In The Night Garden – LIVE review

August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 EmmaLeave a comment

On a whim at the beginning of the week I decided to see if we could get our hands on some tickets to see In The Night Garden Live at the Birmingham Rep. H loves In The Night Garden and it is largely relied upon as part of her bedtime routine! The Sky planner is full of episodes! I picked up tickets for Thursday morning setting me back £56+! eeek!

I’m always apprehensive taking H anywhere now, she is an awkward age and we never really know how she will react. So, I was a little worried about how she would cope with the show but honestly I couldn’t have been more surprised. She was beautifully behaved and was in awe of the entire show. And even if she hadn’t been it wouldn’t have mattered much at all. The show is entirely focused around children 6 months+ and children are encouraged to sing dance and clap along. There was not one moment in the show the audience was quiet, this didn’t take anything away from everyone’s enjoyment at all and made the atmosphere so relaxed. Some children grumbled or refused to sit still, but who cares? The show is for kids – let them be kids and enjoy it in their own way!

The show was truly magical. H was so excited to see all her favourite characters in front of her. The flying pinky ponk circling above the audience was amazing, H was so surprised and amazed! In all, although it was a bit pricey it was worth every penny. It was a fantastic family day with our girl and one I will remember for a long time!

E x

Family Days Out

Summer Holiday Activities

July 13, 2019August 1, 2019 EmmaLeave a comment

Hallie attends nursery term-time only as hubby is a primary school teacher so we are lucky that he can take care of childcare in the holidays along with my in-laws. However, I am sure I am not the only one that wakes up in the morning some days and thinks ‘how on earth am I going to entertain her today!?’ You spend moments of panic trying to rattle through things to do, nothing is prepared and you end up winging it and either spending lots of money or scrabbling something together. I decided to be a little proactive for the summer break and create a board of activities we can tick off our list. It will be a fun thing to do to let Hallie choose some activities off the board and plan some other ahead of time.

Some of the things we included were:

Visit our local Splash Pad
Have a day out at the Farm Park
Morning at Soft Play
Go on a Scavenger Hunt
Park Picnic
Make Pizza’s
Make Rice Krispie Cakes
Make Wind chimes for the garden
Film Afternoon
Visit the Safari Park
Water Bead sensory play
Ice Cream Date with Daddy
Trip to the beach
Morning at the Play Village (A Small World Roleplay Centre in Warwick)
Hobby Craft Decorate your own Play House
Strawberry picking
Lots of art and craft ideas courtesy of pinterest!

There’s plenty of ideas to keep her and us busy over the summer! If it works for us I may introduce it for each season as I am always trying to think on my feet of fun and engaging activites for our days together at the end of the week and weekend.

E x

Family Days Out

Confetti Flower Field, Wick

July 1, 2019August 1, 2019 EmmaLeave a comment

Just 25 minutes from our front door is this beautiful field that comes into a burst of colour for a few weeks every year. The Real Flower Petal Confetti Company open their flower field to the public for 10 days every year and it is absolutely stunning. We visited last year in sweltering heat and had some photos taken by a local photographer. Hallie was 10 months old back then and still very bald! The colours and the setting was just perfect, it was a beautiful few hours walking around the flower field.

It was a given that we would return this year when it reopened for its annual 10 day opening. We visited last Saturday for some more family portraits with another photographer and the flowers were still in the process of blooming. It still made for a lovely setting albeit not a full wash of colour as last year just yet. It was expanded massively from our trip last year. They moved to a much bigger field and expanded their cafe on site. I just had to return on one of my mummy days this week to see the flowers fully in bloom and it was definitely worth it. We are still awaiting photos back from our photographer but I managed to snap a few amateur photos of our girl exploring with a DSLR camera I was loaned. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at more photography and am totally sold after having a play around with the canon I was loaned.

Sadly the field is now closed for the flowers to be harvested, dried and sold as confetti. Though no doubt they will be back open again next year around a similar time for another 10 day opening, think it will become a yearly trip for us!

I have to give a mention also to a local Worcestershire based artist, Hayley Reynolds. She is an artist in residence at the flower field and her artwork is absolutely stunning. I couldn’t resist one of her watercolour orignals which now hangs proudly in our house.

Em x