Frozen Green Smoothie Recipe with Breville Blend Active Personal Blender & Accessory Pack #Ad

Anyone that follows our everyday madness over on Instagram will know how proud I am of H & B for being scouted for the Chelsea Advanced Development Squad. For every inch they were thrilled their ball-kicking dreams were coming true and pride that spilled from my every pore – dread finally set in at our new, life destroying, petrol consuming schedule. With football related travelling, training and matches taking up 15.5 hours (minimum) a week, some days it leaves the boys with little more than 3 waking hours in which to eat, get dressed, relax and argue with each other – which used to take up a lot more time!

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Casper’s Christmas Covered

We’ve got the basket, the metal “bin”, the Swedish superstore, storage mega-plex and the floor – all covered/over-spilling/spewing Casper’s toys. The kid rivals Santa on the amount of toys he has, courtesy of carboot sales/hand me downs and doting grandparents, and yet he still only plays with the same ones again and again. With every new toy purchase, there’s the element of risk – sure, it looks rather alluring to the small, eager eyes of a toddler when it’s sheathed in shiny plastic, under the fluorescent shop lights – money is duly handed over in the hope that the latest amusement fodder will keep Cas busy long enough to sort the lights from the darks; but generally, the poor lump of plastic gets discarded with the dust bunnies and odd socks under the sofa after a mere 5 minutes of attention

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The Only Car Seat You’ll Need

As my third and our collective fifth, it would be an understatement to say Cas has been the King of Hand-me-downs; if ever there was a kingdom of second-hand garms, spider ravaged garden toys and over-bounced jumperoos – Casper would reign supreme. So, when it came to his car seat, it was no different – out came the biscuit encrusted throne from the shed, complete with the musty smell of a bygone childhood. Not only was the hand-me-down ethos we’d adopted for our latest bundle of joy friendly on the pennies, but I convinced myself it was saving my sanity – after all, who wants or needs to learn how to install yet another car seat?

Then, the kindly folk over at GB (Good Baby) seemed to take pity on little Cas and offered to send over one of their rather trendy Vaya i-Size car seats form their swanky Platinum Collection. If ever there was an excuse to finally clean out the family car (aka The Dump Truck) a brand new, gorgeous cars seat is it! We opted for the lux-black, with a Saville Row inspired pin-stripe – if it was just down to how it looked, it gets top marks from me!

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Go-Go Gadgets | Alba Collection at Argos #Ad

I think it’s a bit late for me to wave from my moral stead regarding my kids with gadgets – after all, I was on national TV openly admitting that I let my kids watch pads/TV/their phones when they’re eating dinner (sometimes!). But just ‘cos I let the herberts get their daily dose of Peppa/The F2 while chowing down on their grub, doesn’t mean I’ve gone completely bonkers when it comes to free roaming of the internet on extortionately priced gadgets.

That’s why, when the gang from Argos got in touch about their affordable, easy to use, child-friendly gadgets from their Alba range, exclusively at Argos – my electronics ears pricked and I was intrigued. But, I’m not sure if you’ve met a kid these days, they tend to rate high on the fussy-factor and scale-shattering on the knowing-what-they-want-ometer! They’re also pretty keen to conform – what their friends or big brothers have, they want/need too! So, while the Alba range tickled my gizmo fancy, I was a bit worried I’d be met with the impenetrable, toddler/tween brick wall of “NO!”.

I think it’s a bit late for me to wave from my moral stead regarding my kids with gadgets – after all, I was on national TV openly admitting that I let my kids watch pads/TV/their phones when they’re eating dinner (sometimes!). But just ‘cos I let the herberts get their daily dose of Peppa/The F2 while chowing down on their grub, doesn’t mean I’ve gone completely bonkers when it comes to free roaming of the internet on extortionately priced gadgets.

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A Little Photo Book Magic from Ella’s Books

What I’m about to tell you is a true story – and while parts of this tome may ring true with families across the world, there’s a happy ending and a solution to this universal problem. Intrigued? Read on!

It was back in August when I received a delightful (that’s not a word I use lightly in 2017, so trust me when I use it!) email from Ella of Ella’s Books. Sat on Brighton beach, in the summer sun, watching the boys throwing stones out to sea (not at each other for change, which made this moment particularly blissful!), I read Ella’s invitation to have one of her bespoke photo books made using our family photos. Now, let me tell you – as a family blogger with a shed load a kids, I get a lot of offers for photo books, none of which have tickled my pickle in the slightest – they’re glossy, mass printed, badly bound tripe (sorry, I feel strongly about this, can you tell?); but from the moment I clicked through to Ella’s Books site I could see and feel the difference. The attention to detail, the care she pours into every book and the personal touches – really make a huge difference. So, I said “yes” within a matter of minutes.

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