Plant, Sow, Make & Grow Book Review

Spring should be starting to spring (get it) and that means that a lot of people will be making their way back outdoors, into their glorious gardens and making the most of what the outside world has to offer us.

Plant, Sow, Make & Grow is therefore the ideal book review for me to offer you guys this week. It is an illustrated and approachable introduction for little ones to the ideas of garden.

Get little gardeners growing with this low-stress approach to producing yummy fruit, veggies and bug friendly flowers. You'll find plenty of handy gardening information to get you started plus tips about what wildlife you may see, riding your recycling box to make some useful gardening accessories and other craft activities. 

So grab some seeds and have a go!

This is the perfect book if you yourself are rather green fingered and would very much like your curious children to be able to kindly help out beside you.

How Does Your Garden Grow

Now if you're a regular reader of my blog you may recall me mentioning one or two times that I'm not very green fingered. In fact I'm that bad that generally I can't even keep a bunch of flowers alive for more than a couple of days.

Our back garden isn't very big and it's the husband's job to mow the lawn, well what's left of it anyway, see we can't even grow grass. Our poor garden is looking a little bit bald shall we say. But nethertheless, when my father in law gifted us a chilli plant and a tomato plant I thought I'd give it my best shot at keeping them growing.

Preparing for Exercising in Colder Weather

Autumn has definitely arrived. I've already started delving into my warmer clothes. Think jumpers, hats and boots. I do like to get snug. Trouble I find with the colder weather is getting out and exercising. The cooler temperatures and also the fact that it starts to get darker of evening times, I struggle to find the right workout gear to wear so I've made myself a little wishlist of clothes, you know preparing for exercising in the colder weather.

Things I Didn't Know About Fruit and Vegetables

Last weeks Ben and Holly Little Explorers theme was all about fruit and vegetables and I have to say I was rather surprised at some of the facts.

Did you know there are over 1000 types of apples? There was me just picking between red or green apples.

Apparenty lemons contain more sugar than strawberries. So tell me why do they taste so sour?

Eating a lot of onions can make you sleepy. Perhaps this is what I need to be eating in the evening to help me get to sleep.

At The Car Wash

With the Summer holidays here I think most of you will be in agreement that we want to spend as much time outdoors as possible but of course sometimes the cost of going out can be too much and the free alternatives can become boring when done too often like going to the park or geocaching perhaps.

So how do you get the kids outside?

Well one way we found was getting the girls to help daddy clean the car. This is good in more ways than one.

Win a Wickey Sandpit!

My bad luck turns into good luck for one of you lovely readers. I was recently given the chance to review a fantastic sandpit from Wickey. Unfortunately for me, I just don't have room in my garden for it.

This fantastic company stocks all outdoor toys from climbing frames, swings and playhouses to the fab sandpits that I was offered.

The particular sandpit I had to decline is a great size at 125cm x 110cm and comes complete with a hinged lid that allows it to be closed when not in use but turns into comfy benches to sit on when flipped open.

We're Going On A Flower Hunt

If you haven't seen by now, I am lucky enough to be an ambassador for Ben and Holly and this Summer they have set up the Little Explorer challenges for everyone to get involved in, each week with a new theme. Last week was all about flowers. So whilst the sun was shining on Friday we decided to go on a flower hunt at our local park.

Outdoor Fun With Little Tikes

One of the things I wanted when we started looking for a house to buy was a decent size garden as the one we had previously was little and not exactly child friendly. Now we have lovely space outside. It isn't huge but it certainly allows for us all to be outdoors and enjoying the good weather (when we actually get some).

We even have a shed to store things in which of course now means that we need to fill our garden with some outdoor toys!! The eldest two have things like hoola hoops, scooters and roller skates but I wanted something more for Layla so that when her sisters are at school she can still play happily by herself.

Autumnal Sensory Walk

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons. There are so many things to be seen and to be discovered. And what better way to explore than going on a sensory walk.

So what do you need?

Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

I do love living near the beach.

Being able to walk down the pier, watch the boats coming in and just sitting on the pebbles eating ice cream never gets old.

However you can't beat a sandy beach.

Whilst Daddy Hazelden was off, we drove down to Greatstone beach in Kent.

Not too far from us.

Getting Artistic In The Garden

You may have noticed that we had some lovely sunny weather last weekend and or course you have to make the most of the sunshine, even if it is just sitting in your own back garden.

We recently took a trip over to Canterbury and whilst in our local Tiger Store, we purchased a box of 15 large chalks for a tiny £2.

Our garden isn't very big but we thought these would be perfect for the girls to start getting artistic in the garden.

The box contained 5 different colours :

red, blue, yellow, green and white.

There was three of each colour so plenty there for the girls to share.



It was nice to have an activity that the girls could all do regardless of their age and it of course meant that I could sit back and soak up the sun rays whilst watching them, bonus!!!

Geocaching, What's It All About?

Geocaching is something that I have heard of, I've seen many of my friends mentioning it on their social media profiles but it wasn't until last weekend that my husband looked up exactly what it was :

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS receiver or mobile device to hide and seek containers which are called geocaches or caches, these can be found all around the world.

In simple terms it is like a real life treasure hunt.

Where to start?

First of all sign yourself up to geocaching.com. Here you can log your finds, let people know if maintenance is needed on a certain geocache and chat with other community members.

Which app should I use?

There are quite few apps available to help you on your geocaching quest. We used c:geo for android purely because it was free but there are other apps available such as CacheSense and the official app Geocaching.

What are we looking for??

A typical geocache is a waterproof container which typically contains a logbook. Not all geocaches are the same, some are small, some are large. Some geocachers like to leave other things in the containers for trading such as small toys or trinkets.

Only One of Me and Four of Them

I love getting my girls out in the fresh air and their favourite place to go is the park, doesn't matter what park but that is always their first response when asked what they want to do with the day. I admit to struggling sometimes though, with there being only one of them and four of me, I don't like the thought of not being able to see them all and the trouble with a lot of parks is that things are so spread out that I can't be everywhere all at the same time.

It is funny how time makes you forget things though. My mum happened to point out to me recently that there is a park near where she lives, I should know, I did live with her for quite a while ;)

This park has recently had a makeover with all new swings, slides etc so we decided to go round there with nannie last weekend.

It has now become my favourite park. Not too big, something for all the kids to do and most importantly it is a big open space surrounded by fences, I can see what all of the girls are doing from wherever I'm standing which left them free to go and play on whatever they wanted.

Scooting About Town

As a treat for the Summer holidays, Daddy Hazelden and I decided to buy the girls new scooters as their previous ones were not only only getting a bit old and tatty, they were also a little bit too small for them now, what with all the growing up they keep doing!!!

This was also a great excuse to go for a nice bimble about town in the glorious sunshine that is still gracing us with it's prescence.

My little Gracie is getting quite brave, when she first started scooting she didn't actually scoot, she instead just walked along pushing the scooter beside her. Just look her in action below though :

And just prove how clever she is, she even managed to lift her other foot off of the floor. Not a huge achievement to most people but I was definitely one proud mummy!!!

Now Elise and Freya are old pros on their scooters now so they decided the best way to have fun was to race each other. Freya started off in the lead but her older sister sped past her and claimed victory!!

       

Little Layla is still a tad too young to be scooting about town so I carried her on my back so she could watch everything that was going on over my shoulder and of course this made great exercise for mummy too :)

So how do your kids travel about town, do they love to scoot or are they more a fan of riding a bike??

xxxx

Fun in the Sun

The day the kids broke up from school, we were off on our jolly holiday to Ibiza. This was actually our third time going as a family and Daddy Hazelden's fifth time, can you tell we love the place!!??

What I love most about Ibiza is that it caters for both families and younger people and people who want to have time out without their kids. We managed to spend our days entertaining the kids and when the evening came around my lovely mummy was on hand to babysit the kids once they were in bed so Daddy Hazelden and I got some much needed couple time. I think as our relationship has continued I have found having time to ourselves more and more important!!

It is surprising how much there is to do out there and unlike in our country, everything is more than affordable. We did a different thing with the children every day of the holiday, we got to enjoy the gorgeous weather whilst keeping active too.

Our first day there, the kids spent there time on the go karts, it was 1 euro a go but as you can see from the photo, we all paired up sitting on them and they went round the track a good few times before their turn ran out.

I had a turn with Freya driving, I was scared for my life, she is definitely a girl racer, turning on corners at the last sec, banging into the tyres.

Her older sister sped round the track, not taking her foot off of the accelerator.

The good thing was, there was a bouncy castle, trampolines and a soft play area too and these were free, so both Gracie and Layla were kept entertained whilst their sister's zoomed round on their bikes.

We had so much fun here that we spent our last evening here too!

The second day Daddy Hazelden took the eldest two down to the beach with a couple of nets to try and catch some fish whilst Layla and Gracie were having an afternoon siesta.

This meant them spending time by the sea, climbing over a rocks, a real mini adventure.

Not surprisingly they didn't manage to catch anything, although you can see from the picture on the right the Elise did catch a Nannie in her net.

It was really nice for them to get a bit of time alone with Daddy Hazelden as this is a rarity when we are at home.

I think this may be something that they can do at home as Daddy Hazelden used to go fishing a lot so it would be nice for the girls to join in with something that he enjoys, rather than him having to play princesses!!

Day three was a park day. Even when away from home, the kids love going to the park, a free and simple way of keeping the kids happy.

There are a lot of parks to choose from in Ibiza, literally everywhere you walk there is a different kind of park and they all cater for younger and older children.

The problem is trying to find one in the shade.

With the average temperatures around the 30 degree mark, if the park isn't shaded, then the park apparatus is left extremely hot, making it impossible to sit on without burning your bottom.

Trust me, I attempted sitting on the slide, one word, ouchie!!

Day four came. Who could have a holiday without playing a little bit of mini golf!!!

Less than 20 euros for the whole family to play and there was 18 holes to get round.

We decided to go in pairs, Daddy Hazelden and Elise, me and Freya and Nannie and Gracie together.

Layla sat in her stroller watching and we took it in turns to push her around the course.

Now Nannie and Gracie won but there was a little bit of cheating here because Gracie didn't really play a lot!!

It was funny watching the girls trying to hold their clubs properly and get them hitting the balls in the right direction, lets just say it took a while to get to the end of the course!!

Day five we spent the day at the beach which was literally outside of our hotel.

We spent a tiny 13 euros and rented out a pedlo for an hour.

Daddy Hazelden ended up doing most of the pedalling but the kids took it in turns going in it with him.

At one point there was Daddy Hazelden and I pedalling whilst I had Gracie sat on my lap, a tad difficult.

It was nice being out in the sea, watching the ferries go by, seeing other people in their pedlos and watching people float past on their lilos, really lovely views.

Pity the kids legs weren't longer so that they could pedal whilst Daddy and I laid back and soaked up the sun, maybe one day.

One thing we tried to do every day, was spent at least an hour in the swimming pools.

There were three pools, a bigger one more for adults, older children, a smaller shallower one and one with lots of slides and showers etc.

We actually spent the time trying to teach the kids how to swim and by the end of the holiday Elise was swimming along with a float, Freya was almost swimming without a float and was quite happy putting herself under the water and even little Gracie was telling everyone how she was managing to kick her legs.

The one complaint I had, was that the pools weren't very warm, it was a shock to the stystem the first time I stepped foot in them!!!

Layla was able to go swimming thanks to the lovely people at Bambino Mio sending me one of their swim nappies to review. These adorable nappies come in fours sizes and eight different prints. I picked the pink daisy print, so cute.

However, I was umming and arring which size to get because Layla was at the top end of one and not quite in to the size that was bigger. I opted for the medium size and I was pleased that I did. What a fab fit, no gaping around the legs and a lovely snug fit around the waist. Both the leg cuffs and waist are elasiticated so made it easy for Layla to freely move around. It is so soft and Layla definitely tested it to the max.

She wasn't overly keen on going into the swimming pool and it took a while to persuade her to sit down in the water but she did enjoy people watching whilst cuddling with me. She gave me a clear sign when she wanted to get out though, little monkey decided a number two was in order, but I am happy to report that it was all kept contained in the nappy and unlike disposable swim nappies, it stayed the same size no bulging and hanging down between the legs. And because it is reusable, we only needed the one nappy all holiday, more space for souvenirs in the suitcase!!!

On the last day we took the kids bowling. Again amazingly priced compared to over here, 24 euros for 2 games for 6 people!!

The nice thing was that there was a ramp for the kids to use to help them with the bowling, I really could have done with this myself as I am truly rubbish at bowling.

Just to prove how rubbish, I came last overall and my 5 year old came first!!

The best thing in Ibiza is that you don't have to wear those horrible sweaty bowling shoes!!

It was a great end to an amazing holiday.

It was a real shame it had to end, even the kids are asking when can we go back again and it really didn't help that we came back to rain in the UK the day we came home!!

So where has everyone else been on their holidays?? What places do you recommend??

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was sent the swim nappy free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.