Make it mum's day

Some little ideas for little budgets this Mother's Day

Tea time
This is what we did last year... we brought mum and high tea to our house. Complete with triangular sandwiches and our best cake stand, it was really fun do get out the good china and convert our lounge into a fine establishment. Mum appreciated the effort too, if I do this again I'm going to get Squiggle doing a bit of waitressing!

I Owe You Vouchers! 
I think this is a great idea for the children of the house.
I've seen them in shops but I think it's lovely to make your
own and add more personal vouchers that you know mum
would love, Dads are you listening?
I know I'd love a few lie-in vouchers!

Video message
My mum is all high tech and loving it after getting an iPad2 for Christmas (she is much cooler than me). I'm going to try and get my little one to record a video message and hopefully a song and email it. That way she'll have a nice surprise waiting in her inbox on Mother's Day.




Alternative hamper
Instead of flowers I'm thinking of making a cream tea hamper, full of home baked scones, some nice jam, strawberries, clotted cream and a little bottle of champagne.



Anyone else got any good ideas? I want to learn how to make cake pops! x

Rainy day cakes

Sunday rain day meant it was time to make our own fun. Squiggle had been given the Annabel Karmel 'Children's First Cookbook' for her last birthday so we tried it out. For the first time for baking time I decided to bring her little low table downstairs to the kitchen for her and it made such a difference. She could reach everything, measuring, pouring and stirring, it was great fun. The book is lovely and the fairy cake recipe was so simple. It's really nice how the ingredients are laid out as pictures so she was able to look at the book and tell me which ingredients I needed to get out of the cupboard. I can't wait to give some of the other recipes a go together.

We made our fairy cakes into butterfly cakes... just because we love lemon curd!

Small science

A day out at the Science Museum


This weekend we took a day trip to London and headed to the Science Museum. You might not think it would be suitable for a 2 year old but honestly I would really recommend it. First of all we wondered round the space section and looked at the planes and trains until we came to the pattern pod. It is a small area aimed at younger children and is packed full of hands-on fun things to do. Squiggle enjoyed making a pattern on a computer screen and seeing it projected on the wall, trying to catch projected fish on a piece of paper and practising walking like different animals. She also now knows all about a new shape, spirals! She really loved it, it's nice to visit a museum that's so up to date and focused on getting the children involved. 

From there we headed straight down a level to the basement where you can buy food or eat your own packed lunch. After lunch we went into the bubble show (also in the basement) which they were running every hour and was fab!


The 'bubble king' was very entertaining and managed to keep a room full of toddlers sitting on their bottoms which is always impressive! That was enough for us as we decided best not to overload her but I'm sure there's plenty more to explore. 


We chose instead to head to St James's Park to get some sun and try and spot some pelicans. A fantastic day out, and once you get to London all full of free activities!

Win a love2read personalised reading book for your child!

A wonderful gift idea for your special Mummy! 

Last Father's Day I had in my head that I would love to make Daddy a book all about him and Squiggle, that they could share together but I had no idea where to start or how I would get it made and it came to nothing. So I was really excited to learn about love2read  – a wonderful website that helps you create a unique personalised books. They very kindly gave me chance to create my own book to review, I can't wait to see the results. 

I found the site really easy and fun to use. After you choose a book from the range ( I selected 'My Nana'), you then personalise it by adding your own photos using the easy upload tool and choosing some matching words e.g. some of the captions we have gone for are “My nana takes me to the swings”, “My nana loves to sing” and “My nana makes me smile”. It's going to make a wonderful and personal gift for my little girl to give my mum who does so much for us. 


As much as my mum will love the keepsake I know Squiggle will love reading her own story with nana. She loves seeing pictures of herself and I think it's great for her to be able to recall things she has done. This will be a lasting memory for her and Nana to share and keep! 

It's so simple. All you have to do is upload ten suitable photographs of Mum or Granny into a virtual book at www.love2read.co.uk and add some simple text. Your book will be printed and sent to your home address within 10 days. Titles include: My mummy…, Our mum… and My granny… 

The books are themed around National Curriculum keywords and are designed to stimulate the child’s interest in books so that they really want to read. No software is needed, the website is easy to use and you can even save your book as you go along if you need to come back to it later.

Now the really exciting part! 


love2read have very kindly offered one of my readers the chance to create their own personalised My mum…love2read book in a fabulous competition.

So here is your chance to give a Mother's Day gift the whole family will treasure forever - and help your child catch the reading bug at the same time. 


Entries are via the very clever Rafflecopter below and each step equals and extra entry, best of luck!
UK only.

The competition closes on Wednesday 7th March, so be quick! This is to give you a chance to get your order in time for Mother's Day, last orders are on the 13th. 

For further information and to see the range of books on offer please visit their website at:  www.love2read.co.uk

a Rafflecopter giveaway