Easterleigh animal sanctuary

We're really shocked, saddened and absolutely disgusted to hear the news of the arson attack on the Easterleigh.  Nine cats, 11 hens and 1 rabbit were all killed and there is a lot of damage to one of the buildings. 

As you know, April is National Pet Month and you all donated pet food last year and we took it to the Easterleigh.  We will be doing the same again this year, so if you would like to make a donation of pet food we will be visiting the sanctuary during the Easter holidays.

The roof itself at the sanctuary is going to cost around £15000 to replace so they are looking for people to hold sponsored events and to basically raise some money to be able to pay for repairs.  If you would like to donate any money as well as pet food, then we will take this with us when we visit.  If you know of anyone who would be willing to volunteer to help with the clean up, then the telephone number is 01253 789185.

If anyone is on facebook, here is the link to the Easterleigh's page:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Easterleigh-Animal-Sanctuary/123191704397740

Easterleigh have now set up an account for the "clean up appeal". For those of you who wish to donate funds you can now do so straight into the account.



HSBC - sort code 404002 account number - 21405578.

Week beginning 21st March is week 2

Suncream!!

We played outside for most of the day today and the temperature got up to 18 degrees on our decked area!
We got the children to wear their sun hats and applied sun cream to exposed areas.  We do have suncream from last year, but it would be a good idea to supply us with a new bottle to ensure the children are fully protected. 

Just donated to Comic Relief

Just to let you all know that I have just donated £25 to Comic Relief.  Thank you to all of you for your donations and for buying cakes this week. 

Tesco for Schools vouchers

We are collecting these vouchers at the moment so if you do have any to spare, please consider passing them on to us.  We would really appreciate them.  Thank you to those of you who have already donated.  :)

Bike sale

Blackpool Council's 'Cycle Blackpool' Team are holding a sale of reconditioned bikes next Sunday, 20th March from 11:00am to 3:00pm at Stanley Park Visitor's Centre.  Second hand adult's and children's bikes will be on sale from as little as £7.50.  All of the bikes have been donated by members of the public and reconditioned by Blackpool's Cycling Mechanics in order to encourage more people to get on their bikes in Blackpool.  Various cycling accessories including bike lights and reflective armbands will also be available to buy and Cycle Blackpool maps will be on offer.  For more information visit http://www.cycleblackpool.co.uk/, email cycling@blackpool.gov.uk or call 01253 476261.

New 'grass'

We had the new grass laid yesterday.  The men were working all day and got it finished around 4.30pm.

We have put up William's goals which he got for Christmas, and the children have enjoyed playing football a lot today. 

We've been selling lots of cakes this week too, so thank you to all of you who have bought some.  We will have some more for sale tomorrow!

Duck pond and cakes

We visited the duck pond this afternoon.  We fed the ducks some stale hot cross buns, which they seemed to enjoy!!

After our tea-time snack, the children decorated some fairy cakes for Red Nose Day.  They used a piping bag and piped red (well pink actually as I didn't use enough red food colouring!) buttercream over the buns and then sprinkled some red edible glitter on to them.  They look great.  Alice has already bought 6 for £1 and so had Victoria's mum.  Thank you!  We will be making cakes throughout this week, so please feel free to buy some!

Thomas made a sign for the front door advertising our cakes and Joel and Victoria decorated it with stickers. 

Week beginning 14th March is week 3

Zoos, water painting and blogging!

The children played with the small-world animals this morning and used the wooden blocks to make enclosures for the animals.  One of them was a water enclosure for the penguins. 

Later on we went out to play.  We bought some paintbrushes from B&Q last week, specifically so that the children could 'paint' outdoors with water.  They really enjoyed it - it's nice sometimes to create on a large scale.

We also went on the children's blog this afternoon and looked at every child's page.  The children enjoyed reading about each other and what they'd been doing at home and they all had a chance to post something themselves.  Disney was the theme that they all chose today.  Have a look when you get chance. 

Grass

We're really excited because next week, all being well, we are getting some new artificial grass to replace, and slightly extend, our existing lawn.  It looks just like real grass, but comes with the added benefit of it being usable all year round, rather than just in the drier weather.  The children love to play on the grass, kicking balls, playing in the tents, rolling around etc, so we think it will be a fantastic addition to the garden.  Of course, there will still be a 'natural' area to the garden, where we are hoping to include a little bridge (Erin's mummy's suggestion) and possibly a water feature of some sort - we are just trying to work out whether this would work, or whether just providing the children with a regular supply of water would be better.  It's one to think about...........

We are open to suggestions for the outdoor area, so please, if you have any ideas, let us know.  Our aim is to provide the children with lots of 'open-ended' resources that can be used as and when they wish.  For example, the wooden planks we have recently purchased have been used as car ramps and for construction.  We could do with some more wood actually if anyone has any spare they would like to donate :). 

The children love to be outdoors so it's important that we provide an interesting, exciting and challenging area in which they can play and explore.  Please have a think and let us know if you have an idea. 

Red Nose Day and sunflowers

The children decorated a flyer with lots of Red Nose Day stickers - you will have received said flyers tonight (those of you who we remembered to give book bags too - oops)! 

We also planted our sunflower seeds today and discussed how tall they were going to grow.  The children think they will grow taller than Chris!  We agreed that we would need to water them regularly and look after them really well for them to grow that tall.  Once the seeds have germinated, the children will be bringing them home. 

"I love you"

Victoria said to me, just after tea, "I love you."

Adam then said, "I do too,"  he then went over to Kaiden and patted him on the shoulder saying, "I think Kaiden does too."

Things like this just make me realise why we do this job.  It really doesn't matter what Ofsted say - the most important people in all of this are the children, and if they are happy and feel loved, then we are doing our job well.  Those few words make it all worth while xxx

Pancakes

We made some pancakes this morning.  The children helped to make the mixture and gave it a good whisk.  They enjoyed a pancake for their morning snack.  Yum!

More bark!

We had some more bark delivered this morning, so the children have helped us to move it from the front to the back. 

We went to B&Q last night to buy some bits and pieces for the children to play with, which could be used for whatever their imagination dictates.  We bought some foam tubes, which have today been used as a horse, light sabres and hoses, and some planks of wood.  They have been used with the workbench and tool set and also outside as ramps and roads for the toy cars. 

Patterns and outdoor play again

The children played a sorting game with some printed socks.  They all had a variety of patterns on the socks, which we sorted together.  Afterwards, the children played at 'going to work' and the socks became props for their 'jobs'. 

This afternoon the children played outside.  We have recently pruned some shrubs, so they played with the cuttings and twigs.  They made a 'bonfire' with a big pile of twigs and used small pieces of fir tree as small trees for the small-world animals. 

What a beautiful day!

This morning, before going to play out in the lovely sunshine, the children painted some daffodils for St. David's Day.  They are all beautiful and are up on our wall for you to see. 

We played outside for the rest of the day - it was quite warm and we didn't need coats!  The children dug the bark, brought us delicious food made from pebbles, built 'bark castles', played in the cars and on the slides.  Eszme and Kaiden had fun outdoors too, exploring the bark.  Kaiden loved the swing and Eszme climbed into one of the trucks, to be pushed around by Victoria. 



making 'bark castles'