Gwen's 4th Birthday

Today Gwen turned 4. She'll be starting school soon, eeek!

Gwen is rather mad on Peppa Pig so her birthday was full of it. We bought a Peppa Pig cake and Peppa Pig presents.

Gwen's presents

Peppa Pig Cake

All snuggled in her Peppa Pig bedding

She loved today. We had Kellan wanting all of her toys as he adores Peppa Pig too but luckily we have quite a few Peppa toys so they could share without too many fights.

Celebration Morning

Today the primary school held their first celebration morning to celebrate the pupils who are doing well with their work and pupils who are kind to others.

Jorja was invited to the celebration morning for year 2 for social empathy. She's been noted by her teacher for being kind to others, always smiling and being helpful.

Each class had two pupils invited and each child was awarded a certificate and a book token.

The parents got to see their best work whilst tea/coffee and cakes were served.

The morning was lovely and I felt extremely proud of Jorja and hearing how lovely she is when at school by her teacher and head teacher.

Jorja with her certificate and book token

A piece of Jorja's work

Cerys' 12th Birthday

Cerys turned 12 today, quite hard to believe she's that old already!

Cerys and I went shopping yesterday for clothes as Cerys didn't want anything else for her birthday. We bought most of her clothes from Asda and a pair of jeans from H&M.

We also bought her birthday cake which had to be a chocolate cake. Normally I make the birthday cakes but she didn't want me to this year.

Here are some photo's from today.

Cerys blowing out her candles

Playing In The Park

On Monday, after a trip to our local Morrisons store, we made a last minute decision to stop off at a park we've not been to before. We had a little something to eat and drink whilst there and Gwen and Kellan got to have fun playing on everything.

There was an array of equipment to play on. The toddler area had a hut to sit in that bridged on to a small slide.

 Gwen on a rocking horse

Kellan on the small slide

Kellan eating a sandwich whilst exploring the toddler area

Gwen and Kellan enjoying lunch

Beyond the toddler's area there were swings, a larger slide, a musical area, rocking boat, roundabout with wheelchair access, a climbing area, see saw and a few other things to play on.

Having a go on the boat

Gwen climbing on to the toddler area

Kellan walking about

Gwen and Kellan loved the park so much that we had tears from both of them when leaving. Kellan loved the freedom of just walking about and exploring the play things and Gwen loved the toddler slide and and rocking horse. It's a park we'll have to go back to as our local parks aren't quite so toddler friendly.

An Update On Our Growing Veggies

So I thought it was time to do a little update on how everything we've planted is coming along.

The first things we planted have gone crazy and most were growing within days!

Cabbages

The cabbages, yes we don't know how these change or grow cabbages either but we can't wait to find out. They look strangely like cress and are very floppy.

Courgettes

The courgettes have done really well. All but one pot have grown and they've had no problems and will be needing to be planted outside soon.

Roma and Gardener's Delight Tomatoes

The Roma and Gardener's Delight tomatoes shot up quickly and have been growing almost like weeds since.

Our next batch of veggies to be planted

Pumpkin

This is our pumpkin pot and all the seeds seem to have grown and it's really gone crazy in the last few days as it was a little shoot at the beginning of the week. We'll have to keep these indoors for a little while longer to get them toughened up before going outside.

Tomato plant

This tomato plant was given to us free by our garden center and looked half dead and floppy but it's come to life since we've brought it home and looked after it.

Carrots

The carrots have slowly been growing it seems they aren't quite as eager as the tomatoes, courgettes and cabbages to get growing.

Peppers and herbs

The peppers and parsley have only just started sprouting. The Basil and Coriander went a little nuts and grew rather quickly.

We've also got a few more seeds in and planted a couple of things in the last week.

More seeds

We have marigolds to help ward off bugs, Runner Beans, cress and container seed disks for chilli's, tomatoes and strawberries.

Planting onions

We got the onions planted in window boxes and so far there are no signs of growth.

Planting runner beans

We planted two round tubs with runner beans so should have a lovely amount when ready for picking. Kellan  was watching us plant these so we thought we'd let him have a go only, as we thought, he went to eat the seed. We showed him where to put it though and he got there eventually so Kellan got to join in too.

Planting potatoes

We also planted the second lot of potatoes which Kellan found fascinating to watch. We've now run out of compost so we can't do much more for the garden until we get some more which we're hoping will be sometime this week.

There is no signs of life from the first potatoes we planted yet but they are quite a way down in the soil. We are still to plant the strawberries, container fruit seeds and cress for indoors but no doubt we'll get around to those soon.

I'm hoping the next update on our veggies will include planting tomatoes and courgettes outside and maybe some of the more recent things we've planted will be showing some signs of life too.

Bumgenius - Freetime Review

I tested the Bumgenius Freetime for the Mother and Baby awards. I already owned a Freetime and loved it so knew we'd get on well with it.

Kellan in a Clementine Freetime

As from previous entries you'll know Kellan is a heavy wetter and most pockets had a hard time coping with him. The Freetimes cope amazingly well, in fact I was surprised they coped as well as they did as other Bumgenius nappies have struggled with him. They even cope with runny breastfed baby poo.

The Freetime is available in aplix/velcro or popper fastenings which is great if you have a toddler who loves undoing velcro you can then just opt for poppers or velcro is great for getting a fab fit on a younger baby. The Freetime is a birth to potty nappy so grows with your baby. I have poppered versions and have gotten on great with them. It's easy to adjust the Freetime to fit your little one with the popper system on the front of the nappy. For a birth to potty nappy the Freetimes aren't too bulky which is great and we could even get jeans over these without any hassle which we get problems with most birth to potty nappies.

The Freetimes aren't like the usual pocket nappy. The inserts are sewn in but fold out to the back and to the front which is brilliant for drying. They are one of my fastest line drying nappies in our large stash. These inserts are also great for changing where you need more absorbancy as they have little sewn in creases you can fold under etc. The fold out inserts also means no fiddly stuffing in a small opening in a pocket and means  once dry these nappies are folded in no time at all, my 6 year old can even do these.

The Freetimes wash well we've found it's very hard to stain them and usually sun light can get out anything that happens to get left behind after washing. They keep their shape and the inserts haven't worn or greyed at all and we've been using these since last summer.

The Freetimes are available in plain colored pul's and two patterned puls

    

    

   

I tend to reach for our Freetimes first in our stash they are just great all rounders. I highly reccommend Freetimes we love ours and I wish we had more in our stash.

Kellan in an Albert Freetime

Bumgenius Freetimes