Just another manic Monday!

I don't start till late on a Monday, so have got into the habit of setting up in the morning before the children arrive. It works well, unless you oversleep, get up late and are only just rushing down the stairs as the first child arrives :laughing: Luckily she's a happy little thing so was content to look at books while I got sorted out. By the time the second child arrived everything was chilled and you'd never have know the rushing round I'd been doing shortly beforehand :laughing:

The rest of the day was much calmer :phew: We've started listening to Christmas songs so I'm hoping that by the time we break up in December the children will have a lot to sing!

What have you got planned for the week? Do you do Poppy Day activities? Poppies are some of my favourite flowers so we concentrate on crafts involving them, especially as the children will see them while they're out and about. How much do you emphasise the meaning behind them or behind the day?

What have you got for dinner/tea this evening? Our fridge is looking a bit empty so I'm going to have to hunt through the freezer to see what I can find. I've got fish finger sandwiches in my mind now so I might have to see if there are any in there :D

For dinner tonight we are having 'slow cooked tender peppery beef' - it's one of the ready prepared beef dishes from M and S. We are having it with sweet potatoes baked in butter and cinnamon (DH's recipe, they are delicious and caramelise in the oven), and whatever veggies we have in the fridge.

I had a nice day. My little whirlwind was much more focused on activities today so it made a massive difference to how calm I felt. He concentrated so well in the garden while he was playing in the sand and water that he 'forgot' to wander over to the steps (that he can't quite climb down safely) and the other steep drops in my garden!

I've never done poppies with my mindees. I do have one who is really into flowers though and so I might do some sort of craft this year and leave it at that.

That's Monday done!

I have home-made sweet potato wedges/fishcake and veg currently cooking. Maza your dinner sounds very nice.

My climber fell off a chair today and ended up with a bump to the head.

I am planning to go for a walk to our local church as we have a knitted poppy display there at the moment. On Thursday I may do a poppy craft with my 2 older ones but the others are babies so may just give them some red paint and see what happens :panic: Thursday we are also out to a toddler session at a local museum.

Christmas songs Mouse.....you are keen :laughing: have you got your Christmas crafts all planned yet? I am looking for inspiration for cards, I am an advocate for process over product but parents love a Christmas card and I really don't know what to do with my 2 x 1 year olds.

Arghhh! Just wrote a long message and lost it!

I do poppies ... usually just a paper plate with red paint or sticky paper, and a black middle. We have also made pictures by stamping red paint on paper using old corks/bottle tops etc, and then dabbing little black dots on. ... I just let the children do their own thing. We will go up to the war memorial at church in the afternoon, and we talk about poppies helping us to remember the people who help keep us safe, and to remember those who died keeping us safe. We often wander around the church yard, so the children know about graves helping us to remember people who have died. They know the 'words' even if they don't understand them yet.
Cbeebies have a nice animation for rememberance, and I've just bought a lovely book called 'Where the poppies now grow' with lovely illustrations. It's a bit old for my 2/3 yr olds, but we'll look at the pictures.

For Christmas cards, I often just let the children loose with stickers and metallic pens, sometimes on shaped cards and see what happens. But this year I saw some where the child had scribbled on the card in black pen, and then fingerprinted dots on it, so it looked like fairy lights. I'm wondering about using a tree shape card to give it parents a clue as to what it is :laughing:

Everyone's tea s sounded very nice. I had bubble and squeak with left over veggies and then roast chicken from yesterday.

Pixie, I love the sound of a toddler group in a museum! I know the art galleries in my closest towns do something, but they start at 9.30, and I can't get there with school runs and 45 plus minute drive!

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Pixie, I love the sound of a toddler group in a museum! I know the art galleries in my closest towns do something, but they start at 9.30, and I can't get there with school runs and 45 plus minute drive!

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We are very excited as it's the first session at the museum since Covid, they have run some sessions via zoom but it's not the same as being in the museum.