July Madness - Part 1

For anyone that knows us as a family,or reads the blog regularly, you may recall that July is an incredibly busy month for us. We celebrate both Ruby and Lottie's birthday, as well as our wedding anniversary.

Last week was Lotties 3rd birthday, 3! how did that happen? I seem to have missed a year as the time just goes by so very quickly. For anyone with little ones cherish the early years as it goes too quickly and you won't ever get it back. 

Lottie is very different to Ruby and knows exactly what she likes and dislikes; she has a tough and strong willed personality when it comes to doing things. Lottie adores Peppa Pig, In fact I would go as far as saying she is addicted! Every item of clothing she wants to wear each day has to have Peppa on it, she always wants to play with her Peppa toys, she is just Peppa obsessed!

So what do you buy Lottie for her 3rd birthday when she has everything as a hand me down from her big sister Ruby? 

There was only one thing I could get Lottie for her birthday and that was to go away for a couple of days to Peppa Pig World! We went last year for her birthday but I don't think she was quite old enough to enjoy it; this year was completely different and she loved each and every single minute of it as you can see from the photos.

Well that's one birthday down, just the wedding anniversary on the 26th of July, shortly followed by Ruby's 6th birthday and then mid August its hubbies 30th birthday! July is definitely a great month of celebrations in our house! 

Challenges as I turn 30!

I recently wrote about turning 30 and how I intended to make this year a year to remember.In order to do this I was going to set myself 30 challenges to accomplish! I needed your help and I'm pleased to say I've had some amazing suggestions some of which I would never have thought about if it had not been for your responses so thank you all very much and if you have any more, please leave me a comment and let me know.

After I published my blog post, I was incredibly shocked and overwhelmed to receive a message from a presenter at a radio station asking me if for one of my challenges I would like to present on their biggest radio show, their breakfast show! If you know met hen you know I have a real passion for radio broadcasting and this opportunity was a once in a lifetime moment, I actually sat and cried because it was so very kind to be offered this opportunity and I'm really pleased to say I shall be co-presenting the breakfast show on Monday 19th January to nearly 30 thousand listeners! I am a little nervous as I have never presented a show however I do have some broadcast knowledge. 

Here is how my list of challenges is shaping up so far:

1 Present a radio show

2 Read a classic book

3 Watch the ballet at a theatre

4 Meet up with a social media friend I've never met in real life

5 Have high tea at Rushden Hall

6 Make and sew an item of clothing for my girls

7 Speak at a public event 

8 Visit Buckingham Palace

9 Write a short story

10 Knit something for myself

11 Take a trip on a narrow boat

12 Undertake some voluntary work

13 Write a poem

14 Ride a horse

15 Camp out under the stars

16 Write an article for a publication

As you can see from the above list I still need to think of some more challenges so please let me know your suggestions. 

A New Year Challenge - I need your help!

Well it's happened, we really are in 2015! Happy New Year and I hope this year is filled with good health and many blessings.

For me, this new year was unlike any other new year, as it was the 1st new year for a long time that I have seen in, in somewhere other than my own home. I've been very blessed that over the last few months I have started to develop really good friendships with a group of mums from Ruby's school, we are all within the same age group as each other give or take a couple of years. One of the the mums kindly offered her home as a venue for us all to come together with our partners and children to see in the new year and it was a really lovely evening; I hope we will be repeating it in the coming years.

Family Selfie on New Years Day Morning

As midnight approached we turned on the TV to listen to the chimes of Big Ben ring in the new year; it began to dawn on me that this year I hadn't thought about the year ahead and neither had I become all reflective about the past year. I don't know why something has changed in the last year, I neither feel the need to look back and dwell or look forward or worry about the what ifs, maybe it's because I'm getting older!

Talking about getting older I am turning 30 in a few short hours! Ahh, I have no idea how this has happened but my 20's have gone (if anyone knows where they are then please return them to me)!. In all seriousness my 20's have been really good, in the last 10 years I have developed a faith, become the youngest church warden in my area, married my childhood sweetheart, and given birth to two daughters, one of which was born at home. I feel I've achieved quite a lot, but I still feel there's so much more that I want to achieve, I want to help people who are less fortunate than me, I want to further myself into a career as I've never really had a career as such.

This is the Cake that Hubbie bought for my 30th!

I want to set myself a list of challenges for what I can do during my 30th birthday year, so this is where I need your help, ideally I'd like to come up with 30 challenges or tasks, things that would be easy to do and others that would take more time and planning so please if you have any suggestions please let me know and comment below, thank you.


P.S. Under not circumstances will I jump out of an aeroplane or bungee jump off a bridge! - no matter how many people suggest it! :-)

Rubys 5th Birthday Party

Ruby turned five at the end of July and since being at school she has been invited to several birthday parties and was very adamant that she wanted to have a party of her own; I on the other hand was really not keen on the idea. My main worries were the cost and also it all being just a bit too much, but we decided a compromise; I told Ruby that she was allowed to invite up to eight friends around to our home for a small party.

 

 

 

Anyone who knows Ruby will know that she loves Disney Princesses, so it was very easy to pick a theme for her party. We do not live in a massive house, but a good size two bedroom end terraced house; I really did not like the idea of the children running around the home, so decided to come up with some activities that would keep them occupied. I am pleased to say that all of the children loved what we did.

As soon as the children arrived, they painted a jewellery box.

When they finished, they went outside in the garden to play as it was a really lovely sunny day; while they played, I cleaned up the table and got everything ready for our next activity.

  

Pita Bread Pizzas!

They played in the garden some more while the pizzas were cooked and the rest of the party food was set out.

 

After eating party food, the children all made bead bracelets and necklaces to go inside their jewellery boxes as well as decorating a tiara.

 

 

I thought when we planned the party that two and a half hours would be too long, but in actually fact we were rushed to sing happy birthday and for Ruby to blow out the candles on her cake.

Ruby had a lovely party and I enjoyed it too; there was very little mess to clean up afterwards so we all had a lovely day.

Peppa Pig World

Life seemed to have been very manic in July, Ruby completed her 1st year at school, both girls celebrated their birthdays and there was also our wedding anniversary to mark too!

I found it very difficult to find a present suitable for Lottie; having an older sister means she has everything she could possibly need from Ruby, and we certainly do not need any more toys as we have a playroom bursting at the seams. After lots of thoughts and discussions with people, we decided to visit Peppa Pig World for the day as Lottie is Peppa Pig obsessed. Whilst looking on their site they had an offer on for two days into the park for the price of one if you book a short stay. There were numerous different hotels to pick from and suit every budget, we opted for the Marttiott Meon Valley, mainly because we wanted a hotel with a little bit of luxury as we very rarely stay away. As the days drew closer we were all really excited and whilst looking at the hotel online, I noticed that they had a very good special offer to stay at the hotel on a Sunday evening with a three course meal for two people; we decided to take up this offer as it would mean we would not have to travel down in rush hour on a Monday morning. In hindsight I am so glad we did this and if you are travelling for more than a couple of hours to get to Peppa Pig World, I would recommend staying for two nights. 

We arrived at the Marriott Meon Valley and were warmly greeted by staff; we did have a slight issue with our room, but the staff were very good and arranged for us to be upgraded to a junior suite. The junior suite had a double bed and a sofa bed in the lounge which converted into a bed for Ruby and Lottie. The room was spacious and I would really recommend booking the junior suite. After placing our luggage into our room we decided to check out the swimming pool at the hotel, it was lovely and clean and was very relaxing to unwind after driving.

  

After swimming we then went to the restaurant for our dinner; the Marriot Meon Valley has two restaurants, one of which is more your typical pub food and the other is a la carte, we opted for the traditional pub food and were very happy with the menu, as the food suited us as a family. 

We were fortunate that soon after arriving back to our room Ruby and Lottie settled to sleep easily and didn't wake until the following morning. Breakfast time at Meon Valley is a real treat I have never seen such an amazing spread of food. There were five different types of fruit juice, patisseries, fruit bar, full English breakfast and the chef was happy to make pancakes and omelettes to order. 

We arrived at Peppa Pig World just before it opened at 10am, and there were already people queuing to enter the park. The Peppa Pig section of the park is a short walk from the main entrance and on arrival you are greeted by the all too familiar Peppa Pig theme tune, well if you didn't know it before you go you will when you leave the park as it's played all the time, much to Ruby and Lotties delight!

  

 

 

The rides within Peppa Pig World do get busy very quickly and we made the decision to attempt to do half of the rides on the Monday and the remaining ones on the Tuesday. It worked well for us as by the time we had done this it was lunchtime so we headed off for lunch and went around the rest of the Poultons Park, at this time the Peppa Pig World part of the site was very very busy. 

It's safe to say that on Monday evening we had two tired little girls who went to sleep very quickly and come 8am on Tuesday, I was forced to wake them up so we could eat breakfast and be ready at the park for when it opened.

Tuesday was spent much the same as Monday, the morning was spent in Peppa Pig World and the afternoon in the rest of the park in which there is still plenty to see and do. Hubbie and I even took turns and went on some of the scarier rides.

The highlight for the girls was being able to go into Peppa Pig's Muddy Puddles area. As you can see from the following photos, muddy puddles is a water play area with jets of water shooting everywhere, Ruby and Lottie absolutely loved it!!
 

Would I go back to Peppa Pig World? I would love to, we all had a lovely time. The cost of our holiday on total was about £350 which included all our food, two nights accommodation and two days at Peppa Pig World. We could have done it cheaper by staying in a different hotel, but I was very happy with the amount that we paid, and I hope that visiting Peppa Pig World will be a memory that they will remember for many years to come. One thing to remember though... don't forget swimming costumes and towels for drying off after muddy puddles!!

Happy 5th Birthday Ruby

 

 

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Ruby
Happy Birthday to you

 

Wow, 5 years old! I can't believe my princess has turned 5 already, please can time slow down a little. Love you so much princess Ruby xxx

Happy 2nd Birthday Lottie

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Lottie

Happy Birthday to you

How is it possible that you are turning 2? Time seems to be flying by so quickly. I Love you so much Lottie. xxx

Ooops I forgot to mention ...

It was my wonderful husbands birthday on Friday; whilst he was with me at hospital, then nursing me better at home, he should have been celebrating his birthday, but that never really happened. However I did buy him a really good present to make up for it! I bought him a Google Nexus 7 Android tablet computer; he always moans that I am stealing the iPad, so it only seemed fair that he had his own!

I have been very fortunate this year that I have not had to bake or arrange a birthday cake for him as a week ago, I was asked by the kind people at Baker Days if I would like to review one of their "letterbox" gift cakes. I jumped at the opportunity, anything to make my life a little bit easier and making sure he had a birthday cake.

Ruby and I browsed their website and decided to opt for a personalised cake. We decided on a lovely design with two elephants, one big and one small; we also picked our own wording. Their website is very easy to use and navigate around, you can even have a photo placed onto the cake.

I was not really sure what to expect from the cake as they said it would be sent through the post; I had images of it all being squashed and completely wrecked, but it was not; it came delivered in a metal tin that protected the cake really well.

Along with the cake came a little packet of balloons, party streamers and candles; I really liked that I didn't have to buy anything else to go with the cake, it was all ready to go.

Prices start at £14.99 for a five inch (in diameter) "letterbox"sponge cake, which they claim offers three to four portions. Once you have selected from the many stock designs, or created your own custom design, you have the option to upgrade the sponge cake recipe for fruit cake, Belgian chocolate chip sponge cake or Gluten and Wheat Free cake. We went for the chocolate option!

Ruby could not wait to try the cake, and I think it is fair to say that it did not disappoint. The flavour and texture of the sponge and icing were spot on.

We were sent one of the five inch letterbox cakes and on first impressions, I thought the cake was a little expensive given that it only served 3-4 portions, but when you factor in postage, packaging and the personal touches etc, I think it is reasonable value for money. The company does offer larger cakes, but as you would imagine, there is a bigger price tag on them.

The letterbox cake is a good idea and would be great to send to someone who you would not be seeing in person, for instance a university student living away, or a relative who lives at the other end of the country.

I was very impressed with the cake and the shopping experience, however I think if I were to use the service in the future, I would have to have a real need for the cake to be delivered directly, in order to justify the price.


Disclaimer: I was sent a cake from Baker Days for free to review, however all opinions and thoughts are my own.

How we celebrated Ruby's 4th Birthday

Yesterday marked my eldest daughter's 4th birthday; I really can not believe how quickly time is flying by, but we are having lots of fun.

We had not organised a party this year as money has been tight and to be honest, I also didn't want the stress of hosting a party. I did feel a little bit like I was letting Ruby down by not giving her s party, but there is always next year when she has some school friends. Lottie's 1st birthday was low key and a really special time, far better than a party and the stress that sometimes goes with it.

I was the first to wake up, closely followed by Lottie wanting her morning mummy milk; come 7.30am, Ruby was still fast asleep; I was itching to wake her up to see her lovely smiley face, so I snuck into her room and climbed into her bed for some morning snuggles.

Ruby was very excited that it was her birthday; in the days leading up to it I had been asking her what she would like to do, and she requested that we go strawberry picking, so this is what we planned to do. Unfortunately the rain poured and there was literally no let up all day, so that put a stop to our plans to go out strawberry picking; instead we spent a quiet day at home.

It seems to be becoming a tradition in our house that the night before the girls birthday, whilst they are in bed asleep, we put all the pressies and a couple of balloons on the dinning table so when we go downstairs there is so much excitement to see the pressies laid out on the table.

Anyone who knows Ruby well will know that she was really turned into a girlie girl recently and loves everything Disney and princessey. We had already told Ruby that the little tikes 8 in 1 climbing frame was her main birthday present and that we had bought her smaller gifts too, I actually hadn't planned to buy Ruby much but I find she is so easy to buy for at the minute.

Amongst other presents Ruby received, we're various jigsaws, playdoh, new wellies and clothes.

I think by far Ruby's favourite present has been her brave DVD, along with the dressing up outfit. She has not seen brave yet so we shall be planning a movie afternoon soon.

We sang happy birthday to Ruby just before the time in which she entered the world (2.26pm); you can read her birth story here. At the exact time she was born I cuddled and snuggled her. It seems to be something I do every year, does anyone else do this? Or is it just me?  I did exactly the same for Lottie but she was born at 1.05 in the morning.

Various family members then came over late afternoon to wish her a Happy Birthday and today we shall be having visits from other members of family. I can honestly say that having this chilled out birthday with minimal stress and more time spent as a family has been great and most of my doubts about not hosting a party have flown out of the window as its been lovely to spend time as a family and just have a relaxed and chilled out day.

What do you do to celebrate your children's birthday or even your own? Do you have any traditions?

A Letter to my Birthday Princess

To My Princess Ruby,

Today is your Birthday and I just want you to know that you are my little sunshine who brings so many rays of light into my life, I love absolutely everything about you. I can't believe that you are turning 4, wow where has the time gone? Happy Birthday my amazing daughter.

You bring so much happiness into my life; each morning I love that when you wake up, you come into my bedroom with a beaming smile, you gentle poke me to wake me up, or sometimes decide that resorting to jumping on me is better!

You are growing up so fast, please slow down, you were once my baby and now your becoming a big girl.

I love how the smallest of things brings you so much happiness, you rarely ask for anything.

I love how every Saturday we go off to Waitrose and buy a special cake for us both, and how we eat it in our pyjamas for a pyjama party and midnight feast at 8pm! If only you knew that a midnight feast does not happen at 8pm, but maybe it's a good thing you don't know that, as I don't think I would be able to stay awake until then.

I love how close a bond we share together and how we laugh and play together and I really am going to miss the special times we have together when you go to school soon.

I love that when I feel down, you give the biggest and best hugs and always know a way of making me smile and laugh.

I really look forward to what the future holds for you and what you will do with your life, but one thing that really matters to me as your mummy is that you have lots of fun and know that I love you very very much.

Sending you lots and lots of love and hugs on your 4th birthday,

Your very very proud mummy xx

Birthday on the Beach

Yesterday marked Lottie's 1st birthday and to celebrate we decided to head to the beach to have a lovely chilled celebration. Ruby's 1st birthday celebrations were completely different, it was a massive party for over 50 guests and included homemade sandwiches, cakes, scones etc. Whilst I look back at Ruby's party and think wow it was amazing and very special, I also remember being incredibly stressed and feeling that I missed out on the day because everyone wanted to cuddle Ruby; so this year to mark Lottie's birthday it was just Hubbie, the girls and I, and to be honest it could not have been better; I much preferred it, no stress and quality family time at the beach!

I was the 1st to wake in the house at 7am and much to my suprise neither Lottie or Ruby woke up until nearer 8am! This is a very rare occurrence as they normally get up at around 6.30am!

We have decided to start a new tradition in our family and have all the birthday presents on the dinning table so that when the girls come down, they get all excited and its an incentive for them to eat their breakfasts really quick, so that they can then open their presents!

As we were running a little bit late and wanted to head off to the beach quite early, we did not get a chance to open the pressies. We chose to go to Holkham Bay as we had heard from various people that is one of the best beaches in this country and we had never been there before. The journey from our home took just over 2 hours and we played numerous games whilst in the car including eye spy! When it was Ruby's turn she said eye spy with my little eye something which is purple. Phil and I tried to guess and after 5 minutes we decided to admit defeat and Ruby replied its a unicorn you silly mummy and daddy. How where we ever going to guess that?

We headed straight for the beach when we arrived in Holkham, and we were amazed at how beautiful the coastline was and how many different shapes and colours of shells there were. We decided to collect some so that we can use them in the sand at home.

We spent some time making sandcastles

Ruby enjoyed flying a kite

We went for a little paddle in the sea

But it would not be right if we had not had an ice-cream.

I think it was a contest between Ruby and Lottie as to who would get the most ice-cream over their face!

After spending over 2 hours on the beach it was lunch time and we headed to a lovely pub which did the most amazing cheese burger and chips.

Our final trip was to Holkham House where they have a new adventure playground which Ruby and Lottie loved and to be fair even Hubbie and I had a great time too; sometimes its so good to have children just so that we can take part in all this wonderful fun and relive our own childhood!

Both girls fell fast asleep in the car on the way home.

There was one final thing to do before it was bed time and that was to sing happy birthday to Lottie and sample a piece of birthday cake.

In all its been a really lovely chilled out day and I think we have all enjoyed spending time as a family celebrating Lottie's 1st birthday.