The Gruffalo

Days 55-61 of Project 365

March 2, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 42 Comments

55-61 of 365 55. 'Hello! Anyone there?' (We went exploring in the woods and had a great time squelching through the mud and finding our echo.)

56. 'Spiderman' (This cargo net is always the first thing he heads for in a local park, it's a bit of an ongoing challenge for him as it is designed for infants and juniors, having different size nets as well as different sized ladders. He likes to measure his progress by how easily he can get over the bigger gaps, but has yet to attempt climbing up the sail of the 'boat'.)

57. 'Can' (He's been using a Reading Eggs app called 'Tap The Cat' to practise his reading, spelling and writing, and under my site's host's recommendation I bought this pen for him to use with the iPad. He's finding it so much easier to overwrite and it's better than finger tracing for the development of his writing skills.)

58. 'New teeth' (He finally got stuck into the chocolate Gruffalo we bought him for Christmas and relished eating various parts of him to make him less scary!)

59. 'Underwater lights' (Kara from Innocent Charmer recently recommended this underwater bath light to me, which arrived this week, and has brought a whole new level of fun to bathtime!)

60. 'National Pride' (St. David's Day!)

61. 'Lean' (We've been exploring Caerphilly Castle today in the most gorgeous Spring sunshine, and in one half of this photograph you can see the leaning south east tower of the castle. More on that in this weekend's Country Kids post.)

—

Monsters and Pigs (Review)

August 7, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

There are two characters that The Boy loves more than any others at the moment: The Gruffalo and George Pig. Therefore when I was asked by Jokers Masquerade, if I'd like to review some fancy dress costumes for him, I chose them without a second's thought!

The first thing that I need to point out is the sheer quality of this official costume: the fur is thick and doesn't pull out, the colours and attention to detail are spot on, the seams are well constructed. The size is 3-5 years and as The Boy is very tall for his age (95th percentile) he found it very comfortable with quite a bit of growing space in it. The Gruffalo costume is available for the currently reduced price of £23.99.

The second costume we were sent was a George Pig costume. I was concerned before it arrived because I've tried tabard style costumes before and they are snug to say the least. In fact I squeezed my poor one year old boy into a Very Hungry Caterpillar costume for his birthday and had to yank his arms through, and that was sized three years. So when this costume arrived (aged 3-5 years) I was really pleasantly surprised by the sizing: roomy and well constructed with a velcro fastening to halfway down the stomach. At £14.99, it's very reasonably priced.

It's roomy and there's plenty of headspace in the hood section, you'll have to excuse the fact that my son is honking George's nose, he was obsessed with it! I was really impressed with the quality of this official costume again, it's spot on for pirate George!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and read The Gruffalo and The Pirate Island for the eleventy billionth time!

I was sent these products for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Country Kids: Fun In The Sun

July 29, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 8 Comments

With the cobalt blue sky and the sun shining so beautifully all week, getting out and about has been an absolute must for us. It coincided brilliantly with the start of the holidays, and has ensured that we haven't wasted our time together!

Sunday – Gruffalo Hunting

On the way back from Silverstone on Sunday, we stopped off at an RSPB nature walk to stretch our legs. While we were hunting for The Gruffalo and calling out to mouse to see if he knew where he was, we came across a cave and The Boy just had to explore it to see if anyone was inside!

Pebble Plopping

After Mr. TBaM got home from work on Monday, we nipped down to our local beach to partake in some pebble plopping. Mr. TBaM was determined he'd be able to skim stones, whereas The Boy just wanted to make the biggest single plop possible.

Sandplay

We met up with our toddler group down at Barry Island beach and managed to avoid high tide, but only just. Then, because we hadn't played with enough sand, we came home and built some more sandcastles.

Clifftop Picnic

On a Friday morning The Boy goes to nursery. While he's there he has lunch, but because he has so much to say for himself, he never eats well and quite often doesn't like what they give him anyway (spinach and potato pie for example). I'm not bothered because the socialisation is more important for him, but when I pick him up we always have to have a second lunch to make sure he's had enough to eat. I decided to take him to the clifftop park for he could burn off some more energy and eat a picnic lunch.

Pirates at Barry Island

The sun today heralded more outdoor play so we headed for the beach again. We originally went further down the coastline to Southerndown beach, but the problem is that when high tide is approaching there it covers all the sand and only leaves a swathe of rocks. Cue an about turn and off to the old faithful of Barry Island! More sandcastles, more buried The Boy, and finishing up with a round of pirate mini-golf!

Hope next week is just as activity filled!

—

Cooking with The Gruffalo

November 19, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 9 Comments

I realised this morning that it's been nearly a month since The Boy and Me (ha!) have done any baking together, and so I cracked open the plain flour and the weighing scales. We'd had a Gruffalo apron set sent to us from Dunelm so I decided to follow the recipe on the recipe card given in the pack to make Woodland Cookies.