Askamum love my blog, ooo-errr how exciting!
Now we’re home from holiday and back into our usual routine I’m very much in the holiday blues mode! It doesn’t help that the weather has turned autumnal bordering wintry and London looks grayer and duller than it has in months… But hey, at least we’ve had a holiday and been lucky enough to have enjoyed it very much! And a girl can dream of one day having enough money to just go off on holiday whenever I choose – how much does it cost to own a private jet? I have some fantastic memories and I also enjoyed using all my ‘Holiday Must Have Baby Gadgets’! I made a list before we went of the things I was going to try out and now that we’ve used all the products, I’m here to tell you what we thought of them and if they were worth packing! Some were great, some handy, others not really worth the space in the case but we enjoyed trying them all out so just click on the links below to read my full reviews of each item!
2) Mothercare Sleepwalker Travel Cot
3) ErgoBaby Carrier BC4S and Infant Insert
4) Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump
6) Zoggs Miss Zoggy Bobin swim vest from Mothercare
7) Milton Mini Portable Soother Steriliser
8) Bundle Bean
10) Snoozeshade
And there was just one more product I threw in last-minute as I decided because we were flying super early in the morning when it would be cold that this would come in very handy for Florence! The Snooziheadz by Trunki!
DONKEY WATCH
Donkey Vacations!
Before I go anywhere else with my post I’ve got to say a quick hello to Donkey who didn’t join us on holiday, choosing instead to bask in the Norfolk pastures with my sister-in-law instead! While we were on holiday, Le Donk was having a little break of his very own up in Norfolk and making himself useful by giving my nephew Arthur some of his famous Donkey rides! Find out what Tori and Arthur thought about Donkey at the Workitmamma baby blog!
Just look what he’s been up to without us!
Donkey with my family in Norwich at the historic castle.
We’ve missed him so this week we’re going to be out and about taking advantage of all the things we love about using the Donkey in London. I’m going to talk about my favourite accessories next week, Bugaboo make absolutely loads of accessories and they’re all really inexpensive, my favourite one of all time is just £14.95!
For more information on the ‘Donkey’ and all other ‘Bugaboo’ products please see their website www.bugaboo.com. It’s also worth noting that ‘When you choose a ‘Bugaboo’ product (now available in more than 50 countries) you are choosing a company which is a proud (PRODUCT) RED™ partner. ‘Bugaboo’ contributes a portion of its profits across all products – to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa, with the goal of ending mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015.
All holiday I’ve been wearing a scent that was inspired by Kate Middleton’s wedding perfume which was designed especially for her. The only difference, I would imagine, is that mine is a fraction of the price! Oh and it’s available for everyone to buy at Asda, Princess or not! You don’t automatically think of fine fragrance when you think of Asda and I know it might sound like I’m just saying this because a PR company somewhere has asked me to say nice things about it but honestly, it’s absolutely lovely! Ever since I’ve been wearing ‘Glamour’ people have been complimenting me on my perfume and I love it so much I’ve been asking everyone who hasn’t to smell it; I’ve not had one person say it’s not for them! Everyone asks where they can get it and when I tell them they’re surprised but pleased because obviously, being Asda, it’s super affordable as well as being an absolutely delightful perfume. I am, like most women I guess, very picky about the perfume I use. I usually like very strong smells and this is not yet I still like it very much. It’s floral but not too girly, is very crisp and kind of smells like a summer morning. Does that sound a bit fanciful and flighty? I don’t mean it to but it’s my honest opinion and you have to give it to Asda, they’re selling amazing products these days! This perfume will be available to buy next month just in time for Christmas, I know what’s going on my Christmas wish list!
While I’m on the topic of Asda I might just mention that they have an awesome cleaning event on until 2nd October! Just like when they have the baby event where everything baby related is at massively reduced prices so are the cleaning products! Branded items from as little as £1! We all hate cleaning but it can be made a little brighter by the fact that it won’t be costing us as much money! I’m gonna get myself down there and stock up on all my essentials! I use Cillit Bang Grime and Lime loads and it’s £2!!!! That’s a massive saving of £1.05! They really are saving you money every day, just as their ad suggests so get yourself and your home smelling as beautiful as Kate Middleton and check out Asda this week be it for perfume or cleaning solutions!
Berry Entertaining!
As you know we’ve just been away for a fortnight and I can’t tell you how invaluable the BlackBerry PlayBook has been! Of all the gadgets and gizmos we took on holiday this is right up there as being the most used and it’s one which the whole family benefitted from! Jonny down loaded the news paper every morning using the wifi in the bar on our complex and read it throughout the day. One of the big money eaters for us on holiday is Jonny buying a news paper every day as they cost around 4 times the price of the cost at home so this saved us around £45! Seriously! I read Sheila O’Flanagan’s short stories compilation ‘From The Heart’ which was free to download from Kobo and loved it! She is one of my favourite authors so I couldn’t believe that the free downloads included authors of her calibre but they absolutely do! Reading on the PlayBook was awesome with a light that was adjustable and turning the pages at a slight sweep of the thumb. I can’t believe I’ve not done this before! For Florence it had to be the games and watching her programmes that was her favourite. She loved playing on the piano and guitar for PlayBook FREE apps Jonny down loaded for himself to tinkle with plus her usual favourite games but the fact she could watch her favourite programmes in wifi spots was the winner! It was brilliant for us all at restaurant times as she hates to sit and wait for everyone to finish eating but we all wanted to relax and enjoy our meal so it worked perfectly; it’s really unobtrusive so definitely didn’t interfere with other diners enjoyment either. Jimmy also liked watching moving things on the screen and we took some great holiday snaps on it! Wherever we were on holiday, the PlayBook was with us! Absolutely ace piece of kit which I find new things about every day!
Florence finished her dinner a long time before the rest of us and is entertained, while the grown ups eat, by Peppa Pig using wifi!
For more information on the BlackBerry PlayBook and all BlackBerry products please see http://uk.blackberry.com/
With the summer holidays well and truly over (including my own one – blub) we all need something cheery to look forward to and Christmas is just too far away for it to be a contender at the moment I think! So, I’ve teamed up with the makers of Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Live Stage Show to offer one of my readers the chance to WIN tickets to see the live show! Click HERE to find out how!
I love going to the theatre with Florence because it makes me think of when I was little and my Mum used to take me. She always made a real effort to keep me entertained and I want to do the same things with my children as she did with me because I always had loads of fun! My Mum is also really crafty and very good at making things, cakes, clothes, anything really! She used to (and still does truth be told) make lots of things for me, she just always has lots of time to give me or rather she makes lots of time for me and I want to be the same for my little ones (no matter how old they are). I’m probably not quite as good at making things as my Mum but one of the games we used to make was one I managed to re-create this weekend just gone and Florence (and her Daddy) had loads of fun. It’s so easy and simple but provides so much fun! We drew footballers down to their shorts on paper (might actually be better on card), coloured them in and cut them out along with holes for fingers in the shorts (we screwed up the rest of the sheet of paper into a ball to use). We then made our fingers the legs and had a family game of dinner table football! It was loads of fun, cost next to nothing and kept Florence entertained for ages, I think I’m going to draw a load of out lines and photocopy them so that Florence has always got one she can colour when she fancies it! We might do ballet dancers next!
Florence and Jonny playing with the home-made finger footballers at the weekend!
MY LIFE WITH 2!
Oh it was a lovely first holiday as a family of four! The children absolutely loved it and had so much fun! Florence made a friend round the pool called Michelle who was just about to turn 6 and they had such a lovely time together. I can’t believe she’s old enough to be meeting friends at the pool, I remember doing that! They even exchanged addresses so we’ve sent Michelle a birthday card and are going to send her a post card from London too as she lives in Ireland. It really was a holiday to remember for lots of reasons. Both my Mum and Jonny’s parents came as did my good friends Sarah and Kate and Sarah’s cousin Ben so we really were a big party and much fun was had! A holiday for me should be sunbathing, reading and swimming punctuated by good food and alcohol and it lived up to all my expectations! Two years ago Jonny and I got married on the Algarve and we love it there, it was great to go back and revisit all our favourite places! Because we had family there we really got to enjoy ourselves and even managed a few cocktails and meals sans children which was a treat. I even relaxed enough to give Jimmy some formula now and again and you know what… Nothing happened, he drank it and is fine, he went back on the breast with no trouble and I got a bit of a break! Well, who’d have thought it! The children absolutely loved it, the freedom, the family, sun, beach and pool! They both really thrived I think and Jimmy started making the most adorable talking noises! The sun was really good for all of us, Florence wants to go back to our holiday house and I have to say, I’d rather like to too! Bring on the next… Now to the mammoth task of not only losing my baby weight but my holiday weight too! Next week I’ll be back with another Rocknrollerbaby post which will probably be full of pictures of us in thick coats and under umbrellas but for now I’ll leave you with some of my fave holiday sun snaps!
See you next week and in the mean time follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby
(All opinions and words, apart from those in green, are my own. I have not been paid for this article although I did receive some products to keep after I had reviewed them.)
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