Living Arrows 2018 29/53

Welcome back to another week of Living Arrows hosted by Donna over at What The Redhead Said. If you are new to this then the name of the linky comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

This week has been quite a busy one with both James and Freddie having a trips and then to top it off we had parents evening all on the same day! James went to a sports event at Walker Activity Dome and Freddie and mummy went to Cullercoats beach with his playgroup!

We also had the annual singing picnic at James school! 

On Saturday, since it was a nice day we decided to walk into Newcastle from our house and back via the Town Moor! We then went to our favorite pub - The Old George for lunch! By the time we got home we had walked over seven miles!! The boys had a brilliant time running down the path chasing each other on the Town Moor and shouting Moo at the cows!

Siblings 2018 July

Welcome back to the Siblings Project in July! 

How can we be in the seventh month of the year already! James only has a week left of school and then its six weeks off! We have James sixth birthday coming up at the end of the holidays, so the summer will be spent planning that!

This months photos were taken a couple of weeks back during all the hot weather we were having! After picking up the boys from playgroup and school we went into the back garden with a tray of water to play with! Freddie got himself absolutely drenched from head to toe! His clothes got thrown straight into the washing machine and his shoes went onto the washing line to dry!

How to make a holiday with kids easier! Part Two

Welcome to part two of how to make a holiday with kids easier! You can read part one here! So here are the rest of the tips I gathered from my fellow bloggers!

Beth from https://twinderelmo.co.uk/ says A snoozeshade is a god send if you’ve got a little one in a pram/pushchair to protect them from the sun and helps them sleep when on the go.
A travel blackout blind is also really helpful as hotels rarely have good curtains to block out the light at nap times. – Now we have actually been using a Snoozeshade since Freddie was a few months old and we have just started using the Plus Deluxe version so this will definetly be packed into our changing bag for our holiday! Freddie doesn’t always nap but I have a feeling with the heat he might need a cat nap!

Jennifer from https://www.mymummyspennies.com/ says Our kindles were perfect for entertaining the children on the plane on our recent holiday to Croatia.  – I will be packing James Lenovo tablet in his hand luggage and I will be also packing our kindle fire into Freddie’s hand luggage. Both tablets take micro SD cards so we will be putting plenty of Cbeebies onto them for the boys to watch!

Hayley from http://www.missmanypennies.com  A couple of small games/packs of cards to keep them entertained in those boring waiting around times – I am looking to get a couple of small travel games to put into either James bag or into Andy’s bag to help entertain James with him being that little bit older than Freddie.

Adrienne from http://workingmumcambridge.com  I find its all in the planning! Lots of snacks and lots of party bag gifts – Lots of snacks will be packed! Especially as Freddie is dairy free. I will have to make sure we have plenty of stuff he can eat just in case he cannot eat his in flight meal.

Luschka from https://diaryofafirstchild.com/ says A good tip for travelling abroad with kids is to have a folder for all your travel documents and tickets and passports. Standing at immigration rummaging through suitcases looking for a letter of permission from the children's dad is really stressful! Have everything in one place and keep it there! – This is actually something we have already done! I have bought a document wallet for travelling! This already has our passports and our European health cards in!

Emma from http://readyfreddiego.com/ says If you have a child with allergies, Allergy UK does a card that is available in 27 languages stating what the allergy is and it’s severity – this is something we will probably have to get as Freddie is about to undergo testing for dairy and soya issues.

Beth from http://www.life-as-mum.co.uk/ says Easier said than done but TRY not to stress too much. Just take the day/night as it comes. The more you stress out it will feel more stress than it actually is. – I am an absolute stress head when it comes to trips away with the boys! I have already arranged for the boys to go and stay with Nana and Gaga the weekend before we go away so mummy and daddy can sort out the packing without little hands!

Nita from http://mummywishes.com/ says Fly legsup! Was the perfect companion on long haul flights so that my little one can snooze like he was in first class! – this is something i will have to look into as we are hoping the boys will sleep as it is a 6am flight!

Chantele from http://twoheartsoneroof.com/ says Ear defenders if your flying with a very little one. It was Elian's first flight at 9 months old and we flew to California. The ear defenders meant the roar during take off didn't scare him. – James will be 6 when we fly and Freddie will be almost 3, but I still might take the ear defenders we have for Freddie just in case.

Living Arrows 2018 28/53

Welcome back to another week of Living Arrows hosted by Donna over at What The Redhead Said. If you are new to this then the name of the linky comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

The weather has been absolutely fantastic again! The boys are taking advantage of it and playing outside and we are going for a walk most mornings before we go to school, Then mummy and Freddie go for a walk before we pick up James. 

Both boys were going to stay up for the England match against Columbia, Freddie didn't even see kick off and James lasted till half time before he had to go to bed as he was so tired! They have both been really enjoying the World Cup, especially James! I think by the next World Cup I will have two football daft boys!

Freddie has been rather accident prone lately and has had a trip to a&e due to slamming a door shut on his hand and injuring his finger!

James has also had the first of his year two transition days with the second one happening later this week. He actually has the same teacher in year two that he had in year one so hopefully he will do just as well! 

The boys have spent this last weekend staying with Nana and Gaga to let mummy and daddy have a night out and time to sort things out in the house!

        

 

How to make a holiday with kids easier! Part One

As you know we are going on our first family holiday abroad later this year and we are now under twenty weeks from our first flight with two children! I have been searching the internet to look for products that might make our trip a little easier and I turned to my fellow bloggers to get some tips! In fact I got so many tips I have having to split this post into two parts!

Victoria from https://www.lyliarose.com/ says: On our last trip abroad we got both kids a set of JVC Tiny Headphones and they were brilliant! They were able to listen to music, play games and read on their iPads without distracting each other or other passengers. They're in fun kids colours and come with stickers to personalise too so they loved making them their own – We actually bought James a set of these a few years ago and then got Freddie a set last year when we went to Alton Towers and we love them! These are already in the boxes for packing into the boys hand luggage!

Jemma from http://havekidswilltraveluk.com/ Hands down our baby carriers have been our best investments. They enable us to ditch the Pram which saves weight and explore tons of places that we wouldn’t have been able to take the Pram. We’ve loved the Tula range – We currently have a We Made Me Pao Papoose but Freddie is starting to outgrow it so sadly I don’t think a carrier will be packed this holiday.

Emma from https://meandbmaketea.com/ says Calpol in sachets - perfect for a sick child at the airport! – Sadly for us this is not an option as Freddie is allergic to the colouring in Calpol and they only make the sachets with the coloured one. We will however use one of our doddle bags with colour free paracetamol in just in case of illness during travel.

Pete from https://www.householdmoneysaving.com/ says High concentration squash from either Robinsons or Oasis. They come in tiny bottles and you just need to add a few drops to water. It means that we don't have to make up loads of drink before we travel – These are brilliant! We used them when went to Alton Towers on the coach and also when we took the boys to London on the coach. These will definitely be packed into our cases and also into hand luggage!

Polly from https://www.ourseasidebaby.com/ says Trunkis! Although it takes a bit of effort to pull a Trunki along with my son on it, he does love his Tiger Trunki suitcase. The packing, pulling his Trunki along and then sitting on it while someone pulls him along makes any trip more exciting – Now this is something I have actually been looking into for our trip. At the moment we are going to be using a Mr Tumble mini case for Freddie and we are looking into a small case on wheels for James, But I keep wondering if a Trunki would be better for them both.

Ruth from https://www.craftwithcartwright.co.uk/ Some good activity books with stickers. Get them away from screens and doing something creative. Great for hanging around airports – This is something we have already bought! The boys have a Paw Patrol sticker book each for the flight. Plus I have a couple more on my Amazon wish list!

Samantha from https://www.northeastfamilyfun.co.uk/ says We load a portable hard drive up with their favourite movies and take it with us along with a USB cable. This is SO useful when you need some downtime or in the mornings/evenings if you need to keep the kids entertained while you're getting ready. Especially in places where there isn't any free WiFi or it doesn't have very good signal and tablets don't work as well. – Now I’m actually thinking about taking my portable hard drive and downloading some stuff onto it for the boys and buying an adapter to attach it to my iPad!

Stay tuned for Part Two of these useful hints!

Living Arrows 2018 27/53

Welcome back to another week of Living Arrows hosted by Donna over at What The Redhead Said. If you are new to this then the name of the linky comes from the poem by Kahlil Gibran "You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth"

It is creeping closer and closer to the summer holidays for James and Freddie! We only have about 4 weeks left of term now! James has a singing picnic coming up with his school the second last week of term. All the families are invited in on the second last Friday of term afternoon and each class sings a song, Then the whole school do some together!! James has been having a ball practicing his songs at home! He's been singing Favorite Things from the Sound of Music for the last week driving us all crazy!

Since we have been having some nice weather we have been going outside into the garden before school if we have time and then leaving a little bit earlier and going for a nice walk before we go drop James off!

Freddie has been waking up so early! Monday he was awake at 0420! So poor mummy was up with him while daddy and James kept sleeping! Only plus side has been Freddie actually napped meaning mummy could sit and do some work!!

After school and playgroup on Tuesday we took a box of water outside into the garden and the boys had a brilliant time! Freddie was soaking wet!

James loves the filters on Facebook photos so we were messing around with them one morning before we went to school and this was my favorite one of him!

The SnoozeShade has been coming in very handy with Freddie! Its been so hot and sunny, but by using the shade it has kept him cool and happy on the school run!

New from Cuddledry!

Now we are big fans of Cuddledry in our house, having reviewed the Cuddleroar with Freddie last year, so image how thrilled I was when an email arrived telling me all about their new products!

First of all you can now buy the awesome Cuddleroar in two sizes! The toddler size (1-3 years) and now it's also now available in the child size (3-6 years)! This is fantastic as James is still crazy on dinosaurs and he quite often try's to steal Freddie's Cuddleroar! This is definitely going on my list for James up coming birthday!

Now onto the new products! The Cuddlebunny and the Cuddlepanda! These towels are available in both the toddler and the child size so perfect if you want both children to match at bath time! 

The new towels fit in with the prices of toddler at £29.99 and child at £34.99.

Well done Cuddledry on these brilliant new towels and adding a child Cuddleroar!

                             

Images from www.cuddledry.com