I love Bonfire Night! Wrapping up warm (in my lovely new jacket!), playing with sparklers and stuffing my face with treacle toffee, whilst watching fireworks is my idea of heaven! What’s not to love? With 5th November nearly upon us it’s time for some safety tips in preparation.

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Okay, so today I was supposed to be writing a post about something else, which is going to have to wait until next week now because I saw this over on Domestic Sluttery and HAD to tell you about it! [Breathe]

It’s the cutest little idea I’ve come across in a long time, really innovative and personal and it’s a perfect Christmas present for a whole range of ages. Its called Stuff Your Doodles and it’s a company based up in Scotland which had the idea that maybe, when you’ve doodled all over your note pad at work/home while on the phone to people with flowers, hearts and crazy characters, you might fancy turning them into cuddly toys! Better still, you can send in one of your children’s first drawings and they’ll transform them into real life making the memories last forever – let me hear you say “Ahhh!”

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What a sportastic week last week was. Usain Bolt broke yet another world record (now that man can run!), England won The Ashes , excuse to open another beer! And Burnley F.C. the underdogs beat both Manchester Utd and Everton! After watching all those highlights in the comfort of my lounge, I feel like it’s time to get out and get some exercise as a family.

As we are all aware this weekend is the last bank holiday weekend of the year, time to campaign for one more around October, that aside tt also marks the countdown until the kids go back to school and so I’ve been thinking of what to do to ‘send the kids off in style’ while not spending an arm and a leg!

Now there are the normal ideas such as camping in the back garden, a trip to the swimming pool or a big family meal (using our Recipe of the week) but I want to do something a bit more fun. A few brainwaves came over me including:
- Building a tree house (don’t know if the Daddies will be up for this on their weekend off!)
- A boat trip down the Thames (if you live in London)
- A speed boat ride on the Wave Rider in Scarborough (£4 for adults, £3 for children)

The best last minute idea I came up with (which actually lasts a whole day) is to take them on safari!

knowsley-safari-park

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I realised while browsing our Hectic Mum site today that I mention my little boy Kian quite a bit, so I thought I should put a face to the name for everyone. 

At our last photography shoot  for the Get The Label autumn range my childminder needed me to pick him up early as she had her son’s sports day, and as every working mum will know it’s needs must, so rather than not be at the shoot I took him with me for a few hours.  Needless to say my 19 month old thought he should have a go when he saw the lights, set and camera.  As ever with kids you need to take 100 shots to get one good one.

The results speak for themselves………..UK’s Next Top Model here we come.

Despite Liz’s optimism in the previous post, I’m afraid that the rain is here to stay…..But, no worries, us hectic mum’s have learnt to cope with whatever life throws at us, and so we know we are probably going to have to kit the whole family out with rainwear to get us through the school holidays. But can we do it stylishly? Of course we can! (more…)