Rainy Day Fun Activities

How to entertain your children on a rainy summer's day

Have the summer holidays got you demented yet? When the weather is nice, it’s so easy just to pop to the park, a beach, or somewhere else outdoors where they can play, see, and do new things. But when it rains, it really scuppers things don’t you think? Don’t just stick them in front of a games console or the children’s TV channel. Here are some fabulous activities to stimulate them and keep them busy on the days where going out just isn’t an option!

Turn Rubbish into Beauty!
Toilet rolls tubes, egg boxes, old newspapers and even old shoes can make fabulous creations. All you need is PVA glue, poster paints, a paintbrush and a limitless supply of imagination. Make masks out of paper plates. Make a cardboard box and loo roll castle model, cutting a drawbridge out of one of the boxes so it can be lowered and raised with strings. The world is your oyster. Lacking inspiration? Search online.

Get Crafty
Craft sets area available for almost every activity, from finger puppets, to jewellery, pottery and even pin-art (using pins to attach sequins to a polystyrene shape or figure). Galt Toys have an amazing range too, designed for children of all different age groups, which will guarantee something to entertain almost every child. Take them to the shops or order online, but let them choose what they want to do to ensure the activity will be enjoyable. Why not suggest they get a set that will involve making something nice for their bedroom or something that will serve as a present for a loved one?

Read Together
Books not only inspire the imagination, but they often hold a wealth of knowledge. An excellent book-inspired activity you can all do together is this:
• Read the book as a family (or choose a story from a compendium).
• Get your child or children to choose a character each.
• Using whatever creative materials you have, create either a drawing or a puppet of the character(s).
• Re-enact a favourite part of the book together.
By going into a story in as much depth, they will remember it and may even learn new language along the way. You can do this with favourite stories, new stories, or even a story in a comic. Choose a different book every time and you can do this over and over!

Bake or Cook
Children love cakes and cookies. Baking is ideal in wet weather and can keep them busy while you make the food, while you decorate them, and while you all tuck in. Why not go a step further and make a three course meal together? Here is an idea of something you can all make.
1. Soured Cream dip with chives and tabasco sauce (use 150ml of sour cream, a small handful of chopped fresh chives, and 3-5 drops of tabasco, which will give it a gentle kick without being too spicy). Serve with Julienned vegetables such as cucumber, carrot or celery.
2. Homemade pizza (make your own bases or buy them from the supermarket and spread with tomato puree before decorating with sliced meats, diced vegetables and lots of cheese).
3. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Where possible, try and get some fresh fruit or vegetables into the mix. Children may object to them normally, but helping to prepare a meal using the items may make them more likely to taste and try them.

With a little bit of luck, these activities should keep your little ones busy until the sun comes out again. Do you have any top rainy day activities that you and your children enjoy? Share them with us!

About the Author
This article was written on behalf of Galt Toys. Galt Toys have been manufacturing toys for over 175 years, and know a thing or two about toys…and having fun!

How to make the perfect gingerbread man

Well what can I say, clearly I'm a total domestic goddess in the kitchen! This time I have totally excelled myself.

I decided to turn my hand to making Gingerbread men with the boys, I mean how hard could that be? I even cheated and bought a packet mix from the supermarket.

I actually don't own a pair of scales and hadn't read the instructions before buying which said add 30g of butter. Hmmm, I may have added a touch too much. I also don't own a jug so guessed 10mm of water.

Big mistake! The soft dough it described on the box resembled cake mix. I thought about putting it in cup cake cases but Damien was having none of it. So, nigella here, added a load of flour, self raising I may add,which turned my awful mix into something which I thought may work.

It started off promising, it looked good and rolled out well, then we got out the cutter. It just turned to mush. So I decided to turn them into round biscuits. All the mixture stuck to my hands as I just threw the random shaped biscuits into the tray.

Well, when I looked in the oven, I almost had a heart attack. This massive phallic biscuit was staring at me. See pictures below.

Just when I didn't think it could get any worse. I saw Damien's decoration of them. That was it, I was doubled over with laughter and have to say it made my day.

Tomy's Neil the seal

The lovely people at Tomy sent us gorgeous Neil the Seal and he is certainly a hit.

My 18 month old and three and a half year old fell in love with him instantly. He's colourful, great fun and very cute.

He loves chilling by the pool and being taken for walks. Or perhaps dragged my my youngest would be a more appropriate description.

I'm having the usual boy battle over whose turn it is to play with him and that is the making of a great toy when both boys want to share him.

Damien settled for wearing the box on his head and being a robot. So the product is really great value all round.

I would say Neil is aimed at children closer to Dennis's age, 12 months and up. But even the nine year old I was looking after couldn't get enough of him. "He's cool" were the exact words she used. In fact the boys had a hard time even trying to get a look in to start with.

The idea is that you push Neil along using his stick and as you do so, the ball rolls from the ground and ends up on his nose. We have had a fantastic time seeing how long we could each balance the ball on his nose for.

I would recommend this product to all my friends and we are certainly enjoying having Neil the Seal as a family member.

Try, try, triathlon

So I receive an email from work this morning telling me I've been signed up to do a triathlon. Am I still dreaming or have I really just read that?

For those of you that don't know me that well, this email has filled me with dread. I haven't exercised for years.

I tried snowboarding a few months ago and ended up pulling all my stomach muscles and being put on some prescription anti inflammatory medication after a rather embarrassing trip to the doctors.

I have several problems with this but I guess my biggest is that I don't own a bike! This could become problematic when it comes to the actual training and obviously the event!

Secondly, I haven't been on a bike since I was about 15. So I've basically not ridden a bike in over half my life.

I'm really not cut out for exercise. The last time I agreed to take part in an organised event, a 10K run, I fell pregnant and had to pull out after three days of training. This training consisted of running to the end of my road and back.

Anyway, in for a penny in for a pound and all, I'll give it a go.

As an after thought I actually don't own any trainers, if that isn't an indication of how unfit I am, I don't know what is.

Perhaps I can run and cycle in my wedges? Now that's a thought....

I'm back!!

My break from blogging is over and I’m ready to get back to being Miss Milkshake Mummy. Life’s changed drastically for me since I started the blog over a year ago and so you may see some subtle changes on the content since I first started out on my blogging adventure.

I won’t go into details although, needless to say, my life has been like an episode of Eastenders since January and all of it would have made for countless Christmas specials. Move over the participants of Jeremy Kyle, you have nothing on me.

I’ve upset people and been upset by people but things are much better now and hence the return to my blog.

Enough about me, let’s talk about the two little devils which inspired me to actually start this blog. Damien is now sleeping through the night whilst with mummy and in his own bed. Gone are the days of him creeping into mine and hogging the bed and there is no more five am starts. The back to bed routine worked for me and being consistency and persevering were and still are key.

Dennis is also sleeping soundly through the night and this happened through the awful, yet amazing power of controlled crying. Now he will sleep for 13 hours straight and I no longer have to rock him off in his buggy. That was breaking point for me, having to push the buggy with my foot at the end of the bed whilst cuddling a toddler to sleep at 1am,2am,3am etc was enough to make me realise that a change was in order.

Not only that, but when you can no longer function as a human being, you know things need to change. Leaving your front door open, handbag on the pavement, bank card in the fridge and your keys in the ball pit at the soft play gave me the wake-up call I needed. (No pun intended).

I’ve also started becoming late to things, never did this happen when my little men didn’t sleep, I guess when you have been up since 5am most days there really isn’t any excuse to be late for something which starts at 9am. I mean, I’d had four hours to get ready. I now have to set an alarm clock to get up and most days have to actually wake the boys up.

So I hope you all forgive me for my writing rest and hope you enjoy the rest of the journey!

A great Family Day Out

I love Moors Valley Country Park it's a great day out for children of all ages. There is a fantastic family day out being organised on the 17th March and I'm handing my blog over to the organisers to tell you about it....

We are pleased to announce that the Doggy Day Out event will be held at Moors Valley Country Park on the 17th of March from 10am-4pm. Come and find us by the Visitor’s Centre.

The aim of our event is to primarily raise money for the charity, but also local awareness. The event is a family fun day with many activities and demonstrations on offer, all centred around the ‘five senses’. All the exciting games and activities focus on taste, sight, hearing, smell and touch. There will also be a raffle held with a wide selection of prizes kindly donated by local businesses such as Poole Pottery, Lush, Farmer Palmer’s and many more! There will be demonstrations from the Dorset Search Dogs team and the opportunity to ‘get found’ by the dogs themselves!

You can keep up to date with the event by following @doggydayout2013 on Twitter or reading our blog at http://doggydayout2013.blogspot.co.uk

If you want to ask us anything more about the event or Dorset Search Dogs simply email: doggydayout@dorsetsearchdogs.org.uk.


Please follow the link at the bottom to find out more about the Dorset Search Dogs!

http://www.dorsetsearchdogs.org.uk/default.aspx

Doggy Day Out is an event organised by a group of Bournemouth University Event Management students. In our second year as part of our course, we are set the exciting assignment of organising a live event for a local charity. We had to prepare pitches and proposals but finally got our dream charity the Dorset Search Dogs.

This charity is based in the Bournemouth area and was set up in 2006 with the purpose of assisting the Police services and other statutory bodies when searching for missing people.

Where's me keys, a where's me phone?

On the 1st of January my top new year's resolution was to become more organised and stop losing my car keys, phone and bank card. Well, I've spectacularly failed on that! I've lost my bank card three times, that's once a month, it last appeared in the fridge. And I pretty much misplace either my keys or my phone on a daily basis.


Normally I lose my keys in the house, either I put them somewhere or one of my lovely children decide to hide them for me. Yesterday though, I lost my keys at the soft play centre. What a sodding nightmare that was.

After getting the boys togged up ready to leave, that itself is a major mission, I discovered my car keys were no longer in my bag. After several times of emptying the entire contents of said bag on the floor, reality kicked in and I looked at the ball pit, it looked back at me, and I thought about the ridiculous task ahead. It's me against the balls, with a three year old and a one year old as my allies.

Well boys, you were a great help, if you call beating each other up and running off whilst mummy was neck deep in plastic balls helping.

After calling in some more adult assistants, 40 minutes later the search was called off. One clever person, who obviously wasn't as frazzled as me decided to ask reception if any keys had been handed in. Genius! Then like magic my car keys appeared, yes someone had taken them and places them with reception.

I'm think I'm destined to a life of losing things, my womb is not a tracking device and my boobs are not crystal balls that can see where things are. Fact!