I live in my car now - well it feels that way

Having both boys at home during school holidays requires a lot of organising. Over Easter there was the strategic grandparent delivery service with both of them staying with my parents on the first night we me and Hubbie could go out to a show. The next day we picked up Blue Bear to take him to the in-laws. Despite our best laid plans we spent more than three hours on the M25 both days and I was thoroughly exhausted. I had intended to blog and social media the crap out of Easter, but in the end I went for rest, relaxation and some time without the children. With Blue safely installed with Grandma and Grumps we high-tailed it out of there with screeching tyres and smoke in our wake.  

Hubbie and I used to present a radio show together years ago so I suggested we might revisit the format. The technical side has moved on and we sat opposite each other instead of side by side, but it was great to spend time sharing music we love and chatting over the airwaves just like the old days. I hope we can do more shows in the future. Talking of which I'll be live on air tomorrow morning which is always fun and games - not least as I lose track of what I was saying or fail to play a song that I had cued up. Anything could happen after the week I've had. Since the start of the week I've lost a journal I write in every day, the key to an essential cupboard and my debit card. I'm not sure I'm safe to drive at the moment I'm so discombobulated ! 

All this week Brown Bear has been at Supercamps which is perfect for an active child like him. Blue Bear had been booked into a half day camp suitable for his age, but it was cancelled at short notice. I've had to find new and exciting ways to spend time with him - which put paid to my plans to get things done while the boys were out of the house. Earlier in the week we went to the cinema and this morning I took him to watch Swan Lake. It is a production by the English National Ballet specifically for a younger audience under the banner of 'my first ballet.' There is a narrator to help children follow the simplified story which runs for an hour and a half including an interval. We were surrounded by small girls universally dressed in tulle skirts and wearing headbands. Bringing his own sense of perspective to the event Blue asked me on the way there if there are any dinosaurs in Swan Lake. He wasn't too put out when I had to tell him there weren't - not least as he had a dino shaped gingerbread biscuit during the interval. In fact he seemed to have a pretty good understanding and concentrated beautifully. He was put out that I refused to buy him a jewelled magic wand from the concession stand, but I reminded him he has more than one wand at home - and a matching tiara. 

I would recommend 'My First Ballet: Swan Lake, which will be on tour shortly. If you are quick you can still catch it at the Peacock Theatre in London, but tickets are very limited. 

One more week of holidays to go - here's to my not losing things or falling over my own feet. 

My secret life as the Easter Bunny

We don't celebrate Easter as such, we're not Christians so it isn't a religous thing for us at all. However, it does often coincide with the Sikh celebration of Vasaikhi which marks the formation of the Sikh faith. So in that sense we do make a big deal of it.

On the last day of term I organised an Easter egg hunt for all the children in Brown Bear's class with all the mums kindly donating chocolate for the goody bags and controlled chaos while the kids searched for the plastic eggs that were hidden all over the pub garden. It was great fun and they all enjoyed it very much.

Last week I took the bears to Bromley and we went for a nice lunch, played in a fantastic playground in the sunshine and took part in an Easter hunt to find the bunnies hidden in shop windows. It was quite a walk to find them all, but the boys loved it and at the end they got a chocolate egg for their trouble. "Can we eat it now ?" asked Brown Bear, and I said they could as they'd been so good.

Finding a bunny in a shop window 

The next day I took them to Ikea for yet another egg hunt which again was a bit of a trek, with Brown Bear writing down all the answers on his sheet and at the end the boys both got an ice cream cone.

Tonight I've been sorting all the eggs and gifts the boys have been given into separate bags and am astonished at how much they have been given. Our lovely generous families and neighbours have all given them Easter gifts in addition to our own presents for them. Every year we have an egg hunt at home and I hide lots of small eggs around the garden with a big egg at the end. This year they will already have got so much chocolate I'm not sure they can handle any more.

Tomorrow we're surprising the boys and going to a steam railway with another Easter egg hunt. It's the perfect combination of steam trains and chocolate, I can't imagine anything my boys would love more.

Ok, so none of these are especially traditional activities, but they all involve an element of searching for clues, writing things down and a treat at the end. I mention this because rather than just handing them a chocolate or an ice cream - which of course I could do - they are doing something to 'earn' it, working something out or finding things. They get a sense of achievement from taking part and are rewarded with a treat at the end.

A few sweeties for Easter 

Do I spoil my children ? Yes of course I do. It makes up for all the times that I feel incompetent, useless or think I've been overly hard on them.  It's my job to raise my children to be kind, thoughtful, helpful people. It's also my pleasure to make them smile and laugh. To give them the pure joy of having a chocolate or a sweet just because and for them to enjoy it guilt free. I write them notes from the Tooth Fairy, leave them little traces to indicate that Father Christmas has been and pop little secret notes where they can find them from me just to tell them I love them.

Now I have to hide chocolate in the garden and leave clues from the Easter Bunny - shh don't tell anyone. 

My boys got to be royalty for the day at Kenwood

Weekends can be such a big deal and when they are combined with school holidays the pressure is on to make each one meaningful. Well we had a helping hand last weekend when English Heritage offered to host us for a visit to Kenwood House in Hampstead. While I am without question a Londoner I have little affinity with North London so I've never been there before, but I can see I've clearly been missing out. When we arrived it was already really busy with families enjoying the sunny weather and sitting outside enjoying picnics, playing games and generally making the most of a nice day in spring.

Brew House Cafe in the sunshine 

My boys exploring Kenwood House gardens 

First things first we had to get some lunch so we went to the Brew House Cafe for a lovely meal courtesy of Searcys - the same people behind the champagne bar at St Pancras. The boys had a packed lunch box (£7) and me and Hubbie had a delicious Sunday roast each (£15). As you can see it was a massive meal ! The boys were treated to an ice cream cone afterwards and we really needed to walk it off as we were so full, but happy. I can heartily recommend the food here, but maybe pace yourself so you can also have a cream tea - I wish I had left some room for that. 

As entry to the house is free you can instead spend the money on a nice lunch and make a day of it. We were lucky with the weather, but on a colder or rainier day I can imagine that a Sunday lunch here would be a real draw.

We found Kenwood to be really child friendly with plenty to keep them occupied. My boys loved the dressing up clothes and indoor play area. On the day we went there was also a craft activity with a minimal charge (£1). You can also pick up an explorer backpack to help guide smaller visitors round the house and gardens.

Dressing up time 

My little king 

The house itself is really impressive and the volunteers are well informed and friendly. We heard some amazing facts and stories about the paintings in the rooms and were given some really helpful pointers to help keep the boys interested. 

The beautiful library

Bear on the stairs 

The grounds at Kenwood are really beautiful and there is also a lake. I spoke to a friend who told me she's been to see concerts here and with such lovely surroundings it must be so atmospheric. While we took in the scenery we spotted a fantastic tree for climbing and Brown Bear decided to brave it to the top branches. I was impressed with his deft footwork, but equally pleased when Blue Bear made the decision not to scale the branches as I didn't fancy climbing up to rescue him if he lost his nerve.

We'd love to thank English Heritage for inviting us to visit and I'll give them the last word: "whether you prefer visiting ancient castles, grand houses or spooky abbeys you and your family will find plenty to explore and get involved with. We give all our visitors the chance to try stuff on, investigate things, climb the ramparts or simply enjoy the atmosphere and stand where history happened. During Easter we will be running a series of Easter Adventure Quests across the country, where families can meet a costumed character, solve clues and win chocolate rewards."

We were invited to visit Kenwood House by English Heritage and would like to thank the site team for making us so welcome. Thanks also to Tudor and Robert at Searcys for a wonderful lunch. 

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. I have received a voucher in return for writing this post. 

Life is Sweet

You might remember i gave up sugar, sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits in January. I said at the time that it didn't take long for me to notice how sweet everything is when I wasn't eating so much sugary stuff. I decided to stop again in the run up to Easter as I knew it would be a bit of a sugar-fest so I hoped that cutting back beforehand would help me to moderate my intake.

Well, a week before Easter I found a cake mix that I had bought a while back at a cake and bake show that needed to be used so I made this:

It's a toffee sponge with maple icing and pecan nut topping. It is very sweet indeed as there are pieces of toffee in the sponge itself. I managed to control myself and not succumb to it and there is still about half of it left in the fridge. 

Then I decided to check what I had for Easter as I'd been buying things over a period of months. You see I am a border of groceries. I shop like armageddon is imminent. My cupboards are unlikely to be bare any time soon and yet I still buy food items as though the next shopping trip will be my last. 

When I saw all of the chocolate laid out like this I realised that it might be a little over the top. Not least as we are still finishing chocolate we were given at Christmas ! 

So, we finally came to Easter weekend and the boys went on an Easter Egg Hunt in the garden where the Easter Bunny had been hard at work hiding small bunnies and small chocolate eggs for them to find. The rest of the haul was put into baskets and kept for them to dip into over the next few months weeks.

While all this madness was happening we received a parcel in the post. It was this lovely box of Mr Kiplings cakes. I may well struggle to stay away from sugar for a while :) 

One, Two, Three, Four... reasons to be cheerful :)

OYou know how sometimes you need to remind yourself of the nice things in life ?

Well this week I really need that so here goes:

Not that I'm going to ask for chocolate of course

I popped into M&S earlier this week and spotted this little beauty. I loved it so much a took a photo to show Hubbie what to get me for Easter. Yep, it's a caramelised walnut swirl egg !!

Me and Hubbie posing with the famous pigeon

We first saw the Mel Brooks musical The Producers when we were on honeymoon in New York. It is everything we love; irreverent, camp as you like and very, very silly. This week we went on a date night and saw the latest touring production starring Jason Manford and the wonderful Cory English (who we've seen before in the West End production). As Miranda's mother would say, "Such fun !"

Arty shot of me at the Danceathon

Of course you know I took part in the Comic Relief 6 hour Danceathon last weekend. It was such an amazing thing to be part of and I'm delighted to managed to keep dancing for the entire 6 hours and am overwhelmed by how very generous my sponsors have been - thank you all so much xx

And finally we can resume our normal lives

After weeks of popping every Red Nose Day item into my trolley when I go shopping I finally did an audit of what we have so far. At last count I have a Lulu Guinness shopper, T-shirts for me and my boy, one china mug, red nose day sippy cups (x2) and red noses (x15). The good news here is that we finally managed to get the snortel nose that our boy has been searching for. Thank goodness !

*** STOP PRESS ***

We now have two Snortel noses thanks to lovely Ems who bought my boy another one :) 

A Good Friday to take a walk

I've been a bit absent lately as I've been poorly since Easter - as a result I've had not one chocolate egg (boo) and haven't been up to writing blog posts (double boo). To make sure you don't forget me this is a mostly photo post of images taken on one of my training walks for the Moonwalk that is in a few weeks.

This walk was on Good Friday and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon in Hythe in Hampshire. Enjoy the images. I hope you don't catch what I have :)

The loveliest bridge and weeping willow

Hythe Marina

Mother-in-law's gorgeous garden

If you'd like to sponsor me and my walking pal Soraya please do - any amount will be great and we're delighted to have received such generous support already.

Easter Family Fun with HP and Snapfish

I remember the first Easter Egg Hunt we did with our boy when he was barely 6 months old and he had no idea what was going on. We hid creme eggs and small foiled wrapped eggs all over the house and took him around as he looked baffled/disinterested and the cat was just unimpressed to find a non biscuit treat in his bed.

Now he's older our boy knows how an Easter Egg Hunt works so we were delighted when HP/Snapfish invited us to an Easter themed day out to play Easter games and try out some crafts at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. We arrived early so the boy and Hubbie had a stroll around the cabinets filled with lovely traditional toys - the displays of confiscated items were far more interesting to us adults though.

The first activity we did was a virtual Easter Egg Hunt which was brilliant. Equipped with a tablet computer the boy and Hubbie took photos of the pictures of eggs they found outside and sent the images to a printer that was indoors - magic !!


I don't know who is more excited about this egg hunt to be honest.

As well as the egg hunt we also used some HP printables to make a photo box using our own photos as well as a rabbit mask. The printables are free online and make a great activity for rainy days or holidays when you have run out of parks to go to and energy to make and do. 

By far the cutest activity on the day was dressing up. Our boy does love playing dress up, but the speed with which he put on a rabbit outfit surprised even me. He makes a very adorable Easter bunny indeed. I cannot wait until he is a teenager and I can show him the photos and embarrass him completely. I'm thinking of making a large canvas print of the rabbit ones using Snapfish and putting it on the wall for maximum effect :)

What we didn't expect was a lovely Easter basket filled with goodies including glitter glue, colouring pens and some chocolate eggs (of course). I'm reusing the basket for some more chocolate goodies - I love a good basket me - and we can't wait to make Easter pictures, cards and some homemade photo gifts for the grandparents. We love Snapfish and when the boy was born everyone we know got a photo gift from linen photo books to canvas prints and mugs adorned with photos of the baby.














I've actually asked for something different from chocolate this year. I've asked Hubbie to 'sponsor' a rabbit for me from Foal Farm, a local charity that rehomes and cares for animals. The ones that cannot be rehomed become permanent residents of the farm and sponsorship pays towards their food and medical care. I'm delighted to be sponsoring Tootsie the rabbit.

I hope you have a wonderful Easter break and that the Easter bunny brings you some lovely treats.

Disclosure: The lovely folks at HP and Snapfish invited us to a family Easter Day - we were not paid, but did receive photo gifts as thanks. 

Foodie Friday: Chocolate on prescription

This post is necessarily short as my little boy is poorly. Even the masses of chocolate he has been given by kindly family and friends for Easter have not shifted his tearful and whiny demeanour. I hope he feels better soon as we have planned an Easter Egg hunt for Sunday morning and as he is an only child he gets to eat all of them himself ! 

I've never truly understood the whole chocolate egg thing at Easter. I mean, I know what hot cross buns are about and now they seem to be in weird and wonderful new flavours so I already have apple and cinnamon, orange and cranberry and - the ultimate treat - chocolate ones from M & S. The link between hot cross buns and Easter I get, the Simnel cake I get, it's just the entire genre of ovoid chocolate that I seem to have missed the relevance of. 

Not that I'm complaining you understand. With my genetic predisposition to sweet foods and chocolate in particular this is my perfect celebration. Of course with my family predisposition to diabetes it probably isn't all that good for me either. 

I have decided this year to embrace the whole Easter theme and we are having an 'Easter afternoon tea' on Sunday with lemon cakes of various varieties to counteract all the chocolate craziness. My son already has enough chocolate to last the remainder of this year and we haven't even given him our gifts yet. I only give him a little bit of chocolate occasionally so he appreciates that it is special. 

After this weekend he might actually think it's one of his five a day !