West Midlands Safari Park

Yesterday Grandad Muddle and I took the girls on a coach tour to West Midlands Safari Park. Despite the weather not being the best we had a fantastic time. 

It did take a while to get there, but all the animals were out and about, ignoring the rain! Once we'd been through the safari (took about 2 hours) we got off the bus we went for food in the restaurant. The range was limited but what was on offer was very nice, obviously a little on the pricey side though.

A grumpy camel demands food from passing cars!

There's also a reptile house, 'twilight zone' with colonies of free-flying bats, aquarium and hippo lakes. The best bit though was the African Village, with the walk-through lemur woods and goat enclosure, which really allowed you to get close the the animals. Baby Muddle was in her element, pointing at anything furry and declaring "Cat!" - her new best word!

There are also quite a few fairground rides, but as these are extra (and there was plenty elsewhere to do!) we managed to steer Big Muddle around them with minimal trouble! The toilet facilities were pretty good, and there were plenty of them, the shops were good but a bit too numerous for my liking! All in all a pretty good day, and it certainly tired my two out!

Crafty Bank Holiday

Have thrown myself into jewellery-making this evening and having lots of fun. This afternoon I made a hair accessories tidy for Big Muddle. I'm waiting on some small cup hooks as a bottom row for extra bobbles, but its nearly there:

I used a frame-less cork board from Wilko and staple-gunned some fabric and the two ribbon strips on, and sewed on the loops with clips (John Lewis).

With hindsight I'd do the ribbon strips at the top, and karibiner (sp?) clips may work better for the bottom row, but I wanted to try cup hooks as I thought it would be easier for Big Muddle to access them (this may be foolish, we shall see!

Overall though I'm pretty happy with it, as is Big Muddle so that's the main thing!

Carrot and Orange Muffins

Yesterday we went to the library and got My Cookbook of Cakes by Jess & Laura Tilli. So we had to try out one of the recipes!

Its been too long since I did some baking with Big Muddle, but I was amazed at how much her motor skills and concentration have come on. Having said that, I did use some leftover ready-to-use frosting rather than make up the icing from the recipe. I don't deal well with delayed gratification, so I don't expect my three year old to!

Please excuse my terrible piping. I'm working on the premise that 'practice makes perfect', but all it seems to make for me is splodges!

Silent Sunday

Big Muddle's Big Day Out

Had a lovely day out today with Big Muddle. Together with her friend and her mother we went to Nottingham Theatre Royal to see The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, staged by BlunderBus Theatre Company. It's the adaptation of the children's story book and was incredibly well done. All the children were caught up in it, joining in all the way through and the puppets and the set were beautiful. The cast were so high energy I was exhausted just watching them and they really brought the story to life.

Afterwards we popped to TGI Fridays. This is without a doubt my favourite family restaurant. All the staff were excellent as always and the food was fab. Their children's menu is very well thought out, with a section for younger children, and one for older, more adventurous, palates. We left very happy and very full!

It was lovely to have a day out to focus just on Big Muddle, I'll have to make a point of doing it more often. But we'll definitely be going back to the theatre more often, she loved it!

1 year check....a bit early!

Went to get Baby Muddle weighed today. I've been sporadic at this at best, but she's coming up to being in the next car seat weight category, so I decided to pop down to the clinic. I go to the evening ones they have twice a month as then Daddy Muddle can help as he's calmer under pressure than me!

Nightmare on the way there when Big Muddle tripped in her carboot-sale fake Crocs (yes, I know!) and I didn't stop in time and trod on her fingers! The ensuing minor grazes led to much wailing and need for plasters. And, of course, she made sure she told both Health Visitors in the clinic that she hurt her hand when Mummy trod on her. Awesome.

Anywho, the Health Visitor (apparently undeterred by my child-bashing) asked if she could do our one year review while we were there, so we didn't have to sort an appointment closer to the time she actually is a year old I guess. With a little trepidation I agreed...

But it went really well! She obviously clocked the sling, and thus automatically directed her questions down an 'Attachment Parenting' type route, "are you baby led weaning" "are you cosleeping" etc etc. No judgement at all on the cosleeping, or lack of bedtime routine. Only slight hiccup was when discussing the sling she said "Cos some of them are expensive, aren't they? One woman said hers was about £30..."Erm, yes, is that the door? And then she stayed next to us while I backwrapped Baby Muddle before we left. No pressure or owt!

Baby Muddle's Naming Day

The garden all set up

The ceremony

Big Muddle and her Nana

The rainbow cake - very pleased with how this turned out!

The girl of honour looking very pleased with herself!

Post-Party Tidy Up

Don't you find you seem to spend longer getting the house back to normal after a party than you do actually preparing for it?? We're still upside down and topsy-turvy after Baby Muddle's naming day on Saturday.

Not helped by wanting to catch as much as possible of the Olympic action. Big Muddle's decided she wants to take up gymnastics (or gym-mastics as she calls it). A decision which I believe is almost entirely based on the sparkly outfits. If we do take her to a gymnastics class she's going to be totally underwhelmed by the lack of glitter.

Also, spurred on by my creative successes from the party, I've decided to make Big Muddle a Rapunzel dress. I've never made a dress from scratch before, let alone one that's actually supposed to resemble something that Disney dreamt up, but never mind! I shall keep you updated with my progress.

Oh, and I've suddenly started to worry that its August and my 'it'll be easy to do all homemade Christmas gifts if I spread the making over the year' isn't looking that easy when my total presents made stands at zero.

Its no wonder the house is such a tip really!