Wish List: Summer style for you & the kiddos

Back with another wish list post today, one for you and one for the kiddos!

For myself I've definitely got a thing for wide legged trousers and pretty blouses going on - perfect for cool and simple summer style!

1. I love this new to me ethical clothing brand, especially these trousers.

2. I've wanted this embroidered shirt for so long and saw it was in the sale. It's still a little pricey but for a handmade item I'm really tempted!

3. These have been in and out of my online basket so many times in the past few weeks, do I need 

pink cord trousers?? I think so...

4. Just love this spotty blouse from Boden!

It's all things bright, patterned and colourful when it comes to mini-style!

5. Mini Rodini never does disappoint, plus these leggings are on sale!

6. M&S killing it again with their kids section, especially in love with this dress.

7. I haven't shopped Cath Kidston for ages but they have such sweet kids bits in at the moment, like this amazing jacket!

8. Can't get over these sweet dungarees (wish they came in adult size!)

Let me know what you think of these pieces and if theres anything you're obsessing over at the moment?

*this post contains affiliate links 

Our Weekend in Pictures and going a bit slowly

Like most parents of school age children (I imagine) I'm counting down the days to the summer, six whole weeks ahead of us to be together and five of those with Tom starting his new role as stay at home dad.

I'm excited about our new pace of life and slightly daunted too. We're stepping into the unknown and doing things slightly against the conventional stereotype so we have little knowledge to draw upon. Whilst I do know quite a few creatives they are either the only freelancer in the family or if they are a couple they don't have children. We don't have any friends we know of who are doing the same so we're just seeing how things go!

Wilf has totally loved his first year of school, he has learnt so much in so many ways, both socially and academically. He now knows the love of reading a good book and is writing and drawing his own stories. He actually said what he wanted for his birthday this year (a good 5 months away) was a stapler so he could create more books and bind them together, ha!

Over the weekend we took a trip to one of the city farms here in Bristol and enjoyed the simple pleasure of smelling flowers, giving the lovely pigs a good scratch behind the ears (I LOVE pigs so much) and spending time together.

Mabli found a stray balloon and claimed it for her own

She also dressed herself this day, Wilf still shows no sign of being interested in what he's wearing and is happy for me to pick his outfit out for the day. I don't think this will last as long with her!

So looking forward to these two being together more over the summer

This picture cracks me up, Mabli was actually quite timid of the pigs and was looking the other way by the fence as this one crept up on her. She only realised he was there when he started snuffling her toes! She promptly jumped up and bust into tears (I took a picture first of course haha).

We've been thinking a lot about our family lifestyle, how this choice for a slower pace extends to Wilf and his school week. I'm massively conflicted because I actually love Wilf's school and think he is thriving there. He is in such a small class (due to the fact another local school became outstanding and most sent their kids there) so he's been with about 16 children all year. He's different to me in many ways and I think whilst I would have thrived on creativity his brain is more academic, he loves maths and is good at it, he reads and writes and craves knowledge and I think the transition to year one will be easy for him.

HOWEVER I just hate that its such a long week, by Thursday he is practically falling asleep in his dinner and I feel like we hardly ever see the best of him during the week as he's so exhausted by being so 'good' at school.

I wish they had a shorter day or shorter week as it is quite a lot when you're five (I think I would feel just as tired if I'm honest and I'm 31!). So whilst I'm fairly happy with the situation part of me if always wondering if there is an in-between option. Or if we will have to move to Scandinavia as their schooling models always appeal to me a lot!

I'd love to know what you thought or if you're experiencing the same with your school age children. Also i'm thinking of doing a video all about our decision for Tom to quit his job so if you have any questions do pop them below! x

Life Lately (Quitting jobs and finding balance)

Life Lately..

I can't remember how much I told you about our plans to move house, we decided upon it and I'd mentally said my goodbyes to the home that saw my children being born in (right on the dining room floor!). We put so much of our heart into this place and saw so many of the best years of our lives so far. It felt sad but I felt so excited to explore somewhere new..

Then life happened, some big changes suddenly came up, decisions to be made and we decided that these things can't all happen at once. So moving house has been put on hold but some other exciting things are going ahead!

Namely Tom decided to leave his current job and for us both to work together/parent together full time. It's been on the cards for a while, with the stress of having to juggle work and also how my work can't really progress without being more flexible (one of the main things is being bound to the school run and childcare for Mabli). I generally turn down a lot of things that involve travel and although I also do turn down a bunch of things that wouldn't be a good fit for a number of reasons it's felt increasingly frustrating to have to say yet again 'thanks for thinking of me anyway!' and a fair share of FOMO.

I tend to think we live fairly frugally, we don't drive, we own our home (but it was bought 7 years ago in one of the cheapest areas of our city) and our biggest outgoings mainly consist of food expenses (ha!). Although Tom actually liked his job he has never been one for climbing a career ladder and I don't think he'd mind me saying that being together as a family and spending more time with the kids is one of the most important things for him. In tern I LOVE my job and find it increasingly frustrating that I can't fulfil different creative aspects of it. 

Our kids are still so little that it seemed mad to turn up the chance to make spending this time with them together and co parent equally whilst they are so small. Whilst it's a risk (this is where not moving house right now comes into play) it's also a really exciting time for us so I'm looking forward to what it might bring. 

Either way nothing is forever, so many mothers take a few years off work before children start school so when we thought about it like that it didn't seem like it was too crazy for Tom to be doing so, even if it meant going back to an office job in a few years time if it made sense then. You just don't know what things will be like until you give them a go right? So we're making that leap and fingers crossed it does ;)

I think I might do a video on the subject so do let me know if you have any questions. I might even persuade Tom to join me but he much prefers to be behind the camera so we'll have to see on that one!

I'd also love to know if any of you have a similar set up! Please tell me you're a couple that works together and don't want to kill each other? ;)

Photos by Lauren Jayne Hall

Review - Amazon Fire 7 Tablet

The first thing you should note about this review is it's going to be pretty glowing, I've been so impressed with this bit of kit since we've testing it out and have literally been singing its praises to all my mum friends. I say mum friends as I feel like this tablet is perfectly designed for children, in many ways more so than the tablet we currently own. There are a few features that I think make it such a great buy and I'll start with the price. 

For £49.99 the Amazon Fire 7 it's a really reasonable price, so good in fact that I was hesitant at how good it would be for that money. When Wilf was a toddler and we took him on his first holiday abroad we bought a tablet for the same amount and we didn't rate it, afterwards I always felt like you needed to invest in much pricier tablets but I think that in the past four years technology has moved on a lot (thankfully!) and I don't believe this to be the case anymore.

My favourite part is that you have full control over what your kids can see or use. I already did this to some extent with our current tablet like using the YouTube Kids app. However Wilf is at an age now where he can easily access google by accident or click on any of our apps like Iplayer for example and could potentially see something not aimed at a child. 

With this tablet you can create separate profiles for your kids with child only approved videos shown through Amazon (of course). You can also download all the big apps such as Netflix etc but there are over other 800,000 apps to chose from too. Whats even more reassuring though is that you can check in remotely through your Amazon account and check what your child has been doing on the tablet and for how long. 

You can also limit the amount of screen time they spend on certain activities (such as games or movies, Wilf loves the Lego Star Wars games and the CBeebies app) but allow unlimited reading time for example. As well as that you can set the tablet to turn off completely at a certain time (like bedtime) or after a certain amount of time used if needs be.

The Amazon Fire 7 also comes with Alexa and all that has to offer which is of course an added bonus (Wilf is a big fan of asking what the weather will be like on any given day).

As you can see the quality of image is brilliant. The table is also really robust which is great when kids are using it. You can also pick up covers or a protective travel case though if needed.

If I'm being really picky the only slight downside I could think of is the camera, whilst totally fine isn't something you'd use for taking your best family snaps (not that you would really with a tablet away I imagine). For video thought it's great and is comparable with other tablets I've used.

I've been so impressed with this tablet, it's perfect for children and the price is in my opinion brilliant value for money. I actually decided to pick up another in the Prime day sale for when Mabli is old enough to use them. Although I don't want the kids to use screens all the time they are incredibly useful at times and with a holiday due in a couple of months I think having one each with different apps on each would be a lifesaver for the flight!

You can pick up an Amazon Fire 7 here for £49.99 

In association with Amazon all words and thoughts are my own.
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