Shopping in the luxury of your own home!

Good Morning Campers! Happy 1st December!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we are with great friends celebrating Olivia's 2nd Birthday!! Happy Birthday Olivia Belle xxx

This year i have done the majority of my shopping online! I just find it so much less stressful! And lets face it if you don't have to go out in the cold with the children then why bother!  I like to shop and wander and mill around and with 2 toddlers that is no longer a possibility unless i am solo! So shopping online is the next best thing! And a glass of wine makes it brilliant!

So today i thought i would share some of my favourite websites with you for finding wonderful gifts!

First up is obviously www.notonthehighstreet.com - there is everything you could wish for on this website! And its super easy to search by occasion or person etc!

Secondly i love www.handpickedcollection.com its similar to noth but different

Third up i'm loving www.firebox.com which is a great gadget website for boys and their toys!

Fourth on my list is www.dotcomgiftshop.com - lovely stocking fillers

For Children i love

www.mulberrybush.co.uk - traditional toys for children

www.gltc.co.uk - my favourite children's website!!! I love love love this site! Perfect gifts

www.alexandalexa.com - wonderful children's and toy website

www.brightminds.co.uk - amazing educational toys and crafts! You can't go wrong with a gift from here.

I feel like theres a real negativity about gift vouchers! Like if i buy gift vouchers i feel like i haven't put any effort in and don't care! But i love getting vouchers and being able to spend them on things i really love and need.  Any vouchers make wonderful presents! Cinema vouchers for friends to have date nights, meal vouchers, toy vouchers, clothing vouchers, department store vouchers, music vouchers, iTunes vouchers - the world  is your oyster.  So don't feel bad about vouchers!

As its the 1st Dec it means Our Elf's are back from The North Pole! Yippeee stay tuned to see what Buddy and Elvis and Elvis's twin sister Elfie get up to this December!

Halloween Treats

So birthday season has come and gone here (until New years day when my bestest boy Tate is 2) and the next exciting event on the horizon is Halloween!!

I love Halloween its so much fun. I wish the UK would adopt the american spirit when it comes to halloween and all the streets were lined with little people in their fancy dress collecting sweets and all the houses were decorated outside like we do for christmas!

We like to make halloween lots of fun for the children and make them a halloween goody bag!

Its nothing major just filled with lots of little spooky treats and the children love them!

So here's some of my fave Halloween treats to fill your treat bags!

Personalised halloween trick or treat bag £8

Halloween treat pot kits £2.20 for 2

Trick or Treat party bag badges £3.50 for 5

Spooky Glowing wristband £1

Halloween goodies from Paperchic starting from 50p

I would also add a few halloween sweeties! If you pick up bits and bobs whilst your out and about shopping over the next few weeks then its not such a burden just before the day! The kids will love them and its nice to make a fuss over every holiday occassion!

I will leave you with this Amazing video from you tube of a house decorated for halloween! Its fantastic!!!

Love 

L xx

Snow fun preparation

You have probably heard the weather reports about snow landing as early as october his year!! I have one word for this news....

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I love love love snow its the best! It makes everything look magical and beautiful and you can still get to the shops people just drive slower or take a sledge!!

If theres one thing i have learnt about when the magic of snow arrives its that any sort of snow fun supplies vanish from the shops! Waterproof clothing and sledges all sell out faster than a Take That reunion with Robbie Williams concert ticket!

So upon hearing the impending snow news i thought i better get the kids waterproofs in before there's nothing left in their size! That way when the snow does arrive we are all ready to go out an enjoy and are not having to dash around the shops trying to find something!

Last year i got Sienna's coat from Jo Jo Maman Bebe 

It was fab and warm and cosy but this year i wanted to get something that comes with matching waterproof bottoms.

Whist searching i found that H&M do a huge selection at really reasonable prices!

This wind and waterproof padded jacket is £29.99 and matching salopettes £19.99 and the cute ski gloves are just £5.99 and matching hat £2.99

They come in loads of different colours too. They also have lots of nice fleece jackets and other essentials for snow fun days! H&M is my top tip for snowy day clothing!

Now for sledges i love the old fashioned wooden ones as they look lovely but in reality they aren't all that practical. I don't think they are very safe for little ones to sit on. I think the ones where they are properly sat down and low to the ground seem safer. 

This Sledge by Snowboogie looks brilliant for smaller toddlers! 

Amazon £11.69

This also looks fab if you have babies that want to come and join in the sledging fun!

Amazon £23.50

We just have a standard basic sledge similar to this one which always does the job and provides lots of fun!

Amazon £9.89

I'm would 100% recommend getting the kids stuff ready before the snow arrives because it really is no fun trying to find stuff when the time arrives as all the nice stuff has gone or you end up paying over the odds for whats left! 

Bring on the snow! I cant wait!!

Love 

L xx

Room on The Broom Live!

Happy Monday lovely people!

We have had a fabulous weekend, filled with theatre trips, takeaway, sleep overs, and a fabulous 4th and 2nd birthday party on Sunday for Honey and Rocco. We hope you all have had a fab weekend too.

On Saturday we went to watch 'Room on the Broom Live' at G live Guilford Just us mummy's and our girls.

The girls love the book by Julia Donaldson, but we weren't too sure what to expect from the production having never been to one of these kind of shows before. It was brilliant!! 

The girls loved it and we did too. Before the show started the shows main characters all came out onto the stage and into the audience playing hide and seek and chatting, it was really engaging. The the show started and the characters were camping with some amusing loud snoring waking everyone up and then someone asking 'what's that up there in the sky' and thats how the story as we know it started.

There were 4 people playing all the characters in the story. The dog, bird and frog were puppets and i have to take my hat off to the puppeteers as they have a true talent. The whole production was comical, exciting and held the girls attention throughout! We all had a fab time.

We would thoroughly recommend the show to anyone for a fun trip out to the theatre for all the family. You can find more into on the show at www.roomonthebroomlive.co.uk

Have a brilliant Monday 

Love

L & J

xx

Rain Rain go away!

Brrrrr how cold is it already? Im pretty sure last week the sun was shining and we were enjoying playing outside and now its raining and all chilly! Well i guess it really is hello there Autumn.

I have to be honest i dread the cold and rainy winters. Theres so much super fun stuff that goes on in winter don't get me wrong but just normal day to day life in the bad weather when your a stay at home mum is hard work! Everyone gets cabin fever and you don't realise till the sunshine comes back just how happier it makes everyones moods.

I've decided i'm going to try my hardest this Autumn/Winter not to let us all get fed up! So i am planning lots of fun activities for us all to do and if its raining and my kids want to go to the park, we will go to the park and we will get wet and we will jump in puddles and get covered in mud and we will make happy fun memories to treasure!

Its a rainy September day here and i have a very bored Sienna so first up on our Autumn activity list is Cloud Dough!

Its really easy to make and you probably already have the stuff in its just 8 cups of flour to 1 cup of baby oil!

I used one of the drawers from the Ikea toy storage to mix it in but you could use a baking tray too? Something with a nice flat area for them to be able to play with it would be ideal!

So i added my 8 cups of flour...

Then i added in 1 cup of baby oil

Then mix it all together. You might need to use your hands towards the end.

Ta Daaa! Cloud Dough, its a bit like crumble mix in texture but don't be tempted to eat it.

Now to see what Sienna thinks...

She loved it!! 

I gave her a few of her play dough toys to use with it and she's been happily playing with this for the past hour! Its so quick and easy and something a bit different then play dough for them to experience. The tub was perfect as the higher sides stopped her from getting it all over for the mums who aren't fond of mess! I will deffo be making this again and again!

Let us know if you try it!

Love 

L xx

Weekend Trip to Belfast

One of our lovely friends Kim lives in Belfast.  So lee and I decided it was time to go visit her and see what Belfast had to offer!

We flew Friday night and after a few hours in Duty Free a child free wine full dinner my flight was boarding and ready to go! Lee arrived a few hours after and after a cup of tea and some Santa worthy cookies we went to bed ready for a big day Saturday!

We took the train to Belfast (so we could have a cocktail lunch)- the country side and sea side view was just beautiful! Kim said she had never been to St Georges Market before so we decided to start there! WOW - what a little treasure trove of loveliness - food, cakes, art, gifts and treasures - a man singing live, a coffee shop - it was simply brilliant!!

We had a shop and then went for lunch - we went for a lovely cocktail lunch at The Apartment - the view of the Town Hall is lovely - and they have deck chairs outside and a huge tv! (i know they have these in London but its so much better on holiday haha)

After more shopping and realising once again we are too old for Topshop we decided to head home to glam up! We used He-Shi for an instant sparkly tan to our sun deprived legs and started on the Strawberry Daiquiri's at Kims friends house.  Well the girls in Belfast are soooooo friendly! They instantly made us feel welcome and they were all so lovely and bubbly! Our cabs arrived and after the mandatory mirror pose we headed out.

We went to a club called Ollies VIP'd up with our gold wrist bands! There was live music outside and inside was really cool too! Great music and no queuing for anything - not even the ladies toilets!!! We drank, we sang, we danced and we drank some more!

After the club we went for a real life midnight feast at Dragon Rendezvous - yummmmmm sweet and sour chicken at 1.30am is delicious!! I still can't get over how friendly everyone is! Like theyve known you forever! I wanted to bring Jim our cabby back to England with me haha!

Sunday (home day) - even the talk of a fry (fry up) didn't help our hangovers! We packed and decided we would head to The Titanic Museum for coffee.  It was simply breathtaking! Like there was an eery silence - the sheer size was amazing! Of course we had to go the Gift shop! we bought the girls a "heart of the ocean" necklace each and the boys a pop gun!  

It was finally airport time - Lee was at International and i was at City (we didn't know there were 2 airports haha) After another duty free shop and a slice of pizza i was on the plane and then back in Gatwick with 3 very happy faces greeting me at the airport!

I'm not sure what i expected Belfast to be like but my expectations were exceeded!!

It was super clean, great shops, market delights, but the biggest and best thing was just how lovely and friendly everyone was! It really does make a big difference!

Will we be going back to Belfast? You can bet ya bottom dollar!!!

Thank you Lagan and Gardner family for having us

J xxx

Elf on the Shelf

Ok so don't hate me but its 4 months today until Christmas day!! And in the Tsamplakos and Andrews houses we LOVE Christmas!!!! 

One of our ways to build excitement and good behaviour in our homes is "Elf on the Shelf"  Ours is called Elvis and Lee's is called Buddy. 

So our Elf's arrive on 1st December from Lapland - sent directly from the big man himself Father Christmas! Elvis flys off to Lapland every night once the children go to sleep to report on their behaviour and inform Father C of any naughtiness. Elvis then flys back to our house in the early hours of the morning and causes havoc in our house!! The children then have to find him the next morning! On Christmas Eve the children say goodbye to Elvis and hope they made the good list and Elvis goes home - to return the following year! 

Its all about mummy survival and childrens imaginations and the excitement on their faces! The simple words of "Elvis is watching you" makes Honey instantly rethink being naughty haha!!! 

So the world is your oyster when it comes to creating fun scenarios for your elf!!! 

Here are a few of mine from last year

We've seen that theres going to be a Birthday Elf which is released in October!!!! We can't wait for that!!! 

Do you have any fun traditions that you do with your children?

Have you already got Elf on the Shelf - share your best pics xxx

Happy 4 months to go 

Love J xxx