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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Do the words ‘family holiday’ instantly ignite stress, worry and anxiety? Well, for me they do! “How far away is the holiday, how secure is the hotel, will there be any swimming pools for the kids to fall into” and the list goes on and on! (Not to mention “Are we nearly there yet?” followed by me banning the question!)

However, I have come across a saviour on the net which is an award winning family holiday company, Tots to France. They also own Tots to Italy if your kids prefer pizza and spaghetti!

Their aim is to make it much easier to take your children away on holiday. They visit every single property that they put on the site and look at it through the eyes of a parent to make sure that it is baby and childproof.

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I took last Friday off to spend the day with my little boy Kian, I had the day planned out we’d go to the park, slide down the slide 100 times, play in the garden with the dog, water the flowers and generally have an outdoorsy day.  Last week Monday through to Thursday was 75 plus degrees and blistering sunshine, however, the gods clearly anticipated my plans and when I was ‘gently’ woken at 6.30am by the musical tones of my 18month old I looked out the window to what I can only describe as ‘the end of the world’ weather, rain, thunder, lightening, we were just missing a plague of locust to round it off! So desperately I was wondering what do you do with ‘my heir to the empire’ when it’s pouring down outside? There’s only so many chocolate rice crispy cupcakes you can make before you feel like pulling your hair out!

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