PRETTY YOUNG THING

With the summer holidays nearly here I thought i'd share a few days out that we have done recently or intend to do over the next few weeks. It can be overwhelming choosing things to do especially during the summer holidays as places can get really busy and you can end up spending loads of money trying to fill your weeks with things to do with the kids. As Amelia is only 1 we don't have to worry about the school holidays just yet but it's nice to have a few things planned whilst the weather is good! Most of these days out are affordable and within 2 hours of Solihull/ Birmingham. 
 Amelia absolutly loves feeding the ducks! We take her to Brueton/ Malvern Park in Solihull town centre. We head over to the Parkridge nature reserve where they sell duck/bird seed for 50p a bag and go along to feed the ducks. Sometimes we bring a picnic and make a day of it and sometimes we just go of an afternoon to kill some time.


St Nicholas Park in Warwick is one of my favourite things to do in the summer. It's a great day out! The parking is cheap, bring a picnic (there is a little cafe) Theres a sandpit, climbing frame/ park and the paddling pool, theres also some fairground rides. This is such a great cheap day out especially when the weather is good!


Strawberry picking, we did this right at the beginning of the season and we want to do it again. Another cheap day out! We went to Manor Fruits Farm over Tamworth way but theres a few dotted around. We liked Manor Fruits because they had a little cafe and kids bouncy castles too!

It's Amelia's first Christmas and although we won't be buying her any presents ( ok we might have bought her this cute penguin dressing gown but thats it! ) She is only 3 weeks old and she got alot of new clothes and gifts when she was born so she doesn't really need anything. Clint's mom has also gone crazy and bought her loads so she really doesn't need anything else. I thought it would be nice to put together a little gift guide of some products you could buy for your baby or maybe one of your friends has recently had a baby and you need some inspiration.

First up is this cuteeee penguin dressing gown from My 1st Years, as I mentioned above we've actually bought this for Amelia because I love penguins, it's on offer right now aswell. You can have it personalised so it would make a really lovely gift, if you don't fancy the penguin they also do standard personalised dressing gown or they also have some other festive designs.

I think a personalised bauble is a lovely gift idea, this gorgeous glass bauble is from Studio Seed via Notonthehighstreet.com. It's a nice keepsake that will get to go on the Christmas Tree year after year and then when their older they might even hang it on their own tree.

I have featured this mat from Mamashack before. I've actually bought one for Amelia already and we love it. We've had so many compliments on it and they have lots of other patterns. They also sell lots of other personalised products so make sure you head on over and have a look.

I always love buying clothes for little ones, River Island have lots of gorgeous clothes to choose from. How cute is this dress, I love the print and think the design is really nice. I think i'm going to get this for Amelia for when shes a little bit bigger. This hat is also from River Island, all of Amelia's hats are still too big for her little head. I love the pink pom pom and eyelash design, it's so cute.

These Childs Farm gift sets would make a lovely gift for a new baby, they contain lots of goodies perfect for a newborn. It's a good way to try some new products. Childs Farm has been developed especially for baby's delicate skin, even sensitive and eczema prone skin.

I have bought Amelia some books, I picked up some off the works website, they have an offer where you can get 10 books for £10 so I think they would be lovely gifts for Christmas. This personalised book is from Letterfest via Notonthehighstreet.com again this is a lovely gift and would make a keepsake.











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3. Go to the seaside! The nearest seaside town to Birmingham is Weston Super Mare, we love driving there in the summer to get away and chill on the sand. We bring a blanket, get some fish and chips and relax for the day. When we were younger my parents always drove us to Weston and Blackpool during half term or on a Bank Holiday and we would play in the arcade and build sandcastles and at Blackpool we would go to the little theme park and go on the rides.

4. Go to a new park, bring the bikes along and check out somewhere new. Try a new park, leave the phones at home and spend a bit of time outdoors.

5. Go to London for the day! We love visiting different cities, and it's so easy to just jump on the train. You can get some good deals if you buy an advance ticket and you usually get 2 for 1 on main attractions so check this out before you travel. We always get 2 for 1 for the main attractions in London. Check out websites like Topdogdays.com for lots of vouchers for attractions and apps like Vouchercloud or Vouchercodes for deals on food and restaurants.

6. My little cousins love to bake! This is such a cheap and easy thing to do. No matter what the weather and if you have no money you can make Cornflake cakes or brownies or cupcakes that they can decorate. The possibilities are endless and just search online for affordable recipes if you don't want to spend loads.

 These are a few of my favourite things to do when we have time off and I loved doing things like this during Half Term. What are your favourite things to do when the kids are off school.







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I went along to the Smiggle event at the Bullring yesterday. Smiggle is an Australian based stationary brand. I've never heard of Smiggle before but the store opened last week in Solihull so I have had a little look as I walk past to work. It's a really bright store and it's full with amazing colours! The product range is amazing, they stock everything from pens, pencil cases, gadgets, notebooks, diarys, literally everything. They do different things in different designs and colours. The store are always developing products and they have such a fast turnaround so they always have new products and designs coming out. My favourite products were the milkshake pencil cases ( picture below), the keyrings and the Advent Calender . The Advent Calender is such a good buy! Its £20 or 2 for £30 which is great if you have more than one child, inside is 25 stationary gifts! It's so much fun and so different. I think it would be great for teachers to have in their classrooms, you could let one child open a window and get a present throughout the month or buy if for your child /friends children.

The event was great, we got introduced to Smiggle and the chance to have a look around the new store. The staff were all really friendly and knew loads about the products and the brand.
The products are amazing, I love how much effort has gone into each product and how unique everything is. They have lots of unisex colour / styles which is great so there really is something for everyone! They have so many pens and gorgeous notebooks, ( i'm a stationary freak btw) which I think would be great for all ages! THEY HAVE SMELLY GEL PENS honestly I felt 12 again! I used to love using smelly gel pens in my school books because they smelled so good when you would open it! They have snake puzzles, basketball games and more gifts and gadgets that would be great for all age groups!

I had a great time at the event and love the brand, I know my teacher friends will love it! And my little cousins will love the goodies we were given at the event. I am putting together a Christmas Gift Guide and think there's so many amazing things at Smiggle that you could buy kids as gifts for christmas or birthdays! so I'll be sure to include those.