Month: November 2016

8 ways to Style a Christmas Jumper

I am loving my Christmas jumper this year! It's going everywhere on me. Hopefully today it will distract the opposition football team and the boys will get a win!

People come in two types. Those who wait for the weekend before Christmas to start celebrating. And those who don’t. Guess which one I am? This weekend I could resist it no longer: my Christmas jumper went on, and Spotify switched to the Christmas playlist. I know, I will be bored of Mary’s Boy Child by the big day, but who wants to eat leftover mince pies in January? I say bring it on right now! How to Rock your Christmas Jumper Advertorial post with Matalan – gifted products.  This year, we got our Christmas Jumpers from Matalan. They have a huge …

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Could you have Chefs of the Future? Tefal Cook4Me review

Review: The Tefal Cook4Me We’ve been letting the kids loose in the kitchen recently. They’re old enough now to know a few of the basics of preparing food, and both of them are really interested in creating meals, so cooking with the kids is much less stressful than it used to be when they were very young. What’s really made the difference though, is the addition of a new gadget to our kitchen. We’ve been working with Tefal to promote the Cook4Me, showing how easy it is to use by turning over the kitchen to the kids. Looking for more …

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Kidzania London review

A review of Kidzania London, where the kids are in charge of learning about real life on the job.

If you have children, Kidzania must be on your radar. Mine had been begging to go for a while, so over the half term holidays we booked in, and I have to tell you, they were really excited, especially my eldest, who was looking forward to the independence of forging her way in a mock-up of the real world. Billed as a ‘real-life role play experience,’ Kidzania offers children the opportunity to get a feel for what it might be like to take on over 60 different workplace roles, earning money in return for tasks completed. Here’s what to expect …

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Meet Meerkats: Fall in Love (review of Paradise Wildlife Park)

The meet the meerkats experience at Paradise Wildlife park is a very special treat

Have you ever been this close to a meerkat? I snapped this picture over the half term holidays at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, and I wasn’t using my zoom lens. I was actually sitting on the stump right next to these two guys as they got up close and personal after their feed. Aren’t they adorable? The Bug has long been a fan of meerkats. My self-professed ‘next David Atteborough’ boy loves anything about animals and nature, and whilst he might struggle to remember what 7 x 6 is, the space in his brain reserved for creature trivia is …

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Keep Bodies Real, for the Sake of our Girls – Sponsored by Dove

When she was 7, my daughter came home and asked me if she could shave her legs. My heart sank, because I knew we were on the brink of a lifetime of concerns about her appearance. She had been teased at school, and in an afternoon, she’d gone from not caring two figs about her legs – beyond how fast they could carry her round the playground – to wanting them to conform to someone else’s expectations. Over the next few years, a whole bunch of other perceived flaws found their way into her awareness of herself, from moles to …

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Recipe: Unbelievably Easy Sausage and Bean Stew (Tefal Cook 4 Me)

Recipe: a sausage and bean stew that's so easy the kids can make it

If you follow our social media accounts, it will not have escaped your notice that we have a new kitchen gadget. I have waxed lyrical about the Cook4Me by Tefal, to the extent that several of my online friends have gone straight down to Argos to buy one for themselves. Still others have added the intelligent multicooker to their Christmas list. I’m pretty confident that it will live up to expectation, and very excited to have one to give away today. I’ll be reviewing the Cook4Me fully next week, when you will find out how we got on handing the kitchen over …

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An Open Letter to Type 1 Teens

Type 1 diabetes is as much a psychological condition as it is a physical one. In this letter to type 1 teens, a grieving mum tells other sufferers what she can no longer tell her son.

On 22 July this year, Connor lost his life to type 1 diabetes. He was a normal teenaged boy, with everything to live for. But he had diabetes, an incurable condition that is relentless in its need to be managed, every hour of every day, for life. It is a difficult physical condition, yet what you very rarely see is the emotionally exhausting psychological burden of living with type 1, that is every bit as tough as the medical. In the weeks following Connor’s death, Nicky, his mother, wrote this letter in the hopes that if just one young person read …

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Skydiving without Fear

I swore I'd never go skydiving, but an indoor skydiving session with my kids almost saw me signing up for the real deal! Here's what we thought of iFly at Milton Keynes

Indoor Skydiving with iFly I swore I would never go skydiving. We’re pretty adventurous in our family, and between us we’re up for most things. But jumping out of a plane? No. Not for me. My daughter claims she would, and also thinks that bungee jumping is something everyone should try. (Also not happening in my lifetime). My son is the most sedate amongst us, and probably won’t be testing my parental panic meter with daredevil activities any time soon, but with a husband who’s planning to throw himself off a mountain for his 50th birthday, it’s fair to say …

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