Easter Basket Ideas

 

 
Easter is only around the corner and I thought I would share some of the goodies I have picked up in the last couple of weeks for Lilly's Easter basket. I did a Little Christmas basket for Lilly after seeing Kerry from Oh so Amelia's blog and I thought it was a good idea and wanted to do it for every holiday possible!

I don't want to fill it with sweets or chocolate but other little things I could find. Here are some of the goodies I have picked up. I'm still waiting for a few other little bits and the actual Easter basket which I want a white wicker basket and have seen one on ebay which I will do another post on the completed basket once its finished.

I went to hobby craft a couple of weeks ago and picked up the fill able eggs. I don't plan on filling these they are just for Lilly to play with as for some reason she is obsessed with eggs and colourful things. I also picked up some pink straw and this cute little pink bunny basket. We will be away for the Easter weekend and where we are going have a Easter egg hunt so I thought this would be cute for her to use to collect some eggs.

From a shop called the range I picked up this adorable 'palm pet' chic which chirps when held in your hand. Lilly loves birds and I thought this would be a cute little toy. One of my dogs also loves this too much and when I was trying to take pictures of it chirping away he was going crazy!! I also picked up a 6 pack of mini chicks for decoration and some 3d stickers.

From asda I bought this bunny mouth and teeth lolly and also a cute little Easter colouring book from Tesco. I did also get some white and pink bunny ears which I forgot to photograph but I will add in it the Easter basket post.

Are you doing a basket or box this easter?

What's On My Iphone - Toddler App's

 

 
 
 
Hi everyone! I wanted to share some of the apps on my iPhone Lilly is currently loving. I'm always looking for new apps for her and really like reading these. Now I know that there is mixed opinions on toddlers/children playing with technology and there are a lot of mums who are against it. I'm not against letting Lilly play on my phone or tab, granted I don't let her constantly play on them and her time is limited however in certain situations toddler apps have really come in handy and saved me from a mummy melt down!

Most of the apps on my phone or tab are educational apps. Lilly is a very independent girl, she hates being sat still and is constantly wanting to run around. This makes it very hard to go out for meals or even on long car journeys. I let Lilly play on my phone if we are out and she starts to get bored and a little restless or if we are on long car journeys.

My favourite apps are the fisher price apps. They are all educational and Lilly loves the puppy. The app Puppy play is basically all the fisher price apps in one and you can make little play lists. Another of Lilly's Favourite is elmo calls, I think this was 69p and its like face time but to elmo and they can see themselves in the bottom corner, Lilly loves to call elmo and knows how to answer the phone to him when he calls.

Itot is basically flash cards. I love flash cards, I have used them for a long time with Lilly and they really helped her learn words, her animals, letters shapes etc so when I found a app on my phone for it I was really pleased. Itot is the app I would recommend to everyone. Its a free app and has animals, food and things. It comes up like a flash card with the word at the top and then a picture and when you tap it says the word.

If your have a child that loves Micky mouse club house you need to download Appisodes. Its basically a episode of Micky mouse clubhouse but they have to do little tasks throughout.

 

Lilly's top 10 Apps

Puppy play

Elmo calls

Itot cards

Appisodes

Elmo monster maker

Animal sounds

Color drops

Farm Sounds

Rhymes

Counting 123

 

All of these apps can be found on the app store and I'm pretty sure most of them are free.

 

 

If you have a post on your childs favourite apps please link it below as Im always looking for new ones.

 

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My First Graze Box

 
 


I received my first Graze box in the post yesterday and was excited to see what was inside. I have known about Graze for a long time and have always wanted to order one but I wasn't sure if it was going to be just pure nuts but after seeing others graze box's and seeing all the yummy goodies I had to try one for myself.

The box itself is a snacking box filled with four healthy goodies. The idea is that you can have them delivered to work or home and will replace those naughty snacks and stop you hitting the vending machine or reaching for that chocolate.

When you order your box, there's a list of the foods graze provides and you can say which ones you would like to try, which you don't and things you would like them to send soon. This is a really good idea as somethings I would hate to receive and others I really wanted to try.

My first box was really good, and im hoping its not one of those one box wonders to kind of suck you in but only time will tell.

This week I received, healthy popping corn, tutti fruiti, honeycomb flapjacks and smoky gazpacho dip. The pop corn tasted so nice, just like normal sweet popcorn and was the first time I have ever had to 'pop' corn in the microwave. I ate the pop corn straight away. Today me and Lilly had a flapjack each which we both loved, they were so tasty and the little bit of chocolate on top makes the difference. I really wanted the flapjacks as everyone raves about them. I also tried the Gazpacho dip, and oh my it was so good!! I hadn't ever heard of it before but I hope I get this again.

To order a graze box you can do so here and if you use my friend code APRILN4KP you can get your first box free!

Have you tried graze yet? What do you think?

D.I.Y - Gift Ideas

 

 

 

 

Happy mothers day!! I hope all you lovely mummy's had a lovely day! I know this is a little late for a mothers day gift idea but I couldn't share it until I gave it to my mum and mother in law as I know they sometimes read my blog and I wanted to make it a little surprise.

 

I love thoughtful gifts that have been handmade. I saw on a blog at Christmas that someone made all their family cookies and put them in different jars and decorated them all pretty and festive and I thought It was such a lovely idea and knew I wanted to use the idea.

 

These were a little gift to 'nanny' from Lilly, Lilly loves to bake cookies with me, she helps me mix and roll out the dough then she will use the cookies cutters to cut out the shapes. We bought 101 cookie cutters in a set from amazon ages ago and it comes with all different festive cutters, letters & numbers. We spelt nanny and made some heart shape ones too.

Lilly's favourite part is to help decorate them I make up the icing and she will get a spoon and 'sploge' it on (usually next to) then I put a bowl with all the decorations and she will pick them up individually and 'sprink spink' as she says.

The actually jar itself I picked up in the range for 79p. We wrapped the cookies in tissue paper and put them in the jar and then cut around the edges. The lid of the jar was gold with writing on so I just wrapped it in tissue paper and glued it to the lid (didn't do a good job but hey ho!) I made the label using scrap paper with a butterfly as Lilly is obsessed with them at the moment and thought it was a sweet touch.

This cost me less than £5 to make and I think it was a really nice little gift and we will definitely be making more for other occasions.

Polar FT4 // Review

 
 
Hello guys! I have really been into trying to live a healthier lifestyle lately and wanting to exercise and loose some weight just to feel happier in myself. I have been wanting a polar watch for a long time. My Instagram feed is full of photos of peoples workouts and showing how much calories they burned.

The nearest gym to me is miles away and with Lilly its easier for me to work out at home and outdoors. I do a lot of workout dvds and youtube videos. I also go for a lot of walks with Lilly and the dogs and we also have a mini gym set up at home with a cross trainer etc which does have a little calorie thing on it but it doesn't work properly and I don't feel it gives a correct track. Knowing how many calories I have burned some how pushes me to work harder, I have a number of calories I want to burn and If I don't reach it I work harder and the polar FT4 is perfect to show me how many calories I have burned.

Polar has various watches which do similar things. I decided to buy the FT4 mainly because it is the cheapest and does everything I want it to do. The Polar FT4 retails at 69.99 here which admittedly I thought was maybe a little expensive for a calorie tracker/heart rate monitor but im glad that I bought it. The polar FT4 comes in a little black box and is available is various colours. It comes with a heart rate monitor and strap which is slightly elasticated the you clip around just under your bra line and attach the monitor. Under the strap does have to be slightly damped to work properly and doesn't feel uncomfortable but when I have a sports bra on its a little awkward.

When you first set up the watch it is set to your personal stats to get a correct reading of calories. The screen Is simple and clear and just looks like a normal watch with date and time. When the side buttons are pressed it bring up the menu where you can start your tracking and also scroll through the previous readings. It tells you the duration you worked out for, your heart rate, calories burned and how long you were in zone for. The inzone feature is what your heart rate should be between when working out. If your drop below or go above it bleeps at you to tell you.

This watch has really helped me when working out, and if your do a lot of home workouts and would like to know how many calories you are burning I would highly recommend this watch.

Lilly's OOTD - #1

 
 

 

 

I wanted to share with you Lilly's First 'OOTD' I love reading them on other mums blogs and wanted to add it to Lilly and me :)

 

Let me tell you, trying to get a picture of Lilly keeping still is a massive task! When I asked her to stand still she thought it was a funny game and ran away as quickly as she could haha!!

Matalan is somewhere I have never really thought to buy toddler clothes from but I saw another blog post on some really cute pieces and thought I would have a look. They do have some really nice things, especially their baby section! I picked up a few dresses for Lilly including this black and white little number! I paired it with black tights from next and these cute little ballet pumps with a glitter heart detail on the front. Then as always Lilly either has a clip or headband on from my shop what's in Lilly's closet.

 

Today Lilly is wearing:

Dress & tshirt // Matalan (2 piece set)

Tights // Next

Ballet pumps // Matalan

Headband // What's in Lilly's Closet

Lighter Banana Bread

Hi everyone! I have been wanting to bake some banana bread for a while now for Lilly to try. Lilly hates bananas, not because she doesn't like the taste but she hates the look and feel of them so wont touch them anymore and I wanted to find a way that I could 'hide' the banana so she will eat them (I do this with a lot of fruit and veg) and what better way than a 'light banana bread'

I recently purchased 'Lighter way to bake' by. Im obsessed with cooking and baking healthy meals recently and im trying to make all of our family meals healthy and made from scratch by me. I am guilty of eating processed foods when I cant be bothered to cook or we get in late but recently I have been food prepping to help and avoid hitting the freezer for unhealthy processed foods. This also goes for our 'treats' I have been baking all of our treats and making lighter versions of them for me, Lilly and Mike.

Lighter way to bake is perfect for yummy recipes which aren't as guilty or added ingredients which are good for us. I found this banana bread recipe and decided to bake some today.

Ingredients:

25g rolled oats

4 just overripe bananas

200g self raising flour

50ml maple syrup

25g unsalted butter, melted

50ml olive oil

pinch of salt

 

Pre heat oven to 180oc and line a loaf tin with baking parchment (I used a silicone bread case which is stick free)

 Step 1: Scatter about 1/3 of the oats in the bottom of the loaf tin. Cut 1 of the bananas into 1/2cm thick rounds and lay them over the oats evenly.

Step 2: Peel and roughly mash the remainly bananas in a large bowl. Add the flour, maple syrup, butter, olive oil, salt and remaining oats mix everything together until well mixed to a soft dropping consistency.

Step 3: Carefully pour the mixture into the loaf tin on top of the bananas. Spread evenly and bake for 45mins.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool before lifting out then leave to cool some more ( I made the mistake of cutting it to soon and it crumbled)

The loaf can be served warm or cold and stays at it best for 1-2 days in a airtight container.

This went down a storm with Lilly, she loved it!