My Beautiful Angel

We have just come back from watching Megans Christmas play. It was lovely, I really enjoy the Christmas play and this year was no exception. As Megan is now in key stage 2, this was the first year she was in a play with 4 other classes.
It was so well done, each class had their own part, but it all linked beautifully together.
Megan was an Angel, and looked just gorgeous. She said her words, loudly and clearly.
A massive well done to all the children and staff involved in making the performance outstanding.
Here are a couple of pics of my beautiful Angel.

Christmas trees

Bens playgroup is connected to the church and every year they have a lit Christmas tree ceremony.

As Ben is in playgroup, and the playgroup have a tree there we went along this afternoon for a look. It was beautiful.

Lots of local groups, schools and charities have each decorated a tree in their own way, lights, ornaments reflecting their group or charity.

Playgroup had a tree with pictures of all the children at playgroup on it. Simple but very effective.

One tree in particular stood out for Megan. The memory tree. She wanted to fill in a label and pop it on the tree for nana Betty. Beautiful idea. The label read, "to nana betty. I love you and see you soon, love Megan." (We are going to visit her at the crem at Christmas.) It brought a real lump to my throat and again made me realise how thoughtful and wonderful my daughter is.

Childrens Christmas Party at British Gas

Mr W works for British Gas, and every year they have a children's Christmas party. We have been to a couple and they are really good fun.

There is always a visit from a very special man in red, (Ho Ho Ho!)

This year the activities included,  'paint a mug' by Minikin Emporium, where the children could paint a mug with whatever design they wanted and they will be taken and glazed and fired and brought back for the children to keep. You can visit their website here. Megan painted a lovely snow man and Ben created a hand printed reindeer.

Face painting was also available and the people who did it were fantastic, lots of choice and designs. Megan picked some flowers to have no her arm.

There was a children's entertainer, who kept the children entertained with Punch and Judy, songs and magic tricks, which I thought was a bit cheesy, but the children really enjoyed, so what do I know!?

Santas reindeers, Bubble and Squeak, had come to see the children, along with a little owl in a sleigh, very cute.

There were colouring sheets, crayons, crackers and party poppers galore provided all around the tables, alongside a constant stream of sweets, chocolates, crisps and drinks, that were brought around frequently.

Every child got a trip into Santas grotto and received a gift from him. The gifts were very age appropriate and of a high quality, scooters, dolls pram, transformers, robots, babies to name a few. Megan and Ben were lucky enough to get a build a bear, which Megan was over the moon with, and a guitar with different settings for Ben.

The afternoon was great fun, and everyone had a lovely time.

This event is provided free of charge by British Gas to their employees and their children and is a great idea.

Christmas is coming....

I was going to post this a couple of weeks ago and completely forgot!

This weekend we decked the halls in the Wright household.

One of our traditions is going to pick our Christmas tree. I love a real tree, they smell gorgeous. We always get it from the same place and the children love this tradition now too.
It was cold and frosty on Saturday, just right for picking a tree!

Once we had got that home, me and the children set about decorating it. As Ben is now 3, he is really into Christmas this year. He is so excited about father Christmas coming and is crossing everything that he gets what he asked for!

We have lots of bits and bobs that we have collected over the years and we keep adding to it every year. This years new addition is a nativity scene, which I have wanted for a while now.
Aside from the nativity scene we have fibre optic Christmas scenes, little glittery trees, father Christmas and lights.

My mum also cross stitches and we put up all the cross stitched cards every year.

Outside we also have a blow up Santa and twinkling lights. Absolutely gorgeous!

Happy 1st birthday Grace!

Yesterday was my niece Graces 1st birthday. I can't believe she is 1 and a whole year has passed since I saw her make her (very) speedy entrance to the world.

She is just beginning to walk now and becoming miss independent and shakes your hands off when you try to guide her!

Obviously being the youngest of the 4, the others all idolise her but Megan and Grace have really developed a special bond, probably because 'the boys' play their games together, currently wrestling or cars or jigsaws, and 'the girls' play together, girly things, toddling, or Megan showing Grace various toys and what to do with them.

For Graces birthday we went to Head Over Heels in Chorlton which is a play centre ideal for 0 to 10 years. The two big ones took Ben off into the structure and we didn't see them for about half an hour. Grace went into the smaller area, with activities to stimulate little minds. We had lunch, the dads had a play (hide and seek) and left worn out early afternoon.

Later on Laura and Darren had us round with Nana and Nana Christine to sing 'happy birthday'.

Mum had made a number 1 cake and after singing to Grace we all had a slice, and it was lovely.

Happy 1st Birthday Gracie B x

Bens christmas party

Ben and I went to a mums and tots Christmas party today.

He loved meeting father Christmas and happily posed for a picture.

We played pass the parcel and Ben was delighted to win.

All the little ones had party food, cakes, crisps, mini sausages, biscuits, sausage rolls, drinks and us mums tucked into mince pies too!

It was a great morning, really getting us into the Christmas spirit.

Spin Mania Game Review

We were very lucky to be sent Spin Mania action game to review.

Spin Mania is a new game from Drumond Park. You can find their website here.

Megan in particular was very excited as the game is aimed at her age, (about 6+) and up.

The aim of the game is to 'spin up' three plates, one at a time and using a spin spike, transfer them, whilst they are spinning to the separate stands and stop the timer before the plates stop spinning! You can then record your time with the marker pegs and the next player then has their go. The winner is the player who takes the least time to transfer all three spinning plates.

An added twist is that the other players can put the stands for the spinning plates anywhere within an agreed area and they can be in a hard to get to place!

Sounds dead easy right?! That's what I thought too until I had a go at trying to transfer the spinning plates!

That alone takes time and patience to master, (unless you work in a circus!) Everything I picked up a plate with the spike it fell off!
But we cracked it, Megan did it before me, I was really impressed with her persistence.

Once we had mastered this, we had a game. It was good fun deciding on where to put the stands to try and make it difficult for each other and I have to say, Megan was far better than me at this game and easily beat me!

The game requires good concentration skills and steady hands and an ability to move quickly too!

The great thing about this game is that it can be played alone or with family and friends. It can even be turned into a group challenge for extra fun!

I think the age of 6+ is ideal as younger children wouldn't have the skill or concentration for it, but would probably have fun trying.

This game would make a good Christmas present as the whole family can join in and challenge each other whilst developing very important skills.

We were sent Spin Mania to review and all the opinions are our own.