|FAMILY|halloween bucket list

Eeeeeeeeek my second favourite holiday is coming up!  I love Halloween and it looks as though we have a little boy who is closely following.  Our decorating is done now, our Halloween party is planned for next week and we're keen to make a start on our list, so here it is!

1. 'Boo' our neighbours

2. Read a Halloween ghost story

3. Host a Halloween party

4. Go trick or treating

5. Eat mummy sausages

6. Dress up as a ghost

7. Apple bobbing

8. Carve a pumpkin

9. Make Halloween lanterns

10. Decorate for Halloween

You can see our Halloween kids activities here and our Halloween decor ideas here.

|GIVEAWAY|#tatturnsone - govotro mini kit

Day 4 of our fabulous #tatturnsone giveaway's and today we have a gotrovo mini treasure hunt game for you.

Suitable from 3+ it's perfect for one child or parties of children and great for indoor and outdoors!  We have got one and can highly recommend, T loves following the pictures on the cards to follow the trail.

You can find more gotrovo products on their website.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

|REVIEW|Mums Days reviewer - Lace'mups

Very exciting!  Our very first review for Mum's Days has been published!!! 

We reviewed Lace'mups and gave them a 4 star rating.

Here's the full review.

|GIVEAWAY|#tatturnsone - Pixie Dixie

Today we have a set of Paint Your Own PJ's from Pixie Dixie (RRP £29.99).The paint your own pj's have featured previously on #ToddlerApprovedTuesday thanks to the lovely Claire at The Free Range Family when her lovely girls reviewed them back in August, in fact they had so much fun they made plans to start their own pyjama business! Make sure you pop over and read her review. 

Each set consists of a pair of 100% cotton super soft pyjamas, 4 fabric paints and a brush. And whats more you can wash them over and over and your design stays put!

Entry is via the Raffle copter form below, 
UK only for this giveaway. 

The winner will chose BOYS or GIRLS pj's and can can chose from a variety of sizes between age 1-2 and 11-12. 

The prize will be sent direct from Pixie Dixie HQ. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

|GIVEAWAY|#tatturnsone - Rachel's one stop shop voucher

Hello!  So for today's #tatturnsone giveaway we are offering £15 to spend at Rachel's one stop shop, never visited before, well you should ;) so many beautiful goodies.

Please make sure that you read the terms and conditions in the rafflecopter below.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

|REVIEW|Hey Duggee official magazine

When we were recently invited to review the new Hey Duggee official magazine I didn't actually know what Hey Duggee was, we popped over to the Cbeebies website and took a look and T really enjoyed it. It's now a favourite on his iplayer and we have a few downloaded to his iPad.   Most of the time there are benefits to not watching 'live' TV but then sometimes I think maybe we do miss out on little gems like this because we don't really come across them by chance.

T was very excited to receive his first Hey Duggee magazine in the post, and of course, before anything else he wanted to open the 'free' gift and see what was in there.  He was mostly impressed with the cookie cutter which immediately meant that the play dough came out so he could try it!  The second thing that gets checked are the stickers,  the stickers in this magazine are of good quality and are easy to remove and durable for little hands, something we always seem to have an issue with is T ripping stickers as he's a bit heavy handed, we didn't find this a problem with these. 

T also loved the chefs hat, he's going to wear that at the weekend when we make our cookies and he can 'earn' his cooking badge.  Daddy also got the privilege to try it on!

I personally love the idea of completing the tasks and activities to earn a badge, in the first edition there's a a3 poster which you can stick them all on. That will be put up on T's wall. He found that very motivating and kept asking what he needed to do to earn his Squirrel Club Sticker (ummmm I wonder if I could add in a few good behaviour badges of my own )

T was very proud to be called a member of the squirrel club which I personally think is a great motivational idea. 

It also promotes other good practice ideas, such as cleaning after yourself in the kitchen and making people happy. I think they are great additions to the fab activities the magazine also has to offer.  Cleaning in the kitchen also earns the squirrels a special golden badge which is included on the sticker sheet.

The magazines activities cover 7 key learning areas and are aimed at children between the ages of 2-6 with the core age being 4, from our experience, this is probably spot on, T is coming up to 4 and the activities and games suit him and keep him engaged.

The learning activities are either just right or a little challenging for T which is exactly what he needs at the moment. Absolutely perfect for pre-schoolers or reception children just getting into reading and writing. 

T loved the 2 stories in the magazine and was a little disappointed that there wasn't another for the next bedtime but apart from that it really has gone down a storm in our house!

Priced at £2.75 per magazine it's a lot cheaper than some on the market in my opinion (average £3.99) and makes it more affordable as a special once a month treat!

Hey Duggee official magazine launches today - 21 October 2015!  

Disclaimer: we were sent this magazine and given a years subscription, for this honest review.

|FUN|puffy paint pumpkin

We tried making more magic puffy paint for this week's post for you.   Whilst I love 'normal' painting it is nice to use other techniques to introduce a little variety especially now T is getting older.

We've not made puffy paint for a long time and this time used food colouring instead of paint, you can see our original puffy paint post here.

To make our puffy paint you will need

1 part plain flour

1 part salt

Food colouring

Water

Decent quality paper (it needs to be able to hold up to the heavy wet paint)

1. In a bowl, mix everything together adding a little water at a time.

2. This is a great job for little hands to do, although you might want to help at first to try and avoid lumps.

3. I had already drawn the pumpkin outline for T so he filled it in with the paint, making sure there was a decent layer (ours was probably a little too thick in all honesty).

4. When it was finished it was looking fab!

5. Cook in the microwave for bursts of 30 seconds. In total ours took about 4 1/2 minutes to start to dry out.  The edges will go first as you can see in the picture above.

This technique had a unique feel and makes a great addition to our Halloween gallery wall.

I'm planning a nice jolly snowman for our winter activities using this technique.

If you'd like to see all of our Halloween toddler/pre-school activities, you can find them here. For lots more ideas check out our Halloween Pinterest board for inspiration.

|#toddlerapprovedtuesday|week 52 - 20 October

So welcome to this weeks Toddler Approved Tuesday which also happens to be our first anniversary!  Yes we've been going for one whole year!

To celebrate look out for a week of giveaway's both here or on www.3princessesand1dude.co.uk

What do you think of our new badge?  The photo was taken in the summer when we met up for a castle visit.

This week the linky will be open for a week, check out your email for details of a great giveaway too a £100 book bundle just for linkers!

Remember you can post your weekly post to the #toddlerapprovedtuesday Facebook page too, I like every one which will mean you continue to show up in my feed when you post new posts! 

If you are not yet in the Facebook group send us a request and we'll add you. Feel free to post anything in there all through the week if it's relevant.

This week, we continue our Halloween theme by making a puffy paint pumpkin picture for our Halloween gallery!

This week Becky is linking up these great Loo roll Halloween skittles perfect for spooky games!

My showcase

For my first showcase I have one of he most gorgeous photos to support it, just look at the love in those faces! I really like to see men hands on with children, these stuffed peppers from Us two plus you, look great for the whole family, I think I'll get H and T to make them together.  While you are there do check out the blog, I really love the family dynamics and format.

My second showcase, this fab chocolate hedgehog cake  from Pinks Charming brought back some wonderful childhood memories along with cheese and pineapple hedgehogs and pass the parcel with no sweets and prizes in between ;).  I honestly can't remember the number of times one of us had this cake (I'm 1 of 5) I'm going to be adding this on our Autumn bucket list for next year to remind me of those great but simple childhood parties we used to have in the 80's. 

We would absolutely love it if you would join us, the linky will open every Tuesday through to Thursdays and give us a good few days to see what your little ones have approved! Every week Becky and I will each pick our favourite two links for our #ToddlerApprovedTuesday showcase which will be featured on our posts and in the weekly #ToddlerApprovedTuesday email, which hits over 125 email addresses each week!

Remember to share your post and the linky using the hashtag #ToddlerApprovedTuesday on your social media, Becky and I will retweet all your posts via Twitter (make sure you mention us in your tweets @3princess_1dude/@larabeeuk for us to be able to retweet).  

Rules:

1. Link as many posts as you like (well with in reason!), remember to copy and paste the #ToddlerApprovedTuesday badge on each post you would like to link up.

<div align="center">
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151024025456/http://www.larabeeuk.co.uk/search/label/%23toddlerapprovedtuesday" title="Toddler Approved Tuesday"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20151024025456im_/http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f40/labrabeeuk/tat_badge_zpsyypmaqhl.jpg" " alt=" Toddler Approved Tuesday" style="border:none;"/></a></div>

2. Pop by and comment on as many as you can. Can't comment? Why not Pin It or share on Facebook or Twitter instead? It only takes 2 seconds to click the share button!

By linking up you agree to receive future email notifications regarding #ToddlerApprovedTuesday. These emails can be unsubscribed from by clicking the unsubscribe button in the email.

An InLinkz Link-up

|GIVEAWAY|halloween necklace

Fancy a little giveaway?

Enter to win this glow in the dark bat necklace.

No review, no comment, just make sure you follow me on Twitter and visit me on Facebook to enter!

Happy Halloween!

Open to UK residents only I'm afraid.  Over 18's only.  Ends Midnight 26 October 2015.  
Will post first class on 27 October 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

|FAMILY|The pros and cons of adopting a cat from the RSPCA

We recently adopted a cat for T from the RSPCA I'd never really considered adoption before because I was put off at the thought of going to big building and seeing lots of different animals and struggling to make a decision, I knew I'd want to take them all home! 

These days though, it's very different.  I saw Twiggy on the RSPCA's Facebook page and we went to visit her in her foster owners home.

We were then given a home visit to chat with a volunteer from the RSPCA about why we wanted a cat and to make sure we understood the responsibilities. 

We went to collect Twiggy a couple of days later. The process was really quick and easy and we now have our wonderful cat Twiggy as part of the family. 

If you are thinking about getting a new pet, I'd really urge you to consider the RSPCA first. Their branches can be found easily on Facebook and in my experience, it's a great way to give a pet a loving home.

I've put together a little list of pros and cons from our experience so far in case it's useful.

Pros

1. You give an unloved animal a forever home.

2. For a donation of £60 they come to you neutered, microchipped and had their jabs. They will also have been given flea and worming treatments and will have had a health check.

3. If you choose an older animal they should be toilet trained and use a scratch post.

4. They are used to using carry cages.

5. They will generally eat whatever and sleep wherever!

6. The RSPCA will help you choose a pet which will suit your family situation. 

7. You can view the animals and read about them in the comfort of your own home, or anywhere else for that matter!

8. Most of the pets are already socialised.

Cons

1. They may have established habits, ours licks you constantly (not nice!)

2. Because you have to keep them indoors they go cabin crazy cause they are used to going out! After just 2 weeks, Twiggy is quite literal climbing the walls!

Disclaimer: this post is in no way sponsored by the RSPCA. It's a charity I now support wholeheartedly and I wanted to share our recent experience with you.

|FOOD|lentil cottage pie

I love hearty, warming comfort food at this time of year. As a vegetarian I like to come up with tasty meat alternatives that I can enjoy with my family, because this recipe uses lentils to replace mince it's lower in fat and calories too!  And it's 1 of your 5 a day per portion.

Ingredients

2 X 390g cans of lentils, drained

2 X stock cubes

2 X large carrots

2 X celery sticks

1 tbsp mixed herbs

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

5 large potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

A little milk and butter (optional)

Method 

1. Boil and mash the potatoes, add the milk and butter if using.

2. Add all other ingredients to the pan, fill the empty lentil can with boiling water and add to the pan, fill again and add that too.  Give everything a good mix. Heat the oven to 140oC.

3. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes until thickened up and vegetables are cooked through.

4. Transfer to a 1 1/2litre dish, top with the potato and bake for 20 minutes until golden on top.

Serve with lots of veggies, cuddle up on the sofa and enjoy! 

|CREATE|fork pom-pom bat garland

Our Halloween decor planning is in full swing now, so I've committed to myself to get a few little projects done for the weekend so I can decorate!  The first project I finished was a cute little pom-pom bat garland which I've made to put up on our fireplace.  I'm so excited I LOVE HALLOWEEN! 

You will need

Wool, I used grey and black

Googly eyes

Felt

Needle and thread

Fork

Scissors

1. Follow the instructions in my fork pom-pom tutorial post and make 8 pom-pom's.

2. Make a small bat wing template and cut out 16 wings, because half of my bats are grey and half are black, I made 8 of each.

3. Using the needle and thread, sew the wings onto the pom-pom making sure that you pull very tight and that the end of the wing is tight in the middle of the pom-pom.

I then suspended each of my bats onto a long string of wool.  I can't wait to get the rest of our Halloween decor up, these bats are going to look awesome with my black feather boa ;)

I hope you have enjoyed this little diy.

You can see all our Halloween decor ideas here

|LEARN|mummy scissor cutting practice activity

We've started off our Halloween activities with this rather cute mummy, which uses 'bandages' cut up by T.

You will need

An outline of a person - I used a printable from pickle bums for this as I'm pretty naff at drawing!

Google eyes

Paper

Scissors

Glue stick

T loves using scissors and as a lefty does a great job, I started by showing him what to do and let him cut up the bandages, he then used the glue stick to attach the bandages over the picture.

When he finished, he was going to cut out the mummy, but it was a bit too hard for him so I did it.

It's now pride of place on our window gallery!

|#toddlerapprovedtuesday|week 51 - 13 October

Remember you can post your weekly post to the #toddlerapprovedtuesday Facebook page too, I like every one which will mean you continue to show up in my feed when you post new posts! 

If you are not yet in the Facebook group send us a request and we'll add you. Feel free to post anything in there all through the week if it's relevant.

This week T and I are kicking off our Halloween projects, we're linking this cute mummy scissor practice activity, I don't know about your little ones but T loves cutting, so he had great fun cutting the 'bandages' for this activity!

Becky has a great post with some homemade halloween decorations so pop over and check that out, ooooh look, our ghost window clings are there!

My showcase this week

My favourite post this week was let them be small's alphabet mats ever since the teens were small we've used dinner time to talk as a family.  I love how Sarah's use of the twinkl mats could be used as a conversation starter with T.

I really enjoyed the Halloween party ideas for children post from Admissions of a working mother some great Halloween items and giveaways!

Here are the rules:- 

1. Link as many posts as you like (well with in reason!) BUT please remember to paste the #ToddlerApprovedTuesday badge on each post you would like to link up. No badge, no comment, no share, and your posts will be deleted sorry if this seems harsh but it's just not fair on others who do make the effort. We've yet to delete a post but you may have noticed that we have started to not comment if we see no badge! 

<div align="center">
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151024025456/http://larabee-uk.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/toddler%20approved%20tuesday" title="LarabeeUK"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20151024025456im_/http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e332/larabee_UK/TATbadgeLarabeeUK_zps34d17e7b.jpg" alt="LarabeeUK" style="border:none;"/></a></div>

2. Pop by and comment on two or three other posts, more would be great if you can. 

3. OPTIONAL: Share your post and the linky party (using the hashtag #ToddlerApprovedTuesday) on your social media, Becky and I will retweet all your posts via Twitter (make sure you mention us in your tweets @3princess_1dude/@larabeeuk). Even if you don't have a blog, please do join in by using the hashtag for your toddler approved tweets and Instagram posts, they will still be counted for the showcase! We have changed the way we share your posts, it takes so much time to pin and tweet and comment etc, so heres what is going to happen: We are opening up the Toddler Approved Tuesday Pinterest board to you guys too. Just send myself or Becky an email with your Pinterest name and we will add you, there is no limit on how many you add, it doesn't just have to be the post you link up with. 

 4. We will now only be retweeting posts Tweeted to us, and our showcased posts will also be retweeting too. We also have a fab new Facebook group for the Toddler Approved Tuesday community. Pop over and join us, share your posts, share any photos from inspiration you have had from a Toddler Approved Tuesday link up, share anything you like ;) 

An InLinkz Link-up