We love the Orion Books Early Readers, and I can proudly say they have helped my 6 year old learn to read, and my 4 year old is now beginning to join in with looking at the words and deciphering a few for himself.


Monstar Makes A Wish is the 3rd Monstar book we've read, and it's another fun story featuring the two children Jon and Jen, and their fluffy pet Monstar. Written by Steve Cole and illustrated by Pete Williamson, it's light-hearted and exciting, and has more than a little dash of fantasy and ridiculousness.

It's the new year and it has brought with it some fantastic new LEGO - new ranges such as Frozen and the Swamp Police, the relaunched Bionicle LEGO, and plenty of  additions to old favourites such as LEGO minifigures Series 13, Friends, Arctic and one of our favourites - The LEGO Movie.


Bionicle LEGO has been relaunched and there are 13 new figures - 6 protectors, 6 Toa heroes and the Lord Of Skull Spiders. My 6 year old loves these and has had great fun playing with them over the past couple of years. They are tricky for young hands to build, hence the 8-14 age range, but they stay together well and are very poseable, so play value is good.

The price point is excellent for children spending birthday money and Christmas vouchers and they retail between £9.99 and £14.99. You can find out more and get some cool background and build ideas on the LEGO Bionicle website.


 
Minifigures Series 13 is a brilliant collection. Only a couple of slightly less interesting figures and some really strong females, which should please a lot of people.

So it's January, we should be hibernating. I don't know about you, but I'm still on auto-pilot brushing my teeth and don't really wake up until the second time someone spills their Cheerios or when I hear a cry of despair as somebody can't find their trousers/PE Kit/shoe/pencil with a yellow rubber on the end or other vital school equipment. It's cold out there, I'm bloated from eating tons of chocolate and walking to school in the dark isn't my favourite thing either. Getting up isn't much fun this time of year.

We're back, I'm back. I took an extended Christmas break, and it turned out we all really needed that. Everything still takes a lot longer and your mind wanders, it was enough to just try and 'do' Christmas and New Year and all the rest of it, there's no way I'd have fitted in much writing.

It's 12th night, and for the first time ever, I have to admit to being kind of glad it's all over. Usually I do feel sad after the decs go down, but this year I am breathing a sigh of relief and my shoulders are relaxing. We did it. We really did it. It went well and my little boys will remember it as being the Christmas of Scalextric and Skylanders, and little else. It was very subdued, very reflective, utterly exhausting and the stress was immense. For the first time without a newborn I found myself falling asleep regularly and repeatedly when I sat down, then staying awake until 2 or 3am worrying and over-thinking, but we did it. 


It's sad that I wanted it over, it's sad that we didn't take the usual photo's, we didn't drink enough to get giggly, I didn't cry when I watched Miracle On 34th Street. I didn't send cards even though that has always been something I've taken very seriously - I didn't know what to write. It was Christmas, but it was missing so much.

Christmas Morning 7am

Christmas morning 8.00am

 It's good that we did have decorations and cool presents, we did all stay up to toast in the new year, we did cook a turkey and a gammon and I made a veggie Beef Wellington of which I was particularly proud. 'Santa' managed to get Minecraft LEGO before it sold out, and although we didn't have real snow at all, we had pretend snow by the gallon and the little boys played with it for hours. We stayed at home, we watched a lot of movies, played board games, ate our bodyweight in chocolate and built LEGO, and we gave all our children the best Christmas we could - and there were lots of smiles. 


The New Year doesn't signify a new start for us, if only it really were that simple. We can't make promises to amend our behaviour or give up alcohol or chocolate and it'll all be good. We don't get a reset. This year there were too many gaps, and the gap will always and forever be there, but Christmas 2015 and New Year 2016 will be easier, and it will be okay.

Midnight 31st December 2014

I shall not miss you....

Last year when I posted my 'goodbyes' on New Year's Eve and was so very glad to see the back of 2013, I had no idea that the second half of 2014 would make me wish I was back there again.

Today, 18 months after developing Meningitis, my partner still has a few memory problems, some residual pain and he does still occasionally fall asleep when stressed, but overall he's back to who he was. He even got back on his bike to take part in the Team Honk baton relay for Sport Relief. 2014 saw steady improvement throughout, and by Easter we had returned to a life where there were 2 strong parents in the house. Life did get a lot easier.

Drum roll please.........

The one we've all been waiting for, making a grand entrance.....

On the twenty-fourth day of Christmas LEGO Star Wars gave to meeeeee.....

On the twenty-third day of Christmas LEGO Star Wars gave to meee...ee..eee

On the twenty-second day of Christmas LEGO Star Wars gave to meeeeee.eee..

On the twenty-first day of Christmas LEGO Star Wars gave to meeeeeeee.....

On the twentieth day of Christmas LEGO Star Wars gave to meeeeee....