Last Thursday night I was able to go out, out, out as my Mum came down to baby sit and for the first time in ages I was able to have a mid-week letting down of the hair! My friend and I headed off to Brentwood (I troweled on the make-up of course – when in Rome) to do a spot of wine tasting with the Essex Wine School. And not just wine either! My absolute favourite tipple of all […]

I’m pretty certain ALL children enjoy learning to cook. I think it’s one of those things that even if you don’t grow up to be wonderful at it or have a great desire to do it for fun anymore, when you’re little, baking cakes with your Mummy and the like is something really special. I’ve spoken to lots of my friends and we all remember doing it when we were small and now, with little ones of our own, we’re […]

That’s right, Tiny Tears is fifty. FIFTY! That’s amazing don’t you think? Generations of little girls, in some families probably daughters, mummies and Grandmas will have ALL enjoyed playing with the iconic doll who was the first to cry real tears and do a wee wee after being fed water! I definitely had one when I was little although sadly my Mum doesn’t seem to have saved her amongst the toys she kept. Florence has her own one though, an […]

It’s been what feels like a long week already and we’re only just over the hump! Moving house is, I am beginning to remember, not as easy as pie and there are lots of obstacles in the way. Everything feels like a catch 22. Mortgage companies don’t like to give mortgages until you have been in a new job for six months but the majority of people moving, I assume, are like us and moving BECAUSE they have a new […]

Jimmy is at nursery half the week now and the other half of the week we get to be fancy free and live it up in London – while we still can and before we move to Norfolk! I am trying to make the most of our time together before he starts big school next year and being in the capital city, we are, thankfully, spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing things to do! In London we have […]

If you live in L.A then you’ve probably heard of urban hiking, apparently it’s very de rigueur! ALL the shiny people (by that I mean the celebs) are doing it and if it’s good enough for them, well, then surely it’s good enough for us! However, we’re very new to the term in the UK so we need to learn all about it, make sure we’re doing it properly and find the best places to actually do this urban form of […]

My Mum bought Jimmy a balance bike not very long ago but unfortunately it just isn’t right for him at the moment. It’s simply too big and although we hope he will use it at some point (it converts into a proper bike with pedals) as far as balancing goes it’s just a no go for him. He’s quite teeny you see, my little Jimmy. Where some boys of his age might have legs the right length his just won’t […]

I’ve had an association with East London for a very long time and even though we are now planning on moving back to Norfolk, I don’t think I can ever forget the place I will always think of as my part of town. My school was just around the corner from Hoxton which became a fixture in my night life diary for many years and then, when I got together with Jonny we lived in Mile End. We also lived […]

When it comes to Schleich animals Jimmy is a pretty big fan. He got quite a few for his birthday this year and because we are lucky enough to get to review them for the blog, he’s had a fair few more to play with too. I’ve bought him lots of zoo animals and dinosaurs and recently we’ve been sent horses and sea creatures. Truth be told Florence bagsied the horses but Jimmy managed to claim everything else. As well […]

I often see other parents in restaurants and other places where you need to keep children sitting nicely and they have whole bags of tricks to keep their little ones happy. Out come tupperwares filled with cars, Lego, crayons etc and all I can do is look on with jealousy. Jealousy that they’ve been so organised and as my children look longingly at the ther kid’s fun things I try to force them to busty their head in the iPad […]