Uncategorized – Page 5 – KidsChaos.com

Uncategorized

Chessington Birthday Treat

We are pretty lucky to live within a half an hour drive from Chessington World of Adventures, and it’s always been high on the list of favourite treat places for our boys to visit during the summer months. My Mother has fond memories of the Zoo from her own childhood, so it’s always been somewhere we have visited as a family.

This year has been no exception, and was TOP of 8yo’s birthday list for his ninth birthday recently, so as we were lucky enough to receive some tickets as a gift, we took a party of children aged 6-9yrs as a joint birthday treat.

We arrived at 10am, and there was very little queuing to get through the gates, so we headed straight to Hocus Pocus Hall – a big favourite, which set us up nicely with giggles, and ghoules, and cries of *Let’s go round again!*.

The sensible Dad of the party had visited the Chessington website to plan the day, as there are height restrictions on some of the rides. So I took my slightly taller 10yo boy onto Rattlesnake (my ride of the day – we laughed so much on this one!) whilst the slightly shorter kids enjoyed Bubbleworks.

The park is divided into areas, Wild Asia being popular with our party, Kobra and Monkey Swinger received MASSIVE votes, and were visited several times during the day.

Scary ride for me is the Dragon’s Fury (which everybody but me LOVED) and a new area for 2013 we’d not been on previously was the amazing Zufari which took our breath away, really quite a big queue, but completely worth it for the gasps of ‘REAL RHINOS!’ from all of the kids (and me too!)

So a good day was had by all, my one recommendation would be to visit the Monkey Swinger and the Dragon Falls to the end of the day, as we got a bit wet on those!

Disclaimer, we were kindly given four of our tickets for Chessington, however the balance of our tickets were purchased here with a great group discount.

Read about our trip to Thorpe Park Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

Uncategorized

Unplug your phone charger!

How many times have you (or a certain someone in your family) left your phone charger on overnight, buzzing away?
The telly on standby; accidentally leaving the microwave door ajar?

But did you know that you’re losing money (and clearly wasting energy) whilst you sleep?

Leaving your household appliances on standby whilst you’re curled up in bed is burning a hole in your pocket and taking the time to turn off could save you up to a fantabulous £86 per year. So, what are you waiting for? Switch OFF at bed time!

Commissioned by Ovo Energy – the cheaper, greener and simpler energy supplier – lovely bunch, follow them on facebook here.

Oh, by the way, I’m also on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Google+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

crafts, gardening with kids, google+ hangouts, kids, Uncategorized

Flowers and Leaves and Andy Goldsworthy

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

This week my darling boys got busy with some Andy Goldsworthy style flower arranging! Well, they made some gloopy papier mache glue (recipe here: two parts water, one part flour, nuked in the microwave for 50 seconds…stir stir stir the lumps out as best you can).

Then they painted the patio and started building up their pattern of summer leaves and petals. It has to be said, 10yo particularly LIKES working with colour patterns, you only have to look at his gogo crazy bones collection which he has displayed by colour, and he LOVED David T Waller’s amazing Toy Atlas Rainbow – the hundreds of toy cars… oh, click here to see it…

This is a fabulous way to explore the science of plant decomposition too – watching as the petals’ colour changes over a period of days – and the release of carbon dioxide…

If you’d like to see how our own patio art works with Autumn / Winter leaves – take a look at the ‘sculpture’ we made with the neighbour’s children – read more here, taking inspiration again from the fabulous Andy Goldsworthy and RedTedArt of course.

10yo boy was really excited to tell his Dad all about this, and has decided that he will cover the entire patio for his birthday, in November, so watch this space!

Anyway, as you know, I’m on a weekly panel of crafty So-and-So-s invited to ‘hang-out’ on Google+ by the every lovely Maggy Woodley at Red Ted Art.

I’m hanging out on Google+ for a bit of a vlog…(click the screengrab to watch) with some craft buddies to share these flowers and leaves ideas, hosted by the aforementioned ever lovely Maggy from Red Ted Art. who made flower crowns and showed us how to press flowers and cute woodland people. Also present are Anna, Crystal, Anthea’s wild grass seed head art, Kelly‘s amazing helicopter seed thank you cards for teachers, Liz was featured with her diy flower-petal paints, The fairy and the frog’s discovery bottle Pop back later for more links soon.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough onGoogle+, Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

Uncategorized

PINspired by PINTEREST

Many moons ago I ran the creative department of a large UK department store. We all loved our ‘MOOD BOARDS’ – we used them in the studio, and we used them at home…folders stuffed with images of how we wanted our kitchen to look; notepads full of magazine ‘tears’ of inspirational ideas our new bathroom…

SO you can imagine my delight when I discovered Pinterest, an online version, of just that – your own mood boards, and more importantly, access to OTHER people’s mood boards – and if you don’t have a Pinterest account of your own, it’s simple to create an account!

So, I’m delighted to be part of Pinterest’s #PinItForwardUK campaign. Through this selection of excellent ‘pinners’ I’ve found some amazing blogs, and campaigners, and it’s really made me think more about my own photography, and composition too…

Read on to discover my top boards for all things ethical and creative, with upcycled crafts and DIY ideas such as A Greener Life for Us.

I recently planned a wedding (well, MY wedding, it seven weeks!) using Pinterest, I created a board called Party Time taking inspiration for the most amazing wedding cake which I just wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for Pinterest I’m sure!

Share your own Pinterest favourites

Are you already on Pinterest and have you discovered a fabulous board you’d like to tell us about? Please share a link to your best board in the comments here so we can all take a look. And pop on over to visit Chris at Thinly Spread tomorrow for even more pinspiration as she shares her Pinterest gems.

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and, AS PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED, on Pinterest too! Pop over to say hello x Like it? Pin it!
Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

cooking, cooking with kids, crafts, education, Uncategorized

Happy Easter – and melty chocolate…

Chaos writes:

I had recently been singing the praises of Rococo Chocolate on twitter, as earlier this month I had wolfed down a couple of delicious ‘grown-up’ birthday bars (all to myself)….
As a designer by trade, I’ve always loved the packaging, with the repeat patterns of the old chocolate moulds – There’s just something so appealing about the classic blue prints.

You can imagine my delight when the chaps at Achica invited RedTedArt and I to spend the morning with them at Rococo’s Motcomb Street, Belgravia store.

We were welcomed by Julie Rosenberg, the events manager for Rococo, with delicious hot chocolate, and were given a really informative ‘lesson’ on how cocoa is grown, and becomes the chocolate we were then to try.

Julie led us down to the kitchen (which we had spied through the glass window in the floor!) and our Chocolate School continued, with egg decorating, and the fun bit of gluing the two halves of our eggs together!

It’s such a great idea for a birthday or hen party….have a chat with Julie for more info…there’s a Half Term Children’s Chocolate Bar Workshop coming up which looks great!

So, we even got to take home the eggs we had decorated (yes, mine IS supposed to be an owl!)

Joining in the fun too were the very creative TorieJayne, Lizzie Me and My Shadow, and Jen from love chic living, glamorous glutton and lish concepts, and hannah in the house too.

A big thanks to Julie from Rococo for making it such a super morning, and to Achica for inviting us along and making it such a memorable morning!

book reviews, competitions, education, kids, Uncategorized

Book review – The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

Chaos writes:

All this talk of Roald Dahl has got 8yo all of a twitter… (find it hard to use that word in this context, but bear with me!)

This is his collection of Roald Dahl books (Laura Dockrill’s favourite writer, and the cause of this desire to take this photo on the ‘big camera’ to tweet to Laura – bless).

His ultimate favourite is the Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, which was no.1 on the bedtime reading list before Daddy took over that job, reading Harry Potter to them every night, over the phone on loud-speaker (that’s another story altogether).

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me I think was first choice, because, (A) it was a LONG book to read at bedtime, so they get to stay up later, and (B) the language is so beautiful, (how many little boys do you know who call the loo the ‘Lavatory Pan’? thank you Roald).

The story is fabulous, and even without the Quentin Blake illustrations, and your eyes shut, your imagination marvels at the wonder of Billy’s sweet shop, the incredibly TALL house, a giraffe with an extending neck, a pelican with an over-sized beak, a dancing monkey, and the quite bonkers, His Grace the Duke of Hampshire.

Oh, and there is some ‘gun action’ always goes down well with little boys I find!

We did venture several years ago, when they were much younger, to the Little Angel Theatre and this wonderful puppet performance delighted and engaged both boys, because they knew the story so well.

So, thank you Laura Dockrill, for dragging small children back to their childhood with your fab book Darcy Burdock, and talk of Roald Dahl again… 8yo is currently reading George’s Marvellous Medicine aloud to me, and polishing off Matilda when he’s meant to have his LIGHTS OUT!

Are you on Google+ Follow me here, and say hello, and I’ll add you back to my circles.

Oh, and I’m on twitter.com/MoreKidsChaos too… Erm, and funnily enough on Facebook and Pinterest! Pop over to say hello x