Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…

Peppa Pig just reminded me that I wanted to join in with the Kindness Club’s post about Recycling this week…

I know that many countries are not so good about Recycling as ours, here in West Wiltshire we have a green bin for garden waste and a black bin for household waste, a recycling bin for tins, cans, bottles, paper, foil and old rags all collected from the curb and we have to take the cardboard and plastic bottles to the tip which also recycles most other household items safely such as old TV’s, fridges, furniture etc.

There is also a very active Free Cycle on line where you can place unwanted items for somebody to collect, along with the sunday Car Boot Sales which are also recycling really – there is very little you can not recycle here..

The Recycling lobby seems to have pitched it’s message at the younger generation with CBeebies the BBC’s under 6 channel practically brain washing children to Reduce Reuse Recycle as Bob the Builder tells us.

We join in and do our bit, the smalls both help flattening cardboard or bagging plastic bottles.

Our favourite recycling is the Scrap Store.

The scrap store is a charity that gather waste products donated from local companies, items which would be waste ordinarily but can be used by children to stick and glue, make something new. We get a bag to fill up and get shiny paper, bottle tops of varying kinds, felt, wool, paper, card – all sorts of wonderful stuff. The biggest problem with this is trying to think what to make with it all!

We have made many Christmas decorations, a shiny wind mobile, people puppets out of old thread cones and loads of collages.It is a real adventure to go and see what you can find as it is very different every time, they also do an out reach program bringing scrap out to the towns and villages and involving children in making play – it’s fab!

The best thing we ever had from the scrap store is a piece of floor lino which we put on the wooden coffee table or carpet to make our surfaces a little bit safer!

There are scrap stores all over the UK, Google them they are really great 😀

The Little Man’s 2nd Birthday

Well, there he is, my “baby” boy, on his second birthday.

It only seems like yesterday that he arrived, face all screwed up and crying, the exact same weight as his big sister.

When the little miss came to the hospital to meet him she was really pleased with him, she was more taken with the fact she was staying at Nana’s on her own, I felt a bit bereft when she left the hospital with Nana, happy as larry…

He’s a little demolition derby, he’s like a whirlwind in action, from the moment I hear him shout “Mummmyyy, down Mummy” in the morning until the minute he finally succumbs to sleep at night. He does give me a break in the afternoon for a swift nap. I lift him out of the cot (which he hasn’t tried to get out of himself thank goodness!) and he’s off, trotting down the corridor at top gallop, his first wordonce up is his sisters name, he worships her, she gets huge hugs!
Like his Father before him, he likes to take things part to see how they work, if it’s loose it gets pulled off, if it’d fixed it gets waggled until it is loose and gets pulled off, I’m looking forward to him learning how to fix things.

Drawing is a big favourite and he will sit studiously creating squiggles and swirls for ages, we keep his crayons in a bucket which he happily grabs two from, one in each hand.
He loves trains and cars, it’s a enigma, before he cae along she had one or two cars which she played with on and off preferring her teddy and pushchair, he found them and it was love at first sight (that and pretending to phone people with all sorts of things pressed to his ear saying “el-lo” at top volume).

Despite his love of Thomas and all things with wheels he doesn’t like watching him on the telly, he loves “peppy” Peppa Pig and thats what he asks for, Peppa is his sisters  favourite too…