Nanny Life Articles by Hope at Nanny Shecando

School Holidays: 10 Things The Kids Are Looking Forward To

Oh no, oh no, oh no. No, no, no! This was my reaction this morning when I realised that today was the last day of term. It seems that our beloved Friday Fun Day has coincided with that time again; school’s out. You see, as of 40 minutes ago, school holidays officially started. Of course the girls are all super excited. Me, well, maybe not so much.

10 things The Kids Are looking forward to these School Holidays:

Froot Loops // Yes I’m sad to say that ‘eating Froot Loops’ currently holds the number one spot

Going to the horses // and having daily horse riding and dressage lessons, getting all messy in the mud and enjoying the fresh country air

Play dates // oh so many play dates. I should just give up on all cleaning and tidying now. It won’t even last 5 minutes with a house full of kids

Pool parties // the benefit of having an indoor heated pool means that all your friends want to come to your house in winter

The Justin Bieber movie // oh gosh. Please, no.

Arts n Craft // and attempts to burn down the kitchen with the kid friendly baking sessions

Board games // bring on the epic long battles of Monopoly

Snuggles on the couch // and all day Twilight movie marathons

No uniforms // being couch potatoes and staying in their pyjamas all day

The outings with me // visits to the Zoo, the National Maritime Museum (for the twins) and the Science Museum (for Miss6), picnics at the park and even some retail therapy

Things That I’m Not Looking Forward To These School Holidays:

Losing my peace // and quiet during the day. And for an entire two weeks. On the other hand, I do get some more company. Even if it does mean more of the same nonsensical chatter. I can do that, no problem. I’ve been told once or twice that I’m a little miss chatterbox myself!

Well that was a rather short list for me. I suppose I’m craving the company from the kids. Who’d have thought! It’s going to be a jam-packed couple of weeks but one hell of a fun roller coaster ride. Everybody better get on board!

Seeing as it’s Friday Fun Day colliding with the last day of the school term, our afternoon is going to be pretty spectacular. Bring on the ice cream, chocolate, these fresh baked berry muffins, afternoon dance sessions to Katy Perry and Beyoncé, takeaway pizza for dinner and much more. Jealous? I know you are! I may just have to reward myself with a glass of wine tonight (or four) for getting through the school term. Care to join me?

Do you have a routine for the holidays? Do your kids look forward to them all term? Are you usually knackered by the end of it or do you love the extra company? Wine.. red or white?

Doing It For The Kids

Being a good role model, not so easy at times.

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a school function for the girls and then joined the family for dinner at a restaurant afterwards. I was really touched to have been invited out to join the family. It’s nice every now and then to be reminded that the family (but the kids mainly) really do appreciate my contributions.

The school function just happened to fall on a day that I wasn’t working. I know what you’re thinking, as a nanny you actually got a day off?? But I did. So I took the time to put a little more thought into my appearance. I went to a little more effort than the usual ensemble of thrown together clothes that 95% of the time is covered in various forms of dog slobber and/or baby-sick by the end of the day. I even ended up wearing boots that had a bit of a heel. Nothing out of the usual to me, but it seems I made quite an impression on the girls.

Shortly after all three girls arrived home from the school event they mysteriously, and voluntarily I might add, disappeared up to their respective rooms to change for dinner. As The Twins descended the two flights of stairs down from their rockin’ top floor pad (it’s going to be so perfect for when they morph into moody teenagers) I couldn’t help but notice they seemed to be negotiating the stairs with quite some difficulty. A closer look informed me that they’d managed to put together a clothing look that kind of resembled my own outfit, complete with some serious high heels (OK they weren’t kitten heels but wedges can still be gnarly!). I smiled and helped them both down the last few steps, complimenting their grown-up outfits and not thinking much more of it. That was until Miss Charlie attempted to descend the stairs herself a few minutes later. She’d managed to change into the most sparkly outfit I’d ever seen. It was so shiny I had to blink and wished I had sunglasses to shield my eyes. Even worse were the shoes she’d managed to squeeze into, should a six-year-old even own high heels? Surely there’s an issue of morality at play here? I quickly took her hand and marched her back upstairs to her bedroom where I sweet talked her into moderating her outfit just slightly into something a little more age appropriate.

We all enjoyed a lovely family dinner, lots of laughs and bubbling conversation (of course everyone talking over the top of each other and vying for attention, that’s normal right?). As I bid them adieu and made my way home, I began to think that I really must pay more attention to how I conduct myself. Having mainly worked with boys in previous families, I’ve not really had the experience of being a true role model. Yes I’ve maintained and upheld a code of ethics, instilled rules and decent behaviour onto them and lead by example. I’ve played devil’s advocate at times and moderated arguments of “right” and wrong”. But I’ve never had to think about my actions as a female, as a woman, as a big sister and how this might influence the young girls around me. I was reminded that I am now a role model to these girls; Miss Charlie at six and The Twins at 11 look up to me.

So girls, I gladly accept the role as “mentor”. I hope to do you proud and exceed your expectations.

And a little word of advice from me to you, just something I’ve experienced from time to time:

High heels hurt your feet!

They really do. Yes they make our legs look pretty and give much-needed height at times, but sometimes they’re just not worth it. So try to hold off on them as long as possible, ballet flats look just as cute. Oh and one other thing, a classy woman never ever takes her heels off and walks bare feet. Never ever, no matter how much your feet hurt. Just don’t do it. Just smile and wave girls, smile and wave.

Battle Of The Strings

A duet. Baby violin meets big violin.

Tchaikovsky, look out. We’re on your tail.

… now if we could just master that G major scale first…

The Little Monster Inside The Page Comes Alive

Miss Charlie was home sick from school today. It was awesome. Unexpected and meant that I had to swap around my plans for the day, but great nonetheless. Because to be honest and in my own personal opinion (disclaimer: I am not a doctor), there really wasn’t anything wrong, nor suffering. She wasn’t sick. It was perhaps more of a “mental health” day. Which is nothing to be ashamed of, even at the age of 6. Especially at the age of 6. Hugs and cuddles are so very important and she probably just wanted to get in on all the one-on-one time that I spend with her little sister each day.

So we spent an awesome day together, just the three girls in the house. We watched loads of movies and played on the trampoline, jumped in the pool and enjoyed an impromptu picnic (I introduced Miss Charlie to the concept of Mezze plates, she’s officially on board. Winning).

The best part of her being sick was that she completely got away with wearing her pj’s all day. I’m not going to lie though, this is simply the best. I am secretly prone to this fashion statement from time to time also.

The only hurdle we faced was this afternoon when we decided to wander over to the park and the playground. Because you see, Miss Charlie’s pj’s are not your usual flannel two-piece set. This week her sleeping attire of choice is a “onesie”. Which I hear is all the rage at the moment. Interestingly enough, I’m still not 100% sure why some adults are keeping pace with this trend, but I can totally understand the kids loving it.

So it seems as though I gained a new friend this afternoon, gone was Miss Charlie, hello little monsters. We did a great attempt at joining the cast of Where the Wild Things Are. I certainly enjoyed the amusing looks we garnered from those passing by, but hey, at least we brought a smile to their faces.

And yes, totes rocking socks and sandals. With a onesie. Vogue.

Come to think of it, I think I will have to go and dig that favourite book of mine out of the shelf and give it a twirl on the evening bedtime story slot. Grrr.

J’adore Le Chocolate Brownies On Friday Fun Day

Oh my goodness it’s Friday Fun Day again. The days have just flown by. You’ll be happy to know that we here at Nanny Shecando face the same challenges as you in fighting to fit more into less. Seriously, where did the week go? Even though I feel as if I barely made a dent on my to-do list, instead I think it probably got longer, we did manage to slow down a little for our beloved Friday Fun Days.

On the menu today was these delicious gooey chocolate brownies and some happy fun french lessons. Let me just say, j’adore le chocolate brownies! Miss Charlie is having a weekend-long play date at her friend’s house so I decided that a batch of decadent chocolate heaven in the form of these addictive little squares of chocolatey goodness (yes I just made that word up) would be the perfect thing for her to take along. So we got messy with the best ever excuse to eat chocolate (and brownies)! Who’s with me on this?