Our First Half term

My eldest daughter recently had her first half term.  I cannot believe how quick it has gone, it only seems like yesterday it was her first day at school.  We did do quite a lot during half term and I thought rather than do lots of individual posts, it would be nice to put together a half term round up of the events we attended.

Our half term began by the girls getting rather excited that they had a whole week together playing


We had been invited along to the Family Pet show in Manchester.  This is different to the National pet show that we went to in Birmingham.  The main difference is that you could take your dogs along with you.  I decided against this though, as having two children without two dogs to look after was more than enough.



The girls once again loved meeting all the different animals.  There was lots of different dogs and cats for them to meet but my daughters favourites were the ferrets and the blue tongue skink.  I loved catching up with Edenpetz who I met in Birmingham and also Harvey's Army.  If you own a dog [or any pet who is micro chipped] Please take a moment to sign Harvey's Army petition.  They are campaigning for compulsory scanning of all domestic animals who are retrieved from the highways.  It is not currently mandatory to scan animals found on the highway.  Which means if your loved pet is found either alive or dead they may not be scanned, Harvey's Army want to change this.  If you do sign the petition please check your emails for a response, as you will receive an email to verify you want to sign the petition.  If you do not follow the link in this email than your signature will not be counted.

I also met some new companies including Canny Magloc.  This is a really clever way to connect a lead back onto a dog.  I have been impressed with how strong the device is and is able to hold even J when he pulls, it can hold up to 40Kg.  It is worth a look.

I am wanting to create some special Christmas presents this year and so the girls spent a day getting creative and into the Christmas spirit.  It was a nice calm down day


As a child I loved Roald Dahl, and to be honest I still do love to read his books.  I really loved revolting rhymes and often found them rather funny.  Music in the Round, had put together a special performance of music along to the words by Roald Dahl Cinderella.  The event was part of Family Arts festival and with a daughter who has an interest in music I thought it would be a great experience for her.

She was treated to many instruments she had never heard of before and listened intently to each.  She became engrossed in the story and loved all the audience participation, clapping and cheering.  It was a great way to introduce music to children and in such a fun manner.  My eldest really enjoyed it.


After a quick bite to eat and a babyccino 


It was time to go and enjoy all the fun of the fun fair!




Thursday was another busy day as we headed over the Pennines again to Manchester.  This time to the Sea life centre.  The girls loved all the mini tunnels and bubbles that they could walk through and get a close up look inside the tank.  They even decided to touch a crab.



We set on a deep sea adventure, finding the stamps and answering questions as we went around Sea Life.  We stumbled upon the Octonauts whilst we where at the stingrays.  The girls got very excited until it was our time to meet them and then got shy.  After they wanted to go back and say hello again.


My eldest discovered my glasses and spent the next morning pretending to be a teacher.  This confused me as neither of her teachers wear glasses.  She had fun anyway


Having taken the girls to experience live music I thought it would be great to also take them to the Hepworth In Wakefield.  The Hepworth is home to some great artists and also has a lot of family friendly events on.  Admission to the gallery is free, but there is a small car park charge.  The girls took advantage of the weather and spent a lot of time on the outdoor playground


Before we went inside.  The Hepworth takes full advantage of its position in Wakefield and has some beautiful views.  The girls were captured by the huge windows.


My eldest even sat down in front of one to draw a picture.


My youngest however took a liking to the sculptures


We decided to take part in some of the activities the gallery had put on for children.  The Hepworth has a dedicated space for children which was a really lovely touch.  The girls set out drawing some pictures.


They were then given rollers and shown how to spread the print ink.  They both really loved this


The next step was to use some special tools to draw patterns in the ink.


Before pressing the drawings over the patterns in the ink.  The girls had to press really hard and give it a rub


They were rather pleased with the finished results


The week had gone by very fast and it was time for the weekend.  We have enjoyed the firework display at Cannon Hall Farm in previous years and so we had booked tickets to attend again.  The girls were eager to see fireworks and kept looking up to the sky.


First it was time to light the bonfire


I find watching a fire really relaxing.  It was really lovely that the lit the fire early, it was around 5.30 so we got to watch the sunset round the fire too.  The fireworks were lit an hour later and they were choreographed to music.  My only criticism was that they seemed to be over really quickly.

I decided to be brave and took my camera off auto in an attempt to capture some fireworks.  I am pretty pleased with the results.



Our half term passed really quickly lucky for my daughter she had an inset day on Monday so we threw a party for her friends.  A Dora in the City twitter party.  My daughter had her friends over and we had a lot of treats in store


The girls all got together on the table and decorated cakes, well you can't have a party without cakes


Our twitter party was in conjunction with UKmums.tv and Nick Jr to celebrate the launch of new episodes of Dora and Friends in the city.  The girls were excited to see the new episodes and settled down with some popcorn to watch.


We played lots of games Pass the parcel, activity sheets and colouring.  One of our guests even won a Dora bracelet. 


The girls had a lot of fun playing Piñata.  It had been a dream of one of the guests to play after she had watched Dora the explorer so it was really lovely to make that dream come true.  The Piñata was quite tough to break through for our 4 year old guests so we ended up enlisting some help 


With a little help from our puppy we managed to get into the piñata.  It was a really lovely party and the perfect way to finish half term.

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4 comments

  1. This looks like a very fun-filled and busy half-term holiday! I love your pictures of the fireworks, I always struggle with them too. The girls look like they're having loads of fun on the fair! Thanks for linking up with Country Kids.

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  2. Those swings and the helter-skelter were my favourite fairground attractions - even having to sit on a horribly rough mat for the latter!

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  3. You've been busy! A half-term to remember! I had my first half term too and it was needed. I only understood its importance when my son started school! #countrykids

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