The little things in life...: games

Thrifty Lollies #2 Lazy Rhuby Rubys

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

My last lolly post was a success with lots of you saying you were going to give it a shot, you won't have gone wrong it was easy peasy!!

At the moment I'm all about using everything that we buy and being careful not to throw food away, we can't afford to and it's such a waste. But something we often do, for example bananas go over ripe and I wont eat them and can't stand the smell!! Yuk! So in the bin they would go.. Not anymore.

We had Jamie Oliver's "Save with Jamie" book and it's great!! If nothing else it teaches you how to use everything up. So we now freeze ripe bananas in freezer bags ready for a milkshake or smoothie!! Anyway back to lollies....

So these are lazy, really lazy. But just show what you can do for hardly any money at all and no time!

This week I fancied something refreshing rather than creamy and after a scavenge of the fridge saw that we had raspberries that needed using so firstly I threw 5/6 into each holder. I then popped in a mint leave, more for appearance really but it adds a tiny tang of freshness too.

This is where it gets bone idle.. Using a pre mixed soft drink fill up the cups. In this case it was Aldi's Rhubarb and apple sparkling fruit crush drink - super cheap and you won't need much. As long as the drink is red and goes with raspberry you will be fine, cranberry juice may go well. Then you are done, in the freezer they go!!

Ta-daaaaaa!

I mentioned something more exotic like Pimms last week- I promise next up will be!!

Lots of love,

Hayley xxx

2 months update, what we have been up to...

Monday, 23 June 2014

Can you believe Daisy is 2 months old already?? I can't!

She's still a tiddler and very much my tiny girl! She got weighed a week ago and was 8lb 8oz , moving in the right direction and even jumped up a line in her little red record book so she's no longer on the very bottom line. I'm sure you've noticed in her photos how much fuller she is, people often comment on her chubby cheeks and double chin! I'm sure she's thinking "look at your own fatso"! Cheeky girl.

I've now packed away all the tiny baby clothes and she's comfortably in her newborn wardrobe! I have dressed her in a few 0-3 month frocks though as they're too cute not to. I want to make the most of them even if she's some growing to do to fill them!! How cute is that little Matalan dress from one of her aunties?

Sleeping is still going well at night and I'm enjoying the routine we put in place, it gives us quiet time before bed and I do love her bath time! In the day she often has full days awake, I do wonder how she does it!!! I struggle must days!

These past two days she has a nasty cold :( it really upset me to see her so poorly and droopy looking. Thank god for our ear thermometer (Braun) as I've become slightly obsessive over ensuring she's cool enough. Also thankfully she's old enough for Calpol infant suspension now so yesterday when it peaked it helped and also gave her a bit of respite from nasty cold symptoms.

She's spent lots of time with family including her cousin Mollie who is just 7 months old, a lovely gap! Daisy talks to her and Mols is certainly intrigued with Daisy, although her mum thinks she may think she is a dolly!!

She smiles beautifully and really interacts with you now. Her latest trick is to imitate things such as sticking her tongue out, it's her favourite game to play with her daddy! She is cooing and gurgling now and really focusing on your face and voice.

She now has the ability to grab things such as toys, muslins and my hair!!!! I'm on the hunt for suitable toys for her they she can hold while she's tiny and are safe to go near her mouth as that's where they end up near by!

We've done our first messy play session when we made Bens Father's Day pressie. It was ummmm interesting and uhh messy!

Hopefully this cold will clear up as Ben is off work this week and it would be nice to get out and about together, perhaps to one of the National Trust places on our to go to list or just some nice walks with Bob the dog in the sunshine. I've ordered a baby wrap, shame I didn't order it earlier for this week as I'm sure it would be useful.

Any tips for a cold in such a little baby??

She is planned to have her jabs tomorrow, will they do them if she's unwell??

Lots of love,

Hayley xxx

Cake, Ladies and Bumps... Baby Shower

Friday, 28 March 2014

This week has been so busy with various work and personal commitments and so this is a little late but here is a post on my baby shower as requested by some of you kind readers. It was a lovely afternoon with all of my favourite ladies basically eating cake, playing silly games and chattering! And as you will see opening LOTS of pressies!

It was arranged by one of my best friends along with the help of my sisters at my local pub, it was really relaxed and just really nice to spend some time with the girls before I become a mummy for the first time.

The girls had arranged some games including the following:

Baby Bingo - Basically we all had cards with various baby themed words such as Nappy, Dummy, Mummy etc and the caller shouted out the words and we had to cross them out as we went! As simple as that!
How big is your bump? - A ball of string and a pair of scissors were passed around everyone and they pretty much just guessed how big my belly was at the time! Well... this was interesting. Some of the girls obviously see me being far fatter than I am! Charming! There were 2 girls who got it pretty much exact - no one under - estimated though!!!! Looking back at photos I think I am actually a little bigger than I think I am at times!
Mr & Mrs Quiz - They had asked Ben some questions before the shower such as my worst habit, the name of my first car, what 3 items I would rescue in a fire etc and then the questions were asked to us all - including me! Who ever got the most answers right won. You would think I would know ALL of the answers - but nope i was useless! Or maybe it was my husband giving useless answers :)

I felt so spoilt and over whelmed with how kind everyone was to us, including the cakes that had been made and all of the presents - our little lady isn't even here yet!

I know there can be a bit of a negative feeling around baby showers at times where they can sometimes be seen as an excuse for presents and that its a very American event. I would hate for any of my guests to have thought this though and really just wanted to see everyone. We were really spoiled with presents though, and I did find it over whelming, I am still looking through them and finding them homes, my friends and family really are the most loving and generous I have ever known.