• baking - crafts - fun - playing

    Inexpensive ideas for family fun

    Babies and children are big business. From toys and games to toddler activities, this particular market offers limitless money making opportunities for those in the know. With parents powerless to resist the hard sell, our homes often become a haven to consumerism and the material trappings of the toddler to teen years. These days, playgroup is increasingly passĂ© and toddlers are often treated to a schedule of organised activities. Swimming and soft play sessions have upped their game, with increasingly expensive activities promising everything from educational benefits to borderline enlightenment. With more and more families feeling the pinch, why not…

  • baby - exploring - fun - playing - reviews

    Review: Baby Sensory

    I love being offered products to review but we really really enjoy the opportunity of going to new events where we can learn something or try a different experience! So when we were offered the chance to attend a baby sensory class I was excited. Baby Sensory provides hundreds of sensory development activities that are great fun for parents and babies to share in the vital first year. The classes include fibre optic light shows, bubbles, bells, musical fun, baby signing, puppet shows, amazing light balls and so much more. Classes are aimed from birth to 13 months with separate…

  • childhood - fun

    Friday Club Life Carnival: your favourite childhood memory

    I love Ella’s Notes From Home – do I say that every week? Words don’t come naturally to me and I love that her prompts help me to find my writing voice. This week’s prompt is a goodie: a favourite childhood memory. I find I’ve created false memories from looking back through my old photo albums so I relished the opportunity to be all nostalgic for a while. It’s taken me a while to whittle down my favourite childhood memory. Some of my favourite memories make me laugh out loud. Such as the first Valentine I received aged about 4.…

  • fun - playing - pushchairs - Quinny Caster - Quinny Zapp Xtra - reviews

    Goodbye QuinnyCasters

    For our final QuinnyCasters challenge we were asked “How do you say goodbye to your QuinnyCaster period?” I asked my son what he thought and we decided to hold a teddy bear’s picnic with our Quinny Zapp Xtra as the special guest. We sat round our blanket and ate cake and drank fizzy pop. We shared happy memories of trips out in the Quinny Zapp Xtra. We even read out our Quinny Zapp Xtra haiku which we composed especially:   Our time as Quinny Casters is over we have had fun and made friends We’ve enjoyed our time as QuinnyCasters…

  • baking - blogging - fun - parenting - playing - reviews

    Closer to Nature hygiene range

    Tommee Tippee, well know for their feeding and weaning products, have just launched a new Closer to Nature hygiene range and Edward and I were invited to attend the launch at Maggie & Rose. Their new hygiene range has been designed to make routine feeding easier through a range of products which help keep feeding equipment and the environment clean. The range consists of a hand serum, Steri-fluid, surface spray and soother, teat and teether wipes. All of the products (except the wipes) contain Byotrol  – a new anti-microbial technology which forms a barrier to germs which lasts for hours.…

  • baby - days out - fun - holiday - playing - The Gallery

    24 hours in our world

    I’ve tried to take a photo of Edward every day since he was born and publish my favourite on my baby blog. When I heard this week’s Gallery theme I thought about leaving the camera next to my bed so I could photograph everything we did from the moment we woke up. Then I realised that I take so many photographs I could almost pick any 24 hour period to show. Yesterday was a great day, the sun shone, we visited our favourite farm and saw lots of family, so have a look at our 24 hours: 1. breakfast time,…

  • baby - Christmas - Cooking - fun - handmade - holiday - parenting

    A new family’s Christmas traditions

    We are a new little family and as this is our son’s first Christmas I want to start some of our own Christmas traditions which I hope will make it really special every year. Some we can’t do until he’s a bit older but here’s my wish list: Put up the Advent calendar I made which has plenty of room for a chocolate coin in each pocket Receive a letter from Father Christmas (via the NSPCC) Visit Father Christmas (this year we enjoyed a trip to see him here) Go to Oxford Street to see the Christmas lights or visit…

  • baby - FlipUltra - fun

    A young Heat fan

    I took 22 videos today of Edward as I’ve been trying to capture him moving from sitting to crawling. In the process I’ve taken video of him playing with his toys, shopping in Tesco’s and on the car ferry. He’s been eyeing up my changing bag for a while but today he finally got hold of it and had a good look. He also grabbed my (un-read) copy of Heat. We’re blaming Nanny for his love of magazines as yesterday she gave him a magazine which he quickly shredded – now no magazine is safe! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlxBgfuukYI&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  • days out - fun - reviews

    Me and the paparazzi

    Last night I went to a swanky London venue to learn more about the latest third generation Flip Video pocket camcorder. On arrival we were met by members of the paparazzi who filmed us walking down the red carpet. Then we were given delicious red button cocktails and some yummy canapes. The room was full of bloggers and journalists all keen to learn more about the latest Flip. I was given the chance to play with one of the new Flip camcorders which has just been launched. It was really simple to use and my short film was viewed on…