For absolutely ages now Little Miss C has been obsessed with the idea of becoming an explorer and naturalist of some kind. She loves nothing more than being outdoors and hunting for insects and bugs. We have so many bug hotels situated around the garden - many of them made from old shoeboxes and other things pilfered from my recycling bin. It therefore seemed perfect to ask her to review the Pocket Microscope from Interplay. We've had handheld magnifying glasses before in various kits, but this is the first time that she's had a microscope to play with. In the box you get the microscope ... read more
January – all the things I’d forgotten I’d done
Did I fall asleep or something? Where on earth did January go? It seems like only two minutes since Christmas and New Year, but then at the same time they also feel like a lifetime ago. So, what exactly have I been up to in January. Sitting here now it seems a bit hard to work out exactly what I've been up to for the whole month, but I'm sure I'll work it out. The biggest thing has probably been that January has been the month in which I started running again. Here I am on the 29th of the month and I'm delighted to say that I've clocked up a whole 70km in January (so far!) and am ... read more
Getting crafty with Interplay Fairy Cards
Little Miss C loves crafting at our kitchen table and she's very fortunate that we have a huge amount of craft supplies in the house, and a recycling box overflowing with materials that can be repurposed into something else. But, since she started school full time in September we're finding it harder to fit doing something creative into the school day as I often can't face giving her free rein with the supplies as the clearing up job so we can eat tea at the table is just too much to face. I was really pleased therefore when we were asked to review Fairy Cards by Interplay as it meant I ... read more
How to make flowerpot bread
I do love it when the kids get slightly unusual Christmas presents and one of Little Miss C's uncles really came up trumps this year (not that the other two uncles didn't, if you're reading, as the kids love all their presents too thank you!) with a flowerpot bread making kit. Flowerpot bread you may think - what on earth? The idea's quite simple really. You make bread, but rather than put it in a traditional bread tin or on a baking tray in the oven, you instead bake it in terracotta flowerpots. It's incredibly easy to do and a great activity to do with kids, so here's my how to ... read more
The magic of a white Christmas
Here we are on the first day of a new year. Mr C is back to work tomorrow, Master C back to nursery and I think it's therefore time to say that Christmas 2014 is over. The last ten days seem to have vanished in a bit of a whirlwind, but I think it fair to say we had a good Christmas. The emergency dentist appointment for me and both kids being at the GPs on the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week made me wonder if we were going to be a house full of sick people for the big day itself, but luckily I think we dodged a bullet there. We just had my mum staying with us for Christmas itself and ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 8 – Mummy daughter day
I find it difficult sometimes ensuring that I still get one on one time with Little Miss C now that her brother's here, and especially since he naps less. I know that she misses that attention, and I've realised that some of her bad behaviour can stem from not having that time with me. During the school holidays I'm making a real point of making sure that we do something special together on the days when Master C is in nursery. This week we were busy getting ready for our holiday and trying to sort out laundry and packing, so I asked LMC what she would like to do for lunch. Her choice was to ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 7 – Shopping and Classics on the Common
I'm still playing catch up somewhat with our holiday diary, but at the same time I'm determined to make sure I don't miss a day. Day 7, Wednesday, was one of those days where we didn't do a huge amount, but when we did do things we seemed to be so involved in it that there weren't many photos. Most of the day was spent at home with the kids, save for a precious couple of hours in the afternoon when my MIL came round to look after the children for a couple of hours whilst I went to Welwyn and spent a John Lewis gift voucher that she'd bought me for my birthday. It was very strange being out ... read more
Help LMC start to fulfil her travel dreams
http://instagram.com/p/dq7bB5xIyM/?modal=true Little Miss C has a bit of an obsession with travel right now. Mr C and I went to Paris recently and she also had a rather dragged out trip to Gatwick airport to pick her daddy up after he went to The Netherlands for a wedding recently. Add to that the fact that DorkySon (who she still talks about regularly) moved to Tasmania and one of her school friends is about to emigrate to Sydney you can possibly see where her wanderlust is coming from. At Easter one of her other school friends went on a long trip to South Africa, where he has family, and ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 6 – Birthday party, upcycling and vintage sewing patterns
As I feared, time is starting to run away from me somewhat and I'm already starting to wonder what it was we did a couple of days ago. After the excitement on Luton on Monday, Tuesday was intended as a bit of a quieter day at home, punctuated by a lunchtime birthday party for both children at the kind invitation of one of Little Miss C's school friends. The party was held in a Scout hut in a part of St Albans that I'm not at all familiar with (and hence I discovered a fantastic new playground next door too), and as we were still blessed with gorgeous hot weather here it was particularly ... read more
Inspiring a future generation of women #IWantToBe
It's not so long ago that I wrote about Little Miss C's varied aspirations for when she gets older. I love that fact that she thinks somewhat outside the box when it comes to this sort of thing. Just before the end of term her school had a day where children were encouraged to come to school dressed up as (or just with a suitable prop) what they want to be when they grow up. That morning the playground was full of nurses, doctors, racing drivers, builders and police officers. Stood in the middle of them was one little girl with a pair of binoculars and a RSPB bird identification book under her ... read more