National Trust’s Cadbury Eggsplorers Easter Egg Hunt.

For us Easter is not only a time when the Easter bunny visits with a few yummy chocolate egg treats, but also a time when we relish the beauty of the great outdoors on fun family adventures. We love nothing more than having adventures in the great outdoors, exploring the wonder of nature on lovely – hopefully sunny - countryside walks.

This Easter the National Trust are giving families the opportunity to combine a love of chocolate egg treats that have become famously connected to Easter with a love of getting outdoors and having fun families adventures thanks to their annual Cadbury Eggsplorers Easter Egg Trails.

Thomas and Friends Wooden Toys - Tic Tac Toe and Wooden Dominoes & Track Puzzle.

When I was a child I loved watching Thomas and Friends, fast forward a little over 25 years and Thomas is once again part of my life as he now delights and entertains Bug who loves watching Thomas and his friends have lots of adventures.

As a fan of Thomas, Bug was thrilled to receive some new wooden Thomas and Friends preschool games from Flair.

We were sent the Thomas and Friends Dominoes Track Puzzle and the Thomas and Friends Tic Tac Toe game from the new range of wooden Thomas and Friends games to review.

Both of the sets are of a high quality, being very well made from real wood providing durability. The wooden sets are beautifully illustrated with colourful and very clear images that are easily recognisable to any Thomas and Friends fan.

#DesignedByKids Blinds 2 Go competition.

Whilst being a parent is wonderful and rewarding, it can be very challenging and stressful. For some parents bedtime can be one of the most stressful parts of the day. This fact was highlighted during a recent survey conducted by Blinds2Go who found out that 29% of parents who completed the survey think that bedtime is the most demanding and challenging side of parenting, even beating shopping trips on the stress factor scale!

A further study examined how the environment we sleep in affects sleep. The study concluded that to help get a good night’s sleep a room decorated in cooler colours is the best option. Whilst cooler, plain colours may not be the most appealing option for some people, especially children who find plain bedroom walls boring, a benefit of keeping the wall décor simple is that you can add colour and character to the room with the features and fittings, for example the windows.

Creating the right environment for children to sleep in is very important so they get a good night’s sleep and help keep the bedtime routine stress at a minimum. Blackout roller blinds are ideal for nurseries and children’s bedrooms to help dull outside noise and block out outside light, which is useful if you live in a noisy area or somewhere that is well-lit at night. Blackout blinds can also be handy for blocking out the sun from the lighter mornings of this time of year, helping to keep your children asleep so they are not wide awake at the crack of dawn wanting to get up and play!

Following on from their research and wanting to help make bedtimes a little less stressful, Blinds 2 Go have created new digital print blinds. The new range of 24 playful designs are a fun addition to any child’s bedroom and thanks to being printed onto blackout roller blinds they provide the benefit of blackout blinds blocking out light and noise.

To celebrate the launch of their new digital print blinds they are currently running a fun competition, #DesignedByKids where children are encouraged to get creative and design their own blind for the chance of winning their very own custom designed blind. The winner’s entry will be made into a real blind to be fitted in their room along with an extra £250 to spend at Blinds 2 Go.

Wednesday Words - Sunshine.

Getting our new mattress online with home delivery.

Recently me and my partner were surprised to find out that we were going to be blessed with another child. When our first son was born, I remember very vividly how much pain my back was in during and after his birth. We decided that we were not going to go through all that pain again and decided a new mattress would be the perfect way to help me ease through this pregnancy.

Our current mattress is closing in on seven years old, and I think because it was too firm, it was causing me significant discomfort in my muscles and joints. During the last few months of being pregnant with Bug, I could barely lay down let alone sleep on that mattress. So we decided that now was the time to search for that new mattress.

I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed when I started searching for mattresses online. As my partner is off at work from sunrise to sunset it can be a real challenge to shop with him for a new mattress. Since we knew the size of the mattress, we only needed to find a similar mattress that was less firm than the one we purchased several years ago. With the hours and the type job my partner has it can be near impossible to get him to commit to time shopping for food, let alone a brand new mattress. Also as we do not own a van or have family close to us here to lend a hand, it was important that we found a mattress with home delivery.

With the new baby due in July and me watching our four year old son each day on my own, I decided if I did not find a mattress now that I would easily put it off until it was too late. So I searched a few websites in an effort to close the deal. In addition to the confusing choice of websites promising low mattress prices, I was also having trouble finding a company where I could get the mattress with home delivery as many were either pick-up only or charged a huge fee for delivery.

As the choice was endless I decided to wait till that evening when I had the house to myself to find the perfect online mattress retailer. A few hours later after playing lots of games and climbing in his bed, Bug fell asleep and I got back on my computer. I narrowed down my search this time by searching for a company selling mattresses with nationwide home delivery so they could deliver here in Pembrokeshire, Wales. I clicked on the first website which was Cutprice Mattresses and began my search. 

Save money on baby essentials

Welcoming a new baby into your home is a very exciting time. Whilst being a parent is truly amazing and rewarding, it can be very challenging and expensive. Although it doesn’t cost to give your baby love, care and attention; baby essentials and must-have baby products do cost. In fact kitting out your home ready for your new baby can cost a fortune.

To try and keep the cost of buying essential baby products down it can be a good idea to take advantage of sales, deals and discount vouchers. Money saving websites such as VoucherBin which is filled with a huge range of up-to-date discount vouchers can be a vital tool to help you save money when buying products ready for the arrival of your new baby.

Second time lucky?

Looking back on my life so far I am awash with memories both good and bad. Sentimental thoughts stir up feelings of happiness, delight and satisfaction about many experiences and events I have been lucky to experience. Similarly nostalgic thoughts of the past also rouse emotions of regret and sadness.

Whilst I have had many moments of happy events and amazing experiences during my 30 years of life, there have been a few times where for varying reasons I have missed out on an amazing life experience or not been able to do what I really want to do.

I wish I had gone on a once in a lifetime holiday abroad where I could have accomplished my dream of swimming with dolphins, experienced a different culture and seen wondrous sights when exploring and going on adventures.

 I regret not going to college to the course I really, really wanted to do.

I dream that things could have been different so that Lee and I could have had our dream wedding a few years ago instead of putting it on hold, a dream wedding that unfortunately has still not happened.

As I am sad and am regretful to have missed out on a few amazing experiences during my life and have been through a very dark period of time when I was suffering from clinical depression, I now try to live life to its fullest and if I am lucky enough to have a second chance at something I try not to waste that chance.

Children and the battle to eat healthy food.

Nourishing your children can be a tricky task at times with so many sugary snacks and junk foods being so easily accessible. However, these primary years are the best time to teach your children about optimum nutrition in order to equip them with this knowledge for the rest of their lives. When we encourage our children to make positive choices when it comes to their meals, we are helping them to grow and giving them a taste for foods which will help their bodies and their minds to develop properly.

One of the biggest problems with getting children to eat healthy foods is that they are often opposed to the way these foods taste. That’s not to say that all healthy foods don’t taste good but rather that children might not find them palatable! Finding ways to make healthy foods look and taste appealing to children is a great way to encourage them to eat them.

Julie Montagu is one mum who is striving to do exactly this for her kids and has come up with a way to get children excited about cabbage! By mashing the cabbage down and mixing it with just a handful of other ingredients, Julie has created a dish that serves as breakfast or lunch and can even just be eaten throughout the day as a snack. Click here to check out her Cabbage and Raisin Mash. 

Mother's Day 2015 and some long overdue news........

This Mother’s Day I have been feeling very blessed.

Blessed to have such a wonderful and beautiful boy who has spoilt me with me with an adorable Mother’s Day card he made with his own fair hands.

Blessed with lots of love, cuddles and kisses from my little man.

Eric Landlard's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Egg Cups recipe.

Wednesday words - Future.

If sofa’s could talk.

I am sure if your sofa could talk it would say a thousand words. The amount of stories your sofa could tell would be vast after all it would have witnessed over years of loyal service in your home.

With sofas being central in many homes, being at the heart of family life they would have witnessed so much throughout its lifetime. If you think about it your sofa will have witnessed so many events in your life.

It has been there offering you a comforting seat as you have watched countless hours of TV shows and films, and been there with you as you have been on the edge of your seat watching a crucial match or been passionately playing a game on your console. It will have offered open arms and been a temporary bed as you have had forty winks. It will have witnessed kisses, cuddles, arguments, tears and so much more!

I know our sofa will have witnessed so much over the years and have so many stories to tell if it could talk.

Our tatty old but much loved sofa has seen and been through so much. It was the first sofa that Lee and I bought together. It offered up it comfy seats for me to snuggle on as I had cuddles with Lee watching films before inevitably falling asleep half way through the film when pregnant with Bug.

It has been at the heart of our family since we bought home our first child from the hospital. Our snug sofa was where I set up a breastfeeding nest and enjoyed so many cwtches with my little baby. It has witnessed many of Bug’s milestones such as his first words, his first steps and the first time he built a tower out of blocks.

The cost of your dream wedding - Wedding Cost Calculator.

Even though it feels as if Lee and I are married, we are yet to tie the knot. We have been engaged for over 4 happy years now, but I am yet to have a wedding ring join my engagement ring. We would love to finally get married one day and I have often dreamed about getting married to my true love, but unfortunately it has never been the right time to plan our wedding.

There always seems to be one thing or another preventing us from getting married. Perhaps some could argue that there is always something going on to get in the way but for us it has not been the right time to get married. A month after we got engaged we found out we were expecting Bug and we decided the expense of a wedding was not one we needed at that time, deciding to concentrate on the happy time of making a family together and using the money we would have spent on a wedding on our new baby instead. Then over the years there has been the cost of moving house, new jobs, deaths in the family and now a new addition to our family all putting our wedding on hold.

The sad truth is that money, a lack of money that is, is the main reason why we have yet to get married. Weddings are expensive. Big white weddings with all the extras are extremely expensive. Even though a big white wedding is not our idea of a dream wedding for us, the cost of having our dream wedding always seems to be out of our reach. Whilst getting married on a budget is possible, even the money needed for a budget wedding has been needed for another reason before we manage to get as far into planning our wedding by having everything paid for and booked.

As we still hope to get married, hopefully in the near future and things are going well for us of late, our thoughts have once again turned to thinking about getting married and planning our dream wedding. To help us figure out where it is possible for us to afford our dream wedding I have been using an extremely useful wedding cost calculator created by Everyday Loans.

Precious memories - #safestoreyourmemories memory box.

I am a sentimental soul. I have a number of memory boxes filled to bursting with bits and bobs that mean a lot to me, items that have a precious memory connected to them from a special event in my life or a loved one. I am so sentimental that I keep everything to the point that Lee calls me a hoarder!

As I am so sentimental and have a number of memory boxes when SafeStore got in touch with me about their #safestoreyourmemories competition where bloggers were invited to decorate a memory box and then share the memories stored within their memory box, I just had to take part as the competition was perfect for sentimental, hoarding me.

When I decorated the memory box from SafeStore I enlisted the help of my creative little son. As we love to craft together and he in the centre of my life it made complete sense that he would help style the memory box where many memories connected to him would sure to end up.

World Book Day 2015.

As Bug loves dressing up he has loved today when he dressed up to celebrate World Book Day.

He was over the moon about dressing up to go to school today, dressing up as his favourite character from his favourite book. For his school #WorldBookDay costume when the whole school embraced the wonderful world of books Bug decided to dress up as a cute little alien as a dedication to one of his favourite books “Aliens in Underpants Save the World”.

Sponsored video: a2 Milk – Welcome Back To Milk.

I’ve always loved milk. Since I was a child growing up on a milking farm where we enjoyed fresh milk from the tanking room on a daily basis, I have relished a refreshing drink of milk as part of a healthy balanced diet.

As milk is important to a healthy balanced diet I am delighted that Bug is just like his mummy and loves milk. With Bug, mummy, and daddy too loving milk so much we consume pints of it every day, reaping the refreshing and nutritious benefits of milk.

Unfortunately for some people they cannot reap the benefits of milk as drinking milk causes them digestive issues. Often confused with lactose intolerance some people suffer from milk intolerance where they react badly to the a1 protein which is found in most cows’ milk sold in the UK today. Intolerance to the a1 protein can cause digestive issues such as bloating, indigestion, constipation and pain in the lower abdomen as well as affecting other parts of the body by causing issues such as skin irritations, excess mucus and a feeling of unhappiness.

Wednesday Words - Happiness.