14 things to do with kids this summer for free (or just a few quid)

Collaborative Post*

Summer is finally on it's way, and I'm am so ready for sunny days with my boy/s.

With my starting maternity leave at the beginning of the summer, and Henry dropping a day at nursery, I wanted/needed to create a list of things to do on a budget with my boys.

I've admitted before that I'm not always great at playing, but like to do things with them both obviously, plus summer means lots of outdoors time. I want to get out and about as much as possible as I think I parent at my best when I'm out rather than cooped up at home.

So I've started to compile a list of budget-friendly toddler, kid and family activities to get me inspired and motivated, for hopefully, the best summer ever!

It takes a village to raise a child.... but mine's a really small one

It takes a village to raise a child....

At least it does for some.

The old adage that you need lots of different influences to bring up a well-rounded child, and give them lots of loving family and friends is a rather sweet notion.
And for a lot of people it is probably quite true.
Perhaps by choice, or maybe by coincidence, but they've started a family surrounded by family members and close friends. Sundays are spent with the Grandparents, and Saturdays with xyz friends at soft play. Last minute meetings at work are fine because Auntie A can look after the little ones as she's off work that day anyway, and Great Grandma takes the smallest baby for a morning a week so mama can get a hot cup of coffee and hoover the living room (aka sit and binge on Netflix).

And to be honest, that sounds like perfection.

I honestly would love, and I mean truly love, to have this lifestyle.

And I am slightly jealous of the families that do get this. Not resentful, but maybe a little green eyed. I would hate to be that person who dislikes another just because they were more fortunate, or planned better, than I did.

Welcome to Paradise.... Wildlife Park

About seven years ago, okay, almost exactly seven years ago, Dann took me to a zoo for my 21st birthday and paid for me to be a big cat keeper for the day. It was probably the best gift I've ever received and has stayed with me as one of the best experiences of my life, and paved the way for my trip to South Africa in 2012.

So when we were invited back to Paradise Wildlife Park* I jumped at the chance. Taking Henry to a place that holds such great memories was an absolute must, and as it just so happened to be my birthday weekend, it was the perfect excuse.

We also took along Danns sister and her girls to have a big family trip out and it was all kinds of perfect.

Autumn Maple Bagel Skewers

Autumn is the best time for lots of home cooking, and treating yourself. It's getting colder so why not, right?
I was going to name this a Halloween and Bonfire Night treat, but to be honest, I want it every night, so an Autumn treat it is.

I don't think there is is much better than sweet yummy carbs, and although I'm not a huge bread fan, I can eat bagels daily (I really feel like I would be perfectly at home in New York.... bagels, cheesecake and shopping.... that's me happy!)

So when I was challenged to come up with a recipe for the New York Bagel Company's new Mini Maple Bagels*, I knew I was up for a fun little treat.
I wanted to create something that associates with the two autumn holidays - Halloween and Bonfire Night - and make something that we can have year after year.

And the Maple Bagel Skewers with homemade caramel toffee sauce was born.

Life with boys

I was never really certain I would have a boy.

I'm one of three girls, and although I know this really makes no difference to what gender you have, I just sort of assumed that I would follow in my mother's footsteps (to be fair she also thought Henry was going to be a girl).

Don't get me wrong, having a son has been the most wonderful experience, and I have no daughter regrets (yet). Henry is everything you could want from a little boy, but there have definitely been some tricky bits. 

I'm totally out-numbered 3 to 1 - yes I include the cat in this! But I'm really quite happy with the arrangement.

So what is life like with boys?

A picture is worth a thousand words - Canon EOS 200D Photo Challenge

A picture is worth a thousand words.
Never has a truer statement been made.
And it's a philosophy that I live by.
Yes I'm a words girl. I live for writing. But I also live for photos. Photos have the ability to bring back so many memories, create new opinions, endure feelings. Photos... they're my jam.

And I'm a Canon girl, through and through. Ever since my university days when I would hire out a DSLR from our media rooms to do my photojournalism course.

Although a fujifilm was actually my first ever DSLR camera of my own, it was a cheap buy from a friend, and my heart wanted a Canon. So I saved up and bought my 1100D.
It's lived a very good life, even surviving a four foot drop from a bookcase (thank you cat!) and has toughened up with a toddler too!

But now I'm upgrading, and I've been put to the challenge by Lifecake and Canon, to truly road test the brand new Canon EOS 200D* and show you how each photo is worth a thousand words.

Lavender Fields

I'm not sure much can beat a sea of purple in the middle of a field!

It's the season for the flowers, and in particular, lavender. If you've been about on Instagram you've probably seen the influx of lavender field photos, and I'm here to say I love them, and let the purple sweet scented spam continue for ever! (can you tell I'm not entirely over the blossom spam of March?!)

So on Sunday we headed out to our local Lavender Fields, and to be honest I have ZERO regrets. Not only to Henry nap the entire way there (about an hour), he was good as gold too, plus I got a shed load of beautiful new photos that I'm obsessed with!

A first birthday at the zoo

For Henry's first birthday last weekend, we decided instead of a party, we would go to the zoo with a few friends and family.

With him still being young, and not all of our friends having little's we wanted to do something that everyone would enjoy, especially as we know well how tedious children's parties can be for non-parents, and well parents too.

So last Saturday we packed up a picnic and headed on over to Marwell Wildlife.

We went to a wedding

Are you guys ready for probably the biggest collection of photos I've ever posted in one blog post? Because you must know me and my photographic love affair means I had real difficulty whittling these down!! (I managed to save some for my upcoming Thank You Notes series)

So Easter Sunday was my little sister's wedding. After seven years together and a year and a half of planning, she tied the knot at Taplow House Hotel, and honestly we had the best day! 

My 15 minute lazy pasta dinner

Do you know what I really love? Really good comfort food. There's something to be said for carbs and their ability to make us feel full and comfy and cosy inside. These dishes are of particular importance during times of need or when requiring cheering up.

Today I thought I'd share one of my favourite comfort foods, which also happens to be a super fast dish perfect for the lazy cook. We usually save this for evenings when we're super busy, or returning from a trip (the homesickness gets very real, and this helps quite a lot). 

It isn't pretty really, but damn is it warming and loved.

A weekend in the countryside

I'm trying to get back into using my blog as a diary as much as a platform to share thoughts and ideas. With Henry growing up SO fast I really want to make sure I record as much as possible on this blog so I have it to look back on - plus it really motivates me to take lots of photos (in keeping with my 2017 resolutions!)

At the weekend we decided to go back up to Buckinghamshire as Dann had some annual leave to use up and had a random Friday off work. We both love going back up to Danns home village. It's the perfect quintessential place and is like the village that time forgot (apart from the cars, and the broadbadnd - though thank goodness for the wifi as the only signal is in the middle of a field!).

We're really making sure this year to go and visit family as much as we can, and to go out and do things as a family with Henry, especially whilst I'm still in maternity leave!

So I've out together a little photo diary for you, and well, for me too! (warning - this is very photo heavy, like you;d expect anything less!)

Time travel for parents with Lifecake

Since Henry was born I've become a bit of a photo junkie. Ok,well, I've always been a bit of a photo junkie - you only need to look through this blog to see I spam you guys with about 100 photos for every blog post - sorry about that.

But since Henry arrived, my photo addiction has definitely gotten worse. To be fair, he is super cute, and as he's gotten older I've definitely been taking more and more photos (some of this may be down to realising I didn't take as many as I would have liked when he was really little, probably due to life adjustments and lack of sleep, so I'm compensating). And like any self-respecting mother I want to share ALL of the photos. However I'm very aware that not everyone on my Facebook friends lists wants to be inundated with photos of Henry. And I have a set criteria for images for my blog, so a lot of them aren't appropriate.

We also live quite far away from both sets of Grandparents, so they only really see him every couple of months, and through photos.

Recently I was contacted by Lifecake to try out their mobile phone app* which is specifically designed for parents. I'll describe the app the way the team does "parents can upload images and videos of their child, creating a seamless timeline of every moment. They can then privately share them with friends and family". Basically this is absolutely perfect for us. And I'm going to tell you why.

Gingerbread Houses with Friends

I think one of the best things about Christmas has to be the food. Am I right? There's nothing like really good good to get you in the festive spirit.
And the food at Christmas is always so special too. Pigs in blankets, mince pies, chocolate log, Christmas pudding, turkey, candy canes and gingerbread houses.

And I seriously love gingerbread houses. We decorated our own a couple of years back, but as this is the year of starting traditions, it only seemed right to get decorating again.
As Henry is still a little young (OMG next Christmas guys, next Christmas is going to be amazing!!) we decided to have a decorating contest with our friends (and Henry's Godparents) Alice and Arran one Friday night!

Alongside our competition we had Bailey's and Bucks Fizz, pigs in blankets and mince pies of course, to get really Christmassy.

We picked up the houses with lots of decorations and icing from Tesco.
Here's some photos from our evening - we even voted on a fave - but you'll have to wait til the end of the post to see who Twitter crowned as our winner!!

Winter walks are good for the soul

I'm writing up this post (sorry it's going to be scheduled) after we took a little winter walk to the woods. We just got home, and I'm feeling really happy. Like content happy. And I just wanted to share really - and I guess that's kind of the point of blogging isn't it.

So basically we had a Saturday afternoon with zero plans. Absolutely nothing! And because the weather was clear, we decided to take a walk to the woods near our house and get some fresh air. Myself and Henry have been a little bunged up with the start of colds,and have been hiding away for the last couple of days, so I thought a little walk would help clear us up a little and give us something to do - anyone else always fall into arguments if there's no plans for the day?? Maybe that's just us!

So out we went in layers of jumpers, walking boots, and Henry in our Ergobaby on Dann.
And it was nice.
We talked, away from social media, without TV, without distraction. We talked about Dann's TKD, about dinner ideas, plans for Christmas, what we want for the future. We took a shed load of photos too (you'll be seeing them here - ha ha sorry, not sorry). We found a horse and of course went and said hello. Henry took a nap. We found a local pub. We popped to the shop and picked up bits for dinner.

And we came back happy and content.

Living a life of Hygge #thelittlebookofhygge + microwave mug brownie recipe

Since starting a family a major priority of this is making sure we have lots of happy times. And a major part of this is making family time. This is where hygge comes into play.

Hygge is of Danish origin and kind of means a mixture of different things. 

According to The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking of the Happiness Research Institute, hygge can be explained as 'creating intimacy', 'cosiness of the soul' or 'taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things'. And in the infamous words of Winnie-the-Pooh "you don't spell it, you feel it" - much like love. 

The reason I've found hygge so completely fascinating is that it truly resonates with me, and how I want my life, and my families life to be. I want to create a feeling of togetherness and closeness within my family, and I really feel that hygge is so appropriate for creating this.

Owls, Chilli and Cheese, in Winchester

Last weekend was such a hit and miss weekend in terms of weather, but we still made the most of the outdoors. After visiting family, we popped over to the Chilli and Cheese Festival in Winchester. 

We went last year and really enjoyed it, and bought way too much cheese and chilli sauce.

Again this year the weekend was tailored for food lovers and families a like. We're so looking forward to this event when Henry is up and walking, so next year's should be a blast. 

We only managed an hour as Henry was getting restless towards the end, but we snagged a couple of great chilli sauces for our ever-growing collection, and of course stopped by the owl and falconry stand. I just can't pass up an opportunity to hold an owl, and Bertie the Eurasian Eagle Owl was too gorgeous to pass up on. He's one pretty heavy lad, but so soft and friendly - and those eyes!! He might look evil but he's a gentle giant. Also did you know that owls actually don't have that amazing eyesight?! They can see long distance amazingly well, but their close-up vision is terrible. 

Family visits

Living a little way from family means we have to make the most of our visits back home. Both Dann and I are from Buckinghamshire originally and moved to Southampton for University and work. We adore the city and county that we live in, and I honestly don't think we'll ever leave the area, but going back home does make me very homesick.

We recently did a couple of surprise trips home to visit family. 

Sunny Southampton

We spent a random Friday in Southampton just hanging out with a lot of walking around Old Town. It was such a beautiful sunny day, and made me really appreciate living in such a great city. We have the best mix of things in the city, with the historic parts of the city mixed with the new modern day.

We started our day in Mettricks for breakfast/brunch - probably my favourite meal of the day when I can have it! We love Mettricks (you can see my last post on them here), possibly a little too much, but you can't beat a great environment, even better coffee and excellent and locally sourced food.

We then took a little walk around Old Town, grabbed some photos - an actual "fashiony" post for once and I really love the photos too which make a change for me - and went Pokemon hunting.

We also stopped off in Guildhall Square for Henry's feed, and for Dann to get a large Cold Brew from Mettricks Guildhall. Dann's developed a new beverage love that cannot be contained!

Changing bags for little ones

Babies come with a whole host of extras, especially when out and about. I couldn't quite believe how much stuff you need with you at all times, particularly if you want to keep your sanity when in town or visiting people.

After my hospital bag post I thought I'd share what's inside our changing bag.

Things to do with little ones in Hampshire during summer

Having lived in Hampshire for the last seven years you could say I've fallen in love with the county. One of the things I really love is that it mixes elements of my home county Buckinghamshire with three cities,which adds a fun bustle to the laid-back country feel. We basically have the best of both worlds. A couple of great busy cities surrounded by little towns and villages and picturesque scenery.

Now that we have Henry we are even more aware of our surrounding area and what we can do as a family, especially in the summer as we have a summer baby on our hands.
Of course he's a little young right now to do much of anything but it's been fun having a think about what we will be doing in the years to come in our little county.