A photo everyday for a year - Week 9 #Project365

I have had quite a busy week and it all seems to have revolved around my girls schools.....I am quite glad it's the weekend but there is no break from school....Ellie is there today too! Yes on a Saturday! It's all fun though. She is practicing for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her school and a few others are putting on a show in a few weeks and they want to get everyone together to practice! 

Anyway onto a photo for every day.....

 56/365 - 25th February

The Sloppy Joes went down well.

57/365 - 26th February

Ellie and I did a bit of baking.

58/365 - 27th February

Becky baked Bakewell Tarts at school.

59/365 - 28th February

Pancake Day! 

60/365 - 1st March

World Book Day.

61/365 - 2nd March

I may have stolen the girls chocolate.

62/365 - 3rd March

Time to relax on her tablet.

This week has all been about school. #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

This week seems to have all revolved around school....

Over the weekend Ellie and I had an afternoon of baking. She had a school project to do of making a World War 2 recipe. We made Oat biscuits and a Syrup loaf.....Making the biscuits was nearly a disaster....We got as far as rolling out the mix when we realised we forgot to add the Golden syrup....We rolled it back up added some syrup and they actually turned out OK....lol

On Monday we visited Ellie's school to speak to the head teacher about the bullying incident which happened before the half term holidays.....The head was apologetic and had spoken to the bully the morning of her shouting at Ellie and it was sorted....She apologised for not informing the class teacher and assured us she would if anything happened again....So all the worrying I did was for nothing! 

On Tuesday Stu and I were in Ellie's school office asking about the tickets for the school play and Ellie had stayed outside to talk to her friend.....We came outside to see my friend saying to Ellie come with me....A boy had been nasty to Ellie and my friend had heard it....Ugh! We spoke to the head and she said she would have words which she did....I went to pick Ellie up and the class teacher knew all about the incident this time.....Phew! It has been decided to give Ellie a break she can go into the library on a morning just to avoid the nasty children for a while....The two incidents are unrelated and Ellie is just being targeted....Who knows why? Kids can be cruel. I am annoyed that Ellie is being isolated. Why can't kids just be nice but the school have been dealing with it brilliantly this week!

On Wednesday we were up at Becky's school for Parents evening/GCSE Options night. We had done our research and Becky had worked out what she wanted to do. Psychology, French, Health and Social care and ICT. Brilliant.....We go to school opened the envelope and read all about the options....It turns out they have changed everything this year. Removed some subjects (Psychology) made ICT compulsory for everyone and jiggled things about.....

We had to have a rethink.....We spoke to the majority of Becky's teachers and they helped a great deal when it came to Becky making her choices....She is now going to be studying French, Geography, Health and Social care and Religious Studies for her GCSE's as well as all the core subjects like maths, english, science, etc.

She still isn't too convinced about Religious Studies but the majority of the other subjects in that section were not right for her. Music, Construction, Hair and Beauty, Film Studies and a new one to me Statistics which is all about maths....She likes maths and is OK at it but we were told it is a tough course. We have another meeting in a couple of weeks so we can discuss it further.....

Thursday was of course World Book Day....Becky's school is too cool to dress up but Ellie of course did. She was Where's Wally?! She wore the same last year but it still fitted and she absolutely loves the costume....hehehe

Books my girls have been reading lately....

I was supposed to publish this blog post in January but other blog posts seemed more important....Today it is World Book Day so I wanted to share a post centered around books...This is it. My girls love to read in bed....I much prefer them reading than watching TV before they go to sleep....These are some of the books they have been loving recently!

The Magical World of Amy Lee.

Get ready to explore Amy Lee's Land of Love! Jam-packed with fact files, puzzles, crafting, games, quizzes, colouring, mazes, stories and much more. Can you escape from the witch, decode a secret message from the fairies, stop Mittens causing too much chaos and become a cute recruit? Loves it!

The description of the book makes no sense at all to who Amy Lee is but she is a YouTuber....lol My girls wanted the book because they know of Amy Lee through Minecraft videos. I had to buy two of these books for each of my girls....It is jam packed with everything it says it is and it is so pretty to look at.....My girls keep coming back to this book, doing activities and the puzzles.....

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Double Down

The pressure's really piling up on Greg Heffley. His mom thinks video games are turning his brain to mush, so she wants her son to put down the controller and explore his 'creative side'. As if that's not scary enough, Halloween's just around the corner and the frights are coming at Greg from every angle.

When Greg discovers a bag of gummy worms, it sparks an idea. Can he get his mom off his back by making a movie . . . and will he become rich and famous in the process? Or will doubling down on this plan just double Greg's troubles?

This book was bought for Becky....She has read every other Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and was eager to read the new one too.....She has and she loved it! She said it was so funny and just like all the other books as in the writing style hadn't changed....Ellie keeps picking it up and reading it too now and again....

The Ultimate Vloggers Annual 2017

Get up close and personal with your favourite vlogging superstars in The Vloggers' Annual 2017. 

Packed full of everything you could ever hope to know about the biggest and best YouTubers, as well as some helpful hints for aspiring vloggers, and suggestions for new vlogs worth following.

Becky loves YouTube and this features all of her favourite people that she watches....It was perfect for her! It is another book that she keeps going back to to read about the likes of Sprinkle of Glitter, Marcus Butler and Zalfie.....It was quite a bargain too. I got it from The Works for only a couple of pound.

Top of the Class (Nearly) (Tom Gates)

Top of the Class (Nearly) follows Tom as he runs for the school council and TRIES to be top of the class. As per usual things don’t quite go according to plan… If only Tom could follow his own TOP tips for being Top of the Class!

1. Stay awake in lessons (it helps.)

2. Don’t draw HILARIOUS pictures of your teachers.

3. AVOID the class bully to stay out of trouble.

4. Don’t let Mum and Dad write ANYTHING in your school planner.

5. Don’t let your grumpy sister Delia BOSS you around. (Technically not a school issue – but still important.)

I don't know where this book came from but both of my girls have read it and loved it....The pictures are brilliant and I heard both of my girls laughing out loud when reading this.

The Chocolate Box Secrets.

Ellie brought home this book as her reading book for school....Each night she has to read a couple of pages and it is the first book from school that she has enjoyed....

Welcome to the world of the Chocolate Box Girls!
Cherry, Summer, Skye, Coco and Honey may be very different - but they all love crafting and creating! From hosting a chocolate-themed sleepover to designing a flower headband and concocting a cupcake-sensation, each Chocolate Box sister shares her secrets.

With ideas for every season - there's a whole year of Chocolate Box inspired ideas waiting - which will you make first?

There are so many craft and fun activities in this book....I have been taking photos of things that are taking our fancy....I really don't want to send the book back to the school library.

What books have your children been reading lately?

Our Great North Museum: Hancock visit.

Last week when the kids were on their half term holidays from school we decided to have a day out at Newcastle and visit the Great North Museum: Hancock. It has been on our list of things to do for a while.

The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations....There is so much to see and best of all it is free to enter but donations are welcome....It is only a five minute walk from Haymarket Metro and Bus station so it was so easy to get to. 

When we got into the museum we went into the living Planet gallery....It was pretty amazing to look at all the animals, fish and insects....Ellie walked around and was faced with the shark....She got quite a shock....hehehe

Also on the ground floor there was a replica model of Hadrian’s Wall which spanned the full length of the room and it was a big room.....

We also saw lots of fossils and animals and plants that were around millions of years ago....The T-Rex replica skeleton was pretty amazing to look at....It's legs were as tall as me.

We soon ventured upstairs which had displays about Ancient Egyptians.....The girls were very interested in this section....

Also upstairs was the Natural Northumbria displays which shows what is special about the North East of England’s animals and plants....I really liked this area as it seemed more interactive than the rest of the museum. There was buttons to press.....

What puzzled us was there was a snake....It looked real and I am sure it was moving....I heard a couple behind us questioning whether it was real too....I guess we'll never know.....lol

While visiting we stopped for something to eat in one of the cafes....There is two. We found the smallest one and there were a few choices of sandwiches, cakes, crisps and coffee.....It was only when we were on our way out we found the larger cafe which smelled like it sold hot meals....

We spent about two and a half hours looking around.....It was busy with it being half term but not so busy that we couldn't get a good look at everything....

The busiest part of the museum was the toilets and locker area.....This was the only part I didn't like the lockers were straight in front of the ladies toilets and made it a rather cramped to get in and out of the toilets....The lockers did come in handy to drop the kids coats off on our way in....

It was a great museum to visit....The girls learned things and I did too....