Easter Fun at The Film House

You don’t have to be a film buff (but it helps!) to have a brilliant time at The Film House Leeds this Easter.  Part of the Leeds Young Film Festival, Leeds Town Hall has opened its doors to become a fantastic cinematic multimedia experience! There’s something for all ages; meet The Gruffalo, build with Minecraft, sing along and dance with Elsa from Disney’s Frozen.

There will also be iconic cars on display, from the Batmobile to the DeLorean in Back to the Future. There’s even a Parents’ crèche!

My two are looking forward to Flickbook Animation with David Bunting and the Giant Living Comic Book where the Minions from Despicable Me take over. Personally, I can’t wait to go on the Clock Tower Time Travel tour. Storyteller Matthew Bellwood takes you back in time to meet the man started it all by making the world’s first ever film…right here in Leeds.  Amazing to think that Hollywood owes it all to Louis le Prince and his film of traffic crossing over Leeds Bridge in 1888.

The Time Travel Tour leads you up The Film House’s Clock Tower, to the clock face itself, with magnificent views of Leeds. Tickets are just £4.50 per person (advance booking is required.)

For a jam-packed programme of exciting events, go to:

http://www.thefilmhouseleeds.co.uk/

More about The Film House:

The Film House welcomes you to enjoy an exciting new experience this Easter as Leeds Town Hall is transformed into the UK’s largest family film attraction. Come and discover where all your favourite film characters live, including The Gruffalo and Elsa from Frozen and many more! There will be real film cars on display, including The DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Enter the the mysterious forest below The Film House for an Easter Egg hunt or climb the clocktower for a journey back in time through film history. Tickets are available from the incredible all-inclusive price of just £6.50 per person and Family Passes for up to four are available from £25.*

*Passes do not include activities in the Clocktower or Crypt, which must be booked separately.

 

 

 

 

Wind in the Willows at York Theatre Royal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Running out of ideas where to take the children this summer? Wind in the Willows at York Theatre Royal is a delight for the whole family. This interactive theatre production was great fun! During the interval, the characters played a cricket match with the entire audience as fielders.

I was fascinated by the Edwardian era costumes, designed by Lydia Denno, with little touches like Toad’s extra-wide shoes and Otter’s flat wide tailcoat. The beautiful, decrepit set design helped to give an atmosphere of calm and elegance of another era long gone.

There were some solemn moments when Badger talked about the animals reclaiming the land. But the kids loved the funny slapstick moments best, mostly involving  Toad as a washerwoman.

Wind in the Willows is on at York Theatre Royal until Saturday 30th August

Box Office 01904623568

 

 

 

How to keep the kids entertained this summer

It’s that time again when mums everywhere start having to think about the summer holidays.

How on earth can we stop kids (and us) from climbing the walls for six weeks?

I have a couple of ideas I’d like to share. Last year, we made a jar filled with ideas of things to do.

If you’re stuck for ideas, this list by Be A Fun Mum.com is great: http://beafunmum.com/2011/06/100-school-holiday-activity-ideas/

 

Holiday Activities Ideas Jar

This year our list has been updated: Go Geocaching, make a loom bands/friendship bracelet gift card for friends, make giant bubbles (I’ll share our secret recipe soon) and Comping, our favourite activity of all.

Comping – entering competitions, can keep kids occupied for hours. There are hundreds of toys and great prizes to be had out there. Some good best online sites are http://www.theprizefinder.com/ and www.loquax.com. I have a subscription to the magazine and website www.compersnews.com which has paid for itself many times over.

C-lucky Chicks Crafty Comping Club

 

I now run a creative comping club for kids. My daughter called it C-lucky Chicks Crafty Comping Club (and I am Crafty Cow, a bit like Brown Owl.) We stick, paint, collage, sculpt and make wonderful crafty things to enter those comps that require a little more efffort (effort with an extra ‘f’…see what I did there?) Projects include inventing a new sweet to tour the Haribo Factory, have your own message on Love Hearts, create a dragon to win tons of stationery, design a treehouse or theme park to win family holidays and days out.  It’s really exciting stuff! The next club meets at Otley Courthouse on 28th June.

http://www.otleycourthouse.org.uk/whats-on/event/?id=1027

Keeping the kids active when there’s no school P.E. also makes sense. They’ll sleep much better, even though the nights will be lighter for longer. Making obstacle courses from a couple of paddling pools and other junk is very popular in our garden. And never, ever underestimate the hypnotic power of balloons. Even drawing on them with pens holds some weird fascination for my kids, then they chase them round for ages. On rainy days, we play cushion world – all the cushions come off the sofa and make a giant mountain in the middle of the room. The kids jump all over them; I get to vacuum where the cushions were (lucky me.)

On this blog I have been reporting on alternative forms of exercise, from Heavy Metal Bellydancing to Roller Derby. But I still have to say that my favourite exercise is dancing round the kitchen with the kids. The look on their faces is a joy. And I have to make the most of that while it lasts, because surly adolescence will come in a blink of the eye. And then? Well…..

 

Loom bands advanced/latest Creative Comping Club

Our CREATIVE COMPING CLUB for kids C-LUCKY CHICKS  helps find hundreds of competitions and exciting prizes for kids!

Every day, loads of creative competitions are being run online and in magazines, with hundreds of great prizes for kids. Comps include creating a dragon to win tons of stationery, designing a tree house to win a family holiday, colour in a scene to win hundreds of pounds worth of Airfix models, invent new sweets to visit the Love Hearts or Haribo factory, and many more!

Free badge for every new member!

C-LUCKY CHICKS will be meeting up at these Art Stars sessions from 10am to 12pm at Otley Courthouse for more arty crafty fun…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 13th SEPTEMBER:

From head to toe: More than just loom bands! Using a variety of materials we’ll be making hair accessories, boys’ wristbands and watches to funky fabric ‘Shoelery’ (that’s shoe jewellery) for boys and girls. Try new Loom Bands techniques and upcycle your clothes with fabric paints, glitter and sequins – you name it; we’ll stick it! Plus we’ll be making our own beads from clay and various paper techniques.

http://www.otleycourthouse.org.uk/whats-on/event/?id=1088

Saturday 13th DECEMBER:

 

Magic Reindeer Food: we will be making fab reindeer with real twig antlers containing magic reindeer food. Sprinkle this on the lawn on Christmas Eve. It contains real fairy dust to guide Santa’s sleigh to your house, and will help the reindeer fly extra fast around the world!!

 

 

 

 

 

C-LUCKY CHICKS CREATIVE COMPING CLUB at OTLEY COURTHOUSE

Saturdays 13th Sept and 13th December 2014 10-12pm

Children 5-12 years old; carers with under 8 years to stay on premises.

Booking recommended although tickets may be available on the day.

WHERE? Otley Courthouse, Courthouse Street, Otley LS21 3AN

CONTACT Tel 01943 467466

OR VISIT

Otley Courthouse whats on

Booking info: Tickets are available online until around 48 hours before an event. If you would like to book tickets closer to the event than that – or if you would like any more information – please call the Courthouse Box Office on 01943 467466.

Opening hours are 10am-4pm Monday-Saturday.

 

What to do with all that leftover Easter chocolate….

What leftovers? There are no leftovers!

Oh, alright, the Easter Bunny got a bit sneaky and hid chocs

round the house so well the kids never found them.

We’ve been making mini choc nests with the secret stash,

but beware, they are incredibly moreish!

 

After Easter Mini Nests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will need:

Cadburys Mini Eggs

Weetabix (about 1 ‘biscuit’ per 3 mini nests) or Shredded Wheat

As much leftover Choccy booty you can find

Cake cases in a bun tin

Crush the Weetabix in a bowl and place to one side.

Warm the choc in a bain marie or pyrex bowl over a simmering pan of water.

Mix the Weetabix with the fully melted chocolate

Place in cake cases using two spoons

Squidge into a nest shape, pushing two or three mini eggs into the choc

Leave to cool and harden in the fridge

Don’t eat too many at once!

 

Countdown in the run-app to Christmas…

My son is obsessed with countdowns and wishing his life away, it seems; so the Countdown to Christmas clock app has been running since just after Easter. From one choco-blowout fest (Easter Eggs!) to another, he delights in crossing off the days. Advent calendars were made for this boy.

To be a bit different this year, we made a fortune cookie advent calendar, and had great fun making up Christmas-themed fortunes; 24 little pearls of wisdom, including:
A soggy cracker makes no bang.
Tinsel at any other time of year is just tat.
A puppy is not just for Christmas. With any luck, there should be some left over for Boxing Day.

We’ll be using our Christmas fortunes again to make real fortune cookies to hand out to Christnas visitors. Here is a fortune cookie recipe from the lovely Hairy Bikers on the BBC website.

Should keep the kids busy in the holidays. And with over 400 advent calendar competitions online this year, a comper could go a bit crazy until Christmas Eve.

Ah, Christmas Eve. So much more exciting than the day itself. I love watching the glittering fairy lights light up the presents under the tree, the quiet after the storm. The kids go to bed early for a change, after putting out their provisions for Santa.

Ok, so Santa gets a mince pie and a huge glug of whisky, Rudolph gets his carrot, but what about the rest of the reindeer? We’ve made Magic Reindeer Food (a combination of bird seed and edible glitter, aka fairy dust) which we spread on the lawn last thing on Christmas Eve.

The fairy dust must be pretty amazing stuff, because it makes the reindeer fly high, apparently. And the reindeer on the front of the pack have antlers made out of twigs. The twigs were lovingly collected all year round, with a bumper harvest of fallen branches in the last couple of weeks, thanks to the horrendous storms we’ve been having (hey, if life gives you lemons, make reindeer antlers…?)

My favourite countdown to Christmas app is the NORAD Santa tracking device, which shows you where in the world Santa is delivering his presents, at any given point in time on Christmas Eve. NORAD is short for North American Aerospace Defence Command, which tracks potential enemy missiles when it’s not doing the more important job of looking out for Santa.

The NORAD  programme has been going since the fifties; here’s a link to the Youtube trailer for this year:

Loads more info and games on the official website http://www.noradsanta.org

It’s a wonderful lesson in time zones and world geography, and will make a believer of even the most hardened cynic. It’s so exciting to watch the countdown to Christmas with Santa, flying around the world, dropping off his presents with lightning speed.

Thanks NORAD, nice to see American tax dollars being put to good use. No, really.

http://www.noradsanta.org

All About Me

All About Me – I’m talking about the new Eureka exhibition. (Phew. In this self-obsessed, blog-tastic climate did you think I’d be talking all about me? Yeah, probably.)

Several months ago I was on the focus group for All About Me, an exhibition about the human body at Eureka Children’s Museum in Halifax.

Wherever you are in the country, Eureka is well worth a visit, as the museum is completely geared up for children of all ages. And even though I had some insight into the planning of All About Me, I was still blown away by the creativity of the innovative exhibits.

I’m going to let the pictures tell the story, but even then they won’t do the place justice. If you haven’t been before, just go, take your little ones. They will love you for it.

For more info on events and directions, visit https://www.eureka.org.uk/

For more pics of the new exhibition, see my pinterest site:

http://pinterest.com/catwomanga/best-of-yorkshire-eureka-childrens-museum/

On the Subs Bench: Bread, Coffee, Milk and Sugar

I recommended a great book a while back, called the Hormone Diet by Dr Natasha Turner. It covered a whole range of hormone-related issues, from thyroid problems to peri-menopause.

Dr Turner said that cutting down on cows’ milk, wheat and gluten in bread, can help a whole heap of hormone problems, make you feel less sluggish, sleep better and generally add to your wellbeing.  In fact, everyone can benefit, not just those with coeliac disease or allergies. Giving up bread and milk can help reduce inflammation in the gut.  The French have a horrible saying: ‘Death begins in the colon.’ I wouldn’t go that far, but you can certainly slow down the ageing process from the inside out.  Celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow et al are currently advocating anti-inflammatory diets; go google it. But not just yet.

Give up bread and milk, you say? The staples of a British diet? Not as hard as you think. There are plenty of good substitutes available in supermarkets; sheep or goats’ milk can take some getting used to, but the St Helen’s range of goats milk products taste less ‘goaty’ than you’d expect. Still not convinced? Try milk made from oats, coconuts,  soy, almonds or rice. Buy a selection of milks and mix them up until you find a taste to suit you. If you still can’t face that, try Lactofree, which is cow’s milk with the lactose removed. Worth trying, and better than nothing.

Here is an anti-inflammatory smoothie which makes me feel great straight away:

1 banana

Half a pint of Koko coconut milk

I teaspoon coconut oil (available from health food shops)

Handful of berries of your choice, fresh or frozen (I use blueberries)

Whizz up with a hand blender in a pint glass, and there you have it!

I don’t think anyone has really cracked gluten-free bread yet, and the ones on the market are ridiculously expensive (please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.) But you can replace your bagels and crumpets with oatcakes, rye bread and rice cakes. Make your own pizzas and pittas using gluten-free flour. I’ve yet to find the perfect gluten-free bread recipe for the breadmaker (I’m far too lazy to make bread by hand.) If and when I come up with one, I’ll let you know.

Many health magazines advocate lemon water; they all say it ‘kick-starts your liver’ but a decent grapefruit juice (eg Tropicana) mixed with boiled water is also a good start to the morning. When you’re the wrong side of forty, unless you’ve had the diet of a saint, your liver starts turning into foie gras, so basically you need the equivalent of an car’s engine degrease on a regular basis.

If you can take it, a teaspoon of Cider vinegar every day is meant to work wonders. It’s recommended you drink it in a small amount of water, but I hate the stuff so much, I think it’s better to neck it neat, then follow it with the water to get rid of the taste.

If you can replace your coffee with herbal teas during the day, even better. Cutting down on caffeine is a different problem. I have managed to gradually replace my coffee with a barley substitute. I ‘cut’ the coffee with the fake stuff, adding more of the barley and less of the coffee day by day, until I got used to the taste. Bambu by A.Vogel is one of the better coffee substitutes, although there are plenty on the maket including dandelion coffee.

I weaned myself off sugar in a similar way. I started using Total Sweet, xylitol which tastes just like sugar. It’s low GI, so doesn’t give you the slump you get after a sugar rush. I add cinnamon powder which keeps blood sugar levels even and also makes you think you’re drinking something sweeter than it actually is.

I still occasionally have manuka honey in tea, if there are a lot of colds and bugs going round, purely for medicinal purposes, you understand. But giving up sugar is like giving up smoking or drugs. When you give it up in tea and coffee, you crave it in sweets, and with kids around, it’s hard not to give into temptation. The only thing I can do is not have any sweet stuff in the house.

Who am I kidding? Easter is coming…..

Creative Comping Kids (keeps ’em busy)

Pinterest Catwomanga: Fun Crafts to Try

It’s half term, and that means the house gets extra messy. All the crafty, creative stuff comes out of cupboards, gets strewn all over the kitchen table and starts sprawling up the stairs, swirling round me, like a living beast made out of tissue paper, pipecleaners and (arghhh! ) glitter.  The only way to survive is don’t sweat it. It’s only for a week.

As I write, I have two children drawing designs on white t-shirts using Pentel Arts Fabric Fun pastels. Pentel have a complete range, but I chose pastels as I thought there would be less mess to clean up.  You can iron on the design to make it permanent. I’ll have a lot of ironing to do later. Lovely.

Earlier today, I introduced them to the art of Quilling, where we made some cards, and the gorgeous art of decopatching, a funky form of decoupage.

For more creative projects for your kids to get up to this holiday, take a look at the CBBC website, or for more unique projects sorted by age and gender , your first port of call should be the about.com site here 

Why not enter their works of art into competitions? For some great competitions to inspire your little Botticellis and Gauguins, go to the Prizefinder site here

For a brilliant UK site for children’s crafts, take a look here.

Have fun, and hope you win something too!

Pancake Party

We’re planning a Pancake Party next Tuesday, and in doing some research for inspiration, I found some amazing pancakes; some were downright bizarre. I put together a board of incredible pancake art on Pinterest here.

If you’re looking for gluten-free alternatives, take a look at the No Naughties website for superb gluten-free pancake canapes, based on a Finnish recipe here. They’re oven-baked, so there’s no slaving over a hot stove getting covered in grease and pancake mix.

If you really are pushed for time, you could always buy some supermarket pancakes and have fun mixing and matching these toppings:

Jam

Chocolate spread

Honey

Toffee spread

Lemon curd

Icecream

Fresh fruit – raspberries, bananas, blueberries

Sprinkles – hundreds and thousands, or chocolate flake sprinkles

For those who prefer savoury toppings, you could make “pancake pizza” with a choice of cheese, ham, mushroom, peppers, and warm them up in the oven.

I’ve just asked the kids to write a list of potential guests to invite.

At the last count there were 27 children.

Wish me luck…..