KidsChaos.com

WIN a copy of Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles

My boys LOVE Star Wars… My boys LOVE Lego….So, can you imagine our delight to be invited to the launch party of the new Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles which is out now on DVD!

What a fab way to spend an afternoon, AND we got to meet a rather imposing REAL Darth Vadar, AND play with Lego too – all of us piecing together parts of a giant Yoda ‘jigsaw’ made of single lego pieces, it was quite a challenge! We have a great affection for Yoda, click here for our finger puppets!)

The kids really enjoyed watching the new DVD stories, and we are saving watching it again on our own DVD player, for a trip down the M4 to Swansea at the weekend, I’ve no doubt it will be on loop… ‘one more time please’! 🙂

And if you would like to WIN one of three copies of the #LegoStarYodaDVD click here!

Disclaimer: we were invited along to a family day out with the Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment team

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, google+ hangouts, halloween, kids, monster

Halloween Skull potato print party bags

What is it with skulls? There is something so graphically appealing about them… and with several small boys to entertain for yet another birthday party, I decided to involve them in making wrapping paper, and party bags… So we each carved a face into a potato and got printing!

It’s pretty simple stuff, you can see in the photograph of the potato, you slice it lengthwise, and carefully cut the mouth and eyes with a sharp knife. It’s essential that the potato is sliced FLAT otherwise the print won’t be nice and clean.

8yo (as he was at the time) enjoyed mixing the colours to get the murky grey, and we rolled out some brown packing paper on the table to print up the wrapping paper. The party bags are really easy to make too, you need a tissue box for a template and for an easy ‘how to’ vlog – click over to redtedart.com where one of my earliest appearances on video camera will entertain you…

These potato skulls would be great for Halloween bunting, or if you didn’t fancy getting the paints out, dowload my FREE Day of the Dead printables here.

Want to see me talking about this project and skull potato printing? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Halloween crafts’ on Google+.

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, including toilet roll bat pinatas! More links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, Aly at plus2point4.co.uk, Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and Lizzie from missielizzie-meandmyshadow.

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 LIKE IT? Pin it!

crafts, halloween, kids, monster

Day of The Dead skull bunting FREE printable

So Autumn is upon us, and time to look at a Mexican holiday celebration which is new to my boys: Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos which is the first two days of November.

Although the holiday involves artistic representations of skulls and skeletons, the occasion is festive, rather than morbid. Death isn’t seen as the end of one’s life, but as a natural part of the life cycle; the dead come back to visit every year. In the UK, around this time of year, Halloween’s images of skulls and skellybobs are spooky,eery, and scary. By contrast, On Day of the Dead, it’s about celebrating with the family both alive and remembering those who are no longer with us.

I asked the boys what they would like to make, and ‘masks’ and ‘bunting’ seemed popular and do-able choices… as they are 9 and 10 now, and love their Marvel graphic novels, they wanted me to ‘draw’ the templates in Illustrator for them to colour – so that’s what we’ve done… and I’ve attached a FREE Printable for you to colour and create your own Day of the Dead garland too…(you too can make your own ‘microwave dave’ character like the 10yo…)

Day of the Dead Bunting – you will need:

A print out of our FREE PRINTABLE
Colouring pencils, glitter, or paints
A hole punch
Ribbon

My boys really enjoyed colouring the skulls, and requested Star Wars themed skulls too… not one, but two, so have fun – and would love to see yours too 🙂 If you’d like to see more SKULL craft ideas, click here to take a look at our potato print skull party bag how to!

Maggy talked us through some lovely ideas, from skulls on stones, and corks, balloons and more links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree who loves a bit of skull face painting, and talked about T-shirt printing, skeletons and sculpting and glitter and check out Kelly at domesticgoddesque.com and her day of the dead spoon craft!

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 LIKE IT? Pin it!

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

cooking with kids, kids

Benihana, a treat of a night out

In the name of research (coughs), for good places to take the family for supper, I had a grown-up night out, hosted by the lovely Laura @LondonBabyMum founder of London-Baby.com who invited myself and several London blogger types, for a night out at #BenihanaChelsea on the Kings Road (easy to find, we jumped on a tube to Sloane Square, and walked up).

Now, I’ve know of this restaurant for years, the founder Rocky “Hiroaki” Aoki opened the first Benihana restaurant in 1964 in New York City. They are pioneers of “Teppan-yaki” dining, chefs combining dazzling performance and cooking freshest ingredients in front of diners.

We sat at a table for eight, and watched with delight as our chef Luke performed fantastic tricks with onion rings (volcanos and steam trains no less) – and cooked up some AMAZING food on the 300degree hot plate right in front of our eyes… bonkers! (There were a few comedy moments when Luke ‘accidentally’ threw an egg at me, and ‘squirted’ some fake soya sauce at Maggy)

Seriously – I’ve found another new place to take the kids for a special treat, I know they will LOVE the spectacle of it – they will love the vegetables (well, I’ve never had tastier courgette) and the freshest, melt-in-the-mouth fish… oh, and the (grown up) blackberry cocktails were divine.

Benihana UK have a new facebook page (with more photos of us!) and can be found in Chelsea and Piccadilly. A big thank you to Laura for inviting me, it was great to catch up with so many friends, and thank you too, to the attentive staff at Benihana, and in particular Dieter Kemp, Marketing Director for Benihana UK (who was full of stories about Rocky, and the history of Benihana, and kindly helped me with my chopstick technique!).

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

Disclaimer: we were invited to the evening out by the BENIHANA management team.

read other views here:

http://missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/big-night-out-at-benihana-chelsea.html
http://domesticgoddesque.com/2013/09/benihana-chelsea-fun-family/
http://babesabouttown.com/2013/09/eat-london-with-kids-benihana-chelsea/
http://lifeatthezoo.com/2013/09/nights-benihana-chelsea/

http://www.reallykidfriendly.com/exciting-family-meal-and-egg-juggling-at-benihana

crafts, create

Natural Hammered Leaf Printing

So Autumn is upon us, and the garden is full of colour – gorgeous burgundy reds, and green and white variegated leaves.

The boys love making cards for Grandma, and Granny, so we got picking – we had a cunning plan! 10yo enjoyed the leaf-collecting, particularly as I LET him climb on to the shed roof to reach the red leaves hanging over into the garden from our neighbour’s tree!

Hammered Leaf Printing – you will need:

A selection of leaves
Kitchen paper
Water colour paper
A hammer
Chopping board

Working on your chopping board, position your leaf on the water colour paper, covering with two sheets of kitchen paper towels. Start hammering! (oh yes, the small blonde boys liked this bit, but MIND your fingers!). You’ll know when it’s working as the natural pigment from the leaves will start to show through on the kitchen paper… Gently remove the kitchen roll, and peel back the leaf – it should leave a beautiful print on the water colour paper – some leaves work better than others, experiment, it’s fun!

Want to see me talking about this project? Click the link and photo left, to watch via youtube…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Nature Crafts for Autumn’ on Google+, (and in fact was the inspiration for the tie-dye experiment!).

Maggy talked us through some lovely nature crafts for Fall (love the acorn bracelet and pinecone fairies) more links to follow from Anthea at zingzingtree, Kelly at domesticgoddesque, and Liz from missielizzie-meandmyshadow.blogspot.

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 LIKE IT? Pin it!

book reviews, education

Uncover the Prehistoric World – Dinosaurs

You’d think that once the boys get to 9 and 10 they’d be so ‘OVER’ Dinosaurs right? Well, wrong, I was massively surprised at the love this new book has received from them, they’ve literally been PORING over this fabulous encyclopedia, and really – I can see why.

Uncover the prehistoric world – even I’ve read it! I’ve just been to look for it to take a photo for you of the spreads, and found it under 10yo’s pillow – much coveted and hidden from his little brother.

Chapters include: Attack and Defence, Armour and Crests and The Mystery of Extinction – and although suggested suitable for children over 8, our young neighbours next door, age 3 and 6, loved looking at the pictures too (I’m sure this one will take longer to be handed down to them…)

If you’d like to know more about Parragon’s books (including the Beano Annual!) they too are on the old social media, @parragonbooks on twitter and pinterest and of course, on facebook too 🙂

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

cooking with kids, crafts, gardening with kids

Blackberry Tie Dye cobwebs

We love this time of year. Sad that the arrival of the brambles is a sure sign that Summer is on its way out, and Autumn is just around the corner….

If you are like us, and have picked a LOAD of blackberries already this year, we have a non-edible way of using them this Fall!

We picked a bucket-load before a weekend away, which meant we didn’t have time to eat them…so we froze them on a tray – using half for a smoothie, and the other half went into a pot of boiling water this week, deep enough for the old hemp carrier bag we had decided to tie-dye as a pressie for Granny’s birthday later in the year.

Whilst the pan of blackberry-dye was simmering away on the stove, we got busy with elastic bands, pulling up sections of the hemp bag, (this works really well on old T-shirts or pillow cases) securing them tightly to create two ‘horns’ (as my son called them)….

We let the dye cool a little before adding the organic hemp bag, and rubber bands, which went into the pot with some chopped up rhubarb leaves – I read somewhere that this works as a fixative, helping to make the colour more ‘fast’…this bubbled away on the stove for about 45 minutes.

We then let this stand cooling for about an hour.

We then rinsed the bag and the boys were SO excited to pull the rubber bands away to reveal our spider cobwebs – we hung it up on the line to dry!

Much excitement that natural blackberries can make such a pretty colour – we plan to try some more natural dyes soon, our youngest loves brewing up nettle tea – and it also creates a lovely khaki green dye –

something to try next!

Want to see me talking about this project? Click the link and photo left, to watch now…. Maggy Woodley from Red Ted Art hosted a fabulous “Fall Craft Ideas” hangout on Google+, (and in fact was the inspiration for the tie-dye experiment!).

Maggy talked us through some lovely owl crafts (how simple was the loo-roll owl?! and loved the walnut shell owls twittwoo) more links to follow from – Adele from playfullearners, and Anthea from bluebearwood. Also our anonymous blogger thefairyandthefrog and Rebecca from herecomethegirlsblog.

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 LIKE IT? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com. This is a commissioned story.

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

key stage 2

The Energy Show – Science Museum

What an amazing day at the Museum!

The summer holidays are LONG, unless you are REALLY organised, it's sometimes hard to think of what to do with the kids… lucky for us, we live in the 'burbs of London, so the best Museums in the world are on our doorstep… One of our favourites is the Science Museum, so when we had a look at what is on their this summer, we decided to spend a day there this week.

There is SO much to see, you really could spend all day there – There is an IMax Cinema too, with loads going on – and we 'took in a show' – the amazing Energy Show.

A brilliant cast, this production was funny, entertaining, NOISY (lots of big bangs) AND educational.
Methane bubbles are set alight to make massive fireballs, liquid nitrogen freezes flowers (the boys thought this was hilarious) and hydrogen rockets are fired into the audience.

The boys LOVED it, turning to beam at me, and shouting and clapping loudly to join in – I would highly recommend this to boys and girls from about 7+ – mine are 8 and 10, we took a little friend too, and had the most animated lunch conversation at the Deep Blue cafe!

(Oh and incidentally, the costume design is amazing – I'd so wear Phil and Annabella's outfits when they finish the run please!)

There's so much to see at this amazing museum – we'll definitely be returning before the end of the summer hols!

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 Like it? Pin it!

Ali also writes over on AGreenerLifeforus.com

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