Every child needs to learn to ride a bicycle, don’t they? Scooters are fine and dandy but riding a bike is a life skill!

Balance bikes seem to have become much more popular than they ever were abd rightly so because they teach the first element of riding perfectly and that is balance.  Continue Reading

We’ve all been there. Sleep deprivation; crying in the night, wanting to ‘sleep in Mummy and Daddy’s bed’, throwing things, climbing out of the cot or worse, throwing themselves out. Here I am at last, typing away on my new and amazingly snazzy HP Envy laptop (it’s a touch screen too) and is my new-found best tech friend. Thankfully my head is clear enough to actually get the words out but rewind a few weeks and it was a disaster… Continue Reading

It’s been a great summer for theatre if you’re a toddler. First there was the most enchanting Elephantom and now the West End summer run of Aliens Love Underpants. Taking my nearly three-year old to see this wonderful adaptation from the much-loved children’s story book by Claire Freedman at the Leicester Square theatre proved to be a brilliant day out not just for the little ones but for the adults too. Continue Reading

It’s taken me a while to write this one as I haven’t been a good girl! Alexander is now two and a half and he absolutely loves the water. I know, he can now jump in alone with armbands on. He does that when we go away on trips where we are lucky enough to have private pools. I don’t do mass market swimming. I have a slight flaw in my psyche! Call it borderline OCD. I have memories of visits to local swimbaths – Copthall for one and Swiss Cottage another (before the big refurb) that have left me mentally scarred for life! I don’t like wet floors and bare feet, I don’t like hairs on wet floors and a new one that has reared its head, I don’t like pools with (many) other people in them . I just start to imagine no end of things floating in the water. Ridiculous, I know. That’s what chlorine is for, saner people point out. Continue Reading

For my friends at Willows Farm. They have an amazing offering throughout the year but here’s what they have in store this Easter. I love this place. A real farm but with rides and carousels that kids can’t resist!

Family favourite, Willows Activity Farm, is hosting a cracking Easter event between the 5th-21st April 2014, filled with fun activities guaranteed to keep everyone entertained!
Hop on down to Willows, the award-winning farm attraction in St Albans, where you can find special Easter activities such as the annual Easter Egg Hunt in the ‘eggs-quisite’ Willows Easter Garden.
Willows will also be honoured with an ‘eggs-clusive’ guest appearance from the Easter Bunny, who will be teaching visiting children her special ‘Bunny Hop’ dance.
Farmer Andrew at Willows said: “Everyone at Willows is making preparations for our Easter Eggstravaganza, and I think it’s going to be the best yet! We’ve got a choc-o-bloc schedule which will make this Easter ‘egg-cellent’, not to mention our various indoor and outdoor play areas to keep the whole family chirpy!”
After searching the garden for eggs and earning a chocolatey treat, children can make friends with the ‘eggs-tremely’ fluffy chicks and cotton-tailed rabbits in The Farmyard, or take a ride on Tristan the Runaway Tractor.
Give your little chicks a chance to ‘egg-cel’ themselves by ducking and diving to avoid the foam eggs being launched at them in Captain Chicken’s Egg Dodge. Further Easter fun has been hidden at Willows in the shape of bunny cut outs- find all six to win an Easter treat!
And if the weather isn’t ‘eggs-actly’ sunny side up, there’s plenty of indoor fun to be had in the Young Chicks Activity Play area, Woolly Jumpers Play Barn and Toddler Town.
Visitors to Willows will enjoy ‘eggs-ceptional’ value with the introduction of all-inclusive prices, which means unlimited fun for the whole family.
Easter Eggstravaganza will be at Willows Activity Farm between 5th – 21st April 2014. For more information visit www.willowsfarmvillage.com or call 0870 129 9718. Continue Reading