Sunday, 24 December 2017

Crafting with Gel A Peel

There is something so magical about Christmas, maybe its all the excess booze and twinkling lights. I just think its such a wonderful time of year for family and to remember that Jesus was born and what a wonderful story that was. We love to craft in our house and in the lead up to Christmas we have been making lots of decorations and basically anything with glitter. We were lucky enough to be sent some decorations from Gel A Peel in which we cracked on with straight away.


If you have not heard of Gel a Peel its a lot of fun. It comes in different coloured tubes and you can use it to make jewellery or as we done crafting. The wonderful thing is when it dries it becomes like a rubbery texture. Each set comes with different shaped nozzles that attach on the Gel a Peel tubes to create different shales and textures. The set comes with moulds that you can use to stick on your designs or make into creations themselves.


 The Gel takes a few hours to fully dry so we found it was best making the moulds the night before and sticking on the next day. Although Ami is 5 she can be impatient at times. Son Son also got involved and had quite a bit of fun making Christmas characters. He mainly liked trying the different nozzles like he was decorating a cupcake. For us I found creating a design on something is the best thing we have done with the sets. The finished product is different to a coloured in it adds a different 3D edge to the design. 

Ami's friend Harry come over and loved creating all the different Christmas characters. He had never used it before but enjoyed using something a bit different. 


This set retails at £19.99 and is perfect for crafting onto cards. I say the results came out much better than I originally thought. Why not get  Gel-A-Peel set and have a go yourself.





Friday, 15 December 2017

Milestone Myths

As a  mother of three children I was often bombarded with advice on when and what's my children should be doing at what age. I was only a teenager when I became a mum so therefore didn't really have a clue on what to expect. All I had was the handy Emma's Diary books to see me through. Sometimes it can almost be a competition on who's baby could do what first. We were recently sent a Baby Annabel Learns to walk Doll and its got me thinking about my own children's milestones.




Sleeping through the Night


All three of my children where all so different. The first Milestone I heard ALL about was sleeping. "My child slept through the night after 2 weeks yours should do to". I was 17 and had a colicky baby that didn't sleep that was not what I wanted to hear. Thankfully when he reached 12 weeks he just slept and then became the best sleeper ever. I knew when I had my daughter many years later I might not be so lucky but 6 weeks down the line she was sleeping well. The Son Son came along and he did not enjoy sleeping at night and would be up all hours until he was six month old. Other people tell me there babies still don't sleep at night and they are 3/4 year old. The most important thing with sleep is that you do what's right for you, you can be bombarded with information about what's wrong and what's right.




Sitting Up


Another milestone all threw different ages. Aston was the average of 6 months where as Ami at 3 months she was strong and trying to sit up. People did not believe me but she could hold her self up and by 4 months she could sit well. Son Son was 6 months also he didn't like to be put down from risk of Ami trampling on him.




Crawling


My Asti never crawled properly he kind of commando / dragged him self to where he wanted to go. Ami was a bout 7 months she wasn't too fussed with crawling, she was a very chubby baby so just rolled around. Son Son crawled about 8 months he too wasn't bothered and much rather walk than crawl.




Walking


Another important competition milestone is walking. Its the one people get most excited about then realise oh crap my baby wont stay still. My Asti Took his first steps at 12 months and 4 days. He had got his walker for his birthday then there was no stopping him. Ami who was pulling her self up from 8 months took her first unaided steps at 10 months by the time Son Son was born (she was 15 months). Son Son beat the lot and got up and walked at 9 months. I can tell you that was hard work one running toddler and one walking baby. No wonder I was so TIRED ALL THE TIME.


First Words


This is another Milestone people love to go on about. I cant quite remember my children's first works but both Asti and Ami were early talkers still now they don't stop talking. where as my little Son Son didn't say much at all, I believe that was down to older siblings talking for him,


See all children are so different but do you know they all even out at school don't they. I was lucky to have three healthy children. The most important thing is to not listen to Barbara who's baby slept through the night since birth and spoke French at 1 years old. I think its the worst thing anyone can tell you when your child doesn't sleep. Quite frankly Barbs you can take your comments and shove them up your.....


This was post was written in Collaboration with Baby Annabel learns to walk. A Doll  who learns to crawl and walk. My kids had great fun playing with this doll. Ami was besotted with teaching it to walk.

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Dreamland Frosted Fairground Day Out


I spent my childhood and teenage years at Dreamland. I remember once going on the big wheel on my own my poor parents were out of there mind with worry about where I was and where I was going high in the sky. Thankfully the Dreamland team now are more vigilant and won't let any random 8 year old on the ride. Dreamland reopened a few years back as a vintage theme park. It has a wonderful collection of classic rides along with a refurbished rollercoaster. 


We popped along to Dreamland see the Frosted Fairground in an attempt to get in the Christmas Spirit after a busy week. The day we went was rather cold but we wrapped up warm. My husband hasn't been to Dreamland in two years since it opened and was impressed with the progress so far. Ami just wanted to go on the Walzers and to show Daddy which number was the fastest. 


We went as it just had opened so was first on all the rides. The queues were only short so the children got to go on a lot of rides in a short time. The whole place was decorated with Real Christmas trees with sparkly lights everywhere. As we came in there was a chance for the children to write a letter to Father Christmas and have their photos taken where you could purchase the photo for £5 or £6 in a bauble. 


There's a lot going on for Christmas one thing they have opened is a Christmas Grotto where you can meet the big man himself. You get to meet other characters like Elvis the singing Elf and also help father Christmas find his Snow Jo. Each session is 30 minutes and the children get a chance to create some craft and make special VIP badges. The tickets for the Grotto come with ride wristbands so what better way to make a full day of it. 

New this year at Dreamland is the Ice rink which is an indoor 450-metre ice rink. You can book sessions for an hour and feel all festive whilst whizzing around on the ice rink. I have never been ice skating so am looking forward to popping back in the holidays with the kids. Its open until the 3rd of January so there is still plenty of time to book. 


We popped back in the evening to see all the lights in their splendour and we were not disappointed. It looked somewhat more magical in the darkness. The night was rather a quiet one I think because the temperature had fallen a lot but it made it even more special. We had the first choice of all the rides and the children got to experience the rides in the dark. 


All in all, we had a wonderful day whilst at Dreamland. The children enjoy going and they can get on to most rides. The only thing we were disappointed was that they were too small for the dodgems a firm fave with Son Son. It's a great day out for all the family its bright, its cheery and the sea air will make you feel refreshed also. 

Heres Some more photos of our day as I couldn't find a favourite. Thanks Dreamland for giving us some passes so we could enjoy all the Christmas Joy.