With everything that's gone on over the last few months there are a few things in live that have had to slip. One of those has been the time I've had to spend crafting. In many ways crafting (along with running) is my therapy. It keeps my head in the right place when the rest of life is manic and it's certainly been manic of late. Over the years I have written many times on this blog about losing, and then re-finding, my crafting mojo, but this time it's different. I've wanted to craft. Desperately so at times. But there just aren't enough hours in the day and the kids, keeping a roof over our ... read more
Boo at the Zoo – Halloween Half Term fun at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
We've been huge fans of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo for as long as I can remember and ZSL members for years now, yet strangely we've never actually been to their Halloween event, the brilliantly named, Boo at the Zoo before. Today that changed. Much of the Boo at the Zoo fun takes place in the giant marquee in the Base Camp area of the zoo. There you can find Creepy Crafts and the Pumpkin Patch. All three kids enjoyed making bat masks as part of the free creepy crafts activities and if you buy a pumpkin from the shop area just outside the marquee you can then carve a pumpkin and take it home with ... read more
DJs Play Park – Soft play in Hemel Hempstead
Soft Play is one of those worlds that you don't encounter until you have children. But once you do have children you soon get to know what to look for in a soft play centre. Ever since Little Miss C was tiny we've been going to DJs Jungle in St Albans and both kids absolutely love it there. I was therefore thrilled to hear about the new sister soft play centre that they are about to open in Jarman Square (or Jarman Park as we oldies all know it!) in Hemel Hempstead - DJ's Play Park. The wonderful thing about DJs for me is that it is run buy someone who actually has kids. Helen and her ... read more
Thrown For A Loop: The Best Roller Coasters That Any Thrill Seeker Needs To Try!
Picture Credit There are those who get all of the excitement that they need out being curled up with a good book and a nice cup of cocoa. Then there are those who aren't happy unless they're experiencing a truly ridiculous, white-knuckle thrill ride! Roller coasters are one of those things that you're always going to either love or totally hate. For those who don't enjoy them, there's no force on earth that will get them into one of those seats, but for those who do, there's nothing quite like in the world! If you're the kind of person who can't get enough of loops, inversions, and ... read more
Five go to a Festival – BerkoFest 2017
Five go to a festival sounds a bit like a modern Enid Blyton book title, and I suppose in a way it could have been. Five of us going off to a festival in a beautiful bit of English countryside on a (sometimes sunny) Saturday afternoon. All that was missing was lashings of ginger beer. A couple of pints of local ale took their place though – for the grown ups in the five at least! I was delighted to be invited along to BerkoFest in the nearby Chilterns town of Berkhamsted last Saturday afternoon. I’ve been to “Berko” quite a few times before and have always really liked it as a town to ... read more
Willows Activity Farm Summer Spectacular 2017
Living in St Albans we're incredibly luck to have Willows Activity Farm right on our doorstep. It's close enough that plenty of kids from the children's school go regularly. We tend to keep it as somewhere that we go on a special occasion or as a big treat though. Keeping it as a magical place to go for the kids and when they do go they always absolutely love it. It has been a while though since our last visit and since then Willows have become home to CBeebies' Peter Rabbit, so this was the first time that Little Miss C and Master C had been to the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground or ... read more
Hetty Feather at the Foundling Museum
It's hard to remember a time when Little Miss C wasn't a bookworm. Even as a baby she loved being read to, and then since she learnt to read independently (sometime in Year One at school) there's been no stopping her. Her bedroom is full of books. As is her bed. I struggle to understand how she manages to get a decent night's sleep as she's usually got her head next to a pile of books with others all around her and under the duvet and her pillow. As someone who loves a good book myself, it's something that I'll happily support and encourage as I clearly remember how much pleasure I used to get ... read more
The Day the Belles Went to The Fair
I love the WI. Absolutely love it. Ever since I joined about three years ago I feel like I'm with kindred spirits and the friends I've made there are second to none. Through my involvement I've also been able to try my hand at so many new things - everything from burlesque keep fit to decorating biscuits. I've also been involved in some amazing ventures from serving tea to 500 pensioners to helping to renovate a caravan that went to a family in need in the Calais Jungle. As I say, I love the WI. It was therefore with great excitement that I joined 13 other members of the Herts Belles this ... read more
Christmas at Paradise Wildlife Park
We live only about a 25 minutes drive from Paradise Wildlife Park but strangely in the six and a half year of being parents we'd never actually got round to visiting. Sounds a bit daft really, especially when you realise that Little Miss C has been there on a school trip two years ago and has been begging us to return every since. This last weekend though we did finally make that trip over to Broxborne Woods and I'm so pleased we did. LMC had such a fantastic time there on her school trip that as soon as we told her where she was off to she very excitedly started telling he brother ... read more
A Day at the Needles and Alum Bay, Isle of Wight
When you think of the Isle of Wight, the Needles, the Lighthouse and neighbouring Alum Bay with its colourful sands have to be some of the island's most iconic images. I vaguely remember going on a boat trip around the lighthouse when I was there on a school trip when I was about 8 and I knew it was somewhere that we had to visit again when holidaying on the island as a family. The Needles are right at the far west tip of the Isle of Wight and when you're on the island you always seem to be seeing adverts featuring the Needles themselves, the famous lighthouse and also the cable cars that ... read more