So a lot of men say, labour can't be that bad...
They think we over exaggerate...
They think they have better pain thresholds than us...
They think they would cope a lot better if they had to go through labour...
Well wouldn't you just love your man to feel just a little part of what us women go through in labour...
...I think they should make this part of parenting classes don't you? Tee hee.
That way maybe your other half might be less partial to go out and get that sandwich and drink, or fall asleep on the beanbag next to the bed whilst you are in late stages of labour...yes I'm looking at you James!
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Walkers Hoops & Crosses Review
It's no lie, I do love crisps...I know they aren't the healthiest but if I don't have a packet at lunch I feel I have missed out, and end up craving them throughout the day.
For years I tried to not pass this habit onto Alex, but as you all probably know it's a bit difficult to eat a packet of crisps hiding behind the fridge door with a preschooler lurking about! So now he does often have some crisps on his plate at lunch time despite my best efforts not to.
So I was very pleased to be able to review a new packet of crisps from Walkers (and so was Alex).
Each packet contains:
-85 calories
-Are made from wholegrains
-No artificial colours or preservatives
They are baked too and are a healthier option compared to a normal packet of crisps, so I would be much happier giving these to Alex instead of other alternatives.
They come in 3 different flavours which are all suitable for vegetarians, roast beef, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar. We were sent the roast beef flavour which tasted great, texture wise they are very comparable to Monster Munch, I thought they tasted much nicer though.
Alex demolished them off and kept shouting "no" when I tried to pinch another one so they definitely got the thumbs up from him (which is good as other crisps he has tired that are similar in texture he hasn't liked at all). It's another way to get wholegrains into their system too, which 27% of children don't get any at all in their diets.
All in all I would be much happier giving these to Alex in his lunch, I still wouldn't give him the whole packet at once as I believe a packet of that size is too much for a young child, but as long as they are eaten with a balanced diet a small amount won't do any harm. However if I think they are quite expensive when doing the weekly shop I might have to go back to our usual savoury snacks due to being on a tight budget.
Thanks Walkers for the crisps and the monkey toy which even the baby is eyeing up and plays with when his brother isn't looking!
Disclosure: we were sent a packet of crisps to review along with a Monkey toy and are getting paid for the review. However all opinion and words are our own.
For years I tried to not pass this habit onto Alex, but as you all probably know it's a bit difficult to eat a packet of crisps hiding behind the fridge door with a preschooler lurking about! So now he does often have some crisps on his plate at lunch time despite my best efforts not to.
So I was very pleased to be able to review a new packet of crisps from Walkers (and so was Alex).
Each packet contains:
-85 calories
-Are made from wholegrains
-No artificial colours or preservatives
They are baked too and are a healthier option compared to a normal packet of crisps, so I would be much happier giving these to Alex instead of other alternatives.
They come in 3 different flavours which are all suitable for vegetarians, roast beef, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar. We were sent the roast beef flavour which tasted great, texture wise they are very comparable to Monster Munch, I thought they tasted much nicer though.
Alex demolished them off and kept shouting "no" when I tried to pinch another one so they definitely got the thumbs up from him (which is good as other crisps he has tired that are similar in texture he hasn't liked at all). It's another way to get wholegrains into their system too, which 27% of children don't get any at all in their diets.
All in all I would be much happier giving these to Alex in his lunch, I still wouldn't give him the whole packet at once as I believe a packet of that size is too much for a young child, but as long as they are eaten with a balanced diet a small amount won't do any harm. However if I think they are quite expensive when doing the weekly shop I might have to go back to our usual savoury snacks due to being on a tight budget.
Thanks Walkers for the crisps and the monkey toy which even the baby is eyeing up and plays with when his brother isn't looking!
Disclosure: we were sent a packet of crisps to review along with a Monkey toy and are getting paid for the review. However all opinion and words are our own.
Thursday, 9 May 2013
How does your garden grow?
Ok I don't have a garden, but I did go to a lovely garden on Monday...and I thought I'd be cheeky and use the photos I took for this today.
Even if I had a garden there is no way I would be able to grow anything anywhere near a nice as the flowers we saw there. I have a habit of killing plants despite actually liking them!
Even if I had a garden there is no way I would be able to grow anything anywhere near a nice as the flowers we saw there. I have a habit of killing plants despite actually liking them!
Now hopefully sometime in the next few years we can move to a bigger house, with one that has a garden-and maybe, just maybe I can grow some beautiful flowers to be proud of.
Osbourne House
So we had a lovely weekend in the Isle of Wight, on Sunday we went to Carisbrooke castle and on Monday we enjoyed a lovely afternoon out at Osbourne House.
Me and James decided to join up to the English Heritage (in hindsight we should have done it the day before) but two adults would have cost about £26 to get in, which is quite a lot so well worth paying for a year subscription if you will make use of it.
The grounds were absolutely beautiful, the sun was blazing in the blue skies which heightened everyone's moods and showed off the vibrant colours of the flowers and gardens. We even had the second picnic of the year on the grass!
The house itself I personally thought didn't look too impressive from the outside, big but not necessarily beautiful, but as people say 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Inside was very regal, well it had to be seeing as it was Queen Victoria's holiday home! Every wall was covered it artwork in golden, decorative frames, you could view many rooms about the house, my favourite being one that had the sea view in the centre of the room; the weather was so clear we could actually see the Spinnaker tower in the distance.
I must admit we didn't get the best look around the house as Sam was tired and crying a bit too loud we felt a bit awkward for everyone else, so walked around quickly-typically he fell asleep just as we were finishing!
We then took a longish walk to the beach that was once their own private beach, it was so nice to be walking along green grass and dusty paths rather than sloppy mud and puddles. The beach itself wasn't stunning like the rest of the grounds but the boys enjoyed throwing stones into the sea as we all sat upon a wall watching them. It's well worth the walk though as the ice creams there are delicious!
We then took a walk back up the hill towards the Swiss Cottage which is where the children would play and be taught gardening skills, the vegetable patches were rather sweet.
After all that the boys were all quite tired, I was so impressed that Alex had walked around for the whole day, it was 2 miles down to the beach alone! He and Uncle T (who's only 18 months older than him) enjoyed collecting many sticks along their travels! They weren't too tired to enjoy the fun park they have there though, the big zip wire being the favourite-not just with the kids (oops)!
Would definitely recommend going with or without kids, we didn't even walk around all the grounds and see everything that's there so could have quite easily have spent a couple more hours there-we had a boat to catch though!
Me and James decided to join up to the English Heritage (in hindsight we should have done it the day before) but two adults would have cost about £26 to get in, which is quite a lot so well worth paying for a year subscription if you will make use of it.
The grounds were absolutely beautiful, the sun was blazing in the blue skies which heightened everyone's moods and showed off the vibrant colours of the flowers and gardens. We even had the second picnic of the year on the grass!
The house itself I personally thought didn't look too impressive from the outside, big but not necessarily beautiful, but as people say 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Inside was very regal, well it had to be seeing as it was Queen Victoria's holiday home! Every wall was covered it artwork in golden, decorative frames, you could view many rooms about the house, my favourite being one that had the sea view in the centre of the room; the weather was so clear we could actually see the Spinnaker tower in the distance.
I must admit we didn't get the best look around the house as Sam was tired and crying a bit too loud we felt a bit awkward for everyone else, so walked around quickly-typically he fell asleep just as we were finishing!
We then took a longish walk to the beach that was once their own private beach, it was so nice to be walking along green grass and dusty paths rather than sloppy mud and puddles. The beach itself wasn't stunning like the rest of the grounds but the boys enjoyed throwing stones into the sea as we all sat upon a wall watching them. It's well worth the walk though as the ice creams there are delicious!
We then took a walk back up the hill towards the Swiss Cottage which is where the children would play and be taught gardening skills, the vegetable patches were rather sweet.
After all that the boys were all quite tired, I was so impressed that Alex had walked around for the whole day, it was 2 miles down to the beach alone! He and Uncle T (who's only 18 months older than him) enjoyed collecting many sticks along their travels! They weren't too tired to enjoy the fun park they have there though, the big zip wire being the favourite-not just with the kids (oops)!
Would definitely recommend going with or without kids, we didn't even walk around all the grounds and see everything that's there so could have quite easily have spent a couple more hours there-we had a boat to catch though!
Carisbrooke Castle
On Sunday we enjoyed a lovely family day out at Carisbrooke castle.
Sam was really good in his backpack carrier, and bless James he carried him all the afternoon (I could not as Sam is so heavy and the carrier is half my size as I'm a titch)! He dozed on and off but when he was awake had a good look around.
All in all we had a great time and I would recommend visiting if you are ever nearby!
We were there with all of James' family so they we 13 of us in total!
Alex's Grandad spoilt him and the two youngest of James' brothers and treated them to full knights outfits.
They were the stars of the castle throughout the day and got many smiles-and even photos from others!
The grounds were spacious enough for them to run about without being in other people's way, and encountered many battles between each other and also James's other brothers too!
We had the first picnic of the year! Which was so nice-just being outside felt a bonus let alone some warming sun upon us and some great food and company.
It's a great castle you can walk around all the top, seeing some lovely rolling countryside scenes, and although there are ruins you can walk around a lot of the castle and it has been kept in such good condition and up keep.
It also has one of the only wells which has a working wheel moved by a donkey in the world (don't worry the donkey only works for a max of 6 minutes a day)! So that was quite interesting I wasn't expecting it to be worked like a hamsters wheel at all, I thought he'd be going round in circles.
There is also a museum, church and some old armour/clothes that you and the kids can try on-Alex had got quite tired by this point so we didn't spend as much time looking at these things.
 |
| Being a knight is tiring! |
It only cost me and James about £15 together as under 5's go free, but if you have English Heritage passes you can go for free, I think it was well worth the £15 pounds spent though as we spent a good few hours there.
Sam was really good in his backpack carrier, and bless James he carried him all the afternoon (I could not as Sam is so heavy and the carrier is half my size as I'm a titch)! He dozed on and off but when he was awake had a good look around.
All in all we had a great time and I would recommend visiting if you are ever nearby!
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
A weekend break to the Isle of Wight
Friday midday we set off to the Isle of Wight, Alex had been asking to pack our bags every 5 minutes all through Thursday and on the Friday morning was running about like a mad man!
We had a 2.30pm ferry booked and had quite a reasonable journey down, Alex was so excited to go onto the Ferry, loved watching all the boats in the docks, and the cars coming on and off! We headed straight for the top deck, the sun was shining and we were all excited to be getting away. I was very surprised to find Alex brave enough to stand by the edge over looking the water, he is usually so scared of drops and heights of any description.
We went straight to our holiday bungalow at Colwell Bay, we were the first of James' family to get there as his younger brother's had school that day, it was quite nice to have a few hours to ourselves in settle in. The bungalow was much nicer than I had expected, I hadn't really known what we were going to exactly as James' Mum had booked it.
We had two rooms, one a double and the other a twin room, they were spacious enough and had very comfy beds. The lounge/dining area was well furnished and the kitchen and bathroom had all we needed. I was pleasantly surprised that they had left some bread, milk, biscuits and bottled water for us which meant we didn't need to go shopping that night.
The beach was about a 3 minute walk for the holiday park, although it was very windy we took the boys out, as Alex was so excited to get to the beach and we had a few hours to pass before the others got there. We practically had the beach to ourselves as it was a bit chilly in the wind. Alex just loved getting his bucket and spade out-although he kept throwing all the sand our direction. Sam was just happy sat on the rug watching his brother play-until he face planted the sand that was!
We enjoyed some fish and chips for dinner that evening, and after an excited Alex said his hellos to his uncles and had some of T's birthday cake we all settled down for the night.
The weather wasn't great on Saturday and Sam and me were so bunged up, we'd not had a great night sleep because of this and Alex got up at 6.30! So by 10 we were wondering when the others would be up and about and were getting itchy feet and were more than ready to go out when they were up-one downside of going on holiday with others!
We went to the Needles which seemed quite out dated, and to be honest I didn't particularly enjoy it, could have been the weather, or my bad cold induced, sleep deprived mood but it wasn't particularly for me! The kids however enjoyed filling their shapes with the coloured sand, and actually watching the glass blowing was quite interesting-and warmed us all up!
The afternoon was much more me, we went for a lovely drive along the cliffs and found a long beach to walk along, we spent ages here, the boys searched for dinosaur footprint rocks, threw rocks into the sea, and just explored and ran free. The sun had come out again, and my mood had definitely lifted! It was just what I needed!
On Sunday we enjoyed an afternoon after a morning on the beach at Carisbrooke castle (next post) and then had a nice meal at The Wight Mouse Inn, the food was nice, and it has a good park/green for the kids to run about in, the views are stunning and we stayed a good food hours to watch the sun set behind the cliff.
On Monday we had more fun on the beach before heading off to Osbourne House (future post) and heading off in the evening to go home.
We had a lovely weekend, and my views on the Isle of Wight have changed-although I think the weather made it and not sure we would have had as much fun had it not been so nice!
We had a 2.30pm ferry booked and had quite a reasonable journey down, Alex was so excited to go onto the Ferry, loved watching all the boats in the docks, and the cars coming on and off! We headed straight for the top deck, the sun was shining and we were all excited to be getting away. I was very surprised to find Alex brave enough to stand by the edge over looking the water, he is usually so scared of drops and heights of any description.
We went straight to our holiday bungalow at Colwell Bay, we were the first of James' family to get there as his younger brother's had school that day, it was quite nice to have a few hours to ourselves in settle in. The bungalow was much nicer than I had expected, I hadn't really known what we were going to exactly as James' Mum had booked it.
We had two rooms, one a double and the other a twin room, they were spacious enough and had very comfy beds. The lounge/dining area was well furnished and the kitchen and bathroom had all we needed. I was pleasantly surprised that they had left some bread, milk, biscuits and bottled water for us which meant we didn't need to go shopping that night.
The beach was about a 3 minute walk for the holiday park, although it was very windy we took the boys out, as Alex was so excited to get to the beach and we had a few hours to pass before the others got there. We practically had the beach to ourselves as it was a bit chilly in the wind. Alex just loved getting his bucket and spade out-although he kept throwing all the sand our direction. Sam was just happy sat on the rug watching his brother play-until he face planted the sand that was!
 |
| What felt like our own private beach! |
We enjoyed some fish and chips for dinner that evening, and after an excited Alex said his hellos to his uncles and had some of T's birthday cake we all settled down for the night.
The weather wasn't great on Saturday and Sam and me were so bunged up, we'd not had a great night sleep because of this and Alex got up at 6.30! So by 10 we were wondering when the others would be up and about and were getting itchy feet and were more than ready to go out when they were up-one downside of going on holiday with others!
We went to the Needles which seemed quite out dated, and to be honest I didn't particularly enjoy it, could have been the weather, or my bad cold induced, sleep deprived mood but it wasn't particularly for me! The kids however enjoyed filling their shapes with the coloured sand, and actually watching the glass blowing was quite interesting-and warmed us all up!
The afternoon was much more me, we went for a lovely drive along the cliffs and found a long beach to walk along, we spent ages here, the boys searched for dinosaur footprint rocks, threw rocks into the sea, and just explored and ran free. The sun had come out again, and my mood had definitely lifted! It was just what I needed!
On Sunday we enjoyed an afternoon after a morning on the beach at Carisbrooke castle (next post) and then had a nice meal at The Wight Mouse Inn, the food was nice, and it has a good park/green for the kids to run about in, the views are stunning and we stayed a good food hours to watch the sun set behind the cliff.
On Monday we had more fun on the beach before heading off to Osbourne House (future post) and heading off in the evening to go home.
We had a lovely weekend, and my views on the Isle of Wight have changed-although I think the weather made it and not sure we would have had as much fun had it not been so nice!
Thursday, 2 May 2013
A Birthday for a bright shining star
A little girl should today be celebrating her 1st Birthday.
Grab the button
and link up your post for Matilda Mae
Her Mummy and Daddy, brother and sister should be bubbling with excitement for the day ahead, the fun to be had, the memories to be made.
She should be blowing that first candle out on her very first Birthday cake, and gleaming with pride.
But sadly she isn't here, instead her family are letting her sail off into the night...
To show some support to Jennie and her family on such a hard day some of us bloggers have written special posts for her.
We used bubbles and stars for a little bit of messy/arty play.
We often make and create cards when it's someone's Birthday, even if it's a simple drawing, so this is for you Matilda (I'm sorry the photos haven't come out so well).
Today is your Birthday
So I just wanted to say
I hope you enjoy your special day
It's not how it should be
But still shine with glee
Up high above the sparkling sea
Shine brightly tonight
As today should have been a day of delight
Your Mummy and Daddy will miss you, most of all, tonight.
xxx
Thinking of you Jennie, wishing you all the love, strength and courage to get through today, and every other day xx
Grab the button
and link up your post for Matilda Mae
For those of you that don't know there is going to be an auction to raise money for The Lullaby Trust in Matilda's name and memory. More details to follow at Edspire and Ghostwritermummy. The auction will be running from the 11th-20th May.
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