If your home is anything like mine, tidying up is always a battle. Anya is very good at getting everything out when she wants to play. If she’s playing dress up, she doesn’t get one outfit out but her entire dress up box contents get strewn all over the living room. Then she moves on to the next thing without putting away the dress up stuff of course. By the end of the day, every sofa, every table top and every bit of floor in my living room is covered with stuff. When it comes to putting all this stuff away, she’s suddenly too tired or too hungry or too something!
One of the things I try and stock up on for the longer school holidays is books for Anya. I mix it up with some new books as well as pull out old books that she hasn’t looked at for a while. This is exactly what I did before the long Easter/Spring break. I always try and include a few different types of books to keep her interested so I’ll maybe include a puzzle book, a story book and a joke book or a fact book.
One of the best parts of the changing of the seasons has got to be the new fashions that arrive. While the weather may not always do what it’s supposed to, at least we know that we will get new fashion to covet, each season. One of my favourite things to buy Anya each Spring/Summer season is a jumpsuit. They are so practical and easy to wear, allowing kids to move freely and do what they do. And with so many great jumpsuits for kids out there, it’s hard to resist. And not just for girls. There are some seriously cool jumpsuits for boys too – I’ve picked out some of the best below.
I’m not a fan of the vintage vibe for the whole home, but kids rooms with vintage touches can be so charming. The best part is that creating a vintage bedroom can be very inexpensive and you don’t need to update too often as vintage never goes out of style. Often, you can repurpose what you already have or else you can find fabulous bargains in junk shops and flea markets. Vintage kids rooms can be seriously stylish and very unique too as you’ll see from all the gorgeous vintage rooms below:
When I was pregnant a friend of my mum’s jokingly said to me ‘be prepared not to sleep for the next 18 years’! I laughed. Little did I know that her joke wasn’t quite as funny as I had thought. Seven years into parenting, I am still sleep deprived. Just because your kids aren’t babies waking up for night feeds, it doesn’t mean that the sleep depravation and tiredness ends, right? I mean when was the last time you had a lie-in? Or woke up feeling really refreshed?
While it may not be possible to change the number of hours of sleep you get, it is possible to get a better night’s sleep and that’s what really counts. It’s scientifically proven that better sleep is more important than more sleep. I’ve been doing a few things recently to help myself get a better nights sleep so that I wake up refreshed in the morning and these may help you too. I’ve tried to suggest things that you can do immediately and that have worked:
If you love a fun, fast-paced card game like us, you will love Rat-a-tat-cat. Anya was gifted this card game a little while ago and we are addicted! And the bonus is that this is a card game that helps with maths skills, especially addition.
Rat-a-tat-cat is a card game all about numbers and memory with the aim being to get the lowest total. Each of the cards has a number value and they are all either rats or cats on the cards. The rats are the dirty higher numbered cards you want to avoid and the cats are the cool lower value cards that you want to get. The player with the lowest total wins. It’s an easy game to get to grips with and has good mix of chance and skill so it’s not only the adults who can win. In fact we are so often beaten by Anya!
Each individual game lasts no more than a couple of minutes so the game is easy to squeeze in anytime and you never get a chance to get bored. But if you want a longer game which is always what we go for, you just keep totalling up scores to a set number like 100 or 150 and the first player to get this loses. The game is basically a pack of cards so really easy to take along with you on a trip away – great for plane or train journeys . It’s probably best for ages 6 years and up and is a fun way to sneak in a bit of maths too.
Rat-a-tat-cat is such a simple game, yet so addictive. And since its a card game that helps with maths skills in a really fun way, it just makes it even better for me. It’s won many awards but it’s not difficult to see why. My UK readers can find the game here and my US readers here.
Easter is almost here. What are your plans for the long weekend? We are planning a trip to the Natural History Museum, lots of down time, some delicious food and of course a few crafts. I love Easter crafts, especially Easter bunny crafts that can be so, so cute! So I’ve been collecting some ideas to try out over the weekend and in the holidays. I’ve rounded up 9 of my absolute favourite ones that include some edible ones too. Most of these Easter bunny crafts are easy to make and perfect to keep little people busy over the holidays:
I can’t remember doing many crafts as a kid but the one craft I remember doing each year was painting and decorating Easter eggs. After we made our eggs, no matter how hideous they were, my mother would treasure them and almost treat them like they were priceless faberge eggs. Only a mother could do that! I haven’t painted an egg in years so this year I remembered in time and decided to make these cute black and white Easter egg bunnies.
We’re not huge on repetitive games apps in this house – you know the kind where the only aim is to progress to level 2000! For me, I love an app that makes my life easier or more organised and for Anya I like creative or stimulating apps. Once in a while a new game comes along that does more than being just a repetitive game and that’s when it gets my attention.
Recently, I was so excited to discover this gem of a book. While Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a book we’re all very familiar with, it was finding this (fairly) rare edition that got me so excited. One look at this book and I knew it had to be added to our shelves.
Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...
