Monday 26 June 2017

James is Turning Five - The Invites!

So James is turning five and he asked for a Spiderman Soft Play party at our local sports centre!

So the first thing mummy did was jump on the internet and start looking at spiderman party invitations and to be honest none of the ones I looked at jumped out at me.

So I decided to take the plunge and design something myself!

By doing this I could put all the important information on in the design process saving myself time writing it all out!

When you have a class of 30 children plus friends with children its an awful lot of invites to write giving yourself a very sore hand!! So by putting all the main information on in the design process, all I actually needed to do once they were printed and cut out was put each child's name onto the invite.

So mummy sat down one morning while Freddie was having a nap, jumped onto the internet and found some great Spiderman images and imported them into Paint Shop Pro and away I went and this is what I came up with:






Not bad for a morning nap times work!

Sunday 25 June 2017

Freddie at 19 months

So another month closer to you turning two my little man.

You are such a little character. You have the cheekiest smile and your eyes light up when you see your mummy!

You are definitely at mummy's boy, but as soon as daddy gets home from work you stop whatever you are doing and run to the door shouting dada dada! 

Your sleeping has got much better lately. You are sleeping from around 7pm till 11pm having 6oz of milk and then sleeping till half 6am

You are wearing a size 4 pull up and size 5+ nappy. Your clothes are a mixture of 12-18 and 18-24. You are very nearly onto cow's milk. We have been swapping you over very slowly and so far there has been no reaction!

You had your first trip to Warkworth beach on father's day. You loved digging in the sand. You were not keen on the sea as it was quite cold but you kept running towards the sea hwhen mummy and daddy went in. You even threw your hat in!

You have started getting very upset when we take James to school. You scream and cry but when we go to pick him up you have the biggest smile. 

You still love your baby group at sure start. You have discovered the taps in the toilets and you and your little pals are always running in and turning them off and on!

You are definitely mischievous, and your eyes light up with mischief when you see something you shouldn't!

You have been to your second hoppings at Newcastle town moor, last year you were little and couldn't go on anything. This year you went on a ride with James and you loved it! 

Love you so much my little dude
Mummy 
xxx



Wednesday 21 June 2017

5th Birthday Plans for James!

So my baby is turning five! Like seriously it does not seem five minutes since he was this tiny helpless puking newborn and now he's this handsome, grown up little boy about to turn five!

James birthday is actually bank holiday Saturday in August so we knew trying to have a party then would be a no go. 

Last year we had his party the week before his birthday and to be honest it was not too good as hardly any of his pals were there due to holidays. I think there was about ten kids there including James and Freddie!

So this year we have decided to have the party the weekend after his birthday, so that will be the first Sunday in September right before he goes back to school. So hopefully more of his friends will be able to come! 

So what sort of party are we planning? First off we have a lovely little sports centre five minutes walk from our house with a fantastic soft play that all his pals love, so for second year running we booked it!

James is absolutely Spiderman daft at the moment so I think most of the table wear will be Spiderman themed! 

So Pinterest has become my best friend! I have a whole board dedicated to Spiderman parties! 

First off mummy has designed some cool Spiderman invites! I had been looking online for weeks for some Spiderman invitations but none of the ones we saw were all that nice, so I decided to take the plunge and design some myself on Paint Shop Pro. By doing this I have been able to put all the information for the party i.e. date, time, venue and of course the all important RSVP information on so all I will need to do once we have them printed is actually put them into envelopes and put the names on!

James has had one request - a Spiderman Pinata! EEK mummy is going to have to embrace the inner hidden artist to make it haha!

I cannot wait to post more nearer the time about things we have done for his party and what we do on the actual day!

Monday 19 June 2017

Zip and Zoe what's in your backpack

We have been working with Zip and Zoe as brand ambassadors for a few months now and James totally loves his bag! 

Zip and Zoe are running a fantastic competition and all you need to do is show them "what's in your backpack!"

So this is what is in our Zip and Zoe Dino's bag!

First off this is our bag! Isn't it awesome we love the bright colours and well who doesn't love a dinosaur!


James uses his bag for school, so inside we have his reading book and his reading record book. He also has his water bottle on the front pocket and his suntan lotion, which lives n the small front pocket. 

We also have random little bits which he throws in his bag, for example the plastic jewels are from his swashbuckle magazine and the string and rubber bands is a 'necklace' he made at school.

So to enter this fantastic competition share what is in your backpack to Instagram tagging @zipandzoe using the hashtag #whatsinmybackpack you could win an Amazon voucher and a Zip and Zoe backpack and lunch set.

Disclaimer we have not been paid to publish this post, this is part of our ambassadorship with Zip and Zoe.

Saturday 3 June 2017

Pacif-I The Bluetooth Thermometer and Soother in One

One of the most common things to hit a child is a temperature and with Freddie teething he gets them often. As a mum of two boys aged 4 and 1, you would think I would know all the tricks when it came to taking temperatures when illness struck! 

Sadly with one child who hates anything near his ears (James)! And a wriggling toddler who won't let us near him to use an in ear thermometer or a non contact thermometer it's tricky getting an accurate reading!

Step in Pacif-i to help parents, grandparents, childminders, basically any childcare provider! 

Pacif-i is a Bluetooth thermometer built into a soother! It attaches to your phone and/or tablet via Bluetooth and an app records the child's temperature!

When the lovely people at Blue Maestro offed us a Pacif-i to review we were thrilled. Trying to use either an in ear thermometer or a none contact thermometer on a wriggling 18 month old is a nightmare! 

When Freddie was first offered the Pacif-i he kept taking it out and looking at it, then putting it back in. Just the same as he does with his normal MAM dummy.

Freddie is recovering from his third ear infection in the last three months so having this option for taking his temperature was an utter godsend as he's taken a big dislike to our non contact thermometer and since it was an ear infection he hated anything near his ears. He's also been teething badly so has been having high temperatures 

So being able to give him this and it be soother and thermometer in one we have been able to keep him happy and check his temperature without him getting distressed has been brilliant! Now if only I could use it on the four year old as well! 

Disclaimer: we were sent the pacif-I free of charge in exchange for this review