My Favourite Christmas Presents

So I have been toying with writing this for a while and I've finally found the time to sit down and write it!

So what were my favourite presents?

Number One: My Be necklace
This was in my gift bag of presents from Andy and the Boys. The small disk says Be and the larger disc says things like Kind, Strong, Happy etc. I absolutely love this and wear it most days!

Number Two: Earrings
I had been saying for months that I needed new earrings as Freddie had pulled some of mine out and had lost the backs. So for months I haven't worn a pair. I love these pearl earrings that Andy and the boys got me! I don't normally wear drop earrings but these are simply gorgeous and I have already worn them on a number of occasions including Christmas Day

Number Three: My Coat
My parents gave me money for christmas and I said I was going to put it towards a new coat! I got this one at Matalan in the Sales for £25 reduced from £45! This coat is so warm and so thick, so it keeps me nice and cosy on the school run.

Number Four: Our Calendar 
My best friend and her husband got us this for Christmas and I love it! I normally forget to buy a calendar till the middle of January! This one we can add photographs to so I'm going to add photos of the kids to it when I get a chance! It also comes with a pen which is brilliant as I can never find a pen when I want to put things onto the calendar! I already have it filled in with lots of important dates for our family for 2018!!

and Number Five: My Heart Necklace
This was another present from Andy and the boys. I have worn this a couple of times since I got it and its so beautiful! 

These are my favourite presents for Christmas!! The coat has got to be the best investment I made as I have not been cold on the school run!! And by wearing my Be Necklace it reminds me everyday to be strong, be thankful, be happy etc!

2017 Review of the Year - Part Two

So welcome to part two of our review of 2017! Part One which contains January to June can be found here!

So we come back to the Review starting in July!

July started with mummy and Freddie attending the Baby Brunch at Intu Metrocentre where we had a lovely morning meeting two of the Metro Gnomes. We also wrote about James finishing reception at school. We also shared some more information about things we had got for James fifth birthday. Freddie also turned 20 months old in July!

August was the month that James finally turned five! We also went to Warkworth Village show, which was a brilliant day out! We had a wonderful family day out for James birthday and actually ended up with a family BBQ!

September and James went back to school and started in Year One! Mummy and Freddie attended the Bloggers preview of The Simply Small Co store in Newcastle Grainger Market. James also got to review the awesome Kinetic Rock play set which he adored and totally covered the kitchen floor in the rock!

October saw mummy attempt to do Blogtober again and this year I got 19 days in! Next year I have great plans to actually get posts scheduled to go up earlier and write posts earlier! We also reviewed the fantastic book "Who Hides Here? Footprints in the Garden" James loved this book as he loves being outside and his favourite thing to do at school is forest school in the school garden!

November saw us post reviews of Letter to Santa, Pao Papoose and Cuddleroar to name a few! But the biggest part of November was our little Freddie Bear turned TWO! Sadly though the poor little man actually had a sickness bug on his birthday and spent the whole day curled up in his pj's on the sofa! Mummy and Freddie also attended the open day at the playgroup we have put him down to start in January! It will only be a couple of sessions a week but it will give mummy two free afternoons (or mornings) to get things done in the house and work without little hands trying to help!

And so that brings us to December. The final month of the year! It really does not seem five minutes since it was last Christmas so for it to be here again already it is crazy! In December we posted a competition to win a signed Freya Morgan Print. We also wrote about the calibre products knee support and how it was helping me to deal with the pain I get in the winter from an old knee injury! We also did an update on how James is doing at school now he is in Year One and its a more structured learning compared to Reception where it was more learning through Play! We sadly end the year mourning the loss of Andy's lovely nanny who died on Christmas Day, not even an hour after he spoke to her on the phone. She was a fantastic lady who was 105. We will miss her very much and all the wonderful stories she used to tell us, especially the ones about Andy's mum growing up!

So that was the end of our 2017! We have so much planned already for 2018 including a trip to Surrey to see Nanny and Pappy, a day out in London so James can see all the places he has learned about in school and of course our first family holiday to Majorca!

2017 Review of the Year - Part One!

Review of the Year 2017 January to June!

So what a year 2017 has been for us!! We have had lots of fun!

January saw Freddie try out a Puddle Ducks North East swimming class, which didn’t actually go to well and he cried for the entire session! We also wrote about how weaning was going at 13 months! We also reviewed the fantastic Dino Multi Bag by Zip and Zoe James loves this bag and is actually still using it for school now hes in year one!

February saw us commemorate the 59th Anniversary of the MUNICH 1958 air disaster, We also reviewed The Reward Box which we are still using now with James!

March saw Freddie turn 16 months and start walking! 

April saw us going to Cbeebies Land at Alton Towers so mummy wrote a post all about what we were takinging in our bags on the coach to keep James and Freddie amused! 

May saw us posting all about the fantastic time we had at Alton Towers and Cbeebies Land! We also wrote about how the Snoozeshade is not just for summer! This is a product that we are actually using all year round with Freddie as it keeps the sun off him in the summer and in the winter it not only keeps the low winter sun out of his eyes but it also keeps the nasty North East wind off him in the pushchair and keeps him that little bit warmer! This was the month that Freddie also turned 18 months old!

June - This month saw us writing about what James keeps in his Zip and Zoe backpack! Now hes in year one the contents of this bag has somewhat changed and I will be writing an updated post in the new year as to what James takes to school on a daily basis! We also started planning James fifth birthday party and also designing the invites!

Thank you for reading the first party of our Review of 2017 and Part two will be up in a few days!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Gift Guide

o it's finally that time of year to start your Christmas shopping! Hopefully you might have already started and be nearly finished! But in case you are not I've put together his little guide of some bits for mummy and kids!

First off we have the gorgeous Pouch of Power from the etsy store Splendid Elk! I actually won this in an Instagram competition a few months ago and I literally adore it! It's a perfect size to put my iPad in if I need to take it out with me. I also use it to keep my wallet and James wallet in in the changing bag so things do not get lost! This retails at £15.00 and can be found on the etsy shop here! 

Next up we have two fantastic products from Cuddledry. First we have the original Cuddledry handsfree baby bath towel. This is an apron style towel which keeps mum/dad dry when doing bath time. It has a double layer, with a hood which draws moisture away from babies skin and hair. I so wish we had invested in one of these for Freddie as he always soaked us at bath time! This retails at £29.95 and can be purchased here direct from Cuddledry or you can also find them on Amazon.co.uk 

Our second product is the fantastic Cuddleroar toddler towel. We actually reviewed this with Freddie and totally fell in love with it! In fact Freddie likes wearing it over his clothes too! This is brilliant for a wriggling toddler who likes nothing more at bath time than squirming out of his towel and running off naked around the upstairs of our house. Our Oldest son James is 5 and it actually fits him as well, This retails for £34.99 and can be bought direct from Cuddledry and also Amazon.co.uk 

Now we have two gorgeous products from Nibbling! Freddie is teething badly again with his last molars and when he has his dummy clipped to him, he is always chewing the cord it's on. That's where this amazing dummy clip comes in! The Octo dummy clip is made from 100% food grade silicon and is BPA free, meaning it is perfectly safe to be in a little mouth! Freddie fell in love with it as soon as it was clipped to him! He's had it in his mouth chewing on it to relieve the pain of teething! Plus it means no more soggy ribbon that mummy needs to put in the dryer with the washing! And when he was sick on it, like he has been on his fabric ones before, it was rinsed under the tap with hot water and a new dummy attached and handed back to him. The sicky fabric ones needed to go into the washing machine, which is a pain as then they need to be left to dry! This retails for £14 and can be purchased here!

Our next nibbling product is this fabulous puzzle piece necklace. I absolutely love this as when I have Freddie in his carrier he is normally trying to either chew the carrier or chew what ever I am wearing. It was not too pleasant having to wring out my hoody strings after Freddie had been sucking and chewing them! They would get so wet and a lot of drool would come out of them!

 Now he will grab onto the puzzle piece and shove it into his mouth! He has got really painful gums as his final molars are coming through and the rough side of the puzzle piece really soothes him. This retails for £14 and can be purchased here!

Next up is the awesome Lamb and Bear! This fantastic unisex clothing brand is ran by one of my lovely blogger friends Alex. Freddie has had a couple of pairs of her leggings and they really suit him! They wash really well and well Freddie just looks adorable in them!!

Her latest collection has a mustard rhino print and a gorgeous flamingo print! Along with her signature Lamb and Bear print. She also does a gorgeous swaddle blanket, a zippy sleepsuit and matching mummy and baby headbands!

Freddie currently wears the rhinos in age 18-24 months and he is just about to turn 2 and he still has plenty of growing room in them! His last pair were in size 12-18 and he was still fitting into them at 20 months old! Prices start at £7 for a baby headband and leggings from £16!! The lovely Alex has a discount code for all you lovely readers! Just add the code LBFRIEND10 to get ten percent of your order!

I would like to say thank you to Cuddledry, Splendid Elk, Nibbling and Lamb and Bear for taking part in this gift guide for 2017!

**I was sent products in exchange for this gift guide and some I have purchased myself and added in as I love them so much!**

#Blogtober17 Day 6 Flowers

The prompt for day six is flowers.

To be honest I'm not really a person for flowers! I don't buy them, and to be honest when James was born my aunt and uncle sent us a massive bunch of flowers as they were on holiday at the time. We had to put them into a bucket as we realised we did not have a vase!

The only flowers  I have ever really liked were my wedding flowers. I had red roses as my main flowers. I even had my flowers preserved and framed. We still do not have them on the wall yet and we have been married over six years!

I'm really not that green fingered either, my dad bought me a plant a few years ago and I managed to kill it! 

James hates bees, so we are trying to eliminate the amount of flowers in our garden as well James literally freaks out when he sees a bee!

So yes flowers are definetly not my thing!

Photo from www.ivtography.com My dads website!

#Blogtober17 Day 5 Education

The prompt for Blogtober day 5 is education!

For me this means everything I have done! So where I grew up it was a three tier school system with kids starting school at four rising five, then moving to middle school at the end of the school year you turned nine. Then again moving to high school at the end of the school year of turning thirteen.

So after completing my GCSEs at high school I had the option of staying on at school for another two years and doing sixth form or I could leave school and go to the local college for two years. I chose to go down the college route. I did a BTEC National Diploma in Media Production.

I then chose to go onto Manchester Metropolitan University, but the course I started was not the course I had been told about at the open day, so I chose to leave the course after the first year.

I then worked for a year for the camera shop Jessops where I learned so much about photography and digital cameras and also how prints were developed. 

I then went onto Salford University and did an HND in Media Production. I absolutely loved my time on the HND. Sadly when I went back to the university to do the one year top up degree it was a horrible experience, which ended up with me appealing my results and eventually resitting some of my modules.

I eventually graduated in 2012, but I was pregnant with James at the time so deferred the ceremony till the July 2013. James was eleven months old when I walked onto the stage in the Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays to receive my degree. So I ended up with a BSc Hons Professional Broadcast Techniques 2:1 Degree.

Do I want my boys to go to university? Well I would love it if they did, but it will be there choice. If they dont want to then I wont force them. Its their happieness that means the most to me.

#Blogtober17 Day 4 Date

The day 4 Blogtober prompt is Date.

Me and Andy try to have a date night at least once a month. Normally it is a Friday night.

My parents will come down in the afternoon and pack the kids stuff into their car. Then they will load Freddie into his car seat then drive around to James school and collect him then drive to their house! They live 40 minutes drive from us, so its easiest if they go straight from school to try and avoid most of the rush hour traffic going north!

Our last date night was for Andy's birthday. His birthday had been on the Wednesday, but with it being a school day for James we decided to have a meal at home on the actual day and they have our couples meal out on the Friday night!

We started with Tea/Coffee and birthday cake at home with my parents and the kids. This meant I was also able to get James changed out of his school uniform and get his uniform into the washing machine!

Once the kids left we got ready and headed into Newcastle city centre for drinks and our meal! 

We went for a drink first at a little bar next to Greys monument which was lovely and it was somewhere we had never been to before as a couple, in fact I don't think either of us have ever been there before. 

Eldon Square opened a new restaurant section almost a year ago i think it was, and we are trying a new place every time we go out for a meal! This time we had chosen to book Giraffe World Kitchen!

After our meal we then headed off to start our drinking! We first went to Wetherspoons and well we actually ended up in Flares! Lets just say mixing drinks is never a good idea and this mummy had a very sore head all day on the Saturday! 

We need to start planning our next date night but it will probably not be until the end of October at the earliest as Andy has been doing overtime on Saturday mornings at work.

I'm really looking forward to our next night out, but this mummy will not be mixing her drinks
again!

#Blogtober17 Day Three - Cars

So the prompt for today is cars!

Now I actually don't have a car as I cannot actually drive! Yep that's right I'm 32 and cannot drive! But I do plan to change that and learn to drive in the next year! I think if I learn to drive then it will be easier for me to take the kids to my parents to visit! It would mean my mum and dad would not have to come down and pick me and the kids up! We would also be able to drive down to Surrey to see Andy's family rather than having to rely on trains, which are expensive and have to be booked at least three months in advance or the coach, which is cheaper but it does take at least six hours just to get into central London, then it is two trains! 

But if you get me onto the topic of cars then Formula 1 cars have to be my favourite! I love nothing more than sitting down to watch the Grand Prix. My favourite team is Ferrari, obviously because they are red lol. I can remember watching the F1 with my late nannie who used to love watching just to see how many cars would crash on the first lap!

I do love Aston Martin cars as my lovely cousin works for them. He even brought a DBS to our wedding.

As a boy mummy we do have lots of toy cars in our house! James absolutely adores hot wheels and other match box sized cars! But he is always leaving them all over the house, so I am forever rescuing them from the jaws of Freddie who thinks they make the perfect teether!

If I had to own a car through I have no idea what I would have, but as long as it had four doors I would be happy though! 

#Blogtober17 Day One - All about You!

So here it is, 1st October 2017 and the first day of Blogtober 2017!

Today's prompt is All about you, so here goes!

My name is Victoria, but everyone calls me Vicki or Vic.My dad is the only one who really calls me Victoria!

I was born in April 1985 so that makes me 32! And yes I think I actually look my age now, especially since having the boys!

I've been married to Andy for six years and we have been together nine years!

We live in a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne and bought our current house two years ago!

We have two boys, James who is five and Freddie who is almost two. As it is babies tomorrow I will be talking more about my two monkeys then!

In our nine years together, me and Andy have lived in eight homes together, Three down in Surrey and the rest up here in the North East! Twice living with my parents!

We have no pets although James is desperate for a dog, but it has to be a big dog he says!

Blogtober 2017 Prompts!

So Blogtober 2017 has started today! The lovely Mandi over at Hexmumblog has done this wonderful graphic with all the post prompts for the next 31 days of blog posts!

Let the Blogtober 2017 fun begin!

Warkworth Village Show 2017

The third weekend in August is always a big weekend for the Northumberland village of Warkworth.

The annual village show has been going for 147 years and it's a big weekend!

This year was the first year I had been in a long time and it was also the first time I had taken James and Freddie.

The castle is run by English heritage, but for the show day you get your castle entrance fee covered in your show entrance.

Ever since my parents moved to the village just over a year ago, James has been obsessed with going to the castle, so show day was a brilliant day for James as he got to spend hours exploring! 

With a huge marquee set up and split into three sections, with the first section being the competition section, with cake, biscuits, flowers and vegetables to writing, photography and more there are certainly a lot of prizes to give out! The middle section is crafts being demonstrated and sold. The final section is the refreshments! This was run by the WI from the nearby village of Ulgham. 

There was a fun run which started in the castle keep and finishing in the moat, a dog show and also a children's fancy dress competition. 

Local animal charity Shak were there with some of their rescue dogs. James totally fell in love with a white greyhound called Skye. 

Inside the castle keep there was small tents with things like English heritage memorabilia and Northumberland college at Kirkly Hall. There was also circus skills being demonstrated  and things for the visitors to try out. James however was just happy to have free explore his favourite place!

I'm already looking forward to next years show, which by my calander will be on Saturday August 18th 2018!

Newcastle NE1 Motor Show 2017

The weekend of the 8-9th July was the weekend that Newcastle city centre came to a standstill as Grainger Street and Grey Street hosted the NE1 Motor Show.

The last time we went it was 2015 and James wasn't even three and I was pregnant with Freddie. Then last year poor James was actually ill the weekend of the show so we had to miss it, so we made sure we went this year!

James had a brilliant time! He got to sit in an old racing car and another old car, but the highlight for James was sitting in an Aston Martin V12 Vantage! He was also wearing his Aston Martin jumper that his big cousin who works for them gave him.

Check out our photos from the day! 

One Week Down, FIVE to go!

So week one of the summer holidays is officially over, and I have survived having both boys with me 24/7!!!

Now people will read this and laugh as of course I had both boys with me last summer too, but last summer (2016) Freddie was not mobile! I could quite happily leave him on his baby gym and go into the kitchen to make lunch or a cup of tea!

Now this year summer 2017 Freddie is very much mobile, in fact he's running all over and pestering James something rotten!

So week one has been pretty chilled out, we have pretty much stayed at home bar a doctors appointment for mummy's dodgy knee, a trip to shop and a fun morning at our local sure start centre!

We also had Nana and Gaga drop in for a couple of hours too! 

The highlight of the week though for James was our trip to Newcastle on Friday where we went for a pub lunch with Nana and Gaga!

Week two we are going to stay with Nana and Gaga. So there will be lots of walking into the village to go to the river, maybe ice cream and of course lots of visits to the play park 

Intu Metrocentre Baby Brunch

When the invite arrived in our email inbox inviting mummy and Freddie to a baby brunch at Intu Metrocentre to celebrate independent retailers week we were thrilled.

We dropped James off at school and jumped on the number 7 bus and off we went to Intu Metrocentre. Originally we were going to have to leave the event a bit early for sports day, but the school cancelled that due to a soggy school field that morning.  

Intu Metrocentre has loads of independent retailers and I was so looking forward to browsing them without James! 

There was loads of activities for the kids like duplo, megabloks and Freddie's current favourite - cars! He had great fun going brum brum on the AstroTurf especially with a Blaze monster truck! 

They way the area was set out was fantastic! It was right in the centre of the village area meaning people could walk round it on either side, causing no disruption to the actual retailers.

There was a brilliant flower arranging demonstration from the lovely little florist that's in the village which mummy really enjoyed and there was even a visit from Rusty and Maggot two of the Metro Gnomes! Freddie was a bit unsure of them at first but then he had great fun grabbing their noses! We even got a fab photo with Rusty! 

We had an absolutely fantastic morning out at Intu Metrocentre and looking forward to our next visit soon! We are really lucky having this shopping centre on our doorstep and I'm planning on making more of it and visiting over the summer holidays with the boys.

Disclaimer: We were invited to this event by Intu Metrocentre. All words and pictures are our own

James and Freddie do CBeebies Land!

The day was finally here and boy was it an early start! Mummy and daddy had their alarm set for 0545am! 

We got the boys up at 0615am and got them dressed. We had layed out all the boys clothes the night before on the sofa. Both boys had breakfast which was great as we were planning on feeding them on the coach.

We had a taxi booked for 0715 to take us into town as our national holidays coach went from Bewick Street, across the road from Newcastle Central Station and we did not want to chance public transport early in the morning!

Mummy and daddy had prepared for the trip by downloading lots of programmes and films onto our tablets for the boys to watch.

Our coach left at 0750am. We had to swap coaches at Wetherby, The boys were so good on the first coach, in fact Freddie slept for a good chunk of the time! We had plenty for them to do and keep them occupied plus they each had a new toy Teletubby! We left Wetherby at ten to eleven. Freddie started to lose his patients a bit, but lucky when that happened, we were close to the park! 

We arrived at the park just after 1pm. James was so excited! After getting the pram we headed straight into CBeebies Land! 

The first ride we went on was the Go Jetters Vroomster. We had a short wait but James loved it! We then did the Octonauts ride with quite a long wait but again James loved it.

After the Octonauts it was time for lunch! Sandwiches, tea and coffee for mummy and daddy. Jacket potatoes, beans and fruit for the boys!

Then it was Postman Pat which we could all go on! Freddie absolutely adored this ride! He sat on the seat hitting the horn! We got a great photo on this ride! We then went into Nina's science lab which James was running round trying everything! 

We then went into the photo studio n got a photo with Go Jetters! 

We were back on the coach to the hotel just after 5 but left coach park at half 5. Our hotel was about an hour away from the park and Freddie slept the whole way!

We got into our hotel room at 7pm, then went down for our meal which was lovely. Both boys were asleep by half nine!

Day two was another early start with having breakfast at just after 7am! 

We left the hotel at 9am and got to park at 10am for opening! James wanted to go on the Octonauts first, so daddy took him on that! Then they went on the Go Jetters ride! 

We then did the In The Night Garden boat ride. Freddie absolutely loved this one! His face lit up when he saw Iggle Piggle!

 

We then left Cbeebies land and went over to Mutiny Bay to go to Sharkbait Reef, both boys absolutely loved this! James was very excited to find Nemo and Dory!

We then got a cable car up to cloud cuckoo land. We had lunch at the burger kitchen which was lovely and hot! Both the boys loved their food! Mummy and James then went on a carousel! 

Jame did the driving school and got his driving license! While daddy and James queued up, mummy went and changed Freddie's bum, I put the snoozeshade over the pram to see if Freddie would get some sleep which he did - two hours! 

After the driving we went back down to the cable cars and went back down to Tower Street and had a look in the shop before heading back into CBeebies Land to go into the Something Special Sensory Garden. We then went into the shop where James got a grandmaster glitch toy and Freddie an Iggle Piggle! 

We then went out into Tower street to let James have a run on the grass while mummy nipped into the shop and bought keyrings and a pen. 

Freddie woke up and we went into a coffee shop. We needed a chill out before we did toilets and bum change before getting back on the coach. 

The coach left just after 4pm. After a half hour break at Wetherby services we finally got into Newcastle just before 10pm! 

It was a brilliant couple of days but a very long trip home! Freddie did lose his patients a few times and need out of his seat for cuddles, but James was brilliant!

We would love to go back, but maybe try a different way of getting there and back!

Disclaimer: We paid for this trip ourselves and are writing about it to show how much fun we had!