My WIld Ones // Day out in Knaresborough

So I don't know about where you live but in Leeds half term was a bit of a wash out. Not ideal when you have a very active toddler who needs to run off steam every day.

Most of the week was spent in soft play hell or child friendly cafes - if such a paradox exists.

So when the blue sky appeared we decided to go for a day out to cute little town of Knaresborough.

As you can see The Toddler was very keen to have a good run around.

He did so well walking all around the cobbled streets, up really steep hills and then when we were five minutes from the car he said, "daddy carry!"

We sought refuge in Subway for a while to feed The Baby and warm up as it was freezing.

We also looked in a few charity shops as The Belgian is into finsding good vinyls for the vinyl player I got him for his 30th birthday.

The grounds around the castle were so pretty. The flowers gave us some hope for spring.

We all enjoyed admiring the views and The Toddler got really excited watching the trains pass over the bridge. He is very into 'choo choos' right now.

And as this cheeky smile on his face shows he enjoyed the clear blue skies and the chance to run around and explore. 

We had been planning to do the Sculpture Trail but it was really cold and all of our hands were like ice and The Toddlers nose was red with cold. The Baby was snuggled up warmly in her carry cot and snuggled in several blankets so she slept soundly the whole day out.

Where do you enjoy going on a family day out?

Project Life 2016 // Week One

I am determined to keep up with my Project Life this year as I think its always better to create when all of the stories and memories are fresh in your mind. In December I treated myself to a printer and this has really helped with making the process quicker as I can send them all by wifi from my phone or laptop and create a spread within an hour.

First half of the week features a cute SLR pic of them in the bath - I added the text in picmonkey - then a picture of the Belgian and The Toddler at our local park and then two SLR pictures of them in their Sunday best. I am trying to take more pictures with my big camera as even though my skills are limited the prints are always clearer and better than when I use my ipone 4s.
 

The second half of the week has a picture of The Toddler dressing up at soft, journalling about our week and how we fed the ducks ice-cream cones but The Toddler was eating them everytime I turned my back, then a black and white picture of The Baby and one of her in her moses basket sleeping as I loved her little waving hand. 
 

Each week I am making a collage in the Becky Higgin's Project Life app with a photo of The Baby and an update of what she is doing that week. This week she had her first bath and has been very snuggly. I then save the collage on my phone and print it straight away for my album. 

Supplies used: I have been trying to clear out a lot of things around the house and through doing this I have rediscovered some older stash. I mainly used a Dear Lizzie 6 by 6 pad and cut out the captions from the cut apart page and then used the same pink thickers for the titles of both sides to bring together the colour scheme. I also inked the edges - an older technique that I haven't used in years. Thanks Glitter Girl for inspiring me to use older stash and older supplies. 

The Siblings Project // Hanging Out

Since having a new baby I have struggling through the night feeds only to get a rude awakening at the crack of dawn from The Toddler so I have appreciated a slow start to the day.
This often involves snuggling in bed feeding the baby whilst the toddler watches some cartoons or plays games on the tablet.

Most of the time he is not too concerned about her but he does look for her in the mornings and sometimes he holds her hand when he's watching cartoons which is sweet.

Also he gets protective when other kids show an interest in her. At a mummy group a little girl kept fussing over her and trying to put her dummy in and he came over and said, "no! My sitter!" So hopefully he will play the protective older brother and look out for her in the playground and scare away any potential boyfriends.

Me and Mine // January

So we failed to get a family shot of all four of us and so this is the closest we came.

Some memories from January:-

• lots of play dates at 'Nancy's house' and hanging out with my mummy friends
• lots of mornings spent tearing around Wacky Warehouse (making the most of our monthly pass) whilst mummy snuggled with The Baby
• family walks at Swintsy Resovoir and Yeadon Tarn
• The Toddler's obsession with 'Bickey Mouse' and play dough and Thomas and Friends stop motion videos on youtube
• The Belgian had a busy month at school with lots of cover lessons, his own lessons and two offers for teaching placements in September. Proud of how well he did in his interviews. He also had his first experience of Ofsted and our school got a 'good' rating overall which we were all really pleased about.
• The Baby is growing up so quickly. She is very alert, loves standing up and looking all around and near the end of the month started giving gorgeous smiles.
• I arranged a mummies on maternity leave meet up with my work colleagues and was impressed to get six mummies plus toddlers and babies to attend. We had fun catching up and didn't talk about work once - which was a relief!
• The Toddler dropped his nap (sob) but now has an earlier bedtime of seven and this works quite well 
• The Toddler started the month pushing lots of boundaries so has had a sticker reward chart to reinforce positive behaviour like eating his dinner, brushing his teeth and staying in his cot at bedtime. His rewards have been kinder eggs and Thomas surprise bags.

Bring it on February!

The Ordinary Moments // Baby's bath time!

Due to a a mixture of the business of Christmas, the logistics of bathing a baby and a toddler at the same time, being a bit overwhelmed with two tiny tots in the house and feeling too exhausted we only bathed The Baby for the first time at five weeks.

I remember when The Toddler was a baby we googled 'how to bath a baby' as we were anxious about doing it right and not hurting the poor little thing. He had a few tears, but she took to it like a duck to water (scuse the pun!) No tears - even when The Toddler accidentally dropped her under the water!

I love this top picture as it showcases how calm and watchful she is with her gorgeous big eyes.

We find its often easier for one of us to hop into the bath with them and I adore this bottom photograph of baby and daddy. Its so precious and I know these years of shared baths, shared tears and smiles will be over before we know it and so its a reminder for me to not wish away the years.

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Linking up with lovely Katie over at Mummy Daddy Me who will soon 

have her own newborn to bath.