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Once upon a time... 

All the best stories start that way right? I love fairy tales and what they represent so I was right behind celebrating this day. Eva already at the age of two will end her made up stories with 'and they all lived happily ever after', it melts my heart.

There does seems to be a national day for just about everything these days, I came across this one whilst I was talking to a mum at the school drop off, as it coincides with World Book Week I thought I'd share some of the fairy tales we love in our house with having a boy and girl to entertain.

One of our favourite books to read that contains a range of fairy tales is this 5 minute tales it has a mixture of stories that suit both Noah and Eva and the illustrations are great to keep them interested through the whole story. Noah's at a lovely age where he is old enough to read to Eva and she loves to snuggle next to him and listen to a story. I can't find the exact copy online as it was brought as a present for Noah when he was born but I found this one on Amazon.
I'm a sucker for anything vintage so when we were passed down these fairy tale books from Jay's parents they were excitedly added to our collection. We keep these ones for us too read to them until they're old enough to make sure they look after them. 
We also make up lots of different stories at bedtime, and just by habit they all start with 'one upon a time', have a princess and hero whether it be a knight, prince or soldier, mostly contain dragons or monsters and end with 'and they all lived happily ever after'. I love that the traditional way of storytelling has been carried on throughout all of these years.

We are real lovers of Disney films in our house and we have almost all of the classics, another way we like to enjoy fairy tales is through the re telling of there stories. Our favourites are Into the Woods, Hoodwinked, Tangled, Alice in wonderland, Hook and Enchanted. 

Lastly if you follow me on any social media site or here on my blog, you'll know the love I have for quotes and fairy tales have brought us some of the best so I've shared a few of my favourites below.

* "A dream is a wish your heart makes." - Cinderella
* "Have I gone mad, I'm afraid so you're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret . all the best people are." - Alice in Wonderland
* "They say if you dream a thing more than once it's sure to come true." - Sleeping Beauty
* "You'll never find something better if you stay in your comfort zone." - Rapunzel 
* "Have Courage and be kind." - Cinderella 
* "Remember you are the one who can fill this world with sunshine." - Snow White
* "People say lots of things in anger, its our choice whether or not to listen." - Beauty and the Beast
* "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Alice in Wonderland 

What are you're favourite fairy tales to read and share?


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We woke up full of excitement of what the day ahead would bring, after a delicious cooked breakfast, we decided as the rain had stopped before we woke we would go and explore Dorothea Quarry which was a 5 minute walk from when we were staying. 
By the time we had got back from our walk, which actually turned into a small hike the sun was shining and the temperature had soared so we got changed and ditched the coats and headed off to the beautiful town of Portmeirion.
Portmeirion was created from one mans vision, that man was Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. His motto was 'Cherish the past, Adorn the present and Construct for future' I think he did pretty well with that. On arrival it feels like you've ended up on the Amalfi coats with its Mediterranean houses with turquoise shutters, palm trees and bright colours exploding all over.
Just a few steps down and you were by a beautiful sandy beach, I can imagine on a lovely hot day you could spend hours here. There was a great pirate ship the children could play on, and as it was so quiet they had it all to themselves.
There's options for you to stay in Portmeirion, choose between the incredible hotel, cute cottages or even the Victorian castle. Every detail has been thoroughly thought about, my pictures really don't do it any justice, you have to visit the place to appreciate how spectacular it is. 
There were so many places you could sneak off an explore, down off one side we found this incredible 'mermaid cave' which was full of wondrous shells and surrounded by beautiful flowers, which I imagine would be immensely colourful when they bloom in the summer.
I would go back to Portmerion in a heartbeat, it was such a pleasure to walk around and it would be the perfect place for a picnic and ice cream in the summer. 

Day three was our last day and we managed to squeeze even more in on our route home. Check out my post which will be live on Friday to find out where we check out.


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I'll let you in to a secret, when Jay and I book any sort of trip, we will cram in as much as we possibly can. We fit what people do in a week in a couple of days, neither of us can bare wasting any time when we're away. Booking Snowdonia was no exception, in fact I went even more adventure crazy. 

We set off at 6:30, we always fill the car up on the morning that we go so we can stop for some much needed coffee. We had a plan of stopping about 3 hours into our journey so we could explore our first village, when we were about 40 minutes from there we came across this beautiful farm shop and cafe and decided we would stop for brunch. It wasn't raining but it was quite chilly so I was really happy when they let us know we could take Thor in and much to our amazement he was as good as gold. Rhug Estate was beautiful and the food was delicious.I would absolutely recommend stopping here if you're ever in that area.
Next stop was Betws-Y-Coed, now if you type in Snowdonia into Pinterest this place will be one of the top results you will see and from the minute we drove in I knew exactly why. We went for a little wonder and you don't have to walk far to find beautiful waterfalls, bridges, rivers and wildlife.
When we arrived we parked just by the little train line, so once we had finished our explore we had a wonder around there, it was adorable and full of colourful art. There was a mini steam train you could go on but as we found a few times having a little four legged friend with you means you'll miss out on certain things. 
The main attraction for stopping in Betws-Y-Coed was Swallow Falls, my goodness what a sensational waterfall it is, it was breathtaking and for a minute we all just stood there in silence and listened and watched as the water crashed down. The kids were mesmerised and Noah is still talking about it.
We left here full of fresh air in our lungs and lots to talk about. We arrived at our cottage  we had booked for the weekend through Airbnb at around 3pm and settled in. The cottage was beautiful and in an incredible location, it had everything we needed including a basket of treats on arrival and really felt like a home away from home. You can check it out here, its also a massive bargain at only £50 a night. Everyone was exhausted so after a little walk around the village we snuggled down with a Chinese, prosecco and a roaring fire.
Day one was pretty glorious, and I can't wait to share with you what we got up to on day two.


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My little fairy is turning three at the beginning of March and we've been sourcing her presents since Christmas. She's a typical girly girl, she loves pink, glitter and princesses. My husband and I love that about her and don't try and influence her in anyway, her current favourites include Disney Princesses...especially Frozen, Sylvanian Families and crafting.

With her birthday being only 9 weeks after Christmas, we have to really think about what we can get her as she gets so much over the festive period. I've made a list of a few things we've got her.
First up we got her this adorable Bridgford Rainbow 12" bike, she's been really interested in bikes since Noah got one for Christmas so we thought we'd get one for her that she can learn to ride on and miss out the balance bike stage. 
Eva's really enjoying playing with her brother's Duplo at the moment, there's no point in us buying her loads but we thought a few pink bricks and some of her favourite princesses would be a nice addition to the collection. We found this sweet Disney Princess Belle set on Amazon and I think she's going to love it.
Eva's favourite song to sing at the moment apart from 'let it go' is Happy Birthday, she sings it to everyone and makes you blow out an imaginary cake and you always get a present. We thought this Jojo Maman Bebe Birthday Cake be great for her as she loves playing in her kitchen and now she can have a real cake when she sings her song. 





Like I said at the beginning Eva really enjoys all thing Disney Princess and she seems to know all of them. She got Elsa and Anna figures for Christmas so we got her 5 more for her birthday, her imagination when playing is lovely to watch. We got these ones from the Disney Store and at the moment they're all in the sale at £10 each. 
I'm really passionate about growing Eva's book collection, she's getting a really lovely variety already. I saw one of the childrens cousins reading this and I knew we had to get it for her. I hope it inspires her to do great things in this world, we got our copy from Amazon.

Lastly we got Eva her very own playhouse from Toys R Us, this will be a present she enjoys with her big brother and we have big plans for this little garden house. I'll be posting our makeover reveal on the blog once we've completed the work. We're hoping to have finished it by her birthday but I have a feeling we're being optimistic with the weather like it is at the moment. 

So this is what our little princess will wake up to on her birthday along with some other small crafty bits and some costume jewellery. As you can see there's a definite pink girly theme. I hope this is helps with some ideas for gift ideas for girls around 3 years old.

*some of the links contain affiliates

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