• days out - exploring - holidays - the Netherlands

    Exploring Utrecht with Miffy

    As a mum of two small children we love Miffy, the little white rabbit drawn by Dick Bruna. This year Miffy celebrates her 60th birthday with, amongst other things, a special exhibition called Celebrating 60 years of Miffy! at the Centraal Museum Utrecht. Exploring Utrecht with Miffy Dick Bruna was born and lives in Utrecht and created Miffy there so it is great to see such a huge exhibition dedicated to Miffy. The exhibition runs from 20 June 2015 until 20 September 2015 and earlier in the summer holidays my husband and I enjoyed a weekend away and found ourselves…

  • holidays - Peppa Pig Holiday Blogger - swimming

    Swimming with Peppa and George

    This year we have really enjoyed being a Peppa Pig Holiday Blogger. Both my children love Peppa and she plays a large part in our lives, as I’m sure she does in many other families. A few weeks ago we received our final Peppa Pig parcel of goodies and it was packed with lovely toys and products to see us through the holidays. The parcel contained lots of items which were perfect for my daughter who was really looking forward to swimming in Grandad’s pool this summer. The last time we put her in a pool 12 months ago just…

  • baking - eating - holidays

    Eating Belgian waffles

    It’s a little known fact that I’m a Belgophile. I adore Belgium and have visited many Belgium cities including Brussels, Ghent, Ypres, Ostend, Bruges and this month Antwerp. I have a long list of more Belgian cities I want to visit, much to my family’s dismay. Obviously travelling at home and abroad can be expensive. According to some recent research by the Santander 123 credit card team the average daily spend while ON holiday (excluding flights and accommodation) in Barbados is a massive £109! Belgium is £88 and Poland and India came out cheapest with an average daily spend of…

  • days out - holidays - vintage

    Monday happy things

    It’s time for my favourite post of the week, my Monday happy things. We spent the last week at my mum’s which was lovely. The weather was great and we spent every day out exploring the beautiful countryside. We visited Salisbury and had fun looking for the Barons’ Charter sculptures. The Barons’ Charter includes 25 life-sized decorated medieval baron sculptures displayed as an art trail across the city. The trail is open until 6th September and well worth a visit. They will then be auctioned to raise money for The Trussell Trust, the UK’s leading poverty charity. Our favourite sculpture…

  • days out - holidays

    Our Summer holiday round up (Week 3)

    The Summer holidays are flying by and I’m quite enjoying writing about our adventures. Over the last week we have been on holiday and had a few busy days in London. Here’s what we’ve been up to: We visited a beautiful National Trust property called Stoke-sub-Hamdon Priory situated between Yeovil and Ilminster. Despite being National Trust members we rarely visit any properties so it was lovely to make a brief visit and explore the site. We also re-visited Nunney Castle as Little Sis demanded to go to a castle. Whilst we were away we spent lots of time outdoors. We…

  • holidays - vintage

    Cream teas, buckets and spades

    This week we’re enjoying a sunny break in Devon at our favourite cottage. The front door of our cottage opens out onto the beach and the children have been perfecting the art of sandcastle making and hunting for pirate treasure. pirate treasure straight from the beach There has been plenty of time for me to browse round the local charity shops. I was imagining discovering armfuls of vintage games, linens and quirky seaside souvenirs to brighten up our home. However, despite much looking, my bag is pretty empty. I lucked out on playing cards, picking up a pack of the…

  • baking - book review - competition - crafts - gingerbread - handmade - holidays

    Things that go bump in the night!

    Today is Halloween and we’ll be celebrating by having a small party, with some ghostly treats. For one day only we’re calling ourselves the gingerdead house! We’ve had loads of fun making decorations so I thought I’d share some of them with you. We’ve been really busy over the last month and some of our favourites are: no carve pumpkins, pinecone spider, mummy candle, ghost ice cubes, Halloween sun catchers and toilet roll mummies. As well as crafting we’ve made some spooky snacks, from gingerdead men with black treacle to wriggly jelly worms. We’ve also tasted some yummy pickled onion…

  • eating - holidays

    {Review} Morrisons M Kitchen range

    In 2011 Morrisons launched its M Kitchen range, a range of convenience meals that is named after the real life kitchen that sits at the heart of Morrisons HQ in Bradford. Here, a team of expert chefs, under the guidance of Morrisons executive chef of product development, Neil Nugent, work hard to bring you those tasty meals and sauces that are popped into the trolley. The M Kitchen team is continuously coming up with new ideas for tasty, quality dishes to satisfy all those customers which come through Morrisons’ doors each week. Now, almost exactly two years on, there are over…

  • days out - holidays - Wiltshire

    Family fun at Lacock Abbey

    I’m very proud to say that today is Day 2 of our holiday and we’ve used our National Trust membership on two consecutive days! We’ve been members for years but have found the children never really enjoyed our trips – until now! Yesterday we had a lovely walk around Avebury stone circle and today we were at Lacock Abbey. Family fun at Lacock Abbey It’s been a while since I last visited and is now laid out through the memories of the last resident, Matilda Talbot. The children enjoyed following the children’s trail, watching the Zoetrope go round and spotting…