• review of the Playmobil Royal Ice Skating Trip Advent Calendar
    Christmas - parenting - toy review

    Playmobil Royal Ice Skating Trip Advent Calendar

    November 2, 2017 - By 

    I love Christmas and have been excitedly working on filling up our Advent Crate which is delivered by our little Elf on the 1st December. Every one in our house gets an Advent Calendar and I love looking round for the latest must-have calendars. We’ve been Playmobil Playologists for a while now and were lucky to receive one of the new Playmobil Advent Calendars to review. Playmobil is a top manufacturer within preschool toys and make the best Advent calendars! In 2013 we reviewed the Playmobil Pirates Treasure Cove advent calendar, in 2014 we reviewed the Playmobil Santa’s Workshop Advent Calendar in 2015 we reviewed…

  • Creating a keepsake of Christmas memories
    parenting

    Creating a keepsake of Christmas memories with Snapfish

    November 1, 2017 - By 

    Now that Halloween is over for another year it’s time to turn our attention to Christmas. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that I’m pretty big on celebrating the seasons and family traditions. Snapfish recently got in touch and asked me if I would like to create a photo book with them, celebrating all our little Christmas memories and traditions (read to the end for a very generous discount from Snapfish). I’ve made a few photo books before. There was one for my mum’s recent special birthday, and I also made one for my daughter’s first…

  • boy holding plate of Limited edition BEAR Claws
    Halloween crafts - Happy By Nature - parenting

    Limited edition BEAR Claws for our Trick or Treaters!

    October 31, 2017 - By 

    My children have been (almost) climbing the walls with excitement for most of October. They just adore Halloween and have been dressing up, pleading with me to get the Halloween decorations out of the loft, and helping me bake spooky treats all month. Halloween can, and should be, a really fun festival for children. They love decorating the front of our house to make sure that Trick or Treaters know they can call on us. To get them in the mood for Halloween, they were sent their very own trick-or-treat boxes from BEAR. I left them out for the children…

  • Sylvanian Families Halloween decoration
    crafts - Friends of Sylvanian Families - Halloween crafts

    Sylvanian Families Halloween wreath decoration

    October 30, 2017 - By 

    Today we were walking to school and my children berated me for our lack of Halloween decorations! I was pretty loathe to give up my day decorating, especially as I thought the Halloween decorations I picked up a few weeks ago in poundworld were brilliant. Clearly I needed to up my game to impress the 5 and 7 year old. A few weeks ago I bought a laser cut MDF spider web online. I thought I would use it to make my own Halloween wreath. I gave it two coats of white paint which took ages – if I try this…

  • vintage Kasak Collier Campbell for Liberty
    days out - homestyle - mindfulness - Monday Happy List

    Monday mindfulness {5 happy things}

    October 30, 2017 - By 

    Half term just flew by for me. It was lovely to go away for the whole week and we caught up with all my family which was brilliant. I had been super organised and pre-written all my blog posts which meant I hardly spent any time on my laptop all week. I even found time to do some sewing in the evening! Our week was packed with adventures in the fresh air which was just what we all needed. Whilst we were staying with my mum we made the Christmas cakes and puddings. Forget Stir Up Sunday (this year it…

  • Hot Wheels Track Builder Stunt Bridge Kit review
    parenting - toy review

    Hot Wheels Track Builder Stunt Bridge Kit review

    October 29, 2017 - By 

    It’s been a while since we reviewed any Hot Wheels sets but today we have a brilliant one to share with you. Both my children have always loved toy cars. They are always close to hand in the living room and I love the different ways my children play with them. We have a few Hot Wheels tracks. They come up with all sorts of genius tracks to make play really fun and spark imagination. Today we’re going to tell you about the Hot Wheels Track Builder Stunt Bridge Kit from Mattel. Hot Wheels Track Builder Stunt Bridge Kit The Hot…

  • Snazaroo Halloween event at KidZania London
    days out - Local Review - London - parenting

    Snazaroo Halloween event at KidZania London

    October 29, 2017 - By 

    Today we were invited along to KidZania at Westfield London to experience their Snazaroo Halloween event. My kids adore KidZania so we were delighted to go along. KidZania is an indoor city run by kids, giving kids the opportunity to try out over 60 activities for themselves. We went along this morning and managed to keep it a surprise until we were outside. The kids were so excited when they realised where they were going! We handed over our boarding passes for 4 hours of fun! Over half term kids have the chance to transform into their favourite Halloween character and…

  • Miffy Sugar Skull gingerbread biscuits
    baking - gingerbread - homestyle - Miffy Mums

    Miffy Sugar Skull gingerbread biscuits

    October 28, 2017 - By 

    I had a really silly idea a few weeks ago and it took me a long time to get round to making it. Half term has been busy and so much fun, but I’ve missed my crafting time with the kids being off school. My 5 year old adores Miffy (so do I). We have a Miffy biscuit cutter and I thought we could bake and decorate Miffy Sugar Skull gingerbread biscuits for Halloween! Miffy Sugar Skull gingerbread biscuits First I made my usual gingerbread recipe which you can find here. Then we cut out lots of Miffy shapes. When…

  • Dear Zoo Story Stones
    crafts

    Dear Zoo Story Stones

    October 27, 2017 - By 

    “I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. So they sent me an ….” Thus begins our favourite book! It’s a children’s picture book classic and a very respectable 35 years old. It seems a very long time ago since I took a very young Big Brother and Little Sis off to Macmillan Children’s Book for a lovely Dear Zoo party and to meet Rod Campbell. We love any book by Rod Campbell and have a much-loved copy of Dear Zoo which has been signed by him. As well as our classic copy of Dear Zoo we also…