A Little Mother's Day Gift Guide

It's Mother's Day this weekend of course and I for one am looking forward to breakfast in bed, preferably with tea, pain au chocolat, a magazine, and if I'm very lucky hopefully a couple of homemade cards from the kids! I'm always torn on Mother's Day between wanting to spend the day as a family, enjoying quality time together and feeling thankful for being a mum to two lovely little kiddos (assuming that is that everyone is on their best behaviour of course, no nail varnish is being painted on the newly painted walls - yes that happened this week - and we're not arguing about how it's not nice to call mummy a meanie every 2 minutes when things don't go their way!) and wanting a whole day off, all to myself, without the kids, which might sound a little harsh but would be oh so lovely!

At 5 and almost 3, my two are still a bit young to co-ordinate any sort of present buying themselves, so it kind of falls on my husband's shoulders to arrange a gift for me, if that's what's happening this year... As a I said, breakfast in bed, flowers and cards (homemade or otherwise) are always a delight on Mother's Day but sometimes a treat in the form of a present is nice too of course!

So here's my sort of gift guide to Mother's Day this year...

1. A classic stripe tee is perfect for day to day wear with the kids, and this tee from Chinti & Parker has a fun twist which I love.
2. A bit budget-busting, but if you're on the look out for something extra special, this gold necklace from MayaBrenner.com is perfect. I'd have T and S obviously for Tabitha and Sam, but it would also be nice with just your own initial too.
3. I've been eyeing up these triangle earrings by Tom Pigeon for ages now, and would be great for adding a little extra something to an everyday outfit of jumper and jeans. They come in lots of colours, but these pale grey ones are just so pretty.
4. You can't go wrong with a leather pouch, for cards and small change, or for carrying around make up bits, etc, and this Mog Leather Zip Pouch from Donna Wilson is just the right side of quirky!
5. I don't know about you but I generally seem to carry around about 4 different lip balms at any one time, and yet I still think I could find room in my life for this one - Mojito Lip Balm from Malin + Goetz sounds too good to pass up!
6. I recently bought myself this little cat enamel brooch on a bit of an impulse but as soon as I saw it I couldn't resist. It's cute right?! (And no this post is not sponsored by Donna Wilson, ha ha!)

I hope you all have a lovely Mother's Day, whether with your kids, your own mum, or whatever you do... Enjoy!

x

A Big Day

I haven't blogged for ages - what with the summer holidays in full flow and not getting a break from the little ones with nursery finished and all, somehow it just slipped off my radar. I hope to be spending more time blogging again now we're getting back into a routine around here, but for now I just wanted to commit to memory this big day - Tabitha started school!

Yeah I know I'm biased, but oh my gosh, cute or what!!? I can't believe my little bean is nearly 5 yrs old and that school is now going to be such a big part of our lives! We've been so used to lazy morning starts, playdates in the park, and generally being the rulers of our own day, I'm not sure how long it'll take to get used to this new set up, but I'm so proud of my little girl - she really took today in her stride and made some new little friends already. I can't wait to see how she'll blossom at school. I can't say I shed a tear (that's not really me), but it's definitely been emotional folks!

Hooray For The Weekend + Simple Summer Dresses

Man, have I got that friday feeling this afternoon! 7.30pm and a glass of wine beckons! It's been a long week... Half term kind of crept up on me and I wasn't really prepared with a schedule of action packed activities like some other, more organised mums. So it's been a week of ad-hoc outings to soft-play (mental!), the big park (Sam fell in the lake!), and the farm today (which was actually ok, until the overtired meltdown at the end!) in a bid to keep everyone occupied and happy. This photo from today reminds me that it's (almost) all worth it though - Tabby and Sam loved the carousel today, going on it 3 times back to back, and were busy blowing kisses to everyone. It was very cute, Sam thought it was hilarious. Kids eh!

The week might have been somewhat more enjoyable if the weather had played it's part and been a bit sunnier. It's been mild, granted, but the constant threat of rain has rather put a dampener on things. It can't be long now til the summer sun arrives for a good, surely!?

Just in case it does anytime soon, I've been indulging in some summer wardrobe shopping and bought a couple of little summer dresses. I'm not one to wear anything skimpy and generally the word sundress fills me with dread. However, I refuse to spend another summer limited to trousers and maxi skirts just because I don't have amazing (or even half decent!) legs - I'm hoping with a hint of fake tan perhaps and some effort put in to help tone that I can too enjoy that effortless feeling of slipping on a summer dress and some sandals and being all set for fun in the sun.   

Topshop, Contrast Denim Tee Dress, £38

This Topshop denim dress, above, will look great with some chunkier heeled sandals (which also should help balance out my pins) and a statement necklace. And this uber-summery dress, below,  from Mango is a definitely one for that super hot day when only strappy sandals and a pair of sunnies are required.

Mango, Ethnic Embroidery Dress, £44.99

Have you got your eye on anything for your summer wardrobe? I'm also on the look out for a denim jacket and summer hat (H&M looking promising for both), and a new swimsuit - I like this one, in Tropical Orange, from Boden but can't really justify the £59 price tag!

Have a good weekend - we've got our annual street party on Sunday, I hope the sun at least makes an appearance! 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mums out there! I've been enjoying tea & pastries in bed this morning and reading magazines (one of my fav me things to do, uninterrupted reading time!). I hope you've been chilling out doing your favourite thing too x

ps - homemade cards are the best, you can't beat a bit of glitter and sparkly paper! :)

pps - happy first mother's day to my best friend Amy, who had her gorgeous baby, Max, in January! 

Picnic Time!

Wow, what amazing weather we had on the weekend, and for March too, not bad! As life has been getting sunnier, I've started hitting the park with the kids for impromptu picnics and it feels so good - since having kids just hanging out in the park with them in the sunshine is one of my favourite things to do. It's easy, free and the kids are always happy and exhausted after enjoying the freedom of having a good run around. On friday we grabbed a little lunchbox each from our local supermarket and went to the playground across from Tabby's nursery for a little spring picnic... these couple of shots of Sam kill me, he insisted on carrying his own lunch all the way from the shop to the park, but it was a bit heavy so he kept having to stop and regroup everything! It was too cute! (I know, the dummy ain't good, we're trying to cut back but some days he's just too tired and grumpy to give it up!)

(This is just another photo from the weekend which I'm so glad I managed to capture! It doesn't happen often, but there's definitely love between these two!)

I hope you had a good weekend too :)

Park Life

How lovely was the weather this morning?!! After a good couple of weeks cooped up indoors getting through two bouts of Chickenpox, we were all more than ready to let our hair down and burn off some energy in the great outdoors today, and feeling the sun on our faces in the park today was bliss!

Sometimes I can't believe how quickly my two are growing up... I try so hard to remember to snap these simple outings before they're a distant memory. Not everyday goes smoothly, that's for sure, and as my Grandmother told me numerous times this weekend "you must have the patience of a saint"! However I really do love being their mum!

Scooter Sam... He's crazy fast on that thing!

I really don't want this little guy to grow up anymore - stop now please!

Those of us who remember the 80s and cycling shorts know that they went out of fashion for a very good reason, yet Tabby insists on rolling up her leggings like this!

Sunshine! 

(Sorry, I really do hate selfies as they're called, but sometimes when you take all the shots, there are no photos to show you were ever there!)

What else is there to do when you're 4 other than lie about in the sand!?

Hooray for the Weekend And My Little Guy

Sometimes it's good to slow down... Life has just seemed so busy recently - from when I get up with the kids at 7am, to when they go to bed at 7pm, it's feels like I barely sit down! So today, after taking the kids to a toddler group this morning, rushing back for lunch, putting Sam down for a nap, getting Sam up from his nap, dropping Tabby off at nursery, heading out to the shops to do some secret shopping for Tabby's 4th birthday next week, then popping home for a quick snack and nappy change (Sam obviously, not me!!) before nursery pick up, I finally slowed things down a bit and decided to take a nice, slow walk to collect Tabby from nursery, and Sam and I had so much fun! 

I'm really enjoying this stage, Sam is 18 months old now and he is such a happy chappy! He's into everything - scooting on his sister's scooter, playing peekaboo (our new favourite game, which I love as "boo" is currently his only word apart from "mamma"!) and just generally finding the fun in everything we do - it's a joy to see. 

We've got a few things on this weekend so I guess there's no rest for the wicked but I'm definitely going to try and remind myself to just slow things down once in a while, as generally it's the little things that are the good things, right!? Have a good weekend! x

Have A Good Weekend

I love this photo of Sam playing with the Duplo at our local toddler group - he's not such a baby anymore but growing up into a real cute little boy! Now that Tabby is settled at nursery I'm trying to spend more one-on-one time with Sam and making sure I capture all these little moments with him while he's still small. I hope you've had some special happy moments this week - have a good weekend!
x

A Christening Gift

As my friends and I settle into our early thirties, it seems that hen parties and weddings are slowly being replaced with births and christenings.  As someone who had babies a bit earlier than the rest of my circle it's feels nice to find that we're all sort of coming to the same stage now. We've got a christening come up at the end of August and I've been mulling over what to buy the little fella as a christening gift.      I think books are always a winner with children, and parents too, so I've finally decided on a couple of classics from M.Sasek's collection of travel guides for kids. I've gone with This Is London and This Is New York...

First published in the 1950s & 60s, these books have an fabulously retro illustrative style and are a definite must for any modern nursery or playroom. There are lots more in the collection and I'm definitely going to be collecting them for my kids too - we only have This Is New York at the moment.

Images via Amazon UK

My Weekend - Southbank

On saturday my mum and I took the kids up to London for a sunny afternoon on the Southbank.  Mec was away in Wales mountain bike riding with a friend for the weekend so it seemed like a nice opportunity for some mother and daughter time and a fun adventure for the little ones. We hopped off the train at Blackfriars and walked along the riverside until we reached the London Eye and the park next to it.  We had planned to go on the London Eye but naively we'd forgotten that this was a major tourist attraction on what was indeed a sunny saturday in August (duh!) and so on seeing the queue we quickly changed our plans! Fortunately for us there was a wonderful carousel and a vintage mini car ride for the kids to go on so everyone was happy!

That carousel sure did go! (and no, I hadn't anticipated that I would be straddling an ornate horse later that day when I chose to wear my favourite dress that morning)

Sam taking it easy in his little red car

Right opposite the skate park, which sits underneath the Royal Festival Hall, was a really enormous sandpit for kids (and big kids!) to get stuck into! Of course, there was no holding my two back (yes, Tabby did strip down to her knickers to play in the sand, and yes she was the only child who was half naked!)

Sam teetering on the edge of danger as always!

Out to lunch... my little fella is always so happy :)

I absolutely love this photo - it might even be my most favourite photo of Tabby yet... and it gets better (see below)

Oh dear... I was kind of annoyed with Tabby at this point for daring to sulk when such a huge bowl of ice cream had been placed in front of her, but to be fair to her it was an amazing dessert for a 3 yr old to be presented with and then mummy and grandma come along and scoop a big fat chunk of it out into another bowl for your baby brother and hey presto, your dessert doesn't look nearly as amazing anymore :(

After recovering from the ice cream debacle, Grandma took Tabby down onto a little beach by the Thames for a play! How fabulous is the skyline of London in the background... it was a beautiful day x

Rainy Day

Is it just me or is anyone else enjoying this rainy day we're having?! My house is vaguely tidy (for those who know me you'll know this is an achievement and for that I have to thank my friend Lynsey who came round with her kids for a playdate this morning - there's nothing like the prospect of a visitor to get me doing housework!) apart from the lounge (see below, is it the summer holidays after all!) and it's actually really nice just to have a lazy day at home without the pressure of feeling like I should be out and about with the kids providing some sort of organised fun in the fresh air.  As it is, Sam's asleep and Tabby is engrossed in Sofia the First (again) and it's, well, peaceful :) Oh and I've been eating my way through a tub of chocolate cornflake cakes.. oops!

Toy carnage!

After starting the day in a sundress, Tabby wises up to the downturn in the weather and puts on a random selection of winter clothing... It's freezing apparently!

Said chocolate cornflake cakes... yum!

Not So Little Anymore

I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast! Today was Tabby's last day at playgroup, and come September she'll be off to big girl nursery. She's nearly 4... I can't believe I have an almost 4 yr old! She had such a lovely last day. There was an end of term party and she dressed up in her Sleeping Beauty princess dress and wore fairy wings (this girl knows how to dress for a party!), and then afterwards all the kids and mums went for a picnic in the neighbouring park. It was so great just to watch her hanging out with her little buddies. I wonder what this smart, interesting little girl will be when she's grows up? I'm such a proud mummy right now :) 

Good Times

Despite being a full time, stay at home mum and (theoretically!) not going out to work, it's not often I have a morning where I've got nothing going on or somewhere I'm supposed to be. So this morning, upon finding myself in the glorious sunshine and having dropped Tabitha off promptly at playgroup (for once!) I thought I'd take advantage of some one-on-one time with my little chap Sam and take him on an adventure into town.  It was such a fun morning... I decided we'd take the bus because what little boy doesn't love the bus right?! It was so nice leaving the car at home for once and just watching all the people getting on and off.  Then once we were in town, Sam hopped out of the buggy and was just in heaven toddling around and looking at everything! I'm normally in such a rush, with a buggy, bags, two kids in tow and generally running late for something that it pains me to say that I'd forgotten how much little ones just love stopping to smell the flowers and closely inspecting the stones on the ground. After we'd exhausted town, there was just enough time for a quick stop at the park before it was midday and time to collect his big sister from playgroup.  Thanks for a lovely morning little Sam, it really was a pleasure! :)