Duddleswell Tearooms - review

During the Easter holidays we had some lovely play dates planned, one of which was a walk at Duddleswell on the Ashdown Forest followed by cake at Duddleswell Tearooms.  I can highly recommend both!

Monkey Business in Lewes - soft play review

I'd only been to Monkey Madness once before, soft plays can get pretty expensive when you have two kids to pay for plus an adult entry, then inevitable snacks, drinks, etc as you can't bring your own in.  Luckily, when a friend suggested it on a recent blustery day, they had a deal on so it was only £9 for me and the twins to get in.  The last time we went they were only one so it was a very different experience now they're four and can properly climb and go off and have fun on their own in the giant climbing frames!  Plus it was a term-time Tuesday so it wasn't too busy and there were no big kids charging around to be fearful of.

We stayed there all morning and for a while after lunch too.  Kalyan has been asking to go back to "hotplay" ever since so we'll have to check when their next deal is on.

Advent Adventures

Last year I made a half hearted attempt at a homemade advent calendar of activities and treats but never got past day 6!  I found a beautiful branch, wrapped it with fairy lights and hung a few snowflakes and notes off it so this year I've converted that to just have lots of snowflakes hanging in the window.



This year I bought a cute little house advent to decorate from Hobbycraft.  I had great fun painting the little numbers and snowflakes in (you guessed it) rainbow colours!  I got all the bits from Hobbycraft and used my acrylic paints for nice bright colours.  I also put a little Grimm's rainbow on the chimney.

All things RAINBOW!

I started writing a new blog post about all my new rainbow clothes and then remembered this one which I started months ago (apparently before my office moved in from the garage!)  I'll carry on writing my new post with all of my own rainbow clothes but for now, here are some of the kids clothes I bought before their birthday.

If you follow my blog there's no way you will have missed my shift from loving everything green to everything rainbow!  I mean, I still love olive green but I love the whole light spectrum together more nowadays!  I wish I could somehow work rainbows into my grown up bedroom - maybe one day - for now I'm settling with rainbow bits in my "office" (desk in garage) and the twins rooms of course!

However, I am finding it's getting easier to get rainbow into our wardrobes, it seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment!  Here are a few of my latest rainbow finds for the twins' wardrobe (K's is still harder, Little Bird stuff is always a winner), I'll share some of mine and my office bits soon too.

https://www.next.co.uk/style/st249928#592495

Rainbow birthday pinata fun!

We had one more surprise at the end of the party, the pinata.  I had to buy the rainbow pinata by Sunnylife (one of my favourite brands for rainbow stuff) from Paperchase (another favourite shop for bright colours and rainbows)!  I hung it from our banister on landing above the stairs so it could swing and still be secure and not damage anything.

Twins rainbow afternoon tea birthday party

I organised a rainbow afternoon tea party for the twins' 4th birthday and loved it so much! 

I was especially proud of my rainbow jelly!  I managed to find all the colours except blue in Tesco and ordered Jello from amazon to complete the stripes.  I filled some wine glasses and my Tiki Head glass with the extra layers which added more decoration and colour to the table setting.

Bing Live - review

We were invited along to see Bing Live in Eastbourne this evening and we had a wonderful time!  I was prepared with extra snacks for the twins this time after our first theatre outing to see The Snark and it worked for the most part.  Priya was pretty good but Kalyan was a bit restless as usual, I was glad to have my friend Alisha with me to help control things.  Regardless, we all loved the show, joining in with the dancing, cheering and clapping.  It started at 4, we had an interval at half past and it was finished around 5:15pm which was ideal and we went straight around the corner for dinner afterwards.

I was allowed to take photos of the show this time so these are all my own photos of the evening.

PYO Pumpkins at Tulley's Farm, Sussex - review

I've been thrilled that more and more Halloween trends have been making their way across the pond in the last few years!  I love that Americans go all out at Halloween, I've always loved it (and been super jealous of the Halloween section in Pottery Barn) and with the new (as far as I'm aware, or maybe its just a recent Insta-trend) pumpkin patches popping up everywhere, there is even more seasonal fun to be had over here.

This is the first time we've actually made it to one and it was after a full day of Halloweening!  We went along to review Tulley's Farm Spook Fest (the family friendly daytime version of their super scary Halloween Festival) and had to stop at their pumpkin patch on our way home to grab some gourds.

Luckily as it was the end of a sunny day, we were lucky with the light too and I, of course, took a fair few photos of our fun and frolics as the twins and their friend had a whale of a time!

Halloween Party Food Ideas

The food for the twins' party last year was so fun!  I got loads of ideas from Pinterest and some were easier than others!  The banana ghosts were the easiest, just chop them in half, draw some spooky faces on and stand them up on a plate.  Job done.  Same with the hard boiled eggs - boil them, draw on faces and they're ready to serve. 

The witches broomsticks were tricky - Nik made these out of cheese strings (NOT my first choice of cheese but this was style over substance clearly), shredded to make the broom ends and straight pretzels inserted in, tied with a chive.  The pretzels were hard to find, good old M&S came up trumps there and the cheese kept splitting where he pushed them in but he did such a great job!  I made the witches fingers out of cocktail sausages with flaked almonds stuck on with tomato chutney to make bloody fingernails.  The vomiting watermelon was easy, just chop off the top, scoop out the melon and turn it upside down, carve a mouth and place the watermelon bits and other fruits coming out of the mouth on a big plate.

I've already written about the epic saga of the cakes - they looked pretty awesome though and took me ages so I'm sharing them again!

The overall Banquet of the Dead looked fab on the spooky tablecloths over two long tables with my big black candelabra and Halloween bunting and various skulls and Halloween crockery to set it all off.

Nik's Mum made the eyeballs for us, simply Babybel cheeses with black sliced olives for the centre and red food colouring painted on for the bloodshot effect.

I had cheese balls in a big bowl with a scary ladle, Twiglets in a skull goblet and I cut pumpkin shapes out of raw carrot which was really easy too, just cut the shape out of one side before you slice them.  I ran out of time to carve the big pumpkins though!

Oh and we also had a "poison" bar for the kids and grown ups.  Coloured orange juice for kids and green dyed gin or blue vodka for the adults!  The red one is some Christmas liqueur I made long ago!

I just love coming up with spooky ideas for Halloween!  Tell me if you have any great ideas to share, I'd love to see photos if you try any of these too!

Cuckfield Recreation Ground (& paddling pool) - review

We made an awesome discovery this summer, Cuckfield Rec Ground has a lovely park with a big paddling pool!  It wasn't too busy either despite being the holidays so was a good hidden find about half an hour drive away from Uckfield, we had a little trouble finding the way in but if you manage to get there it's worth taking a picnic to spend the whole day.

Wilderness Woods - review

We've been to Wilderness Wood plenty of times but I thought I'd write a little update about our latest visit as we had so much fun and there was a new cake too which I'm hoping will make a regular appearance as it's my favourite ever (I don't even have a photo of it, it was wolfed down too quickly)!  The cookies went down well with the kids though - they were as big as their heads!

Knockhatch Adventure Park review

We've been to Knockhatch before but it was ages ago and only in the winter, when the twins were smaller they got in free and I get 25% off with my NHS discount (bonus!) so the indoor soft play was perfect for a rainy day.  This time we went with a new friend (whom Priya is obsessed with) and discovered everything else the park has to offer.  I don't have photos of everything as I wasn't there to review it but of course, being me have quite a few snaps anyway so thought I'd share my thoughts here as we had a great day out!

Willow & Wild Box Subscription - review

We recently received a subscription box from Willow & Wild Box to review.  The boxes were founded by local Mum Roz with the idea to share her passion for teaching her kids about planting and growing seeds.  Read more about the concept here, it's about making it easy for parents to enjoy spending this time with their kids which I love and appreciate as a busy working Mum with two of them keeping me on my toes!  They're for kids aged 3-8 and inspired by nature, designed to get the kids interested in cooking, crafts, outdoor adventures and conservation, learning and having fun.

Holidaying with twins in Antalya, Turkey

For our recent holiday to Turkey we had a few specifications, the main one being a kids club which would take children from age three.  (It turns out most of them are form age four but it is possible to find them for three year olds, although it's not always easy to find out this information!)  We also wanted a bit of luxury, we needed it after the hard work - Nik's exam study and my PND flare up and a few months of extra hard work plus it had been almost 2 years since our last holiday so we decided to spend a decent amount on a really great trip.

Woodlands Festival 2018 - our favourite bits

Oh my gosh, the twins did not want to leave Woodlands Festival, Kalyan actually started crying when we said it was time to go home.  They had an absolute blast!  It was such a lovely event with so much going on without being overwhelming.  The beauty of a smaller festival in a lovely venue with fab bands and fun activities.

Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux

On the early May bank holiday Monday we met up with some new friends at Herstmonceux for the "Bubbletastic Weekend" event at the Observatory Science Centre.

Drusillas Park, East Sussex - review

We chose the perfect day to go to review Drusillas last week. It was sunny with just a slight breeze, hot but not sweltering and I can wholeheartedly recommend the park, we had an amazing day out!

Off The Wall Entertainment - Christmas disco review

We were thrilled when Gemma from Off The Wall Entertainment invited the twins to come along to her Christmas disco on Christmas Eve eve!

The Hunting of the Snark with Eastbourne Theatres

We were invited along to Devonshire Park Theatre last week for the twins' first ever theatre trip to see The Hunting of the Snark, based on Lewis Carroll's poem.  The theatre was easy to get to and we managed to park right outside on the street (it's free after 6 but we were there in time for the show at 5pm so it was £2).

Eastbourne Theatre's Hunting of the Snark!

This time next week we'll be taking the twins for their first ever theatre trip at Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne to see The Hunting of the Snark!  Based on the poem by Lewis Carroll, it looks like so much fun, we can't wait!