• Visiting The Gingerbread City
    Family Life - gingerbread house

    Visiting The Gingerbread City

    December 22, 2017 - By 

    Today we visited the rather wonderful Gingerbread City in London. I heard about this a few days ago and knew we had to visit. London’s best architects have created an the incredible city made of gingerbread! As well as visiting the Gingerbread City you could also attend Gingerbread House Making Workshops and visit the little gingerbread shop. The Gingerbread City The Gingerbread City was organised by The Museum of Architecture. This is the second year of its successful Gingerbread City project, a fundraising exhibition that invites architects, urban planners and landscape designers to design a city made entirely of gingerbread. Building on…

  • Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine
    Family Life - STEM activity - toy review

    Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine Kit

    December 20, 2017 - By 

    With my children now finished school for the holidays I have been planning how to keep them busy. They are so excited about Christmas Day so we’ve planned a few trips to the park, crafts and bakes to keep them busy. Today we had fun building the Haynes Internal Combustion Engine kit. Haynes Publishing is the home of car, motorcycle, scooter and ATV manuals, as well as a range of other specialist topics in print and digital formats. They also have the rather fabulous International Motor Museum which we visited this summer. Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine We recently…

  • Kikki.K Christmas
    Craft book review - Crafts for adults - Family Life

    Enjoying a Kikki.K Christmas

    December 20, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I popped into the Kikki.K store at St Pancras Station for a browse. I love stationery and have a very healthy addiction to list making, which means I need a lot of writing pads. There were some gorgeous products in Kikki.K so I treated myself to a little pre-Christmas haul. Have you heard of Kikki.K before? It’s a Swedish stationery brand with a few shops dotted around London. I just love all things Scandinavian, especially at Christmas time. This year their Christmas range features all my favourite things – black and white, gingerbread, candy canes and…

  • Baby Annabell Learns to Walk
    Family Life - toy review

    Challenging childhood milestones with Baby Annabell

    December 18, 2017 - By 

    We were recently sent a Baby Annabell Learns to Walk doll to review at home. This is a lovely 3 in 1 doll and with very realistic movements. You can place her on her tummy for tummy time and watch her crawl, she can be sat up and then take her first steps! My daughter has always loved playing with her dolls. The Baby Annabell range focuses on all the caring and nurturing aspects of being a mummy or daddy making it ideal for introducing little ones to the idea of a younger sibling coming along. Playing with dolls is also…

  • Star Wars porg paper craft
    Family Life - Monday Happy List

    Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things

    December 18, 2017 - By 

    Morning everyone. Time for my weekly post called Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things from the previous week. It was such a busy week with work, Christmas performances and parties. It all felt a little crazy busy until my poor daughter came down with a bug and everything slowed down. Fortunately she was able to take part in her Christmas play, and watched her brother perform too. She’s great company so it was actually really nice to spend a few quiet days at home, watching our favourite films. Last week I was notified that I made the Vuelio Top 10…

  • Xtrem Trooper Bot
    Family Life - STEM activity - toy review

    Xtrem Bot Trooper Bot

    December 16, 2017 - By 

    With only a few days until Christmas, today I’m sharing a review of a really fun STEM toy which would make a perfect gift this Christmas. We love STEM toys and this ticks all the boxes for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Xtrem Bot Trooper Bot The Xtrem Bot Trooper Bot looks pretty fun. He is a big toy and comes with a handheld remote, 5 missiles and charging cable. It was actually pretty easy to get out of the box (for once!) and the only thing we needed to supply was a screwdriver and 2 AA batteries before we could…

  • Come and join me as a Crater Craftmaster!
    Family Life

    Come and join me as a Crater Craftmaster!

    December 15, 2017 - By 

    Today I thought I’d share an app I recently discovered. I love my iPhone and love playing games on it. It’s fun to discover a new game and I find they are the perfect way to take 5 minutes for myself and relax throughout the day. Crater Craft is a fun, free app for both iOS and Google Play. Games are always so much more fun when your friends are playing so I thought I’d share my Player Tag (#86351d6) in case you want to come and find me! Crater Craft from 55pixels The Crater Craft app is available on both iOS…

  • Family-friendly films to watch on Netflix this Christmas
    Family Life - Netflix Stream Team

    Family-friendly films to watch on Netflix this Christmas

    December 14, 2017 - By 

    I can’t wait for my kids to break up next week. Although this term has gone super quick, it’s been busy, especially the last few weeks. We made a conscious decision to not fill our weekends in December with too many events. There is so much pressure at this time of year – to pick your own Christmas tree, visit the latest Grotto, go ice skating and visit Winter Wonderland. My children have enough to do with school and after school clubs, so we wanted weekends to be fun and relaxing. Instead we’ve watched our favourite films at 9am on…

  • Zoomy 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope
    Family Life - STEM activity - toy review

    Zoomy 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope from Learning Resources

    December 13, 2017 - By 

    I love STEM toys, those which encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Children are naturally inquisitive and there are some amazing toys to encourage them to continue their learning at home. My daughter was recently given a microscope for her birthday. It was a lovely, thoughtful gift, but quite basic. So we were delighted to receive the Zoomy 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope from Learning Resources to review. Zoomy 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope The Zoomy 2.0 Handheld Digital Microscope is a compact, handheld digital microscope which is easy for young children to use. It is aimed at ages 4-8 years and gives…