Roald Dahl Day- The Twits Review and a Competition

Roald Dahl Day - The Twits Review and a Competition

Today is Roald Dahl Day and there are loads of activities going on to celebrate his wonderful books.

I first started to enjoy his books a couple of years when my Mum read me Matilda. I instantly loved the way that Roald Dahl could make a story come to life and we began working our way through lots of different stories and rhymes. I now find it hard to pick my favourite and it often changes but I especially love The Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox and my Mum loves the retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs.

We are just re-reading a lot of the books now to share them with Lottie so it was great timing that we were asked to review The Twits and join in with the fun making our very own Mr Twit beard.

If you have never managed to read The Twits it is a really funny book about the disgusting Mr and Mrs Twit who play awful tricks on each other and getting what they deserve for their horrid treatment of Muggle Wump the monkey and his family (who they have trapped in a cage in their garden) and the poor birds who get caught on the glue covered dead tree to use for Bird Pie Day. Mr Twit is a horrible bearded man (Roald Dahl didn't like beards!) He is dirty, nasty and always has lots of disgusting things trapped in his manky beard. I have had lots of fun making my own Mr Twit beard.

Lottie's doll modelling our Mr Twit beard along with Mr Twit style hair!
Made with tea-stained string, pasta, rice, rice crispies and various other Mr Twit type leftovers 

I would recommend this story to children age 4-5 upwards. It is a great introduction to Roald Dahl for confident younger readers or fun to enjoy with a grown up as Roald Dahl appeals to people of all ages. 

I know my friend's Mum, Diana really loved this book so asked her what it was that she liked so much about it, she told me 'Roald Dahl was not my favourite author growing up, that was Enid Blyton, but one of my favourite books ever is The Twits. I clearly remember my childhood revulsion, amusement and disquiet at the vile characters and reading it as fast as I possibly could to reach the end to see if they got their well deserved comeuppance. It spoke to my vivid imagination, reinforced my sense of right and wrong and made the Sunday night cold bath-time a little easier to bear'.

I am thrilled to be able to offer two of my readers the chance to win a special edition copy* of the Twits so they too can enjoy this classic Roald Dahl story too.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Please note one winner will receive the 'bearded copy' (shown above) and the other will receive the version with 'scratch and sniff stickers'

SportFest 2015

           

 

SportFest 2015 

It seems like it was ages ago now but probably my favourite thing about our Summer holidays and the part of it that I have been writing about for my school work this week was going to SportFest.

We heard about SportFest last year when our friends went so we were really excited when we found out Mum had won some tickets from Jeep UK. We knew it was going to be a really good weekend but hadn't realised exactly how amazing it was!

We traveled down on the Saturday morning and picked up our tickets and Lottie and I were given some cool SportFest T-shirts. We then quickly put our tent up and then went off to join the fun.

There were lots of sports sessions for everyone to join in with and the groups moved around so you could try everything and then there were some extra sessions you could sign up for if you wanted to switch the normal sports for something different.

I had a brilliant time trying Boxing- it was really hard work and the coaches were really good. My little sister did gymnastics and was helped by Gymnast Beth Tweddle. There were lots of famous sportspeople there helping coach the children, it was great because they were all really enthusiastic and keen to help you learn new skills. Dad and I are Liverpool fans so it was quite exciting to see John Barnes involved but sadly he was coaching the older football group so I didn't pick up any tips 

from him, although the other football coaches were fantastic too. 

Over the two days we had an amazing time, I loved football, boxing and cricket but I think my favourite was hockey and I am actually going to start lessons this weekend now- yay! (Mum is very worried about my teeth after seeing how my Uncle's are after years of playing hockey!) Lottie was too young for the proper groups but still got to try a few things including martial arts and the gymnastics and she now can't wait until she is old enough to do gymnastics at school. It was such a great time to try new sports and learn new skills but it was also so much more than that.

There was loads of other things going on- we got to do a driving simulator, which was awesome, there was a climbing wall which moved and was sloped- it was so much harder than it looked and there was lots of other activities to take part in. It was amazing seeing the I AM Invictus team playing sit down volleyball and the sporting legends playing a 15:15 cricket match in the evening. This was followed by a band who were really cool- we had an amazing time dancing until late and then went back to the tent to get some sleep ready for the next day. Baby Sam actually slept all night even though Mum and Dad weren't sure if they were mad taking a 15 week old baby camping but he stayed warm and was perfectly happy and we woke up bright and early ready to go again. 

Amazing Legends cricket match

The food was delicious and was all included in our prize, it was made by Jamie Oliver's restaurants and we got some really yummy things. There were also apples all round the grounds for snacks and then Jaffa were there giving away delicious oranges and fresh orange juice and Weetabix were doing things too so we definitely couldn't have gone hungry!

We also got to see the FA Cup and do a fitness test with Vitality which was quite funny (my Dad came out older than he really is and my Mum didn't dare to do it!!) There was plenty of activities for grown ups too.

It was such an amazing weekend, I really would love to go again and would definitely recommend it to anyone with children who enjoy being active- just hoping Mum can be lucky enough to win us tickets again for next year!

The Final Countdown

     

The Final Countdown

I can't believe the school holidays are nearly over. When we broke up from school seven weeks seemed like ages but by this time next week I will have finished my first day in Year 3 and Lottie will be getting ready to start school. 

Despite having no car for the first two weeks of the holidays, after breaking down on the way to Oxford, the time has gone really quickly. On the very first day we decorated some boxes, one for at home and one for out and about, and all put ideas inside them of things to do so if we dared to announce we were bored we could pull something out to get on with (my Mum insists on telling us that her Mum always said 'Only boring people get bored- so Lottie has taken to announcing 'I'm boring!') and yet despite having loads of ideas we have hardly pulled any out to use, except baking and a cinema afternoon, as we have managed to fill the time with lots of other activities as well as just enjoying being at home with our toys and friends. 

We won tickets to SportFest (AMAZING- and well worth a post to itself!) spent two weeks in France, saw plenty of friends- although there is still a few more we would really like to catch up with, did lots of arts and crafts, visited the local museum, saw some theatre at the local park, celebrated Lottie's birthday, entered a few competitions, read lots of books- completing the library reading challenge, watched a couple of films, spent lots of time outside and are now getting excited for Lottie's party which is coming up next week. 

I have a feeling this last week will fly past- sadly we are now doing the final preparations for returning to school, I have got new school shoes and Lottie has her very first pair, we have got all her school uniform and I have been putting off trying mine back on which I now have to do first thing tomorrow as Mum thinks I have grown again! We have a friend coming to play tomorrow and it's off to the dentist-yuk. 

On Wednesday Lottie's friend is coming to play and his Mum will be helping ours to get ready for the big Frozen disco party- there are lots of books to wrap and sweets to put in bags as Mum doesn't like party bag toys so each child is getting a book, piece of cake and some sweets but she always forgets how long it takes to wrap 30+ books! We also have to set up pass the parcel, draw an Olaf to 'pin the nose' on and Lottie and I want to make some snowflake decorations so I think we will be fairly busy with this.That just leaves a couple more days before it all starts again. 

I will be sad to be back at school and having to rush out the door in the morning. Mum will start rushing around and we won't get to stay up as late at night and see as much of Dad, there will be homework to do, school reading every night and I will have to start music practice again properly but I am still looking forward to going back to school. I want to see my friends and start back at football. I am also starting playing table tennis at school this year and am finally going to be starting hockey outside of school, which I can't wait for. I am looking forward to my little sister starting school too, although she is only just 4 and is a bit scared.

We will have to make sure we really enjoy this last week... it's not long until half term is it?!