Advent adventures: day 14

Today we opened the fourteenth drawer of our tabletop advent tree. Inside, my children found a tiny trinket to hang on one of its branches and a strip of paper upon which was written a fun and festive activity. There's one of these for every day of Advent - I know that for sure because I came up with the twenty-four ideas, lovingly wrote them out and carefully placed one in each of the tree's diminutive drawers. I'm going to attempt to take a photograph to represent each day's little Advent adventure and post them all here.

Day 14: Dress up and take part in the school show

Pinning, sewing, posing...

Today my children celebrated World Book Day with a dress as your favourite book character assembly at school. Daisy chose the fabric for her costume a couple of weeks ago and she even wanted to help with the dressmaking process. She was particularly keen to use the pins, as pictured above.

Buddy on the other hand, was reluctant to choose a character. It was my last minute offer to make an axe as part of the costume that eventually helped him make his decision. This made for some rather late-night cutting, sticking and sewing yesterday. But I did it.

So off to school this morning went one cute-as-a-button Milly-Molly-Mandy...

And one ready-to-train-his-dragon Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.

Happy World Book Day everyone.

Grey Paris, gay Londres

I've just had an I-can't-believe-I'm-that-old birthday and am in the grips of a mutating cold that's simply refusing to go. Our recent sans enfants trip to sub-zero temperature Paris was lovely but I felt so ill I certainly didn't make the most of it, and so returned feeling rather sorry for myself. Everything seemed so very old and so very grey.

What I needed was a good dose of my children to take me out of my sombre mood, but I also needed them to be calm and quiet so I could convalesce on the couch. And bless Daisy and Buddy, they really got that. Buddy mostly read and played with the Lego, and Daisy decided to play hairdressers.

She started with Daddy's hair. I was instantly cheered just by watching them both in the salon; her careful and fastidious brush work, her little hands smoothing Daddy's curls, and hearing her small voice instructing him to sit forwards or keep still or close his eyes while she sprayed water onto his head. He was a good customer too. He tolerated the avant-garde style she'd given him - not quite as outrageous as the picture currently on the Paris Metro Map below - and looked appreciatively in the mirror with barely a giggle.

Then it was my turn. And since I'd decided to take a bath, Daisy the hairdresser said she would wash my hair for me. I should point out that by this time she'd dressed up for the part - she was now in a rainbow-ribbon skirt and had fashioned an Alice-band into a headdress loaded with multicoloured feathers.

And so it was this colourful vision of a girl who shampooed and conditioned my hair with all the patter of a professional, who then brushed, styled and clipped it up to her heart's content with her favourite sparkly accessories. She even found my hairspray to fix the whole look. *cough, splutter*

And, at last, I began to cheer up. Not in gay Paris - but at home in Daisy's Beauty Salon with her crazy hair-dos and rainbow-coloured clothes. How could I not?

Blazing June

Summer's here at last! For me, June means Wimbledon (yay), cherries and strawberries (yum), and playing outside until bedtime. It also brings village and school summer fairs aplenty; an abundance of bunting, bouncy castles and barbecues.

But I haven't had much time to write about these June adventures. A casualty of my husband currently being off in far away lands maybe? Too busy being out and about maybe? Being in sole charge of my two children is full-on and tiring, and fitting work in amongst it all is a juggling game requiring precision timing. We are certainly having fun though. Here with a few highlights of our June thus far.

I spy with my little eye

Buddy spotted the most beautiful beetle on our mini-basil plant. It was like tiny Quality Street sweet. It tolerated intense examination under the magnifying glass for two days and then was gone. Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home....

Make and bake

We made gingerbread men, well people actually. Daisy was adamant she was going to make a skirt for her gingerbread princess.

They always take great delight in announcing which limb is to be munched first. And with recent knowledge of Alice Through the Looking Glass they call out 'Off with their head!' in shrill ordering tones.

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The recipe is from a lovely book called Just 4 Kids - with a really simple method and a short list of ingredients including an inspired addition of golden syrup for added chewiness. My two had never tried this before so I let them lick the spoon. It was a little too sweet for Bud's savoury palate but - guess what - Daisy loved it.

Dress-up a go-go

With the lovely weather, I've shifted a lot of their toys to our little outside space.

The dress-up drawer has been relocated to the decking and Daisy has embraced its appearance by stripping off immediately she returns from nursery to transform herself into various outrageous combinations of princess, cat, alien, silver swan and butterfly. I am strictly not allowed to laugh at these though; it has been tough.

Recycling truck

Just before daddy left for his trip to the Far East, he bought a new pair of shoes. Daisy took one look at the shoebox and announced it was to be a lorry. We had great fun raiding the recycling box to make the cab, wheels and windscreen. I got one idea past the Board; a simple fan - made from thin card folded like a concertina - joining the cab to the trailer; articulation in action. Buddy was very keen to fill the shoebox with toys. The toilet roll wheels could barely hold the weight of its load.

Please note the driver; Trucker Barbie. Now that's a marketing opportunity if ever I saw one.