Sponsored post - 5 summer holiday ideas for busy families

Today I'm sharing a guest post with some great holiday ideas!

Can’t decide where to go or what to do on your next family holiday? Our list should give you an idea of some alternative options for your trip away.

1. Try a ‘staycation.' For busy families, a ‘staycation’ can be a perfect holiday option because you can forego the hassle of planning a trip abroad when you just don’t have the time. If you’ve always wanted to visit a certain attraction in your town or city or if you want to catch up on family activities, a staycation gives you the opportunity to do so. Plus, you’ll stay in the comfort of your own home which is sometimes the best place to be when you just want to sit back and relax.

2. Rent a cottage Try a home away from home and book a cottage for you and your family. Somewhere like a cottage will have all of the amenities you and your family will need on a short trip away and will usually be set in a location that will allow you to forget all about your busy day-to-day life. Even if you’re unable to ditch the workload, bring your laptop along to a cottage that has Wi-Fi, and you’ll still be able to enjoy time with your family while keeping on top of your deadlines. If you have pets, Mann’s Holidays offer North Wales dog-friendly cottages that allow you to avoid the cost of a kennel or a dog sitter for a week.

3. Learn a new sport Step away from work for a week and use all of that energy to learn a new sport while you’re on holiday. Every year, more and more families are choosing active holidays over lazing on the beach because it provides a sense of accomplishment once you’ve achieved something or learned something new. This can be anything from skiing in France to organising a competitive sports tournament during your staycation. You don’t have to travel far to learn something new.

4. Volunteer Combine fun activities and the sunshine with work that can help others. A volunteering holiday is not only a unique bonding experience, but it can help your children to appreciate how fortunate they are through experiencing another culture and achieving personal growth. This can also be something that your kids can add to their CV. Volunteering holidays can be anything from helping an elephant refuge in Thailand or something closer to home such as helping keep the UK’s beaches clean with The Marine Conservation Society.

5. A family-friendly resort Family-friendly resorts aren’t hard to find and allow you to establish a happy medium between spending time with the kids and letting them do their own thing with kids clubs and large open areas where they can run around safely. A lot of these resorts are year-round destinations making them a perfect option for any family with a jam-packed schedule. Whichever you choose, a family holiday is always a great way to take a break from the monotony of everyday life and spend some quality, unforgettable time with those who mean the most to you.

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Our family and screen time

With the half term holiday underway and the long summer holiday rapidly approaching I've been thinking again about how much screen time my children have. Their screen time mainly consists of playing Minecraft and watching videos about Minecraft on YouTube on their tablets, often with a film night at the weekends. They each have their own tablet but we look after them and they ask to use them, again they have to ask to use our PCs for Minecraft or other games. But we are pretty relaxed about allowing them.

During the school week I don't let them have any screen time after school until 5pm, which ties in nicely with them giving me some peace and quiet to make dinner and lunchboxes. On a night when we are home straight from school this gives them enough time for homework, piano practice for Harry, and some time for them to play. Several nights we are out, like for swimming lessons, and on those days they don't get any Minecraft time. Then they are allowed to watch their tablets while they eat their dinner. I know it's a bad habit, but it doesn't make any difference to the speed at which they eat their dinner, and they are usually so tired that they aren't in the mood to make any sort of conversation while they eat!

Mornings are another time that they are allowed their tablets. They both wake up so early and always have done, so they can come into us half an hour before they need to get up to claim their tablets, and it gives Ram and I the chance to wake up gradually.

At the weekends and during school holidays they do have more screen time than I'd like. If we don't have anywhere to be, the morning tablet-in-bed-slot is extended for as long as they are happy to wait until breakfast (although to be fair it's usually only a short while as Mia in particular can't go long without food!). Then if we are going to be at home most of the day, after breakfast I try to get them to have a break for an hour or so before letting them get straight on and play Minecraft.

We have a set up where we have two PCs that are linked, so they can both play together in the same game. They really love it, and when they aren't able to play they are often talking together about what they are going to do next time they have chance. They usually play really nicely together, but sometimes there can be disagreements and arguing, at which point it is swiftly turned off!

I must admit I find it difficult to criticise too much screen time when my husband and I are worse at using our phones ourselves. So I try very hard to show them other things that can be done instead of staring at a screen - for example by sitting and reading a book, doing some crochet or doing a jigsaw. To be fair they are generally very good when I say that screen time is up and they need to find something else to do, and any initial protest usually dies down quite quickly.

I'd love to know how other people manage screen time with young children?

Can you save money with underfloor heating?

Today I'm sharing a guest post by Russell Bowes - Google+, Twitter

The warm fuzzy feeling you get when you step onto a heated floor may be one of the simplest pleasures in life, especially when the weather is miserable outside. Unlike most luxuries in life, this is one that can actually save you money over the long term.

Unlike conventional wall mounted radiators, underfloor heating generates radiant heat which is even and ambient. Therefore a single panel will generate more heat than a wall mounted radiator of an equivalent size, which will enable your room to feel warmer at a lower temperature, bringing down the cost of your energy bills.

If you are going for maximum energy efficiency, a water based underfloor heating system is recommended. They rely on your boiler, rather than a direct electricity supply, so use energy more sparingly than an electric system. According to Aboutunderfloorheating.co.uk installing a water based underfloor heating system can reduce your energy bills by 40% or more.

However before installing underfloor heating there are some important practical aspects to consider. Firstly, underfloor heating is cheaper to install as part of a new build effort, or a major home renovation project. Updating an existing property to include underfloor heating is more costly and further complications arise with period properties.

Therefore a number of factors are worth considering such as the upfront costs, how long you plan to be in your property and whether or not you’re likely to offset the costs overtime with the savings you make on your energy bills. Even if your personal situation means that you’re unlikely to claim back the upfront costs of underfloor heating, you may decide it's an affordable luxury that you want for your home.

If you opt for underfloor heating, I recommend that you maximise the impact it has by taking other simple steps keep your home insulated and as warm as possible:

● Install cavity wall insulation
● Install double glazed windows
● Use draft excluders on doors, windows and letterboxes
● Replacing your old boiler with an A rated condensing boiler and use an insulating cover. These measures combined could cut your bills by £300 a year and your carbon emissions by 1.5 tonnes.

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Enjoying the warm weather

Hasn't the weather this week been beautiful! Really warm and sunny - I really hope this means that summer is here!

I seem to spend quite a lot of my time indoors during the day, so I've been trying to make the effort this week to get out and about a bit. On Monday I went for a long walk. I'm trying to find the quickest way to walk to the sea directly from our house without having to go through the private estates that are all along the coast (I'm never really sure whether you are allowed to walk through them if you aren't visiting someone as I feel as though I look a bit suspicious, especially if I'm on my phone playing Pokemon Go). I found a route which came out on a lovely bit of beach that was peaceful and a nice place to stop for a few minutes.

I'm taking part in a midnight walk next month to raise money for the local hospice, so it was good practice! I'll be walking 7 miles, I don't think that the distance will be too challenging but the fact that I'll have to stay up until midnight before I can start might be! (I'm doing the walk as part of a team and I've not got started with asking for sponsors yet but I'll leave my link here in case anyone is interested in sponsoring me - Jennifer Jain on Just Giving).

I also went for a long walk along Littlehampton sea front with a friend, with a stop to sit outdoors and enjoy a drink and some cake. Unfortunately I wasn't as prepared for the sun with sun cream as I am when we are on holiday, and I now have a tan line which I'll be stuck with for the rest of t-shirt weather!

I've taken advantage of the nice weather to get the cars washed. I only wash the cars in the summer, and usually only once or twice a year, but each time I do it I promise myself that I'll increase the frequency. Let's see how long that resolution lasts! While I was out the front I noticed that the garage door and side door could do with a clean as well, so that's a task for the weekend if the warm weather holds.

Now that Harry can finally ride a bike we've bought him a decent bike that is the right size for him. Ram bought himself a new bike too so they can go out on bike rides together. I'm still debating whether or not I need a bike myself. I can't see any useful reason to have one as we live too far from school to cycle there and back and I can drive or walk to the shops. It would purely be for fun and keeping fit, and it's a lot of money to spend if I don't end up using it much. Cycle carriers, or at least ones that hold four bikes, are also quite pricy if we wanted to venture for cycle rides further afield.

I've made a start planting the vegetable patch although the weeds are growing faster than the vegetables at the moment so I need to sort that out. Likewise my beautifully jet washed paving slabs are starting to look a bit weedy so they need tidying up a bit too.

I'm really looking forward to the children being off next week and being able to spend some family time together - let's hope the lovely weather lasts!

How to save money when booking a holiday

We are lucky enough to travel a lot as a family, and one of the reasons that we are able to afford it is because my husband is very good at finding the best deals and ways of saving money when we come to book. So I thought that I'd share some tips for making your money go as far as it possibly can when you are booking a trip.

If you have pre-school children then the most obvious way to save money is to travel out of season. Before having children we always travelled at quiet times and never went away during the summer, then with small children we always avoided school holiday times. You can find some very reasonably priced package holidays at quieter times of the year, often in places like the Canary Islands where the weather is still very warm even during winter. We had a couple of lovely holidays to Lanzarote out of season, and UK breaks can also be very cheap outside peak times.

We are a bit more limited now the children are older as we have to work around school holidays, but there are some types of holiday where the prices don't increase too much, for example city breaks away from the beaches can remain consistently priced throughout the year.

Even better if you can travel somewhere that has school holidays at a different time to the UK. For example, Center Parcs in the UK is well known for increasing the cost of breaks massively during school holidays. But if you look at the cost of a visit to a Center Parcs on the continent, even once you've added in the extra cost of travel to get there, you can still make huge savings if you check your dates carefully. We've visited Center Parcs in Belgium a few times over the last few years, most recently Center Parcs De Vossemeren, and have enjoyed a very reasonably priced break during the school holiday, the half term holidays are best for this.

You need to keep a close eye on the special offers from various travel agencies. Many will have promotions if you book a long time in advance, for example kids stay for free. If you are booking a cruise, by booking early you can often receive free parking at the terminal or some on board credit. However there is also something to be said for waiting until the last minute, I'm not always a very spontaneous person, but if you are signed up to mailing lists from holiday companies there are quite often some excellent deals that come through if you have a bit of flexibility!

It's always worth having an account with a cashback site for all sorts of purchases. We've been using Quidco for several years and have made a fair amount of money. For example, when booking with Expedia you can receive 12% cashback, as well as many other deals with hotel chains like Travelodge and airport parking.

If you are a regular supermarket shopper you can collect reward points, like the Tesco Clubcard scheme. We've always used Tesco Clubcard points to pay for travelling on the Eurotunnel which is a significant saving on the cost of the holiday, and they are also brilliant for days out from home or while you are away.

Finally, if you need to pay for the holiday upfront, particularly if you are booking last minute, once you've found the best deal and are ready to book another way to save money when booking is to consider taking out a cheap personal loan to cover the cost of the holiday.

Do you have any more money saving holiday ideas? I'd love to hear them!

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The last big party?

Next week Mia turns six and she's very excited about her soft play party. It will be our fourth party at this particular soft play venue (our first one was Harry's fifth birthday!), because once you've found something that works why change it! It's a good sized soft play which you can hire exclusively so you don't need to worry about it being too busy, it's supervised, and there's only one exit, so you can keep an eye out for escaping children. We know exactly what we are doing now and it's not too much work.

I'm pretty sure that this will be our last big party. Hopefully from now on we can get away with something a bit smaller, or at least something that can be hosted at home like Harry's Minecraft party. This week I've been working on the party bags. In the past we've quite often ended up with a few extra children as people bring siblings along. This time I've specifically invited siblings so I'm pretty sure on my numbers, but I always make up a few extra party bags just in case anyone unexpected turns up. 

I remember how excited I was to be making up party bags for the first time - below are the ones we used for Harry's first big party! I must admit that the novelty hasn't worn off, I love making up the party bags, choosing what to put inside, and actually putting the bits into the bags.

There will be the traditional balloon and cake inside, as well as some sweets and a little chocolate bar. Then a few other bits and pieces - some bendy pencils, a little notebook and so on. I was particularly pleased with one thing that I bought - some little soft emoji keyrings which are quite sweet. I don't have many spares though so I'll have to use them all - I'm just hoping that no-one will be offended by finding a poo emoji keyring in the bag - hopefully they will just find it funny!

I'm also using up leftovers from previous parties, which I hope doesn't break any rules of etiquette. The contents of the bags are pretty much identical, but there will be a few bags with slightly different bits as I didn't want to over order. In particular the actual party bags themselves are the leftovers from four different themes - I'm hoping that no-one will notice or care! I've never done separate bags for boys and girls although I do have both pirate and princess bags, perhaps I'll have to let them choose which bag they want from the pile!

I'll be quite sad as it feels like the end of an era, but I won't miss big parties!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

At the weekend  Ram and I took Harry up to London for the day, and we took him to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It was a bit of a mission to get the tickets, so we were very lucky that my brother-in-law was able to buy some extra tickets quite a while ago, and we could tag along!

This post doesn't really contain any spoilers, but please don't keep reading if you don't want to know anything about the show!

We didn't realise when we booked the tickets that the performance we saw was the last one by the original cast. I don't know if the audience is normally so enthusiastic, but there was a brilliant atmosphere in the building! The play is performed in two parts so it's a long show, although we had a break between the two with enough time to grab some dinner.

As you leave the theatre after the first part you are encouraged to take a badge with the hashtag #keepthesecrets, and promise not to spoil the show for other people. Although I had read the script, back when I didn't know that I'd be able to get tickets, there were still plenty of surprises, and I think that people really have made an effort not to give away too many details.

So I don't want to say anything about the play that might be a spoiler, but I can say that it was amazing and we absolutely loved it!  It's a very intense show, loud and fast paced, and as you'd expect from a Harry Potter story it deals with some dark themes. There are some fantastic magical effects and I'm sure that it would benefit from another watch - I'm sure that I missed things!

The play is billed as suitable for children aged 10 and up, so I was a bit unsure as to what Harry would make of it. Originally just Ram and I were going to go, but since booking the tickets Harry had seen all the films and read all the books, including the script for the play, and he really wanted to come along. When another ticket in our group became available we decided that all three of us would go, and Harry's cousin, who is also 8, was watching too. I was surprised however not to see any other children in the audience, perhaps because it was quite a late finish for a school night.

Fortunately Harry really enjoyed it, and although he did find some parts of the show a little bit scary (it's a bit different to reading about something sinister happening and then it actually taking place in front of you!) he was really glad that he had come along.

Now I'm just desperate to watch it again!

The cable box

We are very lucky. We have a good sized house, and we have plenty of storage. One of my reservations when buying this house was that the more room you have, the more you find to fill it, and I admit that there are several things in our house that wouldn't be there if space was more limited. However I like to think that I personally am very good at decluttering and passing on the things that we no longer need, and I take on this responsibility for myself and the children.

Unfortunately Ram doesn't share my interest in decluttering. Although he's not really the sentimental type, and he doesn't have the boxes of old diaries or photographs that I like to keep, he isn't good at passing on things that we no longer need, in case they are useful one day. One prime example is the cable box, or more correctly now, boxes.

I'm guessing that one of these probably resides in most houses up and down the country, and I hate it. I don't like the fact that the cables are all tangled, it makes me uneasy in a Feng Shui sort of sense, as though it means that the energy in our home is jumbled up. I don't like that I don't know what most of the cables are for. I don't like it because owing to my lack of knowledge I worry that we might get rid of a cable and then find that we need it and can't replace it. I don't like it because many of the cables relate to outdated tech that we've since upgraded, and it feels like such a waste.

I'm currently going through many different types of item around the house and having a sort out - the so-called komono from the Marie Kondo method. I can't sort the cable box myself because it isn't mine (all the cables that I need for my own personal electronic devices, like my Kindle and Fitbit, are neatly labelled and stored in sensible places for when I need them). So I've hauled the boxes down from the top of the wardrobe and left them prominently in the bedroom for Ram to go through.

It's been there a week and I'm not sure he's really noticed it yet.

Do you have a cable box? I'm sure I'm not alone!

Arundel Castle, West Sussex

At the weekend we were invited to visit Arundel Castle in West Sussex. The castle is just down the road from us and we often drive past, so we were very interested to have a look around inside! We visited on a Sunday and managed to find free parking a short walk away. Arundel can get busy on a nice day but there is quite a lot of street parking and several pay and display car parks in the town, including one right opposite the entrance. It took us around 3 - 4 hours to visit the castle.

It was such a lovely sunny day that we decided to begin our visit with the gardens. From the main entrance you first come to the Fitzalen Chapel and White Garden. The chapel was founded in 1390 and is the burial place of the Dukes of Norfolk. Then we walked through the gardens with their beautiful fountains, including the crown fountain where a crown is suspended in the air above a jet of water, fascinating to watch it bobbing up and down. There are also some lovely glasshouses which you can walk through and peek inside.

Next we entered the castle, and started our tour with the Castle Keep. This is the oldest part of the castle and dates from 1068. You reach it by a short walk across the battlements, then once inside you can climb up and walk around the edge to enjoy some spectacular views across the downland and to the sea. 

Inside the keep you can see the entrance down to the dungeon, and the surrounding rooms have lots of information about the history of the castle, brought to life with models.

We went on to tour the Main Castle Rooms and the Castle Bedrooms. I couldn't take any photographs inside, but the rooms were stunning. I was really interested to see the bedrooms, it's fun to imagine what it would be like to stay for a few nights in the castle! There are some really interesting things to see, like enormous fireplaces, beautiful pieces of furniture and storage, and lots of weaponry. 

We finished our visit with a slow walk back to the entrance through the gardens, admiring the lovely flowers and stopping for a quick climb in a clump of twisty trees. We had a really lovely visit, and I'd definitely recommend it!

I also made a short video of our day at the castle which you can see below, enjoy!

If you have a little more time in Arundel it's a lovely town to walk around. You can take a short walk up past the castle to Swanbourne Lake which is very pretty and a nice place to feed the ducks or hire a little boat. Just a bit further along is the Black Rabbit pub, where I've enjoyed several good meals.

We received a complimentary Gold Plus family ticket in exchange for a review. The Gold Plus ticket allows you access to all areas of the castle, and there are three other ticket options. You can find more information and prices on the Arundel Castle website.

Hama bead flower wreath

This simple wreath is made using the mini flower Hama bead pegboard and a selection of Hama beads. The flowers are made using the board and then joined together to make a pretty wreath.

You need:

Six green lollipop sticks
Green craft foam
Flower cut outs and artificial flowers
Mini flower Hama bead pegboard
Hama beads in bright colours
Bostik Fine and Wide Glu Stick
(Optional - ribbon or cord for hanging)

Instructions:

Use the Bostik Fine and Wide Glu Stick to glue six lollipop sticks together in a circle, and leave to dry thoroughly. Cut leaf shapes from the green craft foam and use the Glu Stick to glue them around edge of the wreath. Then cover the wreath with artifical flower petals so that you can no longer see the lollipop sticks underneath.

Use the Hama bead flower pegboard to make a selection of Hama bead flowers in different colours. I found that 11 flowers covered the wreath perfectly. As they are cooling after being ironed keep them flat - I found it best to let them cool between two heat proof mats. Then glue to the wreath using the Glu Stick. Make sure that you use plenty of glue, and leave to dry.

When the wreath is dry, tie some ribbon through the top for hanging.

Here you can see a full video tutorial for the wreath:

You can find lots more crafts to celebrate Spring here!

The box of craft materials was provided to me free of charge by Bostik as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers Club.

Horrible Histories - The Best of Barmy Britain at the Pavilion Theatre, Worthing

At the weekend Harry and I were guests at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing to see Horrible Histories - The Best of Barmy Britain. Performed by two energetic and hard working actors, some of the more gruesome parts of British History are brought to life using a variety of different costumes, props, along with catchy song and dance routines.

Here's what the theatre has to say:

Could you beat battling Boudicca? Will King John be a martyr for the Magna Carta? Will you lose your heart or your head to Henry VIII? Can Parliament survive gunpowder Guy? Light up your life with the great fire of London! Stand and deliver to dastardly Dick Turpin? Escape the clutches of Burke and Hare and move to the groove with party Queen Victoria! It’s the history of Britain with the nasty bits left in!

The show is made up of lots of different sections that each focus on either a historical figure - like Henry VIII or Guy Fawkes - or an event - like the plague. The actors take on the characters using a variety of costumes, props and accents, and share fun and gory facts. There is plenty of humour, including jokes for the grown ups, along with spoofs, and lots of audience participation.

Harry said - "I really liked the section with Boudicca in because it had a funny song and we all had to clap along. I learned a lot about history like the Tudors and Queen Victoria."

It was a very enjoyable show, and we both learned a lot!

Harry and I received complimentary tickets to the show in exchange for a review.

Predicting which videos will be popular on YouTube

I've been publishing videos on YouTube for a few years now, in fact my first video was a washing machine review published back in 2012. Some of my older videos have done really well. My most popular video - a look around the Playmobil Lion Knight's Empire Castle that we bought my son for Christmas one year - has received over 115,000 views which is quite amazing. I have quite a few other Playmobil videos which have done surprisingly well, and all I do is show the features of the sets and talk about them. I should probably think about making a few more, especially as many of the sets are now no longer available!

Something that put me off adding videos to YouTube for a long time was that it has a reputation for negative comments and trolls. I'm a sensitive person, and if someone said something rude about me or my children I would take it very personally and it would probably stop me uploading videos. Fortunately the worst that I've had was someone commenting on the fact that I was letting my son play with dolls!

I've uploaded videos across a variety of genres, but mainly toy reviews, craft tutorials and days out or holiday videos. I've never really done much in the way of promoting my videos, and I've found that in general they either take off immediately and the views keep growing, or they tank completely. I think that one way to do well is to get lots of views as soon as you can after publishing. I had a lot of success with my video about the pirate play area at Center Parcs de Vossemeren which I shared to their Facebook page and they re-shared immediately. The views came in straightaway, thick and fast! But having said that, my second video about the park which I published a few days later and didn't share has now overtaken it in terms of views.

In general my travel videos do perform well, especially those of holiday destinations abroad, and hotel or room tours. A really quick video that I made of the beach where we stayed in Fuerteventura also took off really quickly without any promotion at all, I've no idea why!

One type of video that I've had poor success with has been craft tutorial videos. This surprised me as I thought they would do well - I obviously need to do some work on improving them! My most popular craft video was this short demonstration of the Chameleon Multiple Tone Pens, one of the first craft videos that I made. It took a long time to get to that level of views though, it was published over two years ago.

Another craft video that I made has done terribly despite me actually promoting it - it's only 30 seconds long and I really thought it would do better - please have a watch and make it more popular!

So sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why some videos do better on YouTube than others and I find it impossible to predict! I'd love to know if you have any tips or tricks for YouTube success!

My crafting lately

My crafting seems to have slowed down a bit lately. I'm not sure why, perhaps I've been feeling a little bit uninspired. So I thought I'd share some recent projects that I'm proud of, to try and get my crafting mojo back!

I was really pleased with my crochet bunting using a kit from Attic24. It was one of those projects that I'd had sitting around for ages, and I was so proud of it when it was finished. It is now hanging up in Mia's room, and she loves it!

After coming back from holiday with yet another collection of shells, we dug into our collection to create some salt dough shell mosaics. They make really lovely, chunky decorations, and are currently on display in the summer house. I'd like them to go outside but I'm not sure that they are sturdy enough, perhaps I might put them out anyway as a transient piece of artwork!

Most recently I've been working on a new craft which I'll be sharing in full in the next few days. I used a mini Hama bead flower pegboard to make a flower wreath, a lovely decoration to brighten up the home for summer.

Finally I've also been creative making lots of videos for my YouTube channel. Most of my recent ones have been about our days out here and there, but here's a short little crafty one which I made with the children when we had lots of fun making garden art on the patio!

For my next project I'm working on a little kit with mini Hama beads, a craft that I find really relaxing although also rather fiddly - and you do need to keep an eye on your work in progress as a small knock can be catastrophic!

If you share photographs of your crafts on Instagram, it would be fab if you wanted to join in with our crafting community! You just need to tag your photos with the hashtag #craftingismytherapy_month, so we are currently using #craftingismytherapy_may. Every month Me, You and Magoo and I will share some of our favourites, and it's a great way to see what projects others are working on, and perhaps get some inspiration. I'd love to see you there!

Learning to ride a bike

If I'm honest, we aren't the sportiest of families. My husband and I exercise to keep ourselves fit, but when it comes to family sporting activities we don't do a great deal. We tend to stick for walks in the country and along the beach (mainly with the added incentive of hunting for Pokemon or Geocaching).

It's been bothering me for the last couple of years now that Harry couldn't ride a bike without stabilisers. I've had it on my summer activity list for the last two summers, but when it came to it he just wasn't interested in learning, and was quite happy to pootle about on his little toddler bike. A little while ago a friend kindly gave us a bike that her son had grown out of, and it had been waiting in the garage for Harry get around to having a go on it.

Then suddenly towards the end of last week, just as I was about to start making dinner, Harry announced that he wanted to have a go on the bike. It was an inconvenient moment, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity, so we all went out the front of the house, got out the bike, and put Mia on her balance bike to keep her occupied.

He didn't want any help at first but it became apparent that he wasn't sure what to do. I didn't really know how to teach him either, so I did the classic holding on to the back of the saddle, letting him pedal, and then letting go. It took quite a few goes before he got anywhere, but then he suddenly went from one pedal round before he fell of to pedalling up and down the length of the road!

It was amazing quite how quickly he picked it up, and we spent the weekend venturing further afield and making use of the cycle paths around our estate. The bike is too small for him, so we've been looking at buying him a decent bike that will last him for a few years, and then passing this one down to Mia so that she can have a go - I'm hoping that she'll pick it up just as quickly!

I'm so proud of him, he was determined to do it and persevered when he was struggling. I think it's an important life skill, and I'm hoping that if we are able to get us all bikes we can start to enjoy some fun family bike rides!

Living in a smart home

Our first foray into the world of the smart home was a few years back when we installed a Tado smart central heating system. We can control the heating from our phones, and because it works on location the heating can turn on and off depending on where we are. If we are going on holiday we turn the heating off, then time when we turn it back on so that the house is nice and warm for our return. If we are only out locally for a short time the house doesn't have long enough to get cold, and it's nice to pull into the drive and see that the heating has come on ready for us without having to worry about it.

The next element to our smart home was the Amazon Alexa, which we bought just before Christmas last year, and since then things have become much more complicated. We started out with just the main Amazon Echo (affiliate link), which was very shortly followed by two Echo Dots (affiliate link), so we now have the main Echo in the kitchen and a dot in both the living room and bedroom. I mostly use Alexa to play music as she's linked to our Spotify account. It's really good to be able to put music on in the kitchen while I'm making dinner. She's can also tell me the news, the weather, and the children love asking her to tell them a joke.

However one of the main reasons that Alexa was purchased was for the next element - the light bulb invasion. Initially intended for just the living room and bedroom, the light bulb empire has gradually expanded to include most of the house. We have Philips Hue bulbs, in a mixture of both coloured and white, some set up individually and some linked. The outside ones are set on timers, and all can be controlled by both voice and phone.

They were quite fun at first, especially the four coloured bulbs in the living room which can be set to flash on and off in time with music. The excitement has worn off a bit now, as has the novelty of controlling them by speaking to Alexa. The trouble is that as we've added more and more, Alexa isn't always sure exactly which bulbs you are referring to. By the time she has asked for clarification, and you've managed to come to a joint agreement about what you are hoping she might do, it's a lot quicker to just pull up the screen on the phone and change them yourself.

Most recently, a few weeks ago we installed a Ring Video Doorbell (affiliate link). This was quite an expense, not just for the unit itself but also for the full morning that it took two electricians to install. It is fab though, the camera is motion activated so whenever someone comes to the door it will record a 30 second clip. If someone rings the bell we have the function to answer it from our phone. So for example if I've just popped out and the postman arrives with a parcel I can speak to him through the doorbell and ask him to leave it round the side. If small boys come to the door to ask us to throw their football back (a regular occurrence) I don't need to go running to the door if I'm busy and I can tell them I'll chuck it over later. It's also comforting to be able to pull up a live view from our front door when we are away and make sure that nothing untoward is going on.

Although it's great from a security point of view although it does make me feel a little bit spied on - the husband will receive an alert whenever I leave the house, when I return, and will see any visitors that I might have during the day (most likely none!).

So what is next for our smart home? I've not noticed the husband researching anything else recently although I know that there are plenty of add-ons available that work with our existing set up. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts mooting the idea of an indoor video recording security system, but I might have a few objections to that one!

Do you have any of these devices? I'd love to know how you get on with them!

Amazon links are affiliate.

A day at Whipsnade Zoo, Dunstable

Over the weekend we had a lovely family weekend away in Bedfordshire, and we enjoyed a great family day trip to Whipsnade Zoo. Whipsnade Zoo is located in Dunstable, and we were able to cover our entry with Tesco Clubcard vouchers. We've visited a couple of times over the last few years, even when Harry was just a tiny baby, and always had a great time.

I made a little video showing some of the things that we saw:

I think that my favourite animal at Whipsnade has to be the elephants. There are lots of them and you can stand quite close and watch them walk about, we say baby elephants 'kissing' their parents which was very sweet. When we visited a few years ago we were lucky enough to see them being walked down the road, each using their trunk to hold onto the tail of the one in front!

The zoo is quite spread out and so there is a fair bit of walking for little ones. You can pay a bit extra to take your car onto the site, but you would still need to do some walking. It's also worth mentioning that you need to book a time slot for the indoor soft play area, luckily Ram was on the ball as it was closed for a private party later on in the day and the time slots do fill up.

We also watched the bird show which was very good, it's amazing how they can train them! There's a lot to do and we easily filled our day. 

The zoo is in beautiful surroundings, if you are visiting and have time I'd also recommend a stop at nearby Dunstable Downs for kite flying and glider watching.

May - Lately I've been...

It's time for another catch up post! Here's what I've been up to lately:

Thinking about

I'm feeling a bit snowed under with clutter in the house at the minute so it's time for a bit of a clear out. We need to do a tip run as we have some broken electrical bits that need to go to the recycling, but it gets very busy at the tip so we've been putting it off. There's a charity drop off box at the gym, so I'm trying to get into the habit of taking along a carrier bag each time I visit.

After having the children at home over Easter and spending a lot of family time together I've been thinking about them and wondering what they get up to all day. I'm also thinking about the summer holidays, they will have 8 weeks off this summer for the first time as they have changed schools - I'm wondering how I'm going to fill all that time!

Crafting

I finally finished my crochet bunting! After my last few projects I've acquired a bit of a stash of different colours of yarn, so I'm thinking about some new crochet projects. My sister bought me a book of crochet mandala patterns and I've already made a couple that I'm quite proud of. I'm thinking about having a go at a larger one that I can use as a lap blanket at my desk in the winter. 

Watching

One of our favourite TV series is back - Better Call Saul - so we've been enjoying watching that. Otherwise I've not watched much else. I have picked up the YouTube a bit, I enjoy videos by Cruising the Cut about life on a canal boat, and I follow lots of parent bloggers that make videos like the ones I do which are always fun to watch. I also love watching the Honest Trailers on YouTube and eagerly await new ones - have a look here ScreenJunkies or just search for honest trailer, they are hilarious!

Eating

I've been doing very well at watching what I eat lately. Despite putting on 2 kg over Easter I've managed to get down to my 'low' weight so I'm pleased with that, and it means that I can fit into all my clothes! Hopefully I can keep it off for the summer, maybe if it's warm enough I'll even face the world in shorts!

Travelling to

For the first week of the Easter holidays we were lucky enough to enjoy a lovely family holiday to Fuerteventura. We stayed in a hotel on Jandia beach and spent lots of time playing in the sand and relaxing on sun loungers by the pool. 

Closer to home we've been exploring the local area lately and making the most of the beautiful weather. We've had walks up to Cissbury Ring, Highdown Hill, and through the lovely bluebell woods near our house.

Reading

I very much enjoyed I See You by Clare Mackintosh which I picked up in the library the other week, definitely one to recommend. While we were away I read Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy and Me by Caroline James which was a fun, lighthearted read that I downloaded when it was in the freebie Kindle list. I love 'shopping' on Amazon and downloading all the free books, I've found some good books that way!

Planning

I'm working on a video challenge this year where I want to publish 52 videos. I've managed 15 so far which puts me a couple behind schedule, so I've been coming up with some ideas. If you want to see my latest videos you can find them on my YouTube channel. I really love making videos, people scoffed at my Media Studies A-Level but that was where I first learned about editing clips together (in the very early days of digital video!) and I love the fact that I can make them and call it 'work'!

I'm also trying to make some plans for the garden this summer. Mainly involving clearing it out a little bit, I'm not much of a gardener!

Looking forward to

At the end of the month we are going with Harry to watch Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London which I'm really looking forward to. We originally had two tickets and it was going to be me and Ram, then Harry read all the books and we thought that he'd probably appreciate it more so I was going to take him. Then another ticket became available as they'd been booked as part of a group, and so all three of us are now able to go which is brilliant. From reading the script it does look as though it might be a bit intense, but I'm hoping that Harry will be able to cope with it. It will also co-incidentally be the final performance by the original cast which is quite exciting.

I'm also looking forward to the weather warming up a little bit. We've had our first barbecue of the year already but it was a bit too cold to sit outside, I'm hoping that it won't be long until we can get the garden furniture out.

What have you been up to lately?