For the first year and a bit of Rex’s life, he slept in a camp cot in our room. We live in a three bedroomed flat so when we decided that it was time to move him into his own space he landed up in the guest bedroom and because he was now old enough to try and escape his camp cot every time we put him in it, my anxiety levels were reaching all new levels of high, which meant it was time to get him a big boy bed.
This time of the year is always awesome! There is just a certain something in the air that makes you feel instantly at ease with the world. I love December, I love all the Christmas hype and anticipation leading up to the day. I’m also one of those people that kind of goes overboard on the present front. I feel that there are only a few occasions during the year that you can 100% do that and for me, it’s Christmas and birthdays.
I am 100% one of those people that say, ‘Camping? Nope, not for me!’ In fact, it took Shane about 9 years to convince me to go camping, which we did for the first time as a family a few months ago at Mountain Sanctuary Park. I can’t believe how adamant I was about hating it and how painfully wrong I turned out to be.
We spent two nights at Mountain Sanctuary and it was absolutely, yes I’m going to use this word, awesome! I loved every second of it, even the part where there we had to sit in the car for half an hour until a massive thunderstorm moved away, we then slept in our tent surrounded by howling winds and the sound of pouring rain. It was so cool being all snug inside right next to two of my favourite people.
My beautiful Nina James turned four years old two Sundays ago. This amazing little girl of ours has grown and developed so much over the last few years and I can’t believe just how much she changes all the time. It’s like I fall more and more in love every day with both my kids, which is probably one of the best things about being a parent.
This year for her birthday we arranged to have a party in our garden. A party that came complete with loads of cake, balloons, sweets, jumping castles and more. We decided to do everything ourselves and seeing as I’m working with Gumtree throughout the year to bring you guys some tips on how to get financially savvy when it comes to parenting, I thought I’d share some of my party tricks with you guys in case you’re looking for things like foolproof recipes for yummy homemade cakes that you can jazz up or down, depending on how creative you’re feeling. I’m also going to share a couple of tips on where you can find affordable decor and party goodies.
Quick question, have any of you ever bought something for yourself or your kids and only worn it once or not at all?! I’m 100% guilty of doing this all the time and with my kids, it’s the age-old problem of them growing out of things really quickly. I’m always thinking to myself – Oh no this is way too nice to wear to Kindergarten, but then before I know it it’s two sizes too small and been worn once to a second cousin’s birthday party! When it comes to my stuff I’m also often guilty of buying something that I will convince myself in the shop that I’m going to wear, but then three months later it’s still hanging in my cupboard wishing it could see the light of day one last time. I think half my wardrobe may be made up of pieces like this. Sigh.