- Wash and dry Bella's P.E kit.
- Pack her school bag
- Iron and lay out her uniform
- Add the finishing touches to her home learning project
- Give her a hair wash
- oh, and nip to Clarks to have her measured for new school shoes - as she has suddenly gone up a whole foot size over the past two weeks and has no shoes.
In typical fashion, I have left everything to the very last minute - although in my defense, I really did think that she went back on Tuesday.
We managed to finish off the holidays beautifully, with a trip to Nanny's house for a BBQ and some gardening (from April onward this is usually how we spend most of our Sundays).
The girls spent a good chunk of time planting poppies with my Mum while Steve and I had an epic game of swing ball. I won obviously, because my sporting skills are far superior to Steve's.(She thinks - Steve.)
Just before leaving Mum's, I realised that we hadn't even started Bella's home learning project so we literally had to speed through making a night time garden for Princess Leia (the spec was to make a fairy/pirate garden, but Bella really was not up for either.) She decided to build Princess Leia a light saber space garden on the moon. Not sure what her teacher is going to say but hey ho, the learning was there.
Anyway, other than this weekend's bunny disaster, I really do think that our Easter holidays have been a success.
We spent a grand total of £26.57 on entertaining Bella, Connie and most of their friends, and they all seem to have had an amazing time.
In all truthfulness, we did spend more last Friday. I think in total I spent roughly £12.00 that day, my reason being that Bella's rabbits had just been viciously killed, and helping her to smile again was more important than any blog or challenge. We all needed cake, and we needed it fast.
So, over the past two and a bit weeks and with under £30.00 (nearly) we have managed to......
- Spend the day travelling to Neverland on the Jolly Roger
- Go on a charity shop shopping spree
- Build a natural and pretty beautiful Easter tree while also creating all of the decorations
- Create two pretty awesome Easter Egg hunts
- Take a trip to the Natural History Museum
- Visit the Queen
- Dressed up as all of our favourite Disney characters
- Walk across London
- Enjoy a stunning picnic in Richmond Park
- Create culinary delights such as home made scones, pizzas, cup cakes, fry ups and smoothies, all the while learning new skills and recipes
- Participated in our very own bake off
- Explored the garden and researched plants and bugs
- Brought the story 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' to life for Connie
- Spent half a day in Waterstones reading, playing and colouring
- Had a whopping great duvet day
- Enjoyed several play dates
- Created our own version of London fashion week in our back garden
- Played photographers and gone on a fashion shoot
- Written letters to pen pals
- Created our own trip to the zoo
- Ferociously cleaned the house
- Made Nanny's Garden beautiful
- Created a light up garden for Princess Leia!
The challenge hasn't been plain sailing. Copious amounts of strong coffee and chocolate were required, and there were days when I really did struggle to think up things that we could do that would keep Bella and Connie entertained for under £3.00.
I have found that it really does pay to be as ridiculous and imaginative as possible. Our best days have really been the ones where we didn't spend a single penny.
We have spent more time together as a family during this particular end of term break, than during any of Bella's other school breaks so far, and I really do think that this has been because we have had to rely more upon each other for entertainment and ideas. We have spoken more and laughed more and the whole experience has been far more positive. The challenge has helped us to involve Bella in far more of our decision making throughout the past two weeks. Bella has always been far more engaged in activities that she thought up herself, all we have had to do is go with her ideas and see where they take us.
Having a smaller budget has forced me to have to plan our days in advance, therefore removing the stress of having to figure out where to go or what to do at the last minute.
We have taken packed lunches and picnics with us to wherever we have gone in order to save money, and as a result, our diet has been far more healthy throughout the whole break. Normally our diet slips a little during the holidays, as our routine often suffers and we start to rely on convenience foods a little, but we really have been strict and bought only what we would have spent on our usual weekly food shop.
I am actually a bit gutted that Bella is going back to school tomorrow, I can honestly say I have loved every minute of her being with me (even if I am a little exhausted). I really can't wait for the Summer holidays now - I have a pretty good idea of how much I will need each day to get us through - I think I will just need to plan the weeks carefully and have everything ready before hand.
We hope that you have enjoyed the challenge, and that it has been of some use to you.
Now it's on to working through that list of ours with a nice glass of red each to get us through!
Night all.
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