A Fabulous French Getaway #SummerLove

For the past five years we have holidayed in France, we love the sites, food and lifestyle and a big bonus is that we can drive there. I have a fear of flying and with the channel tunnel providing quick and easy access to France, it makes this a great alternative. However, this year I have decided I need to face my fear, I have spoken to a hypnotherapist and we are going to work on it together, even as I write this though, the thought of flying makes me feel slightly ill.

Our French holidays have always been in gîtes, these are holiday rentals, usually rural but sometimes in the middle of towns. This gives us our own space, where we can do what we want, when we want, make our own food and have plenty of room to play and relax together. This has always made our holidays special, spending time with just the four of us, enjoying something different to home.

Our favourite holiday memory is of a place that we loved so much, we went back the next year, the garden at our sprawling gîte in the middle of nowhere was the perfect place for us to let off some steam. Having a huge garden means the children can play together and have enough room to run around and do what they do best, be silly.

Having a country park complete with lake and beach nearby was the icing on the cake. It was the perfect place for the children to build sandcastles and have a paddle and for mum and dad to spend some time relaxing time in the water and sunshine.

The picnics on the beach were a perfect opportunity for us all to snuggle under towels and eat slightly sandy baguettes while mum and dad sipped on some local cider. Being on holiday and experiencing new things is always the highlight of our year. Looking back, one of our fondest memories on this holiday was heading back to the lake later on in the day to celebrate a French bank holiday, with fireworks, live music and some lovely French cuisine it was a great way to immerse ourselves in the local community and culture.

This year though I would love to spread our family's wings and take the children on a plane for the first time. It would be amazing to return to a place I fell in love with when I was about 13, Menorca is a beautiful island and I'm sure the children would enjoy it there, visiting the beaches and water parks and maybe even taking a glass bottom boat trip to see some barracuda. The prospect of a gin distillery and vineyards also sounds good for the adults. Having a villa to ourselves and being able to lie in the sun undisturbed would be such fun, but being a short walk away from amazing food and beaches would be equally as welcome.

Life as two hard working parents is always busy, so having some space to just chill out and relax is our idea of heaven. We would most definitely hire a car to help us explore as much of the island as possible, picking up fabulous new memories on the way.

NB: This is my entry to the James Villa Holiday #SummerLove competition, all words and pictures are my own.

Christmas Magic

I love this time of year, so many magical memories being made and moments to share with our children, I just love the smells, smiles and fun that surrounds it.

So far, in the run up to Christmas, we have built a gingerbread house, which amazingly is still waiting to be eaten...

Also, this weekend, we took the children to the local garden centre to visit santa. He was the perfect Santa, jolly, kind and really took time to listen to both our children. They were both ecstatic to meet him, got to tell him all about what they wanted and they let us take as many pictures as we wanted.

Finally, because we all love the Christmas tree, I think it has to be my favourite part of Christmas, because of the smell, the lights, spending time decorating it, admiring its beauty but mostly because it is the place where all the presents go on the big day.

There are so many beautiful things to look at and remember, hopefully making magic for the children in years to come.

Little Miss Hug

Yesterday saw the launch of a brilliant new Little Miss book, Little Miss Hug is a cheeky, pink character known for her hugs.

This new book is the 35^th book in the popular Little Miss series, and what a fantastic book it is.  Little Miss Hug is an expert hugger who knows how to give the perfect hug to all of her Mr Men and Little Miss friends in times of need and for fun, because you don’t need a reason to share a hug with your friends.

We love hugs in this family so this book went down a treat, so much so we read it two times last night.  I don't want to spoil the story but it is a truly wonderful and heart warming story with some of the most famous Mr Men characters making an appearance.

My daughter loves it so much and has been looking at the pictures, telling me about them. The pictures are bright and colourful and typical of this classic series.

This book fits in perfect with the whole Mr Men and Little Miss series and carries on the wonderful world that Roger Hargreaves created.

In addition to the new book is a free AR (Augmented Reality) App that is available to download on both Android and IOS, it is absolutely wonderful and works with the book as well as pages in the Mr Men and Little Miss magazine. 

Pointing the device at the book brings Little Miss Hug to life and from there you can play a game or even get her to give you a hug.

I love that the book is moving with the times and can be enjoyed in so many ways, we will always love reading the books most though :)

NB We were sent the book to review, all opinions and picture are my own.

How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10?

Was the question asked to me by the Office of National Statistics today as part of their Labour Force Survey.

I am an uber busy mum of two, we have had to put our child in our 5th choice of school, our bills keep going up and yet our wages don't and a friend has just died, I'm also at work tomorrow.

Now some of these things are just life and they don't make me unhappy as such but this question is pointless and subjective!!!

How can a mother with two beautiful, chatty and funny children say I am unhappy?

I mean I'm not, not about them anyway, but I am with the rising cost of everything, the poor choice of schools in our area, the list goes on.

I certainly hope my answer makes Mr Cameron happy, because if it was a question about the government and how happy I was with them on a scale of 1-10, well it wouldn't be anywhere near the double digits!

How happy are you with your life on a scale of 1-10?