• How the Light Gets In
    book review - Family Life - London

    How the Light Gets In {book review}

    June 19, 2018 - By 

    How the Light Gets In is the exciting new book from award winning short story writer and novelist, Clare Fisher. You may remember that I reviewed her debut novel All the Good Things last year. From the publishers that brought you Attrib and Other Stories by Eley Williams, How the Light Gets In is another spellbinding short story collection. How the Light Gets In by Clare Fisher A book of very short stories that explores the spaces between light and dark and how we find our way from one to the other. From buffering Skype chats and the truth about beards, to fried chicken shops and the…

  • Places for outdoor swimming or water play in west London
    Family Life - Local Review - London

    Places for outdoor swimming or water play in west London

    June 18, 2018 - By 

    With the Summer holidays looming here in the UK I have everything crossed for lots of sunny days. I like my children to get plenty of fresh air as it really helps to tire them out. Nothing beats water play in the open air but there are actually very few places you can go near where we live in West London. I thought I would share our favourite places for outdoor swimming or water play in west London. Places for outdoor swimming or water play in west London Ruislip Lido Our favourite place was water play is Ruislip Lido in the London Borough…

  • Family Life - mindfulness - Monday Happy List

    Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things

    June 18, 2018 - By 

    Happy Monday everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. It was our first weekend at home for a month and so lovely to relax and just go out for lunch and to the park. I love starting off each week by writing my Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things blog post. It’s a great chance to reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures – it’s a post I always enjoy writing. Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things My poor Year 3 son survived Assessment Week. He…

  • Win a We Love Sylvanian Families Town magazine
    competition - Family Life - Friends of Sylvanian Families

    Win a We Love Sylvanian Families Town magazine

    June 16, 2018 - By 

    Fans of Sylvanian Families will love the latest magazine – We Love Sylvanian Families Town. It comes with 7 free gifts and is packed full of puzzles, colouring and quizzes. My daughter loves playing with her Sylvanian Families but there is a distinct lack of toys and books from the range apart from the ones which come with membership of the Fan Club. Thankfully she loved reading the last issue of We Love Sylvanian Families which came out last year and was excited to get her hands on this new magazine celebrating the Sylvanian Families Town range. We Love Sylvanian…

  • Star Wars Force Link 2.0 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon with Han Solo Figure
    Family Life - Hasbro Toy Tribe - Star Wars crafts - toy review

    Star Wars Force Link 2.0 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon with Han Solo Figure

    June 16, 2018 - By 

    Have you watched Solo: A Star Wars Story yet? The idea behind Solo: A Star Wars Story is that through a series of daring escapades, young Han Solo meets his future co-pilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian. We had a rare date night and were able to go and watch it *without* the children. They are both huge Star Wars fans so I know we will go and see it again with them soon. It was a great film, so much fun, and we loved finding out more about how Han Solo got the Millennium Falcon! Hasbro kindly…

  • A great family day out at Pensthorpe Natural Park
    days out - Family Life - Norfolk

    A great family day out at Pensthorpe Natural Park

    June 12, 2018 - By 

    Although our holiday in Norfolk was a few weeks ago I haven’t managed to write up half the places we managed to visit. Today I wanted to tell you about Pensthorpe Natural Park which was recommended to us by someone we got chatting too. I hadn’t heard of Pensthorpe but it was one of our favourite family days out in Norfolk. Pensthorpe Natural Park Pensthorpe is situated just outside Fakenham, only 20 minutes from where we were staying at Wells-next-the-Sea. I have to admit that the name of the place initially put me off. I knew that the kids wouldn’t be keen…

  • Star Wars Bladebuilders Force Master Lightsaber
    Family Life - Hasbro Toy Tribe

    Star Wars Bladebuilders Force Master Lightsaber

    June 11, 2018 - By 

    My children are huge Star Wars fans but I have to be honest, when the chance came to go and watch the latest Star Wars film, us adults went alone! We’ll take them to go and see Solo: A Star Wars Story soon but it was so lovely watching it without interruption! Anyway, the whole fans love the Star Wars world so I couldn’t resist the chance to try out the new Star Wars Bladebuilders Force Master Lightsaber from Hasbro. The 8 year old has a few different lightsabers to play, including the Star Wars BladeBuilders Spin-Action Lightsaber, with so the 6 year…

  • Life isn’t Uniform
    Family Life - school

    M&S Back to School – Life isn’t Uniform

    June 7, 2018 - By 

    I don’t know about you but I’m both excited and sad about the count down until the Summer holidays. The Summer term is my favourite as there are so many lovely events going on. But it’s bittersweet as life with children goes so quickly and my children seem to be growing up far too soon. Recently M&S got in touch to invite me to participate in their latest campaign around school uniform. Love it or loathe, school uniform is a huge part of my childhood memories, and will be a big part of my children’s too. I have quite fond…

  • competition - Family Life - toy review

    Win a Num Noms bundle of goodies

    June 7, 2018 - By 

    Last week we were invited to a very special ‘Kids in the Kitchen’ party with Nigel Clarke in London. I’ve mentioned a few times how much my children enjoy collecting and playing with Num Noms so they were very excited to be invited to this special Num Noms Series 5 launch event. Can you believe Series 5 have recently launched? There are so many fun Num Noms characters and playsets to collect. We were lucky to get a good look at the new series which is full of great new characters including Caramel Croissant, Razzy Loaf, Krispy Kaitlin and Wildberry…