"There's so much more to a book than just the reading."

A few weeks back me and the awesomeness that is Emma from Another Last Story were talking about books and charity shops which we seem to do a lot when we get together as the two go perfectly hand in hand. Emma came up with the idea of a fun book related charity shop competition and after chatting about it a little, the day was upon us and it was time to put our plans in to motion. We met up on the morning of the great book off in Shrewsbury, where there are plenty of charity shops to mooch around. Before heading out and starting the competition though we popped in to the library with the boys to read a few books in hope that it would be a great start to an afternoon of children's literature.

The plan was to hit the charity shops armed with £5. We had a list of rules, one adult book, a selection of children's books and one gifted book to each other, but minutes before we kicked off the fun we decided to just go and buy books, spend a fiver and meet up to compare our spoils. Emma threw a huge spanner in the works early on when she declared 'No Shoplifting!' so as you can imagine the fun started on a down note. There was a bit of smack talk before we kicked off but then we went our separate ways. We had roughly 40 minutes before meeting for lunch so we split up and me and Opeie hit the shops hard. Our first find was a book about Nessie which fit in perfectly with Mrs M working away at Loch Ness this week, It was a great way to start the hunt.

We managed to grab some great bargains in what turned out to be the first leg of our book hunting adventure. The plan was to meet up at 12:00, i tried my luck with a text saying "how about 12:30" to which I received a rather blunt reply "12:00", that told us! We managed to grab Oliver Jeffers A way back home and a vintage nursery rhymes book that had seen better days but had a lot of character (I knew Emma would love it). We regrouped back at the library for lunch and added our friends Lucie and Martha to the fun. The smack talk continued and Lucie joined forces with Emma (because clearly she needed the help).

Rose found a quiet spot for lunch on Charles Darwin, meow.

With £1.50 left to spend it was time for round 2 and me and Opeie ventured to a different part of town where the charity shops are a little more classy. Opeie had set an extra task of finding a cool pop up book for us, which we did although it took us over our budget so we couldn't include it in the game. When I visit any charity shop I always have a few "Id love to find" books in mind. At the moment I keep hoping Ill stumble upon the Robert Sabuda pop up edition of The wonderful Wizard of Oz because I cant warrant paying the price it goes for online or anything by Florence Upton (I love those illustrations).

We spent our remaining money on an adults Roald Dahl book for Emma that I had never seen before as I knew she was a big fan. Me and Opeie had come home from a morning out last week to find presents waiting for us from Emma and Matthew, which was so kind of them, so we thought it was cute to stick with the Roald Dahl theme.

Part two flew by and we arranged to meet at Shrewsbury museum for what Emma called "an Opeie friendly hot chocolate" (Soya). As the kids sat and had what looked like a very sophisticated coffee date us adults filled the table with our findings and exchanged gifts. Emma had found us an atlas of Dinosaurs which went down a treat with Opeie and a copy of Mr Popper's penguins which me and Opeie are really looking forward to reading after we have finished James and the giant peach.

Sophisticated and friendly hot chocolate aside it did get to that point in the afternoon where the winner had to be announced so we turned to the referee's that had joined us mid competition. While going through our spoils we found that the other team already owned our gifted Oliver Jeffers book so it went to Lucie and Martha which may have swung Martha's vote when she announced we had won. Thankfully though our awesome children decided that 'everyone is the winner' and rightly so if you can pick up that many amazing books for £5 how can you not be a winner. 

Our charity shop adventure was so much fun and we are now thinking about making it a regular thing as it will be interesting to see what we find in different towns. It looks like Bridgnorth may be our next destination so if you are from the surrounding area be generous with your book donations. 

As we made our way back to the car everyone pointed out foxes for our next Gifts from the pirates fox hunt post too...

...and Emma pointed out 'There's a couple of Foxes over here!', Love these guys!

 Another Last Story have got plenty to say about our afternoon of fun and Emma certainly has a way with words, I love reading her posts, so check it out...

There's Nothing Like A Bit Of Healthy Competition

 

"The wailing owl Screams solitary to the mournful moon."

Before our recent visit to the Sea life centre in Birmingham the boys spotted a big colourful owl outside that dominated the remainder of our afternoon. After we had had our fill of fish and finished adoring the seahorses we set about our mission to spot as many of the owls from the Big Hoot as we could. I love how lots of local artists and business' have come together and created a colourful trail spanning over a huge area of Birmingham.

We had around an hour and a half before leaving to pick Mrs M up from work so we only had the chance to get to the owls situated around the town centre, the great thing is though, they are everywhere and the boys were so excited going from owl to owl. I wont hoot on too much (haha) as I think these beautifully decorated statues speak for themselves. Here's the ones we managed to find...

Our favourite was definitely the phone box and although we didn't get to see them all the unexpected adventure really made our afternoon. I was a little gutted when I noticed on my friend Aidens fb page that there was a Captain America one hiding but the owls are about until the 27th of September so maybe me and Opeie can get out and find the rest before they are auctioned off to raise much needed money for Birmingham children's hospital.

 

"Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment."

We've got so much going on at the moment that the blog has suffered a little over the last few weeks, but I'll be back on track soon. The exciting build Up to Christmas is in mid flow now and with under three weeks to go it's all the boys are talking about.

With letters to Santa sent, the boys wait patiently for the big day. Opeie knows exactly what he would like from Santa and has made it very clear what is at the top of his wish list. Where as Seth (and his old thoughtful head) as always has been unbelievably caring and has asked for only one thing for himself (in fact it is something for him and Opeie to share which is even cuter), anything else he would like to be given to children that don't have mommies or daddies, my heart could melt.

This selflessness that we get every year from Seth is rubbing off onto his little brother and I couldn't be more proud of the both of the them. They are such well rounded children. The countdown to the big day is already getting to be so exciting and I am thoroughly looking forward to spending some quality family time with the people I adore the most.

"Charity is willingly given from the heart."

We have loved working with Build a bear workshop over the last couple of years and the experience of walking into a store with the boys knowing they can create themselves a furry friend really is quite an experience. Aside from the bears and all their amazing outfits to choose from, one of the things i love about them as a company is all of the charity bears they release and charity events they support, working to help disadvantaged people. Their current charity bear is Spots if fun pup and £1 from each sale goes to the Children in need appeal, which helps children and young people on various endeavours.

 In addition to Spots of fun pup, you can choose to add the Pudsey pyjamas which will secure a £2 donation to the worthwhile charity. The pup put a huge smile on the boys faces and has been on a few adventures already but for me i know that the sale of the bear will put smiles on many more children's faces.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

It's sports relief day at Seths school today which means a sports related mufty day. Seth toyed between boxing and American football but we all knew American football would have the final touch down.

So after retrieving the ball from the garden and ironing Seth's varsity jumper all that was left to do was add his war paint and our little linebacker was ready for action. "Blue 42 set hike".

"I miss the days when all it took to make me feel better was my teddy bear."

There's something really quite magical about being able to walk into a cuddly toy store and create a life long buddy for either yourself or someone you love. Build a Bear Workshop is a great experience for your children and I like to think that seeing the process of bringing your bear to life gives the owner a little more respect and admiration for their new furry friend. We've written about build a bear before and this time we wanted to bring our friends in on the fun too. After asking them to join us we found out they had never been before so the trip was going to be even more magical.

Our friends Lucie, Seth and Martha met us in store where we were greeted by Shab a friendly member of staff with a smile that was contagious. She introduced herself to the children and asked all their names putting the more shy ones amongst us at ease. Shab explained the process of the experience and then guided us towards the limp bears so the troops could pick their new friend. Although me and Mrs M don't celebrate valentines we thought it would be nice for the boys bears  to create bears for the other two important ladies in their life, Nanny Roo and Auntie Lottie. Seth picked a bright pink elephant and Opeie (as always) followed suit. Martha seemed to have the same idea but Seth (I'm going to have to start saying little Seth and big Seth or it's going to become confusing) decided he wasn't going to conform and chose a cute larger headed bear, which would have been my choice.

Time to chose a voice/sound, there was a great range to choose from but as the boys were making them for those two special ladies they decided to record their own voices to make their gifts a little more personal. Laura, another of the friendly cheerful staff gave the boys a hand, explaining what to do with the voice boxes.

One by one the children joined Shab at the stuffing machine to plump up their new cuddly pals. (Little) Seth went first and made it quite clear that he wasn't a fan of the sound coming out of the stuffer...

The others managed okay though.

After the stuffing they each picked a heart, well they each picked 'hearts', (little) Seth picked two fabric hearts, a kind of furry Dr Who thing going on, we were told about the 'beating heart' so that went in too and that's also when we found out about 'million hearts, million wishes, million ways to help' an initiative that Build a bear Workshop are running with the 'starlight foundation', there are special Purple Hearts that cost £1 and the money goes to the charity. Also Build a bear Workshop are also inviting their customers to share photos of their “heart ceremony”  across their social media profiles with the hashtag #shareukbabwwishes, for every image they will donate £1 towards the charity, it's a great cause. Back to our 'heart ceremony' Each of the kids ended up somehow with three hearts (little Seth) however ended up with four, an apparent record for our local build a bear, somebody call Guinness! Each heart though was lovingly kissed, held to their own heart and a wish was made. As you can imagine, with 14 hearts the trip was a lengthy one, but the kids were having a great time.

 Fluffing time, the children lovingly brushed their bears to make sure they were nice and soft ready for cuddling.

We now had four plump looking bears ready for squeezing but Opeie pointed out that they were 'nudey rudey' so we all moved on to costumes. There are a great selection off costumes in store. We left the children to dress their bears how they wanted. (Big) Seth and Martha chose bumblebee costumes, Opeie chose a hoody and jeans with boots and (little) Seth chose a skater outfit with a Dinosaur on a skateboard T-shirt.

Andy gave us a hand dressing our bears and they were all looking pretty dapper. The children were so excited and Martha and (little) Seth were giving their bears a great squeeze. I always say I'd love to be a child for a day and if i had the option a trip to the build a bear would definitely on the cards. The thing that always appeals to me about build a bear is how they have added the interactive element to toy shopping, kids love to get stuck in and know that they have completed something themselves which is why the whole experience is so amazing.

 Before adopting our new family members we needed to make sure that all the correct documentation was in order. Its great that they take your details because the bear is also given a barcode that is placed inside during the 'heart ceremony' just in case the bear is lost and is handed back in.

Our Build a bear Workshop experience had almost come to an end. The bears and their birth certificates were boxed up in their temporary bear carriers ready to be coloured in by the children when they got home.

 But we couldnt leave without reciting the bear promise at the front of the store. Laura led the way with the other staff hand on heart while we all followed suit. A fun ending to our exciting experience at Build a Bear Workshop. 

Thank you Shab, Laura and Andy for looking after us during our visit  and making the children feel at ease. The children left the store as excited as when we arrived.

The following day we arranged to see Nanny Roo and Auntie Lottie to give them their bears, as expected they were a little shocked but the smiles on their faces said it all. The boys were clearly very proud of their creations and the happiness they had brought to those two special ladies.

Happy Valentines Nanny and Auntie Lottie xxxx