Enjoying the warm weather

Hasn't the weather this week been beautiful! Really warm and sunny - I really hope this means that summer is here!

I seem to spend quite a lot of my time indoors during the day, so I've been trying to make the effort this week to get out and about a bit. On Monday I went for a long walk. I'm trying to find the quickest way to walk to the sea directly from our house without having to go through the private estates that are all along the coast (I'm never really sure whether you are allowed to walk through them if you aren't visiting someone as I feel as though I look a bit suspicious, especially if I'm on my phone playing Pokemon Go). I found a route which came out on a lovely bit of beach that was peaceful and a nice place to stop for a few minutes.

I'm taking part in a midnight walk next month to raise money for the local hospice, so it was good practice! I'll be walking 7 miles, I don't think that the distance will be too challenging but the fact that I'll have to stay up until midnight before I can start might be! (I'm doing the walk as part of a team and I've not got started with asking for sponsors yet but I'll leave my link here in case anyone is interested in sponsoring me - Jennifer Jain on Just Giving).

I also went for a long walk along Littlehampton sea front with a friend, with a stop to sit outdoors and enjoy a drink and some cake. Unfortunately I wasn't as prepared for the sun with sun cream as I am when we are on holiday, and I now have a tan line which I'll be stuck with for the rest of t-shirt weather!

I've taken advantage of the nice weather to get the cars washed. I only wash the cars in the summer, and usually only once or twice a year, but each time I do it I promise myself that I'll increase the frequency. Let's see how long that resolution lasts! While I was out the front I noticed that the garage door and side door could do with a clean as well, so that's a task for the weekend if the warm weather holds.

Now that Harry can finally ride a bike we've bought him a decent bike that is the right size for him. Ram bought himself a new bike too so they can go out on bike rides together. I'm still debating whether or not I need a bike myself. I can't see any useful reason to have one as we live too far from school to cycle there and back and I can drive or walk to the shops. It would purely be for fun and keeping fit, and it's a lot of money to spend if I don't end up using it much. Cycle carriers, or at least ones that hold four bikes, are also quite pricy if we wanted to venture for cycle rides further afield.

I've made a start planting the vegetable patch although the weeds are growing faster than the vegetables at the moment so I need to sort that out. Likewise my beautifully jet washed paving slabs are starting to look a bit weedy so they need tidying up a bit too.

I'm really looking forward to the children being off next week and being able to spend some family time together - let's hope the lovely weather lasts!

How to save money when booking a holiday

We are lucky enough to travel a lot as a family, and one of the reasons that we are able to afford it is because my husband is very good at finding the best deals and ways of saving money when we come to book. So I thought that I'd share some tips for making your money go as far as it possibly can when you are booking a trip.

If you have pre-school children then the most obvious way to save money is to travel out of season. Before having children we always travelled at quiet times and never went away during the summer, then with small children we always avoided school holiday times. You can find some very reasonably priced package holidays at quieter times of the year, often in places like the Canary Islands where the weather is still very warm even during winter. We had a couple of lovely holidays to Lanzarote out of season, and UK breaks can also be very cheap outside peak times.

We are a bit more limited now the children are older as we have to work around school holidays, but there are some types of holiday where the prices don't increase too much, for example city breaks away from the beaches can remain consistently priced throughout the year.

Even better if you can travel somewhere that has school holidays at a different time to the UK. For example, Center Parcs in the UK is well known for increasing the cost of breaks massively during school holidays. But if you look at the cost of a visit to a Center Parcs on the continent, even once you've added in the extra cost of travel to get there, you can still make huge savings if you check your dates carefully. We've visited Center Parcs in Belgium a few times over the last few years, most recently Center Parcs De Vossemeren, and have enjoyed a very reasonably priced break during the school holiday, the half term holidays are best for this.

You need to keep a close eye on the special offers from various travel agencies. Many will have promotions if you book a long time in advance, for example kids stay for free. If you are booking a cruise, by booking early you can often receive free parking at the terminal or some on board credit. However there is also something to be said for waiting until the last minute, I'm not always a very spontaneous person, but if you are signed up to mailing lists from holiday companies there are quite often some excellent deals that come through if you have a bit of flexibility!

It's always worth having an account with a cashback site for all sorts of purchases. We've been using Quidco for several years and have made a fair amount of money. For example, when booking with Expedia you can receive 12% cashback, as well as many other deals with hotel chains like Travelodge and airport parking.

If you are a regular supermarket shopper you can collect reward points, like the Tesco Clubcard scheme. We've always used Tesco Clubcard points to pay for travelling on the Eurotunnel which is a significant saving on the cost of the holiday, and they are also brilliant for days out from home or while you are away.

Do you have any more money saving holiday ideas? I'd love to hear them!

The last big party?

Next week Mia turns six and she's very excited about her soft play party. It will be our fourth party at this particular soft play venue (our first one was Harry's fifth birthday!), because once you've found something that works why change it! It's a good sized soft play which you can hire exclusively so you don't need to worry about it being too busy, it's supervised, and there's only one exit, so you can keep an eye out for escaping children. We know exactly what we are doing now and it's not too much work.

I'm pretty sure that this will be our last big party. Hopefully from now on we can get away with something a bit smaller, or at least something that can be hosted at home like Harry's Minecraft party. This week I've been working on the party bags. In the past we've quite often ended up with a few extra children as people bring siblings along. This time I've specifically invited siblings so I'm pretty sure on my numbers, but I always make up a few extra party bags just in case anyone unexpected turns up. 

I remember how excited I was to be making up party bags for the first time - below are the ones we used for Harry's first big party! I must admit that the novelty hasn't worn off, I love making up the party bags, choosing what to put inside, and actually putting the bits into the bags.

There will be the traditional balloon and cake inside, as well as some sweets and a little chocolate bar. Then a few other bits and pieces - some bendy pencils, a little notebook and so on. I was particularly pleased with one thing that I bought - some little soft emoji keyrings which are quite sweet. I don't have many spares though so I'll have to use them all - I'm just hoping that no-one will be offended by finding a poo emoji keyring in the bag - hopefully they will just find it funny!

I'm also using up leftovers from previous parties, which I hope doesn't break any rules of etiquette. The contents of the bags are pretty much identical, but there will be a few bags with slightly different bits as I didn't want to over order. In particular the actual party bags themselves are the leftovers from four different themes - I'm hoping that no-one will notice or care! I've never done separate bags for boys and girls although I do have both pirate and princess bags, perhaps I'll have to let them choose which bag they want from the pile!

I'll be quite sad as it feels like the end of an era, but I won't miss big parties!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

At the weekend  Ram and I took Harry up to London for the day, and we took him to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It was a bit of a mission to get the tickets, so we were very lucky that my brother-in-law was able to buy some extra tickets quite a while ago, and we could tag along!

This post doesn't really contain any spoilers, but please don't keep reading if you don't want to know anything about the show!

We didn't realise when we booked the tickets that the performance we saw was the last one by the original cast. I don't know if the audience is normally so enthusiastic, but there was a brilliant atmosphere in the building! The play is performed in two parts so it's a long show, although we had a break between the two with enough time to grab some dinner.

As you leave the theatre after the first part you are encouraged to take a badge with the hashtag #keepthesecrets, and promise not to spoil the show for other people. Although I had read the script, back when I didn't know that I'd be able to get tickets, there were still plenty of surprises, and I think that people really have made an effort not to give away too many details.

So I don't want to say anything about the play that might be a spoiler, but I can say that it was amazing and we absolutely loved it!  It's a very intense show, loud and fast paced, and as you'd expect from a Harry Potter story it deals with some dark themes. There are some fantastic magical effects and I'm sure that it would benefit from another watch - I'm sure that I missed things!

The play is billed as suitable for children aged 10 and up, so I was a bit unsure as to what Harry would make of it. Originally just Ram and I were going to go, but since booking the tickets Harry had seen all the films and read all the books, including the script for the play, and he really wanted to come along. When another ticket in our group became available we decided that all three of us would go, and Harry's cousin, who is also 8, was watching too. I was surprised however not to see any other children in the audience, perhaps because it was quite a late finish for a school night.

Fortunately Harry really enjoyed it, and although he did find some parts of the show a little bit scary (it's a bit different to reading about something sinister happening and then it actually taking place in front of you!) he was really glad that he had come along.

Now I'm just desperate to watch it again!

The cable box

We are very lucky. We have a good sized house, and we have plenty of storage. One of my reservations when buying this house was that the more room you have, the more you find to fill it, and I admit that there are several things in our house that wouldn't be there if space was more limited. However I like to think that I personally am very good at decluttering and passing on the things that we no longer need, and I take on this responsibility for myself and the children.

Unfortunately Ram doesn't share my interest in decluttering. Although he's not really the sentimental type, and he doesn't have the boxes of old diaries or photographs that I like to keep, he isn't good at passing on things that we no longer need, in case they are useful one day. One prime example is the cable box, or more correctly now, boxes.

I'm guessing that one of these probably resides in most houses up and down the country, and I hate it. I don't like the fact that the cables are all tangled, it makes me uneasy in a Feng Shui sort of sense, as though it means that the energy in our home is jumbled up. I don't like that I don't know what most of the cables are for. I don't like it because owing to my lack of knowledge I worry that we might get rid of a cable and then find that we need it and can't replace it. I don't like it because many of the cables relate to outdated tech that we've since upgraded, and it feels like such a waste.

I'm currently going through many different types of item around the house and having a sort out - the so-called komono from the Marie Kondo method. I can't sort the cable box myself because it isn't mine (all the cables that I need for my own personal electronic devices, like my Kindle and Fitbit, are neatly labelled and stored in sensible places for when I need them). So I've hauled the boxes down from the top of the wardrobe and left them prominently in the bedroom for Ram to go through.

It's been there a week and I'm not sure he's really noticed it yet.

Do you have a cable box? I'm sure I'm not alone!

Arundel Castle, West Sussex

At the weekend we were invited to visit Arundel Castle in West Sussex. The castle is just down the road from us and we often drive past, so we were very interested to have a look around inside! We visited on a Sunday and managed to find free parking a short walk away. Arundel can get busy on a nice day but there is quite a lot of street parking and several pay and display car parks in the town, including one right opposite the entrance. It took us around 3 - 4 hours to visit the castle.

It was such a lovely sunny day that we decided to begin our visit with the gardens. From the main entrance you first come to the Fitzalen Chapel and White Garden. The chapel was founded in 1390 and is the burial place of the Dukes of Norfolk. Then we walked through the gardens with their beautiful fountains, including the crown fountain where a crown is suspended in the air above a jet of water, fascinating to watch it bobbing up and down. There are also some lovely glasshouses which you can walk through and peek inside.

Next we entered the castle, and started our tour with the Castle Keep. This is the oldest part of the castle and dates from 1068. You reach it by a short walk across the battlements, then once inside you can climb up and walk around the edge to enjoy some spectacular views across the downland and to the sea. 

Inside the keep you can see the entrance down to the dungeon, and the surrounding rooms have lots of information about the history of the castle, brought to life with models.

We went on to tour the Main Castle Rooms and the Castle Bedrooms. I couldn't take any photographs inside, but the rooms were stunning. I was really interested to see the bedrooms, it's fun to imagine what it would be like to stay for a few nights in the castle! There are some really interesting things to see, like enormous fireplaces, beautiful pieces of furniture and storage, and lots of weaponry. 

We finished our visit with a slow walk back to the entrance through the gardens, admiring the lovely flowers and stopping for a quick climb in a clump of twisty trees. We had a really lovely visit, and I'd definitely recommend it!

I also made a short video of our day at the castle which you can see below, enjoy!

If you have a little more time in Arundel it's a lovely town to walk around. You can take a short walk up past the castle to Swanbourne Lake which is very pretty and a nice place to feed the ducks or hire a little boat. Just a bit further along is the Black Rabbit pub, where I've enjoyed several good meals.

We received a complimentary Gold Plus family ticket in exchange for a review. The Gold Plus ticket allows you access to all areas of the castle, and there are three other ticket options. You can find more information and prices on the Arundel Castle website.

Hama bead flower wreath

This simple wreath is made using the mini flower Hama bead pegboard and a selection of Hama beads. The flowers are made using the board and then joined together to make a pretty wreath.

You need:

Six green lollipop sticks
Green craft foam
Flower cut outs and artificial flowers
Mini flower Hama bead pegboard
Hama beads in bright colours
Bostik Fine and Wide Glu Stick
(Optional - ribbon or cord for hanging)

Instructions:

Use the Bostik Fine and Wide Glu Stick to glue six lollipop sticks together in a circle, and leave to dry thoroughly. Cut leaf shapes from the green craft foam and use the Glu Stick to glue them around edge of the wreath. Then cover the wreath with artifical flower petals so that you can no longer see the lollipop sticks underneath.

Use the Hama bead flower pegboard to make a selection of Hama bead flowers in different colours. I found that 11 flowers covered the wreath perfectly. As they are cooling after being ironed keep them flat - I found it best to let them cool between two heat proof mats. Then glue to the wreath using the Glu Stick. Make sure that you use plenty of glue, and leave to dry.

When the wreath is dry, tie some ribbon through the top for hanging.

Here you can see a full video tutorial for the wreath:

You can find lots more crafts to celebrate Spring here!

The box of craft materials was provided to me free of charge by Bostik as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers Club.