Me, Him and Them

A couple of weeks before the Summer holidays I sit and make a rough list of all the things I want to do with my kids(when I'm not shouting at them to stop arguing or to tidy up their mess). The list is always a list of the things that I think the kids will want to do and that will make for a great holiday. The reality is that my extravagant plans for days out or THAT ultimate craft project aren't at all what the kids want to do. This year we made a Summer Bucket List of things the kids did actually want to do and there were some really simple and cheap activities on there. A simple park visit always goes down well Things like a movie night or picnic in the local park weren't the things I would have come up with but it just goes to show that our over thinking is so unnecessary to keep our children happy. I always thought that my Summer holidays as a child were the most boring of all my friends and vowed that when I had kids they would have the most amazing holi

#silentsunday

I remember the funny looks I used to get on the weekends and school holidays when I would spend a vast amount of time at my grandparents caravan in Surrey. I'd overhear the odd comment but mainly it was just the stares. On our European holidays it was pretty much the same. I wasn't stupid, I knew what they were looking at - 'a black person camping?' 'A black person on the beach in Cyprus?' You see back then, there were VERY  few 'people of colour' that went camping and to be perfectly honest just as few that went on European holidays and although I am in fact mixed race I was always just viewed as black. Growing up not much changed, I always seemed to find myself in places where I pretty much stood out. Then I had children of my own and I just wanted them to have as many amazing experiences as I had growing up. We used to frequent places like Godstone Farm, caravan holidays, Margate, The Lake District, Stonehenge and the White Horses and alth

When you first discover that you're pregnant all these idealistic images start running through your mind of how you will dress your baby, the fun and educational games you'll play and the way all of the baby's belongings will seamlessly match your decor then BAM  your dreams and baby become a toddler and your home is filled with the most mismatched, useless crap you can imagine. If you're not quite sure where you are on the timeline yet or are in fact just in denial that you ARE living the toddler dream here are my 10 signs that you are living with a toddler. 1.      You've acquired a new abstract art collection 2.      You find toys in the most random of places 3.      Broken toys become sacred and if you dare throw them away the curse of a tantrum will be put upon you 4.      You WILL be force fed all kinds of plastic foods and you WILL (pretend) eat them 5.      Peppa Pig and her family have become honorary me

Every Sunday, across all of my social media I will post a photo with the hashtag 'Silent Sunday'. It may be of the kids, the house, somewhere we've been, something we've done or something else but this photo will either represent something that I've really enjoyed that week, a happy moment, sum up our week or my thoughts or feelings.  Feel free to join me in #silentsunday Don't forget to tag me so I can see your Silent Sunday pics. You can find me on Instagram HERE and Twitter HERE Emma xoxo

If you are anything like me, when you have completed your last school run of this (school) year( yaaaaassssss ), you'll reflect over just poorly organised you were over the last couple of months and swear that come September you will be in control and on top of everything. If that sounds remotely familiar then you, my friend need to read on! 1. I will set my alarm 20 minutes early(and not hit snooze 6 times) and get out of bed when it goes off to ensure I am up and ready to the face the day with a bright and breezy attitude. 2. I will check school bags every evening for letters/notes/permission slips for non-uniform days, school trips, cake sales and so on to avoid the embarrassment of my kids being the ones in uniform on a charity jumper day or not having completed the 'special' homework for assembly 3. Every Sunday, I will make sure that all of the uniform is washed, dried and ironed for the entire following week to avoid those 'sniff it and see' days or the

Every year as the Summer holidays approach I panic. I panic because with four kids(by week 2 they are usually referred to as monsters or animals) to entertain over six weeks I know the empty bank balance, barren cupboards and headache is on its way.  Just before New Years Day, we make a bucket list(we don't do resolutions) of all of the things we'd like to achieve throughout the year and just before Christmas we make a list of all the activities we'd like to do, days out and events we'd like to attend. It kind of keeps us on track to some extent and helps with the ever increasing cost of it all but we've never really sat down and made a Summer bucket list.....until this year that is! We usually have a rough idea of the things we want to do and when we'll be away but its more a 'all in my head not on paper anywhere don't question me I'm the Mumma' type of list. We sat as family(minus my big girl who is apparently to

As a family of six you can probably imagine that we go through quite a lot of drink in our house and surprisingly enough, despite 2 of the kids being teenagers about 80% of that drink is water. I would buy around twenty four 500ml bottles during my main weekly shop and then get another pack later on in the week. Back in March we attended the Ideal Home Show in London and one of the first stands we came across was Virgin. As Virgin Media customers I headed over hoping I could get a better deal or discount on my current plan but instead they were giving everybody free water samples. We spoke to one of the sales team and she explained that Virgin Pure was another part of the ever growing Virgin company that offered filtered water machines. I'm usually quite skeptical but even I had to admit that the water sample did taste, for lack of better words, cleaner and purer. The WaterBars give you unlimited, triple filtered and UV filtered chilled water, they dispens

Exclusive soft play hire, trampoline park, princess parties, pamper parties, hiring a cinema screen. These were just some of the results that came up when I searched '3 year old party ideas' Our youngest turns three at the end of the month and has already been telling me all about this party that she's having but when you drill down into the basics of it what do we have parties for?? To spend time with loved ones on a special day, to mark the occasion? It seems that all of that has been long forgotten when planning children's parties.  I know very few of us want the mess in our own homes or to be solely responsible for entertaining hoards of children but are we losing the plot? Everything has become bigger and better with parents trying to outdo each other to host the fanciest, most memorable party. Long gone are the days of jelly and ice cream, musical statues and paper chains and the sad reality is that unfortunately the children don't rememb

For years my days consisted of swimming lessons, martial arts clubs, mum and baby groups, ballet, football and more activities than I care to remember. At the time, in my mind I was doing all of this to give my kids a head start in life, opening their minds to opportunities they otherwise might not have, keeping them away from the evil that was TV childcare and just being a good mum. I never took time out for myself, wouldn't spend any money on me because that was money I could spend on the kids and had VERY little time left for anyone else which affected relationships with those closest to me. What I failed to realise(or tried to hide in all honesty) was that I was always tired, miserable, snappy and just generally not a very happy mummy. I kept telling myself that all mums did this and that it was perfectly normal but the truth is, it wasn't and isn't. There is no job in the world that is harder than that of being a parent and as a mum of 4 I know that all

With the Summer holidays practically on our doorstep now is the time that parents up and down the country are frantically trying to plan how to spend those Six. Long. Weeks.  Despite my best intentions and those oh so pretty Instagram accounts that make the holidays look like memory making bliss, it never goes like that in my house. There'll be swearing(from me), bickering(between the kids), a constant food shortage(again, the kids) and just general hell on Earth. Day trips are one of my fave ways to try and avoid all of the above and as Merlin Annual Pass holders we try to make the most of the free and cheap days out. Our 2 year olds park of choice at the moment is Legoland and whilst I can't convince the older 2 that a day surrounded by toddlers and Lego bricks is a fun day out, the 9 year old is young enough to still think its cool to spend the day with mummy. It can be, actually lets face it, it is at its busiest and manic during the summer holidays but as

Being a mum to four and having conversations with people that don’t know the family particularly well can be rather confusing. The usually go something along the lines of “Big girl just finished her exams and Little boy has just moved up a stage in swimming. Big boy has won a BMX competition and Little girl has just convinced me to buy her another set of wings” Confused yet? Even I am! At home I will just yell out a name in the hope that a child will come because to be perfectly honest I usually call them by the wrong names anyway. With all that said I thought I would make it slightly less confusing for you and invite you to Meet the Monsters. Mikhayla - Big Girl Mikhayla is my first born, she’s clever, audacious, beautiful but is also opinionated, stubborn and loud. She’s not backward in coming forward and has given me many a grey hairs over the years. Nonetheless she is a tenacious madam who makes me proud despite our differences and has big dreams and aspirations fo