This was the first time that Master C and I had met Sophy Henn's adorable little panda creation Pom Pom, but I'm so glad we did. Pom Pom the Champion sees Pom Pom bored in the way that so many children always say they are when they don't know what to do. He has a house full of toys and games (which sounds very familiar) but he doesn't know what to do. After his mum suggests they play a game which Pom Pom wins he suddenly decides that winning is what he wants to do. He creates a load of challenges and races for himself which he managed to win and as you might expect he's rather buoyed up by ... read more
Criccieth Castle
When you think of north Wales castles have to be one of the first things that come to mind. There are apparently over 600 castles in Wales and as you drive around you certainly keep coming across them. The castles, along with the gorgeous scenery and coastline, were one of the big driving reasons for wanting to visit Wales in the first place with the kids. On the first full day of our stay at Haven Hafan Y Mor we decided to get out and visit the nearest castle to the site - Criccieth Castle. Just a few miles along the coast Criccieth Castle is high up between two beaches and has some of the ... read more
Review: Learning Outdoors with the Meek Family
Wow! What. A. Summer. I'm sat here surrounded by bits of Little Miss C's school uniform that I've been busy sewing name tapes on to all evening. She's back to school in the morning and incredibly excited about it. It seems hard to believe that I was worried about 6 weeks of summer holidays stretching ahead of me as I just had no idea how to fill all that time. As it happens though I've had no real problems at all (although I won't deny that there have been some afternoons that have felt like forever!) and we've had a really busy summer with lots of days out, a planned holiday to Wales and ... read more
Our SwimFin Summer #SwimFinSummer
I was absolutely delighted to receive an email at the start of the summer asking if Little Miss C and Master C wanted to work with SwimFin trying out their funky swimming aids. Imagine being a child and being able to swim along pretending to be a shark whilst singing the Jaws theme tune to yourself and that's exactly what SwimFin allows you to do. We saw a couple of these in action at our local leisure centre earlier in the year and all three of us just stood their open mouthed at how utterly cool they looked and I'd even gone home and done a bit of google work to find out all about them. ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Ladybird by Design, the exhibition
Well that was a bit of a longer than planned break from Ladybird Tuesday - sorry! There's been no decrease in the Ladybird hunting activity here, but school summer holidays have got a bit in the way of writing about Ladybird books over the last month or so. But as September and the autumn arrives Ladybird Tuesday is back, and restarting with a bit of a different one. I had one of those getting older life events back in July and to mark it Mr C and I had a rare child-free day together in London. Over the years I've learnt that if there's something you really want to do, rather than dropping ... read more
Busy Being
Things here have been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately and there's a very simple reason for that. I've been busy being. The only thing is, until this morning I wasn't totally sure exactly what it was I was busy doing. I then had a bit of a lightbulb moment when a friend of mine linked to this wonderful blog post by Richard Branson. If you don't follow his blog then you really should do. He writes on a huge range of subjects, but does so in such a way that you can easily imagine that you're just sat having a chat with him in a local pub beer garden over a cold drink - rather than him ... read more
Review: Tiggly Toys – expanding the digital world into the real one
I recently attended a course that our local school held all about parenting, and in particular parenting boys. It wasn't the first parenting course that I'd been on, but as I'd found before I learn something new with each course and this time what I learnt was all around the role of play, and in particular play involving screen time. Some parents hear the words "screen time" and just assume that it's all bad and something that needs to be limited for children, but I'm actually a little bit more relaxed than that. I agree that leaving your children alone to play mindless computer games or ... read more
My fortnight in crafts – upcycling and chicken scratch embroidery
I do love writing these posts where I try and keep track of what crafting I've been doing as it can be so easy to forget. Even just week to week. Maybe it's a sign of getting old. It goes without saying that the crochet ripple blanket is growing and growing, but in all this heat I have discovered that sitting down and doing it is getting harder and harder, especially during the daytime. What is completely impossible though is taking it with me to swimming lessons. Sat up high in the viewing gallery is hot enough anyway, but with a huge crochet blanket on your knee it's pretty ... read more
The advice I wanna give to new parents to be…
I found myself the other night sat talking to a friend who is expecting her first baby later this year. It seems strange to think that it's over five years since I was in that position. Five years? Where has the time gone. I was very lucky when I was pregnant with Little Miss C because lots of friends told me about the joys of buying things secondhand for our little baby. I was already pretty thrifty and with only one salary coming into our household I remember planning with meticulous detail what we needed to buy, how much it was all going to cost and where to buy it from to get the best ... read more
Review: Latest Free Stuff App
Free Stuff. Those two words bring joy to the heart of thrifty bargain hunters the world over. And rightly so. After all - who doesn't love getting something for nothing. Some people may be sceptical about the idea of getting things for free. Aren't we all taught that you don't get anything for nothing in this life? Well, that's sort of true, but if you just look at the definition of free as being that you haven't handed cold hard cash over for something, then actually there is still a fair bit in this world that you can get for nothing. I first came across Latest Free Stuff a couple of ... read more