A girl called Eva.

Eva Ann Hopkins,
Age 5 years.
Favourites-
TV show : She's crazy on anything to do with animals, always has been, her favourite being any David Attenborough documentary. Cartoon wise she adores Tom and Jerry or Scooby doo. 
Food : Jacket potato. She could live off them given half the chance.
Colour : Pink. She does like purple too but pink is always her first choice.
Animal : She's Owl crazy, I think her obsession with them began as a toddler when she saw a barn owl for the first time. By the age of 2 she was able to tell you all the breeds. Her favourites still remains the barn owl.
Dislikes-
Having her hair washed. Flys or spiders. Meat. Wearing trousers. Dirt. The wind blowing her hair. Not getting her own way. These are the main things that can cause a melt down. She's beginning to get that teenage temper already, many days I've had her bedroom slammed in my face! She's a diva that's for sure.

5 things I need to buy.

Highchair.

 Now that Archie is on 2 solid feeds a day it's about time I actually invested in a good high chair. My house isn't the biggest and we don't have a dinning room so something small will be perfect. I quite like the Hauck Alpha Highchair it's currently on sale on Amazon so I may have to snap this up quickly.

Car seat.
Archie is beginning to outgrow his Aton carseat after over 6 months of use so we are now looking for another one. We do have Eva's old one - I don't remember the make - but its seen better days. It's in full working order however storing it in an attic has caused it to become damp so the fabric looks dirty. I may use it for a short time while buying the new one. I have totally fallen in love with the Cosatto Zoomi in either "vroom" or "cuddle monster" I can't decide. Again it's on sale on Amazon so I shall have to get this sooner rather then later.

New cot bedding.
Boyfriend would not be pleased to hear that I want to get Archie a whole new bedding set. Mainly because I brought plain set, with not knowing the sex and now I want to upgrade to a boy set. Not blue per say just something more for a boy. I love alot of the ranges from Mama and Papa's at the moment.
Although whether my budget can stretch to buy any of these is another matter all together.

 
 



















School shoes.
Eva's Clarks shoes have lasted until Easter, which I am very pleased about because they don't come cheap, but I am glad I listened to my mother and went ahead and got them. With only one term left before summer I won't be getting Clarks as come September her feet would have probably grown again and another pair would be needed. No, instead I'm looking at the cheaper pairs from Asda living at the moment.

A desk
At the moment Eva does all her homework from our dinning table but it would be nice for her to have her own desk in her room. Not just for homework but for when she's reading or doing her drawing as well. I meant to get one for her birthday, but it completely slipped my mind! I want to decorate her room so this will wait until her room is ready.

10 things to do this summer.

1. Visit the beach. 

Building sand castles, splashing in the sea, eating fish and chips, ice-cream cones and spending pennies in the pier. The summer for me is all about the beach! We try to go once a year, even before having children the boyfriend and I found ourselves at the beach eating ice-cream watching the sun setting. This year will be the first time we take Archie, I'm not so sure how he will react to sand and I dreading the whole fist full of sand in the mouth moments which from what I remember from Eva's first beach day are not fun for either of us. We're planning on our beach trip before summer - next month - as I'm back at work in June and want to have a nice day out before then.

2. Visit a zoo.
Another yearly thing for us. Boyfriend loves zoo's, even as a child his parents had to take him to one every year on his birthday. I think this year is the only year he's been unable to go to one at all due to Archie being unwell with chicken pox, although we are planning to go to bird land tomorrow. Eva visited her first zoo aged 3 weeks, Archie is 6 months and yet to step foot in one, mainly due to Eva being at school now and boyfriends work hours. we only get the school holidays and boyfriend doesn't always get the time off. This year we are visiting Noah’s Ark zoo. (www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk) It's one we are yet to visit and seems to be a very child friendly place.

3. Have a picnic.
No trip is complete without a picnic. Whether it be a trip to the beach, a walk out in the country or a simple trip to the park. I normally end up eating sushi rather then sandwiches which sounds weird, raw fish? But I love sushi, I'd probably opt for a veggie range rather then fish while out and about though.

4. Go for a walk in the countryside.
I'm very lucky to be in the middle of the Cotswolds meaning I am surrounded in hundreds of amazing walks and places to explore all year around. I love walking in the summer mainly because the sunshine makes for good lighting while taking photos and the ground tends to turn into a bog during the wetter months. I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the woods to see the blue bells, something we do yearly. We also take Eva on a deer walk, whether we try and see how many animals we can find. One year we found wild boar!

5. Fly a kite.
Kite flying for me sends flash backs of the tantrums my brother would throw when his kite wouldn't fly and ended up being thrown in the bin not long after it was brought. We headed to Worcester Woods last year and brought Eva a cheap (I say cheap but the smallest ones were £10) kite and used the fields to go fly it. She loved it, and was actually better then all of us put together! I've just sorted out her kite from the garage ready for trips out this summer - if it's lasts that long!

6. Slimbridge wetland centre.
Or as Eva calls it "Duck land" because it's all about the ducks here. With loads of things to see and do there it's a winner even on wet days. They have hundreds of ducks, geese, swans and other such birds as well as the wildlife, it's beautiful and well worth a visit. We are going with the in laws this year, nanny being a nature lover she's excited to go with Eva and see what they can find.

7. Baking.
This a must for the summer, with Eva off school keeping her entertained on the wet days will be a mission so that's when baking comes in. I love baking, I'm covered in flour most days from baking biscuits or cakes. I plan to do alot with Eva. She tends to get bored making things so I shall bake things for her to decorate and of course she gets to lick the bowl!

8. Go to the park / feed the ducks
With quite a few local parks I can see us spending alot of time visiting these over the summer. Archie is now sitting up unaided so I shall have to take him soon for his first try of a swing. Parks always come hand in hand with feeding the ducks, we normally buy an extra loaf just for them and I've found that if we are in town when we decide to feed the ducks we end up buying them a loaf from the bakery rather then something cheap! They eat better then most.

9. Swimming.
We do this anyway, once a week at least but it's one of those things that need to be there on a list of things to do in the summer. I may look at taking the children to another pool rather then our local maybe one with slides and things.

10. Take photos.
The final thing on my list is photos. I plan to take alot over the summer and post them on this blog. I feel I've forgotten photography over the past year or so and I've run out of excuses to not get the camera out. Go back to 2012 and my camera rarely left my hands!

Archie's first swim.

I am whizzing through my "things to do this year" list. Another crossed off, Take Archie swimming for the first time. I'm a little late writing this post as we took him on Sunday (16th march) but hey, better late then never. I got his little swim suit from Matalan for £8. I love it and he looked super cute in it. 

The first two minutes of being in the water were spent in tears, him not me, I think this was more the water felt cold and it was a little noisy - he's not a lover of noise - but he soon started to enjoy himself, kicking his legs about in his rubber ring. I took him out of the ring for a short time where he found the edge of the pool was a great place for splashing and of course we both ended up giggling and soaked! His big sister spent alot of time with him splashing in the pool, he was a bit unsure of the water over his head at first but was giggling away with her in no time. He stayed in the water for 20 mins, then we got out as he got cold, but I can say that the first swim went, well "swimmingly" well.

I have no photo's of him in the pool, it's not allowed, which I totally get but it would have been nice. 

I am Bee

Name : Carly

Birthday : March 24th 

Hobbies : Photography, Baking and Knitting

Likes : Drinking tea, watching crime shows, The Big Bang Theory and being a mummy.

Dislikes : Dust, arguments and moaning.

Fears : Spiders, lifts, Lorries and being in a shop at closing time.

Relationship:

I have been with my boyfriend Sean for almost 8 years, we met back in February 2006 through friends and began dating in May. Since then we've had two children and have a house together.
Children:
Two. I have a daughter, Eva who was born prematurely in March 2009 and a son Archie who arrived 6 days late in September 2013.
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My blog is based on my life, I write about my opinions, my children, myself and day to day life. I love to write, I hadn't realised just how much until I began this blog, I'm my own worst critic though and can say, that I'm not overly pleased with how my other post's have been written and will probably at some point re-read them, edit or delete them. It's kind of an OCD thing, I like things to be 'just so'. I have a thing about dust, it annoys me. If I can see dust on anything in my house even if I am about to leave the house I will have to get a duster and clean it. You may think that means I live in a super clean house, wrong! It's clean yes, but I have two children. My house is as clean as it can be with them and their muddy boots.

Learn to knit.

Back in January I wrote a post about things I wanted to do this year. I'd already done one which was "keep a blog", the next was Learn to knit. I'm actually very annoyed with myself for not learning any sooner! Yesterday I picked up my knitting needles for the first time and managed to knit a basic knit stitch. I was actually amazed how easy it was. Casting on was also alot simpler then I first thought. 

My first square.

I now plan to knit all different coloured squares and stitching them together to form a lovely blanket for my son. 

I am also going to have a go at Crocheting.

The mummy tag.

  I found this while looking through some other blog's and thought I'd give it a go.

1. Are you a Stay at Home Mum, or a Working Mum?

I'm on maternity leave at the moment, but I consider myself both as normally I am at home all day then once my boyfriend is home I head out to work for the evening.

2. Would you have it any other way?

Now I know some mum's are all for 'this stay at home' stuff but honestly, I love working, I love earning my own money and having a little bit of freedom away from home to talk to adults and have a bit of time to myself.

3. Do you co-sleep?
Yes I do. I've done so with both my children. I plan to write a blog post on this in the future.

4. What is your one must-have item for your baby?
A noisy toy or his white blanket. 

5. How many kids do you plan on having?

Once we'd had our son we said "no more",  5 months on we are now talking about having a third. I'm not sure when or if this will happen but I always said I'd like 3 children.

6. Date night? How many nights per month?
We don't really do the whole 'date night' thing. We go out normally around once a month if that, and only when there are special dates, the rest of the time the kids are with us. We're fine by that and our relationship isn't suffering in anyway.

7. Your child's favourite show?
Eva loved Peppa pig until about 6 months ago, now she's more a fan of Tom and Jerry. Archie doesn't watch TV to have a favourite show yet.

8. Name one thing you bought before you had your baby and never ended up using?
 A bumble bee car seat wrap thingy. He wore it once or twice but that was about it.

9. Your child’s favourite food?
Eva loves Jacket Potato's. Archie is yet to be weaned so Milk.

10. How many cars does your family have?
Just the one.

11. Weight gain before pregnancy, during and after and now?
Before my first pregnancy I was 8st just over, afterwards I'd gained only a stone. At the start of my pregnancy with Archie I weighed 9st 7lb and by the end I'd gone right up to 10st 10lb, which stayed for two weeks afterwards. I am now around 9st 2lb.

12. Dream holiday with your kids?
Disney Land.

13. Dream holiday without your kids?
New York, although I'd love to take the kids with me here to, but one child free day to just shop would be amazing.

14. How has your life changed since your baby has been born?
I've matured, my whole way of thinking has totally changed.

15. Finish the sentence: 'It makes my heart melt to see … '
My children laughing together.

16. Where do you shop for your kids?
Mainly Asda living.

17. Favourite makeup and skincare products?
I don't wear makeup. I wear a Nivea face cream.

18. Huggies or Pampers?
I used Huggies with my daughter as I found Pamper's leaked with her. Huggies are no longer around, we did manage to get some before all the shops sold out but they leaked so I use now mainly Morrisons little big.

19. Have you always wanted kids?
Yes. But not until I was in my 30's. My mum was a young mum and I watched her struggle on her own.

20. Best part about being a mum?
Hearing my daughter tells me she loves me, it makes everything worth while.

Cough, colds and teething.

I'd first like to start by apologizing for my serious lack of blogging over the last month. The past 2 -3 weeks have been awful in my household. We've all been ill with the flu, chest infections and teething, it's been a complete nightmare. I've had no time for another other then clothes washing and cooking. 

Now we're all 'back to normal' it's time to put my blogging cap back on. I have loads of ideas and I can't wait to get writing them! I have a list of all the posts I want to write for the net few weeks, I'm hoping they will be better written then my posts before (I'm my worst critic when it comes to writing..)

To do lists

This year - like most year's - I write a list of things I'd like to do, things I'd like to learn and places I'd like to visit. Last year, due to bad sickness during my pregnancy, I only managed a few of the things on my 2013 list. I had a baby, saw my daughter start at school & enjoyed some days out.

So this year I'd like to cross off some if not all of my to do's. 

1. Start and keep a blog

2. Learn to knit.

3. Make my house more homely.

4. Visit the beach

5. Visit a zoo.

6. Take Archie swimming for the first time.

7. Bake at least once a week.

..

First one is done, so I am now on to learning to knit. This one I am looking forward to, learning a new skill or talent is always a positive thing to do. Not only that but with two children, one who's very much into dolls and is always wanted a new outfit for them and the other who wear's alot of knitted jumpers, it's the perfect skill to learn. I used to do a bit of knitting, so I guess it's something I already can do, however I've never made anything only done a few stitches. So this year I want to make some knitted things..