• Mottisfont House and Gardens
    days out - Hampshire - National Trust - parenting

    A day at Mottisfont House and Gardens

    July 1, 2017 - By 

    A few weekends ago we met up with some friends at Mottisfont House and Gardens in Hampshire. Entry was free with our National Trust membership cards and we had a great day out exploring the house and gardens. The weather wasn’t great (ok, it rained on and off all day) but it didn’t stop us from spending an insane amount of time outside. Mottisfont House is a former Augustinian priory set beside the River Test with an amazing park and garden. The park has ancient trees and an eighteenth century summer house. The Lime Walk was designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe…

  • Fox's Ice Cream Favourites
    competition - homestyle - Summer

    Win 1 of 4 bags of Fox’s Limited Edition Ice Cream Favourites

    June 30, 2017 - By 

    Nothing says Great British summertime like your favourite ice cream flavours, and this summer, Fox’s Glacier has launched an extra-special edition to help you re-live summers gone by. Brought to you by the makers of Fox’s Glacier Mints, Fox’s Glacier Fruits and Fox’s Glacier Darks, a range which has been enjoyed up and down the country for 99 years, Fox’s Ice Cream Favourites are inspired by the nation’s favourite flavours. Each pack contains an irresistible mix of Raspberry Ripple, Strawberry Cream, Rum & Raisin and Banana flavoured sweets, which are guaranteed to bring back memories of choosing your favourite flavour…

  • crafts - Nature crafts - Summer

    Frozen flowers play {A-Z Play at Home}

    June 30, 2017 - By 

    Now our garden is in full bloom it’s been fun to use some of the flowers in our crafting. Every week we have been joining in with the A-Z Play at Home blog hop. This weeks letter was the letter I which immediately made me think of ice. The children love making ice, using ice and playing with ice. We wanted to give our ice play a little seasonal twist so picked some fresh blooms from our garden for some colourful ice play. We used: heart shaped plastic trays from the recycling bin fresh flowers from the garden water Frozen…

  • Hanazuki wearable band and treasure
    Hasbro Toy Tribe - parenting - playing - toy review

    Hanazuki wearable band and treasure

    June 29, 2017 - By 

    Both my children adore YouTube so it’s probably no surprise that they are fans of Hasbro’s YouTube series Hanazuki: Full of Treasures. This is a colourful cartoon from Hasbo which is a great way for children to learn about their emotional intelligence. In each episode, the hero Hanazuki uses her emotion-themed abilities to activate magical treasures to save each moon from the dark force called the Big Bad. She has some little guys, knowns as Hemka, to help her. There is also a fun app (available on iOS and Android) which my 5 and 7 year olds have been enjoying. It…

  • How to make a simple cable reel blackboard
    crafts - garden crafts - Nature crafts - Painted rocks - upcycling

    How to make a simple cable reel blackboard

    June 28, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I shared a recent upcycle of a wooden cable reel. We turned it into a fairy house for the children to play with. We actually picked up two cable reels so today I’m going to show you what we did with the other. Cable reels are great and there are so many ways to upcycle them. My children love to use chalk to draw on the patio and walls so I made them a cable reel blackboard – perfect for mark making outside. We used: Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint (Old School Green) Wooden cable reel Smooth pebbles…

  • Despicable Me 3 film review
    days out - film review - parenting

    Despicable Me 3 film review

    June 27, 2017 - By 

    Our family love all things Minion so have been looking forward to the release of Despicable Me 3 for a while. My children have opened a few Despicable Me 3 Kinder Eggs and we reviewed some of the new Despicable Me Mineez too. They also got their hands on some Despicable Me Happy Meals toys – we’ve been pretty much immersed in all things Despicable Me and minions! So when we were invited to the premiere of the new film in Leicester Square we just had to attend. We managed to keep it a secret until we arrived at Leicester…

  • Easy pipe cleaner bird feeders
    crafts - Nature crafts

    Easy pipe cleaner bird feeders

    June 26, 2017 - By 

    Now Summer has officially arrived it’s lovely to see our crafts being inspired by nature and our garden. We love to attract the birds to our garden so made some easy bird feeders after school today. It’s a quick and easy craft but a great way to improve those fine motor skills. Easy pipe cleaner bird feeders We used: pipe cleaners Honey Loops breakfast cereal I poured some of the Honey Loops into a smaller container and sat my children down with an assortment of pipe cleaners. They threaded the cereal onto the pipe cleaners, one by one. It was…

  • the M&M store London
    homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday happy things {Week 143}

    June 26, 2017 - By 

    Happy Monday! Time for my weekly Monday happy things, sharing the five things which have made me happiest in the previous week. Last week was good although it started off with my son having two days off school with tummy ache. This seems to be a long term problem and I was happy that the Doctor finally gave him a referral to the Hospital. It’s never nice seeing your child in pain and he’s had a lot of time off school this year. I’m hoping this will be the start of sorting him out. Luckily he went back to school…

  • Trunkaroo creativity by post box
    homestyle - subscription box

    Super Hero fun with Trunkaroo {creativity by post}

    June 25, 2017 - By 

    I’ve been a fan of subscription boxes since I first discovered them. I like receiving happy post and my children now love them as much as I do. Thankfully there are some brilliant subscription boxes for kids and we were delighted to try out Trunkaroo – creativity by post. Trunkaroo is a monthly art and science subscription box for kids. Each month they deliver delightful and enriching hands-on activities, science experiments, art projects and DIY games right to your door! Take a look at our unboxing video to see what my 7 year old thought: The theme for the trunk was…