I love how Scooby Doo seems to transfer from generation to generation. I remember watching it when I was little and loving it and now Florence is just getting into this sort of stage as well. It’s a little sophisticated for Jimmy but he does love it when the monsters come out and of course when Scooby Doo appears. He’s clearly a little fan in the making. As soon as I saw the new Scooby-Doo toy, I knew it would […]

Originally produced at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a new musical adaptation of the classic children’s Pinocchio is currently receiving its UK Premiere this summer at the Greenwich Theatre. On Friday, the children, some friends and I headed up there to check it out. Florence seemed to know a lot about the story of Pinocchio despite her only exposure to it being a brief interlude at Disney On Ice as far as I knew and she was super excited about seeing it. We […]

On Friday were invited to Hamleys to a very special launch party with a very special pop star and her new range of dolls. Florence has been rather fond of Pixie Lott since she was on Strictly Come Dancing but had been a little shy to go and say hello when we saw her at Mahiki for a Netflix even before Christmas. Pixie had, then, been sitting with her family and I think Florence just felt silly going over and […]

Florence has always enjoyed the interactive toys that she’s had in the past but with ones like Teksta and Xeno, I think she does see them as more ‘boyish’ as she puts it and although she likes to play with them, it’s definitely Jimmy who ends up with them in the end. Bright Eyes Pets are far more girlie and from the minute she saw her Knew kitten I knew that this one would not be a toy she would […]

The other day I looked up how to make Heston’s thrice cooked chips but it seemed like an almighty faff in the park with refrigeration, cooling time, patting dry… Oh all sorts and I just couldn’t be bothered! Instead I decided to make them anyway and winged a method that was easy and quick to see if it worked. It did! In the past when I have made home-cooked chips, deep frying just the once, they have come out a […]

Half way through the summer holidays?! really?! Time is going too fast. It doesn’t seem five minutes since I picked Florence up and we shouted ‘we’re freeeeeeee!’ and yet somehow half the holiday time has been used up already! The first week was brilliant but I haven’t posted much of what we’ve been up to since then. We had Camp Bestival where I drove, shaking, all the way to Dorset, pitched a tent and then spent the weekend wearing flowers […]

Florence and I made mini Victoria sponge cakes a couple of days ago and they were so cute I thought I’d share them with you! We made a sponge mixture using the 4, 4, 4, 2 method. 4oz of sugar and butter creamed together until pale and fluffy, 2 eggs whisked in with a drop of vanilla essence and then 4 oz of self raising flour sifted and folded in. We then baked the mixture about a centimeter thick on […]

When they stay with my Mum the children take great delight in going into the garden with her and one of her insect books to find the mini beasts they can see on the pages. If they’re not out specifically looking but find a new creature then they rush to get the books out and look them up to find out what they are and take such delight in doing so. It’s free but yet lots of fun and something we don’t […]

The main thing that keeps me up beat about leaving London (in an ideal world we’d stay) is that we are going to have a garden. I hate the fact that we don’t have one right now and even though people always remind me we have the Wanstead flats ‘on our doorstep’, are a stones throw from Epping Forest and have monumental parks like The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park very close, it just doesn’t really do it in the same […]

For the last week we’ve been staying at my Mum’s where we’ve been having masses of fun in the garden. My Mum’s garden is huge, winding and has many parts to it which is the perfect play ground for children and coupled with the fact that we don’t have one at home in London it is a place of great excitement for all of us when we come home for a visit. I just love to hit the BBQ so […]