Celebrations and Making Memories

With busy lives and children seemingly growing up quicker these days, I try and make the most of birthdays and celebrations. We often celebrate international holidays such as Chinese New Year and Mexican Cinco de Mayo to name a few, but more important than this, I love to make sure birthdays are super special.

Not just for the children either, my husband loves a bit of a celebration so I include him in this too, making sure to decorate the house so when everyone comes down in the morning they see banners and balloons and making special cakes like this Maltesers cake I made my husband last year.

I remember when growing up, my dad who always left at six in the morning would put all of the birthday cards by the front door, like the postman had delivered them (receiving mail is still exciting right?.) It is something that has always stuck in my mind and so I hope that what I do for my children will for them too.

When it comes to birthday cakes there is nothing more special than a homemade cake, whatever your skills. I remember some of mine even now, with everything from the standard hedgehog cake of the 80s, to the time my mum made me a cake that looked like a house, with buttons used as tiles on the roof, it was the best.

This year has seen my daughter turn five and my son turn eight, my daughters tastes change all the time but we decided on something pinktastic. She is such a pink loving little girl and so when I found these fabulous Talking Tables candles on the Candle & Cake website I knew that these were going to be pride of place on her cake, along with a one of their fabulous little balloon numbers.

This particular cake consisted of three layers of sponge, layered in between with a bit of raspberry jam and some icing, followed with more icing on top.  The overall effect of this was really great, with the simple cake, topped off with the candles and balloon number.

My son wanted something that I knew would be a bit controversial, especially with members of the family who don’t like bugs! However, it was his birthday and so, after a busy Saturday drinking gin at the Gin Festival, I was up early on Sunday morning to make his chocolate covered bug cake.

With some Bon Anniversaire banners I'd picked up on our visit to France last year, party hats, and another of the fabulous balloon numbers from Candle & Cake his cake definitely had the required effect and he loved it.

These are the moments in life we remember forever, the memories that shape what we become and what we love.

Do you remember any birthday cakes or parties from your childhood?

Christmas 2015 in Pictures

Christmas this year has been a bit of a whirlwind, well, when isn't Christmas like that? To make sure I don't forget those precious moments, I have put together a post of just some of the pictures I took of just some of the things we got up to over the past few weeks.

Yummy star mince pies, they made the perfect treat for Santa and our guests over Christmas.

Our visit to Santa was almost missed by my unobservant husband, but I managed to catch them talking to him in time, they were so excited and I just love the way my cheeky daughter is standing, talking to him and the casual stance of my son.

We took time out to visit our local church and sing some carols, it was a really lovely atmosphere and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. 

On Wednesday we received our Kelly Bronze turkey that we won from Jamie Oliver over on Instagram, it was super tasty and the centre piece of our Christmas dinner. Thank you Jamie :)

Once Santa had been our lounge looked like Christmas had sneezed all over it, in a good way though! Everyone had been truly spoilt and it makes you feel grateful for all that we have and all that we were given by our families and friends.

Christmas dinner was lovely and my rather retro trifle with swiss roll bottom went down well with hubby, what did you have for your Christmas pudding?

My daughter received a bike from Santa, it is her pride and joy and she has either been sat on it in the house or riding it outside every day. I remember my first bike, it too was my pride and joy and I hope she has as many great memories of her bike as I do of mine.

I will miss Christmas, I will miss the pretty decorations, the smell of the Christmas tree and the over inldugance of lots of lovely food. Days off with the family and watching films whilst snuggling together on the sofa.

I hope you have plenty of Christmas memories and here is to 2016, may it be everything you want and more.

Remembering Summer

Last year we went back to a beautiful spot in France, today I am remembering our beautiful holiday and thinking about the sunshine and happy memories with the children.

We spent many a happy hour by the lake on the inland beach...

Building sandcastles...

Splashing, exploring and looking at wildlife...

Bonjour Monsieur Grenouille...

These are the moments that we treasure, these are our magic moments etched on our memories forever...

Making Childhood Memories

Yesterday was an inset day for my son so we set off out for some fun in the Peak District, we found a couple of great places to visit in the area, it's so beautiful around there.

Our last stop was Peveril castle, the ruins of this 11th century castle are on the top of a hill and there was plenty of space and grass to roll down, the kids both loved it and if they could have would have spent the whole day rolling down it.

If my neck and back weren't so bad i'd have definitely joined them, it looked like so much fun.

Lots of fun and our Magic Moment this week, linking up to The Olivers Madhouse

Return of the Original Jelly Bag - My 80s Dream

Once upon a time in the 80s, there was a young girl who wanted a jelly bag so much, but money was tight so she never got to own one. Ok, so enough of the sob story and me showing my age, yes that girl was me and no it doesn’t bother me, that’s just how it was.

However, thanks to Sun Jellies my jelly bag dream was realised last weekend. I was like a small child when I opened up my parcel. The bag  was unclipped for easier shipping , which meant I had the privilege of putting it together. Much to my dismay my pink loving three year old daughter quickly swooped it up and walked off with it, proves jelly bags haven’t lost their appeal then.

Having managed to persuade her that it was too big for her I managed to gain control of the bag, for now, but she does look cute in her 'princess' jellies as she calls them ;)

Now on to the bag itself, in the same jelly material as the shoes it is sturdy and well-made and best of all I love the colour. I opted for pink as I thought it was the perfect summer colour, however it was a difficult decision between this, the coral red and timeless black.

We are going to France in the summer (home of the Meduse Sun Jellies) so I can’t wait to take this around the markets for fresh fruit, veg and cheese as well as to the beach. I think this is where the bag will really come in to its own, not only is it the perfect bag to take my books, sunglasses and sun creams in but it won’t get full of sand, well if it does it can be emptied out. It also looks rather cute with a pair of jelly shoes don’t you think?

I love this bag, I love the colour the design and it is also plenty big enough to fit lots of holiday essentials in, it can also be unclipped again so perfect for fitting into your suitcase.

It even comes in a smaller size in the pink for little girls to be like mum, you know because jellies are cool! Thank you Sun Jellies for bringing back these bags, just like when I listen to Madonna's Dear Jessie, I have been transported back to my childhood. Carefree and feeling like I could take on the world.

The bag costs £10 and is 34x25x25 so it is a decent size and I certainly managed to fit plenty of shopping in.

NB I was sent this bag to review, all words and thoughts and opinions are my own.