Month: April 2014

Priceless jewellery: Wot so Funee?

We spotted a friend’s Facebook post last night that made us giggle. Steph gave us permission to quote her lovely daughter and her playdate friend, who were reading the recent anniversary edition of Girl Talk magazine. The copy featured the first ever giveaway Girl Talk had done, a free choker necklace. The overheard conversation went like this: – “What’s a choker?”– “It’s a necklace so fat that it makes you choke.”– “Why are they giving it away then?”– “Cos nobody would buy it!”– “Ah yeah good point.” As an aside, whilst my Mum was styling this choker that I made at …

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Saving money and the world with EcoButton

My mother is constantly on the computer. She claims she is not; she likes to maintain that she is hard at work 10-2 every school day, and then switches off for “quality time” when we come home. But it doesn’t take much to see her heading back to the laptop: “I’ll just check that definition for you online…” she may suggest, before she is once again immersed in Facebook or Twitter. Once it’s on, it’s on, and she is backwards and forwards to the screen in between making cups of tea and creating pasta variations for mine and the Bug’s tea. And …

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How to decorate a Chess and Football cake

Sporty cake for the Sport Relief Great Bloggers Bake Off

I’m not a huge baker. Occasionally I spend an afternoon with the kids throwing random things at a pan, loosely based around a recipe book, but more often than not substituting ingredients as we discover we don’t have what we need. I need to get better at prep. But give me a decorating challenge and I’m all over it. Take the time I spent 5 hours pimping this for my 4 year old’s birthday:     So when Jenny laid down a challenge to create a sport themed cake for the Great Bloggers Bake Off for Team Honk, I didn’t …

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Expressions #04: Joy

This picture makes me smile. She is getting fed up with posing for the camera as I complete my photography homework with a photo a day. I am having to resort to bribery to make her switch on the smile and participate naturally. This wasn’t the shot I was looking for on this particular occasion, but it was by far my best photo of the day. Sheer joy!  

The 7 secrets to the best family ski holiday in Europe.

Seven secrets to the best family ski holiday in Europe

If you’re looking for a very sensible set of tips on how to have a successful family ski trip then you’re reading the wrong post. We wrote that one last week, and you can find it here. No, in this post I’m going to tell you how to really have fun. Read on… Secret 1: Eat whatever you want. As I sat in Hotel Le Val d’Isère on my first night, experimenting with my first ever Beouf Bourgignon, I got to thinking about food. “I’m going to have an enormous croissant for breakfast tomorrow,” I declared, already savouring the thought of my favourite …

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Wot so Funee? Our first wedding.

Last weekend we went to a wedding. It was the first time I have been an actual wedding, where the people involved weren’t married already. M&D’s renewal of vows was awesome fun, but this was an all day long event, full of sunshine, flowers, humour, and love. I adored it!   This was my cousin’s wedding; him being 28 and me being 9 made my Mum feel old. She talked about how it felt like only yesterday (why do grown-ups say that?) that she held him in her arms as a tiny baby, but then she’ll openly admit that she was a …

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The emotional wins of travel with kids

As the coach weaves us out of Val d’Isère I suffer a pang and tears threaten. I don’t think it has anything to do with my aching legs or the grey clouds that have appeared – as if to mark the occasion. No, this strange homesick feeling is more about the end of a beginning. For this was not just a holiday, not merely a week of hanging out with the family, away from the chores of laundry, the routines of school, and the demands of work. This was a first in my children’s lives – a whole raft of …

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Easter skiing in Val D’Isère with Mark Warner: the perfect choice for families

If you've never been skiing with the family, here's why you need to be brave and give it a go!

By Actually Daddy. Given the importance of skiing for Actually Daddy I’ve decided to hand over the blog to him for the day. Here’s what he thinks of Easter skiing in Val d’Isère. I’ve used my bible, Where to Ski and Snowboard as the basis for my report; there is a short précis online, and much more detail in the book. It gives a great summary of the pros and cons of a ski trip to Val D’Isère, so rather than repeat what is a very accurate guide I will attempt to add some value around it. Why go to Val D’Isère with …

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I’m a convert! Tips for a successful family ski trip.

According to The Bug… You may recall that I was a reluctant skier. I was totally happy to sip a hot chocolate while my sister did the energetic bit. But my Dad insisted, and so my Mum set about getting me ready for our first family ski holiday. We spent last week in Val d’Isère with Mark Warner, and the person least inclined to come home when it was all over was me. So how exactly do you prepare a child to enjoy his first ski trip? Tips for a successful family ski trip: Book Lessons: I had several lessons at …

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What to pack for a ski trip

… before and after kids. By Helen… Whilst making a packing list for our forthcoming ski trip it struck me that what I’m taking now is considerably different from what I would have packed 10 years ago, before we had the children. So for anyone planning a holiday in the snow, with or without kids, here’s my advice. What to pack for a ski trip Before kids: Fleece headband that matches  your ski jacket – prevents earache,  but avoids the shame of hat-hair. Duty-free Absolut vodka – distracts the mind from occasional sprains and bruises. Multivitamins – with all that …

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Expressions: Bored

15 minutes is a long time to wait when you’re 6. Even if you do have a comfy bench all to yourself. We were waiting for my sister’s Stagecoach performance. Man they took a long time to get ready.   Still waiting. Wonder if I’ll get the loan of an iPhone if I act it really well? Will you stop already with the photos? Oh alright then, here’s a smile. Make the most of it – it’s all you’re getting.

Britmums Live Inquisition!

Wot so Funee? will be taking a break for the Easter holidays, and will return on 22 April. In the meantime I’m excited to be heading for Britmums Live this summer! She hardly slept the night before. Would her dress be appropriate? Should she have tried to meet up with someone she knew at Starbucks beforehand? What would she do with all those business cards? Surely it was too “look at me!” to hand them out, but maybe too laughable to spread them over tables, hoping nobody would notice until she’d left. On the day, she marched straight in, then …

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Girls are amazing

Hi this is once again actually GG and I am going to be very serious and talk to you about why girls are amazing. I asked my lovely deputy headteacher to photocopy a survey that I had created last night for my fellow students to complete. I am very surprised about some of the results and hope that it helps you to understand why girls are amazing. Why girls are amazing: My results show that more girls like football than boys, and football is not really considered a feminine sport. It also shows that some boys spend time on their …

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Wot so Funee? Signs my children are getting older

Mother’s Day, as always, was bliss. I saw some tweets bemoaning the fact that children make for a less than perfect (ie. relaxing) day, but that is not so for me. My children, at 9 and 6, are incredibly good company, well-behaved (mostly), thoughtful, and capable of helping their Dad in the kitchen. Happily, despite his usual tendency to chaos, and his penchant for chilling out, Actually Daddy pulls out all the stops on Mother’s Day. I know, I’m lucky. I am very partial  to the children’s usual shopping list – what’s not to like about pic ‘n’ mix? But …

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