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To carry on sharing books during Story telling week, I thought I would share some books that our 7 year old boy is loving to have read to him at the moment. Noah is a really confident reader and reads chapter books daily, but when it comes to bedtime and reading to him we like the shorter stories which we can finish in one sitting. 
These are four books we're enjoying reading to him at night time. 
Superworm - Another Julia Donaldson book we love, a really great story about a helpful Superworm who is captured by an evil crow who puts a spell on him to hunt for treasure. His friends conjure up a plan to rescue their friend and bring him home.
The Dinosaur That Pooped The Bed - Tom Fletcher has made the most hilarious series of books, we have three out of four and love them all equally but this one was the first one we brought and it's a firm favourite at nighttime. It's all about a little boy who doesn't want to tidy his room and gets his dinosaur to eat it all up, as you can imagine it ends up in a smelly, poo filled mess. 
The wondrous world of Noah - This beautiful personalised story is all about how a little boy goes on a quest to find the out what makes him special, during his journey he makes new friendships and discovers an enchanting would of magic.
The Trouble with Dragons - This great story is about how dragons are ruining their world, leaving a great mess. They come to realise the way they're treating the world will soon make it unrecognisable. They seek help and learn how to keep the planet a happy place full of wildlife.

*some of these links contain affiliates 

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One of the most important part of our bedtime routine is that we read the children a story. They both love it and its such an incredible bonding experience for us. Having a 7 year old boy and a 2 year old girl we tend to have two different books to read each night, even though they pick their own books they will both sit and listen to both of the stories.
I've listed below 4 of Eva's favourites we have at the moment, we read the first one every single night with out fail.
I Love You Dino-Mummy (Dino Family) - This is such a sweet story about how amazing the dino mummy is. Jay brought this for me a couple of years ago for Mother's Day and now it's Eva's favourite. 
The Singing Mermaid - This is by one of our favourite authors Julia Donaldson, its just one of the many books of her's we have. This is a story about a mermaid who is taken to sing in the circus and her friends help her escape and return to the sea.
Belle & Boo and the Birthday Surprise - Since having Eva I discovered a love for Belle and Boo and particularly their beautiful books. This one is about Belle planning a surprise picnic for Boo and all about how wonderful a birthday is.
The Tale of a Naughty Little Rabbit (Peter Rabbit) - Beatrix Potter will always be one of my favourite authors and I love collecting her stories for my little ones to enjoy. This book is great because its in a larger form and a shorter story so we can read the whole story before bed.

These are just a couple of books that we have, and I'd love to grow Eva's collection as Noah already has such a huge library. If anyone has any great books for us to add I would appreciate any suggestions. 
*This post contains affiliates 


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Finding something to do with your littles ones to keep them entertained is a job in its self, we don't like to plan big days out when Noah's at school so we like to find small (inexpensive) things to do. One of our favourite ideas is to visit our local pet store and aquatic centre. Eva loves looking at all of the small animals in the pet shop and then popping in next door to look at the huge amount of aquatic life they have. 
It doesn't cost us a thing and we can spend about half an hour walking around and talking about what we can see. I find she tends to count the small animals and then she'll talk about all of the colours she can see in the fish tanks. You can buy a small pot of fish food for £1 and feed it to the outside pond fish, Eva loves to do this and watch the Koi all jump to the surface for it. 
So next time you're stuck for an idea and need to get out with you little ones head over to your local pet store or aquatic centre and enjoy.

I'm also always after ideas to keep my little fairy busy whilst her big brother is at school, so if you have any I would love to hear.



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Our household has been well and truly hit by the football bug. Whatever the weather he's in the garden kicking a ball around, he reads Match of the day religiously, he can have a serious conversation with an adult about the recent transfers and he can pronounce footballers names I couldn't attempt. He's so incredibly passionate about it and its so lovely to see him develop on the pitch and be genuinely happy when he's playing. 
We've entered his first year of league matches so now we have training late on a Friday night and matches kick off at 9:30am every Saturday!! Which means I've officially become a football mum...goodbye lazy Saturday mornings, hello freezing cold and wet sidelines. 

I've put together a list of my favourite parts of being a football mum.

1. Asking them to get dressed as were going out for the day and be greeted by a child in full kit...including shin pads.
2.Having shares in Vanish because not only do they slide on the pitch for fun, the male(!!!) coach decided white shorts were the best option.
3. Getting drenched and frozen week in, week out. I didn't like being warm anyway.
4. There's no point cleaning the car out before the weekend because no matter how careful you are getting them back in you WILL find mud everywhere. 
5. Screaming on the sideline and thinking your advice is better than the coaches will make you look stupid. Does this mean you'll stop absolutely not. 
6. The new ability to hold your wee like you've never held it before. If you're lucky enough to play on a pitch that has toilets the chances are you wont want to use them.
7. Any conversation with your football mad child will only be about football, which team will win, match results who's better out of...
8. Football will magically appear on any TV in the house and it wont only be important games, any game will do. 
9. Even with strict rules of no football in the house, it will happen and things will get broken. Hide your valuables.
10. Match of the day will need to be purchased every Tuesday or they will be missing important information and this is not acceptable. 

With all the joking aside being part of a team means your child will make friendships which hopefully will last a lifetime and if your lucky enough you'll make new friends who share the same freezing conditions week in week out with you. 

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From the minute you see those two lines appear on that pregnancy test your life has changed, you're no longer just a person, you're a mummy. You begin to think differently, feel differently and your outlook on life changes almost instantly. What you don't think about or expect is that your lives after birth may not be 'normal'.
Let me introduce this dark haired beauty to you all, this is Clara Joan (or CJ as she is also known) and she is the daughter of one of my best friends and her wonderful husband. When Acacia and Dean found out they were expecting they were completely over joyed, its something they had both wanted so badly and I couldn't have been anymore excited for them. They found out quite early on at their 20 week scan that Clara would be born with her stomach on the wrong side of her body. They were told that this would unlikely cause any problems in the future and it was just something they needed to be aware of. This was the start of their incredible strength of parenthood, it was also the start of their great relationship with the staff at the JR and the NHS, from what Acacia told me they were extremely thorough on checking everything they could to make sure they new exactly what they were dealing with. 
Clara decided to come 5 weeks early and within two weeks her new life they found out that she wasn't a very well little girl. She suffered with terrible jaundice and underwent intense light therapy to help get her levels under control. Her levels roller-coasted and by doing this she kept herself in hospital. 
Unfortunately that was just the start of Clara's time in the JR, on December 27th she projectile vomited a green bile which got her immediately transported to HDU for tests and monitoring, they all came back clear and they were almost discharged on New Years Day. Clara then had another attack of projectile vomiting and was then sent to intensive care where she would undergo two operations. One to investigate and remove 75cm of her bowel and have a stoma fitted and the second one to remove a few more cm of bowel and see if the remaining bowel was viable. Much to all of the professional's surprise she pulled through and the remaining bowel is viable. She is a medical miracle and has defied all of the odds the surgeons have given, she's a beautiful, strong little fighter. 
In summary of what has happened she is now left with Short Gut Syndrome and heterotaxy, as her stomach, liver, and non functioning spleen are all in the wrong places. 

Everyday she is proving what a determined little girl she is, she is now out of a incubator and has her very own little crib. She's allowed to wear her pretty clothes and she isn't one bit camera shy showing her Mummy and Daddy her beautiful smiles. She will be moved to the children's ward at the John Radcliffe and will spend the first year of her life there. She will learn to crawl, take her first steps there and be closely monitored for infections. 
I am in complete awe of my incredible friend and her husband. They have stepped up and accepted what is happening and have shown strength and courage like I've never seen before. Clara is blessed to have such wonderful, strong and inspiring parents. They both spend their days with Clara soaking up anytime they can with her, doing as much 'parenting' as they are allowed. The staff have been incredible with getting them both to feel like they are still Clara's parents and that their involvement in her day to day life is just as crucial as her medical help. Acacia spends from at least 8am - 9pm with Clara 7 days a week now Dean is back at work, she makes sure he feels like he isn't missing out with regular updates. 

Acacia is documenting Clara's journey on her Instagram which you can find here and also on her own very special blog which you can find here. Go and follow them on their incredible journey.

Apart from having the most incredible parents Clara has an exceptionally wonderful Uncle George who is doing a charity bike ride to raise money for SSNAP who support sick and premature babies at the John Radcliffe hospital. They also provide invaluable support to the parents whilst they are with their children in special care. You can donate and read more about this on his go fund me page here.


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I feel like no matter how many times I say this phrase over and over to myself I just can't help myself from doing the exact thing I'm telling myself not to do. I have such a love hate relationship with Instagram, I love sharing and seeing other peoples photos, I've discovered the most incredible small businesses from it and met some really lovely new friends. What I really do not like is how its become all about getting the most followers, creating a sense of perfect living and apparently its all about a feed theme (which I'm not sure I entirely know what that means.)  

Don't get me wrong I love a good hashtag and I always use the same ones on my pictures but that's mostly because I love looking through the pictures others post on there and that's where most of the 'insta friends' I've made have been found. When did the amount of likes determine how good your life is, how nice your house is or if your parenting correctly.

I took a little social media break recently and I wasn't entirely sure I was going to re download the apps on to my phone because surely something that makes you feel down should be removed from your life immediately. My husband is my little voice of reason and he makes me see sense whenever I get a bit crazy, we had a good talk about what it was that makes me have this issue with social media and also why I love it so much. I removed certain people/things off of my feeds and decided to really limit myself from going on there so it doesn't consume my life, because at the end of the day we all know that social media isn't even close to real life. 

Another reason I came back was because of my little blog, I started it back in 2013 and I really love it. It's something I always come back to and actually enjoy spending my free time working on. This year I'm going to focus more on having regular posts and posting more on topics that are relevant to me and my family.

So for anyone struggling with the world of social media, my advice would be take a break, step away and just enjoy living your real life with your family and friends. 


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      • BOOKS OUR 7 YEAR OLD IS LOVING AT THE MOMENT
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      • TRUTHS OF A FOOTBALL MUM
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