Making It Up

as we go along

London

It's the hard knock life for us!

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It can’t have escaped your notice that there’s been a remake of the Annie Movie, this time starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. And today it’s out to buy on DVD and Blu-ray.

In the run up to this launch, Smallest and I had a very special day out in London, at the Pineapple Studios with Richard Marcel, a choreographer from Strictly Come Dancing.

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There were a whole bunch of bloggers and children there, ranging from really quite young to ahem, let’s not go there. And we all got involved.

Little ones sweeping.

practising-sweeping

With some wonderful support from the dancers. I love this picture of Smallest being encouraged to join in.

smallest-in-her-group

She only agreed to join in if I did. So here I am in the lineup, trying to keep roughly in time.

in-the-lineup

It was a pretty intense day, particularly for the teens. But the group worked really well, there was so much energy involved, and that was down to Richard and his team.

the-dance-group

Right up until the grand finale. From the beginning of it, to the very end.

beginning-of-the-end

finale

Long time readers may well spot some other familiar faces in the group – it was lovely to spend time with some of the Puddle Chicks and also to meet Helen from Casa Costello who is real life friends with a good blogging friend of mine. In fact we chatted lots, despite the noise of brooms being bashed against the floor.

And all of that, condenses down into this:

Please do watch it, it’s really good fun.

We were also sent the film for review.

Smallest fell in love with it. It’s her new favourite film. For those of us not good with change, the addition of new songs and tweaking of the storyline to remove some of our favourite scenes did cause some disharmony. I also felt that Cameron Diaz was rather underused, being neither particularly bad, or overwhelmingly redeemed – missing a trick with an actress of her comic abilities. Quvenzhané Wallis, though, as Annie is excellent. Lots of energy in her dance routines, got the steadfast hope down to a tee. (T? I’ve just realised I don’t know how that figure of speech works. There you go then.) I’m sure that we’ll be seeing lots more of her.

Do I recommend it? it’s good family entertainment. And you too will be able to do the housework to the strains of It’s the Hard Knock Life for us for ever more 😉

Saturday snippets 28 March 2015

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{travelling} to London and back again, specifically to Maggie and Rose in Kensington. Fun venue. Tempted to redecorate now 😉 Made for a long day but was worth it. Am rather regretting carrying a small sleeping boy on the tube without making a fuss about getting a seat, as I’m now walking with a limp. Photostory of the day on g+

{learning} about colours, ink jets, and pointillism. Amazing what you get out of blog events 😉 Lovely lovely day out for #HPInstantInk, more on that soon 🙂

{not reading} aargh, let’s move on, shall we?

{watching} Once upon a time on NetflixUK. We’ve just started season 2, it’s a bit confusing but I’m sure it will settle down. It does settle down, doesn’t it? (No, no spoilers!)

{beta testing} XYZBuilds. Wonderful fun. (see picture below for proof 😉 )

#52Memories

at play with xyzbuilds tiles

Snapshots.

Big has started to follow through on some big ideas for the next few years. I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes them. Small *should* have an article in First News, but I forgot to buy it. Hoping there are still some copies available somewhere in town! Smallest looked at a sign in the station today, and sounded out ‘wet’. She’s beginning to realise that she can read, and read all the words, everywhere. It’s wonderful to watch. Tigerboy today occupied himself for hours on a Slate 21 device – I particularly enjoyed watching him learning to play piano! He’s becoming very capable with all this stuff. Must make sure there are holes to dig and sticks to play with as well.

And drawing? Yes, there’s been some of that. And I’m currently working on some new design stuff for the blog. Can’t quite decide how far I want to go with that though (did I mention not good with change? 😉 )

Oddly, I think this scribbly little number is my favourite of the week.

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What makes a good PR event?

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Today I took the two smaller children into London. I got up at 6, so that I could double check travel arrangements, slightly nervous as I couldn’t find a route without a bus part of the way. We were heading to Surrey Docks Farm to visit the Huggies Pullups bus.

The farm is a community farm, hidden away in a corner of London, improbably existing alongside the river opposite Canary Wharf. It’s got buildings with grass roofs or solar roofs, sheds and huts and cages, herb and vegetables growing in beds here and there, and is an absolute paradise for a 4 year old who adores animals.

Smallest often talks to me about how, when she leaves home, she’s going to have a pet. Sometimes it’s a dog, sometimes a rabbit. Today I think she might have added guinea pig to the list. I had no idea how good she is with animals, it turns out she’s quiet and calm and gentle, cautious but not afraid. I need to work out how we can fit more animals and more outdoors into her life, but not just running around the garden kind of outdoors. Something with more purpose, that follows her interests. She was a pleasure to be with today.

Tigerboy adored the Huggies Pullups bus. It has a little bedroom, with two small bunks. There’s a day time play area, with water play, where I think he would have happily spent the entire day, I ended up carrying him out kicking and screaming. There was a lovely group of other bloggers there, with children mainly around his age, and some babies, and all in all, what with coffee on arrival, play time in the bus, a full tour when we got to handle animals, *and* a lovely lunch in the garden with chance to chat with other adults while the children played, plus travel expenses covered without a murmur, yes, it was pretty much the ideal PR event.

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I’ve got some tips on potty training, most usefully on readiness. When we want to give it (another) go, I’ve got some Huggies Pullups and Dry Nites to try out, so I’ll let you know how that goes too. The bus has one more outing this year, to the Manchester Baby and Toddler Show, so if you’re in the area, drop by for a visit. I’ve also got a new bunch of bloggers to chat with on social media and a lovely memory to add to this summer’s bunch.

Pretty good way to spend a day all told.

Yes. Pretty much the ideal PR event, right down to the glorious weather and the little playground we found on our walk back to the tube. (Tigerboy walked the whole way. A mile perhaps? Not fast, but he walked it. And then slept for a large part of the train journey home.)

Treat day. (With bonus Shattered book launch.)

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Today has been a treat day.

I try to do this with the children in some kind of rotation, but it can be difficult to juggle.

Today was Big’s turn. We got on a train to London. When we got there it was coffee time.

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Then we went to a bookshop. For this.

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This is Teri Terry. The event was the launch of the third in the Slated trilogy. It was a lovely evening, even if I did fail to realise that James Dawson was there and so didn’t get to meet him.

Gah

(We did meet The Jeff Norton again. *And* got a sneak peek of forthcoming exciting thing. *AND* I recognised him and remembered his name! )

🙂

And now we’re on another train. Going home. Long journey but a very special evening out. Thank you for the invitation Teri, it was fabulous to meet you.

Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I have some reading to do.

Saturday snippets 8 June 2013

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{Writing} tech post on seo. You can probably see a snippet in the sidebar.

{Travelling} to London again. Hyde Park for the #BigIF.

{Wondering} why there weren’t any signs. Maybe some of the other people in the park would have come too.

{Learning} about the issues facing Tanzania and DRC (Congo). Different countries, situations, histories. Still children dying of lack of food.

{Meeting} inspirational people.

{Feeling} inspired 😉

{Eating} junk food again. This is the drawback with travelling to London.

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{Snapshots}

Overwhelmed by the power of Big’s writing this week. Small excelled in a review on his blog too. Smallest has had a particularly eventful week, got her first two swimming badges, a sticker for finally letting the dentist count her teeth and holes in her legs (vax) which I’ve just discovered tonight she’s reacted to. Tigerboy has discovered computers, he can climb onto the computer chair and is figuring out the mouse. He’s an expert at rotating the screen display already.