Broadway park

Wreck This Journal.

I am one those OCD book crazy people who loves keeping her books in perfect condition. When I buy it new, I take great care not to ruin the spine - I could possibly hyperventilate at the thought of a crease in the spine (wow I have problems) that new book smell, as awesome as that new car smell and one of the things I love about new books. When I get a new book, I take my time in opening it, looking at it, taking it all in before I open the cover to the first page. (Please tell me I am not the only crazy person who does this?)

So I am asking myself why did I buy this book? The whole point of the Wreck This Journal book is to, well wreck it in as many creative ways as possibly. Each page has a instruction to follow and you do what ever you want, let your mind wander.

The first page I flipped it open to is this.. and my first thought? But the book will get wet, how will I get it dry! can you see my problem? Actually until getting this book I hadn't even realised I had a problem, I'm pretty sure I do sound like some crazy women who needs to get out more, (ha) but yes. 

Actually I am quite looking forward to it. Maybe as the book says "I may begin to live more recklessly" or maybe I'll end up some looney sitting in the corner rocking back and forth, I guess only time will tell.

To get your copy of Wreck This Journal buy here.

- Please note I have not been asked to promote this book in anyway, I brought this book off my back and wanted to write a post on it -

 

Broadway ; a day of rain.

(Lets just take a second to appreciate this photo shall we? #babyselfie. Now on with business..)

Today we decided it was the perfect day to go down to Broadway, - a little village out in the Cotwolds near to where we live - I say "perfect" with a slight smile on my face, for the fact it rained on and off the whole day. Infact even on our way there there was a shower and of course me being me, very stubbornly refused to change my plans. (Yes I was in one of those moods) Anyway just as we arrived and parked up, the rain started up again. Thank goodness there are plenty of shops there to hide in. We used this as an excuse to browse the sweet store and ended up buying too many pretty sweet things.

Once the rain calmed down we walked around looking in all the stores. There was a lovely little toy shop called Rikki Tikki which sold alot of wooden toys. With Archies birthday coming up (*sob*) I couldn't help but make a mental list of everything I loved. I am slightly obesed with wooden toys at the moment, they look so cute, plus they last so much longer!

After we headed to a book store which sold every book you could possibly want. From Charlottes web, to The Twits & of course all of Julia Donaldson's books. All the books were set together with all the charactors from them which I loved even more! I shall be going back here for christmas when "santa" has to fill up his sack. 

For lunch we had a choice of a Fish and chip place or a little Italian one along the main high street. Of course the fish place won. I was happily surprised by this place. It was beautiful the staff warm and inviting and the food was to die for! The toilets made me giggle, they were in the "poop deck", small things like that really appeal to my inner child. Anyway, I had grilled salmon with a salad and chips, Eva had the children's mini fish and chips with a side of mushy peas, she wasn't a fan of these but Archie was happy to eat it all up and had a try of my fish too. He's finally begining to enjoy textures and different tastes so yay!

As soon as lunch was over the heaven's opened once more. The whole reason we went here was to go to the park and that's the one thing we didn't do. Eva wasn't too upset, she was soggy and just wanted to eat her lolly pop. So we headed home, over all though we did have a lovely day. And if the weather is sunnier tomorrow I have pinky promised Eva that I shall take her to the park over there again.

Bean xo

A day at the park

I believe this was something I wanted to do this summer, in actual fact we've been to the park every week this summer. Eva loves them, Archie is still a bit unsure - he loves crawling around on the grass rather then actually playing on anything but he is only little still. (actually reading through my summer wish list, it seems I have done all of them)

Yesterday we decided it was the perfect day for the park. I took so many super cute photos that I struggled to find just one photo today, so I shall share a few more too..

A photo a day : A day at Worcester woods

Today has been very busy. We began the day with a trip to Morrisons for some breakfast - the evening before my mum had locked herself out (this is a very long story) so she ended up sleeping at our house. I went over first thing in the morning and managed to get her front door unjammed / unlocked, she had an hour before she was due at work so we headed out for breakfast. Eva is currently on a very healthy diet due to some health problems, so a fry up was a little treat for her. 

After dropping my mum off at work we headed back home, as I mentioned above Eva has been having some health problems lately so I had to book a doctors appointment for her. She'd requested that she wanted to see a female doctor. The receptionist was rather rude about me not wanting her regular doctor, apparently this was "inconvenient", however my daughter wanted a female doctor and that was that. I was then told a doctor would call me back ASAP, pfftt. An hour later another receptionist called to say an appointment had been made for 2:40. It was only 10am, so we decided to go out until her appointment - I also hoped it would keep her mind off it.

We headed over to Worcester Woods. A lovely wood, just outside of the city with some very enjoyable walks - one more suitable for pushchairs then the others - large feilds with play parks and a lovely cafe serving healthy meals made from locally sourced ingredients. We took a walk through the woods and were amazed by how many squirrel's were running about. Me and Eva went on mini adventures through the trees and came across empty Acorn shells, birds and other animals hiding there. It was lovely. We stayed for lunch, Eva had cheesey pasta but she didn't like it so we swapped, I had her pasta while she ate my Tomato and tyme soup. 

After lunch we headed back to get to Eva's appointment and after months of being ignored we finally got somewhere (I shall write a post soon about this). This is a huge step forward we are hoping.

The rest of the day was spent at the park, Archie loves the swings and spent alot of time giggling on them while Eva went off making friends with a group of girls and playing. Archie and I ended up sitting on a blanket watching her - well I watched her. Archie was crawling around playing his own little game. The day ended up a trip to tesco for the weekly shop and watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton version) before bed. It's lovely being able to spend time as a family.

Bean xo

Sunshine and parks.

Sunday morning I woke up early and full of energy, this could only mean one thing the gym. I haven't been since my birthday - not out of choice I may add - with Sean at home with Archie and Eva still sleeping at her grandparents house I thought I'd go annoy my mother and drag her along too. The most amusing thing that morning was my mother's face when I turned up at her front door all bright eyed and bushy tailed, put it this way she is not a morning person! We had a good hour in the gym, laughing at how stupid we looked and probably looking like two people who've been let out for the day rather then two regular gym goers, but we had fun and I think that's what it's all about. We normally head for a swim before steaming the morning away in the health spa but as boyfriend didn't have any milk for Archie we decided to skip this grab some food in the little cafe and call boyfriend to take us food shopping. Yes that boring weekend task that turns old ladies into crazy shoppers and have other's diving out of the way of their trolley driving. I won't bore you with what went on here, I'm pretty sure you can guess - pick up an item stick in trolley and repeat - but we decided it would be a shame to waste the rest of the day doing housework, yet another glam weekend chore, so after dropping the food off at home we headed to the park. Archie's never been, well he has but he was a few weeks old and slept the whole time so I'm sure I'll not be counting that one. Eva ran off to play with some other children the moment we got to the park followed by the boyfriend who was told to keep an eye on her while I headed to the baby swings with Archie. He cried, the moment I sat him in the swing he cried. I quickly snuggled him back up and realised there was an awful smell coming from his nappy. A quick change and back on the swing and he was laughing and giggling. He loved it! Eva and boyfriend spent a good hour or so playing (boyfriend being a huge child was loving his day out maybe more then the children) We ended the day with a walk by the river while eating ice creams.

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!