for 2 days.  I got up to go to Squidge’s end of year ballet show and to take her to a birthday party.  I need to add that I didn’t think I had the flu or I wouldn’t have gone out.  Other than fatigue and achy and getting the chills I didn’t have any symptoms.  OK so now that I list them all it does sound bad but I would be chilled then it would go away. Then I would feel a bit achy then it would go away. Then I would be very tired then it would go away. I don’t think I had all the symptoms at the same time.  On Saturday afternoon I started to get a headache.  I hope I didn’t infect anyone! So in the place of a proper post here are photos I’ve taken over the last few days.

The dreaded pass the parcel! I made 2 of them and meant for Disco Dom to do both at the same time but instead he did two. One before the kids ate and one after.  It was endless torture! I really really hate pass the parcel and next year (if I do a big party again) I’ll do musical statues! Or any other game anything but pass the parcel.

Squidge had a fantastic time. The hall was bright and airy and perfect.  A successful party all around I think.