Our Dorset Holiday

Posted by Caroline Elliott

You may have seen that we have just had a very lovely holiday in Dorset. We have been house sitting for just over a week for some friends of ours who live in a very cute, quaint little country cottage. It is picture postcard pretty but also a little run down with cracks in walls and damp ceilings and TONNES of spiders!

It is also in the most gorgeous setting, on a farm in the middle of the countryside. The farmer’s (massive) house is nearby along with a few holiday cottages they rent out but otherwise it is just surrounded by fields, trees and rolling hills.

Being on a farm there are lots of animals around too, cows, horses, sheep, dogs, a”barn cat” who is a mouser that lives in the barn. She’s also about 1010 yrs old, very gentle and so good with the kiddies! The little ones have loved stroking her and even when LM has gotten a little over excited and pulled her fur (eek) she has barely flinched! Lovely pussy cat.

We had the real extremes of weather, from blazing sun to torrential rain and we obviously had some highs and lows. Some highs of the trip include gorgeously sunny days out to the coast and on steam railways to castles (posts about those to follow) and actually a wonderful day at Stonehenge which was in parts disastrous but also lucky and just good fun, despite being a very wet day! More of that to come in another post.

We did have some lows too, including the most disastrous trip to the beach ever. I was on my own with the kids while hubs got his head down to do some work and as the forecast was for sun headed to the beach. It rained a little on the way but hoped we were headed to blue sky. I had researched and found what I thought was a sandy beach not too far away. Then we arrived and saw this mountain of stones at the edge of a completely stony beach.

Walked around a little and could find no sandy beach so at the lowest point I could find proceeded to make a few trips up and down the hill of stones to get me, 3 bags, buggy, both kids and a wind shield onto the beach. Only to be faced with an evem steeper decline on the other side of the hill towards the sea.

LM decided she didn’t like the noise of the sea so I didn’t want to get any closer, though it was blimmin windy at the top of the hill! I started to set up the wind shield,and the heavens (which had been darkening but I had been ignoring in my task of just getting up the hill) opened. So we ended up huddled behind the windshield, both LM and Monkey crying because they were cold and wet,trying to eat a picnic. Then the rain stopped, a few more trips back down the hill later, more screaming from the kiddies,and I packed them back in the car. Disaster!! Talk about best laid plans!! My feet hurt so much after all the running up and down the stones barefoot (my flip flops made it even worse so had to go with bare feet) and that was by far the low point of the week.

Some of the best bits though were seeing my kiddies having a whale of a time on the playpark on the farm (which had an awesome boat swing that I want to get for our swing at home) and just in running around the cottage garden.

Oh and watching Monkey jumping in muddy puddles on the very wet days!

Lots of happy times and though hubs was working a lot of the time we also got a lot of time together as a family which has been very lovely. By the end I both didn’t want to leave and get back to normality, but was also looking forward to getting home and our creature comforts, family and friends.

Running & Hiding

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Most evenings at the moment, in between tea and bathtime we have been making the most of the warm light evenings and having a short family walk. It’s usually a little cooler out at that time of day so it is nice to get out of the house and get some fresh air – plus it is nice to have a bit of exercise.

We don’t generally go very far, but there is a lot of exercise going on because it is not exactly a gentle stroll. Not with Monkey around. Because his favourite thing at the moment is running and hiding. And, of course, we have to join in.

It’s great fun actually, running around trees and bushes, changing direction to try and catch each other out and shouting “Boo!” really very loudly. Then we run to the next tree and the same begins again and this lasts for a lot of our walk.

Although confined to her buggy, LM really enjoys it too, and giggles away when we jump out from behind the trees!

I also just have to share this daft little video with you. When I was a kid these bushes had passages cut throughout them and hours would be spent playing in there and building dens. It has long since overgrown since then and I thought all of the passages were gone but found an opening so couldn’t resist taking Monkey in to hide!

Our Family Day in London with the Samsung Galaxy S6

Posted by Caroline Elliott

If you follow me on social media you may have seen that I was hugely excited last week to be given the opportunity by Three Mobile to review the brand new Samsung Galaxy S6 phone. In addition to letting me put the S6 through it’s paces for a few days, Three Mobile also very kindly gave us a day out in London where we visited the Natural History Museum and their wonderful “Sensational Butterflies” exhibition.

The Samsung Galaxy S6

A little bit about the phone first. It is really slim and light though a bit longer than my current phone. I tend to carry my phone in my pocket and I was concerned it wouldn’t fit, but actually, although taller than my current Nokia, it is slimmer so fit a little better if anything, result!

It runs on Android, and being a Windows Phone user this did take a bit of getting used to but is much more user-friendly than the last time I used Android (we are talking a few years ago now) and I soon got to grips with it. I also found the phone very fast which is nice as being nearly 2 years old my phone can be a bit sluggish!

The best thing about the S6 though has got to be the cameras. Yes, plural, because both front and back cameras are very impressive. The back camera is a whopping 16megapixel and the front is a lovely 5megapixel. I love a good family selfie so it nice to be able to take a quality shot with the front camera for a change. To show you the difference here is a couple of selfies taken with the front camera on my current phone compared with the front camera on the S6. I have no make up on so apologies but you can see the difference. The third shot has “beauty mode” switched on which kindly smooths your skin out for you – definite improvement I think! 🙂

I also loved the speed of the cameras. It loads super fast even when the screen is timed out, and, best of all it takes the photo almost instantly when you press the shutter. Kids move around seriously fast and I often find with my current phone that by the time it has focussed and taken the shot, I have missed the moment. This happened a lot less with the S6 which is a HUGE plus in my books.

That’s about as technical as I am going to get as I am not that technical! So that you can see for yourself how great the cameras are, here is our day at the Natural History Museum.

Our day at the Natural History Museum

We set off on the train to London first thing in the morning. Monkey was so excited to be on a really fast train and loved every second of the journey, especially the tunnels.

We had hoped LM may nap on the train but it would seem she was too excited too as was not remotely in the mood to nap. We had a lot of fun keeping her entertained instead.

Getting around London on the tube with two tots, a buggy and our bags was interesting. The tube was absolutely packed, and we were squeezed in like sardines! Monkey was such a good boy but LM was not a fan…. though she was charming everyone by making sneaky grabs for people’s jumpers and sunglasses etc! Thankfully everyone she chose to grab was friendly and in a good mood.

We finally arrived at the Natural History Museum which is such an impressive building, and after a cheeky selfie (though I really need to have a bit more practice with my selfie stick) we headed inside to see the huge Brontosaurus.

We were concerned Monkey may be a bit wary of the dinosaur but he loved it and decided it was smiling hehe. We just had time for a quick cup of tea and slice of cake before heading out to the Sensational Butterflies exhibition.

Sensational Butterflies

In the grounds of the Museum is a tropical tent housing lots of beautiful butterflies who are free to fly and roam as they please. As you go through you follow the trail which charts the life cycle of the butterfly, from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, while all the way you are surrounded by butterflies fluttering past.

Unfortunately Monkey had a full on freak out about the butterflies. He found them really scary flying so close to us and one landed on my back which really set him off. LM seemed to love watching them flutter past though! I managed to get some gorgeous shots but we did have to rush through a bit to get the screaming, clinging mess of a toddler out of the tent :/

It was such a shame as it was a wonderful exhibition and lovely to see the butterflies up close and learn more about these gorgeous insects, but that’s kids for you, always unpredictable. I was glad that the camera was so fast to load and at taking photos, I would have liked a bit more time in there to play with manual mode – but was dead impressed with the shots captured with the auto focus.

The Museum

After calming Monkey down we headed back into the museum for more of an explore.

Sadly the queue to see the dinosaur zone was massive so we went for a walk around the mammals instead. Monkey had a few initial jitters about the stuffed Lions and Bears but once he realised they wouldn’t move he relaxed and he loved it – he even told the Polar Bear that he loved him… bless him, such a softy.

We had a great time wandering around and looking at all of the animals, skeletons and the other models. Monkey loved this big rotating earth and I love this picture of the two of us, again I am just so impressed with the photos we took on the S6.

LM dozed off on our walk round (thank goodness) then we headed for some lunch. The service and speed in the restaurant were great considering it was a busy Saturday but it was pricey and the food wasn’t very good quality. We were hungry though so scoffed it down. Hubs had fun taking photos of the four of us in the huge mirrors in the restaurant.

After lunch we checked on the queue for the dinosaurs again but it was even more massive so after a bit of a wander in the museum we headed outside to the ice cream van we had seen earlier – only to find that they had turned the ice cream machine off! We couldn’t believe it! We had promised Monkey an ice cream by this point and as the afternoon was getting on we decided to make our way back to the station. We found an ice cream along the way then had another hot and busy journey on the tube back to Kings Cross where we got the train home.

It was a long day and very tiring but so much fun too and I am proud of us for stepping out of our comfort zone and taking the kids on the train and tube on such a busy day. It proves we can do it, though I am not sure we will do it again in a hurry.

I loved giving the S6 a real test out and it has really got me thinking about what phone I am going to go for next. I’ve always loved the Windows Phone OS but I found Android to be really user-friendly and the cameras are just amazing on the S6. I use my phone largely as a camera since becoming a blogger so it really is important to have a good one. There are things about the Windows phone OS that I would miss on the move to Android…. but not as much as I thought, so I may have been converted as the camera is such a big temptation.

I really cannot fault the Samsung Galaxy S6 at all as it was so fast and just so easy to use and I think the pictures speak for themselves. I was using it all day, taking tonnes of photos and a few videos, and the battery lasted well until we got home which I did find impressive. I think I will be hard pressed to find a better option when it is time to upgrade my phone in a few months’ time!

Is your phone your main camera? Are you a lover of Android, Windows, or Apple?

I was loaned the Samsung Galaxy S6 for a few days and Three Mobile gave us tickets to London and entry to the Sensational Butterflies exhibition for the purpose of this review. All opinions and images are entirely my own.

Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire

Posted by Caroline Elliott

A couple of weeks ago we had a visit from my lovely Aunt for the weekend. In spite of (or maybe because of) all of the illness in our house we were desperate to get out and about and have some fun in the sunshine. We decided to visit a local National Trust place that we have only visited once before, on a very bleak February day, Lyveden New Bield. It was really lovely to go back at a completely different time of year and really see it in a new light. WP_20150530_032 The building itself is ever the same, an unfinished Elizabethan ‘garden lodge’ which is bigger than 4 or 5 of our house put together! WP_20150530_021

It is hugely impressive, perched on a hilltop and as atmospheric as it was last time we went. WP_20150530_16_08_48_Pro

But the gardens are totally different at this time of year as everything is lush and green. There is a tranquil moat and hilltop mounds. A maze, an orchard, woodland and fields. It really is very, very picturesque!

It was ‘Lyveden Alive’ weekend so there was a lovely nature trail to go on and lots of lovely activities for kids including bird watching (they have a swallow nest with babies in with a webcam set up looking at it) and pond dipping. Monkey adored wandering about with binoculars on, and the pond dipping was great fun – not something I would have thought he could do yet, but with Daddy’s help to prevent him falling in he thought it was brilliant!

The nature trail, certainly helped keep him entertained throughout our visit, seeking out little doors to find letters to spell a word on our activity sheet. He was very, very proud of himself by the end and very happy with the choccies he got as a reward!

All in in all it was just a lovely day, nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine and have some fun together with my Aunt 🙂

Me and Mine May 2015

Posted by Caroline Elliott

For this month’s me and mine I had originally planned to use a photo from a family photoshoot that we had planned last weekend… but with poorly children, and poorly us too in the end, we had to cancel and rearrange that :/. So instead I asked my little brother to grab a snap of the four of us at Monkey’s birthday party.

The results are amusing as Monkey was not in the mood to sit still at all so he took a little bit of restraining. Considering how poorly hubs was he looks surprisingly ok, while I look a complete mess with my hair all over the place! We were about to put LM down for her nap so it was very much impromptu and I didn’t even have time to look in the mirror lol!

So here we are, in the order they were taken.

Mummy not ready…

Monkey being restrained…

Mummy & Daddy trying to make the children smile

Mummy resorting to tickling Monkey – probably my favourite shot of the bunch!

Arguably the best pic of everyone else but the worst one of me!

And he’s off – photoshoot over lol!

I do like our growing collection of family photos sat on our snuggle chair in the living room and would love to keep taking shots like this as the children grow – but will try and get a shot taken somewhere else next time I think – just to mix things up a little!

Birthday Celebrations

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My word this week is a great one, it is Celebrations, because we have had a week full of birthday celebrations!

Last week my little big boy Monkey turned 3! Sadly the poor thing was terribly poorly (believe me, poorly could easily have been this week’s word too as we have all been suffering) with a stonking cold and conjunctivitis, so it was a very chilled out birthday at home with a visit from his grandparents for lunch and an uncle & aunt in the early evening.

Saturday was the big celebration though with lots of family round for his party. He was so excited bless him and even though he was nowhere near 100% he was feeling a lot better, though by then poor hubs was really suffering. I made a Lightning McQueen cake, which didn’t work out quite as I hoped it would, but you could tell what it was meant to look like and Monkey loved it (and everyone said it tasted nice) so that’s all that matters.

It was a lovely family day with yummy food and lots of fun 🙂 Monkey was a lucky boy with lots of very lovely pressies and lots of attention from all his favourite people. We spent most of the time inside until Monkey commanded that we all went outside. “Let’s go outside, with Mummy and Daddy and Lots of Family!” When people weren’t forthcoming he stood in the doorway shouting “come on everybody!” lol love him.

Sunday was a fairly chilled day at home then Monday saw more birthday celebrations for my Father-in-law’s birthday. Another lovely happy family day at Grangranny and Granddaddy’s house.

Before we left we had got out a bag of hand-me-down clothes for LM who is growing all the time and found this gorgeous little tutu. I just couldn’t resist dressing her in it and she looked so cute in it! Granny loved her little pink princess and LM was so good even though she was really coming down with the cold by then and had conjunctivitis too. Granddaddy's birthday

Thursday saw the celebrations continue with one of Monkey’s friends turning 4 and a birthday party at a soft play centre. It got off to a very bad start with Monkey throwing the mother of all tantrums as he didn’t want to go. He screamed continuously in the car and made himself sick. I was so stressed and so angry…. but thankfully he perked up a little when he saw some friends and a piece of cake later he was much better and had great fun on the soft play. All that stress and hassle for absolutely no reason, toddlers eh?

Thankfully two of my best Mummy friends were there (we missed our very heavily pregnant friend that makes up our foursome but at nearly 40wks pregnant she understandably couldn’t make it!) and they helped remind me that they have had days like it with their kids recently too and as always it’s just nice to support each other. LM was cute again in her tutu and it was fun, though obviously ever so slightly chaotic with a bunch of kids at soft play! I was shattered by the end of it but Monkey was happy and we did have a lovely time so I am very glad we went.

This marks the end of a couple of months full of birthdays of family members and friends. In April we have 6 and in May there are 8! (there may be a 9th depending on when my friend’s baby arrives) So it is full of fun but also is a lot of birthdays in a short space of time. There are only 2 in June and none in July so I have to admit it will be nice to have less birthdays to think about for a while.

Do you have a time of year where there are more birthdays than any other?

The Yorkshire Coast: Whitby & Runswick Bay

Posted by Caroline Elliott

When you think holiday, you very often think seaside or beach. Not all holidays of course but they do seem synonymous. For our holiday to Yorkshire I knew that most of our days would be spent exploring the countryside inland, but, Monkey does love the seaside so I wanted to see what the Yorkshire coast offered us in terms of beautiful beaches, and we were not disappointed.

We kept an eye on the weather forecast and chose the best day weather-wise to head to the coast, as we knew it may be a little chilly or breezy compared to inland. First stop was Whitby. Hubs had been before many years ago but I had never been and it was a gorgeous day and Whitby is a lovely seaside town and really picturesque.

It is also very hilly! We were in Yorkshire so I know I shouldn’t be surprised but pushing the buggy up some of the steep hills definitely gave my legs a good workout compared to the flats area that we live in! We loved the view from the clifftops down to the lovely beach below and across to the aAbbey. After visiting Fountains Abbey we decided not to see Whitby Abbey up close and focused on the town itself, having a lovely wander round, and we stopped at a gorgeous child friendly café for lunch.

We then headed a little further North up the coast towards a little place I had found called Runswick Bay. A lovely small fishing village in beautiful enclosed bay with a gorgeous sandy beach. It was a lovely day and with the bay being enclosed we were very protected from any coastal breezes and had a lovely time.

It was LM’s first time on a beach and she was good as gold lying in the shade of our wind protector while Monkey and Daddy had a whale of a time making castles and exploring the beach.

It was such a beautiful spot and I was so glad we found it. The hill to get to the beach is massively steep though so worth bearing that in mind when thinking about carrying things/children.

Bluebells & Birthday Celebrations

Posted by Caroline Elliott

There’s lots of reasons why I love this time of year, the blue skies, warmer days, the bright colours to name but a few.. But there are two particular reasons too. One is because it was my birthday (on St George’s day to be precise) and the other is because of bluebells. This weekend I got to celebrate and enjoy both.

There is a lovely wood, very aptly named Bluebell Woods, not too far from us. Walking distance in fact, though quite a long walk with a baby and toddler in tow (around 6 miles round trip). I love going there at this time of year but don’t always manage it with one thing or another. This year I was determined so on Saturday we headed over, we could have driven but decided the walk would do us good and we had the buggy board in case Monkey’s legs got tired.

It was a lovely walk.. although the bad luck I had last week continued somewhat and first of all the buggy board broke. Like I say it’s quite a long walk for a toddler so this wasn’t great. Thankfully I managed to rig up a twig and a hairband to hold it in place!

The bluebells didn’t disappoint and there was a sea of them carpeting the hillside in the woods. Just beautiful and lovely to show Monkey too.

We carried on our walk until hubs started struggling with the buggy… and we realised we had a puncture. A good 3 miles from home. Joy! The walk abruptly ended and hubs ran/power walked home to get the car while I dragged the buggy to the nearest road (thankfully not that far from where we were) and waited for him to come and collect the kids and I! Hey at least we got to enjoy the bluebells 🙂

Then on Saturday night it was the night I have been looking forward to for some time, my belated birthday night out. I’ve been out for dinner with the girls a few times since LM was born but hubs and I hadn’t been out together since my friend’s wedding in August and for my birthday I wanted us both to enjoy a night out with a group of close friends and family.

My lovely Mum kindly agreed to babysit and I had been looking forward to it for weeks! I had a lovely new top (in the sale at Oasis) which cunningly cinches in at my thinnest bit then hides my wobbly tum, and all my dieting helped me squeeze into my new skinny jeans. Love this outfit!

I curled my hair with the new curling wand I got at The Gadget Show and though it took me a long time as it was my first go (like an hour and a half, way longer than I normally spend beautifying myself) I was dead chuffed with the results (thanks to the youtube tutorials that showed me how the heck to use the thing!). The curls stayed in all night and it was just lovely to feel like me rather than just Mummy for a few hours.

So many lovely friends and family came and it was lovely to catch up with everyone, have some yummy food, drinks and giggles. I even got to have some yummy cocktails, yay! i’m not sure how we managed it either but miraculously neither hubs or I had particularly sore heads the next day either. We were both a bit tired as we didn’t get homeuntil 1230 ish, which is way past our normal bedtime, but not much worse than normal actually. So hooray to that!

Lotherton Hall, nr Leeds

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Last week we headed up the A1 towards Yorkshire for a lovely little family holiday. We wanted to head off first thing in the morning during LM’s first sleep but couldn’t get into the cottage until 3pm. We decided we would stop off along the way, but actually made really good time that morning and decided to carry on a bit further than the halfway point where we thought we would stop. The question was, where to stop?

SatNavs are great but I love a good map, and this is the perfect example of why. I got the map out and had a look for some landmarks and places where we could visit. I found Lotherton Hall, just off the A1 not far from Leeds and after a quick look online (thank goodness for mobile internet) decided it was the perfect place for a little visit!

Entry was £5 per adult, 2.50 for children but under 5s go free which was great for us and compared to a lot of places we have visited I didn’t think the price was bad at all! (There is membership available too if you are local and there seemed to be a lot of mums with kids there who go there regularly.

So what is there? Loads! It’s a lovely big house which you can go round, though we found plenty to keep us amused outside. There are manicured gardens where you can play games on the lawns, a rock garden to explore, a lovely woodland walk with some adventure play areas amongst the trees (more on that later) 2 big play areas, a cafe and outdoor seating area, plenty of picnics spots, and to top it off a big bird sanctuary in the centre of the grounds!

LM woke up when we arrived so we headed straight to the cafe for some refreshment. the cafe was lovely and not too expensive, with a lovely sunny seating area. I was also really impressed to see a section of the stables set aside for indoor picnics on days when the weather is less than warm. So many places don’t provide indoor eating areas unless you buy their food, so I thought this was a nice touch.

We then headed to the main playarea, which is huge! There is so much to do for all different abilities and Monkey had a fab time climbing, though Mummy did have to clamber up and help him on one of the difficult bits, after that we kept him on the younger side of the playarea hehe. He also got his first ride on the zipwire swing and he absolutely adored it! Trying to get him to hold tightly enough was a challenge though!

After a bit of a play we went for a wander and discovered the bird sanctuary! We had no idea it was there and it was massive with lots of lovely fascinating birds with many of them in really nice roomy enclosures. they even had a couple of condors and one of them was suitably impressing us by showing off his awesome wingspan.

Then it was picnic time and we headed to a big field, which is where we discovered another play area! Spread across the field was all manner of climbing frames, swings, monkey bars, spinny things, two more zipwire swings and all sorts – and there was a lot of children out there enjoying the sunshine and having a lovely play on all of the equipment.

After lunch we took a stroll to get LM to sleep and had a little look at the deer park, then wandered through the woods. Which is where we discovered lots of lovely wooden play equipment spread amongst the trees. Some of the wooden beams took hubs and I back to our childhood and we had a great time running across the spinning beam – miraculously I surprised us all and managed it on my first run across… but couldn’t do it at all when hubs tried to catch it on camera lol. Monkey thought it was great fun seeing Mummy and Daddy playing!

We headed back to the field after that and had a bit more of a play there before deciding to head on to our holiday cottage

We had a lovely time at Lotherton Hall, there is so much to see and do which to me makes the entry fee totally worthwhile. If we lived nearer I imagine we would go quite a lot as Monkey loved it too!

A Change of Scenery

Posted by Caroline Elliott

You may have noticed that things have been a bit quiet here lately.. and that’s because we have had a bit of a change of scenery. For the last week we have been on holiday in lovely Yorkshire!

Hubs doesn’t like me talking online about going on holiday until after the event. I’m not sure why as I highly doubt any of my lovely readers are stalkers who would rob us the second we go away but as I can’t categorically prove otherwise I don’t argue the request.

Anyway,we have had such a lovely time. We have seen the ruins of castles, abbeys, & temples and have been to the seaside.

We have spun in the sunshine, chased bubbles, eaten picnics, walked through the woods, built sandcastles and met up with friends.

In some ways going on holiday as a parent feels a little like a busman’s holiday. You still have all the same things to do and children to take care of and it can definitely be stressful at times. I swear I packed just about everything imaginable, including the kitchen sink, but still somehow managed to forget things we needed and have had to buy! (Thankfully we are in Yorkshire though not on Mars so can buy things :)).

We still have a toddler to entertain and a baby who needs feeding, changing, playing with etc. but the change of scenery does do the power of good and there is no (or at least less) housework to worry about for the week. Hubs and I get to spend some time together, sharing the load of the childcare and we have had lots of lovely fun as a family.

Plus we have been to able to enjoy some gorgeous views of green rolling countryside and absorb a lot of history. There will be some more detailed posts about the fab places we have visited over the weeks to come :).

My word this week is scenery. How has your week been?

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

Family

Our Dorset Holiday

Running & Hiding

Our Family Day in London with the Samsung Galaxy S6

The Samsung Galaxy S6

Our day at the Natural History Museum

Sensational Butterflies

The Museum

Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire

Me and Mine May 2015

Birthday Celebrations

The Yorkshire Coast: Whitby & Runswick Bay

Bluebells & Birthday Celebrations

Lotherton Hall, nr Leeds

A Change of Scenery