Happy Birthday Brody

Today I'm allowing an indulgent post to wish my nephew a very happy 6th birthday, the little boy that first made me an auntie. Whilst I'm biased of course Brody is an adorable little man if not, and I mean this affectionately of course, a creep at times. Few things make my heart melt than him running up to hug me when he see's me, telling me he loves me and he's one of few people that would get away with waking me up at 5am in the morning that's for sure.

His birthday seems the perfect opportunity to share a how proud I am moment. A few weeks ago we were at a party together where all the children were given various balloon creations by Elsa (yes not only does she specialise in 'ice' but balloons too). Violet lost hers somewhere along the way and got rather upset and whilst me and my sister-in-law were trying to explain that she didn't need one we looked up and Brody had gone over to the Elsa who was packing away and explained his sister had lost her balloon and could she make another - is that not the cutest thing? His cheekiness knows no bounds that when Violet burst the balloon a mere five minutes later (she really was not destined to have this balloon!) and he went back to Elsa and asked for another.

So happy birthday once again Brody and look forward to your party at the weekend.

Happy Birthday Mama

Today is my mum's 60th birthday and due to the usual work and school commitments our family got together for breakfast yesterday so that we could give mum her birthday present which she opened under the watchful eye of Brody and Violet. As you can see it was a Chanel bracelet which she had been coveting to match the necklace she brought earlier in the year.

As if she wasn't spoiled enough (and deservedly so) a parcel from Fortnum & Mason arrived from her friends and as you can see she was equally thrilled with the contents. This evening in part three of her ongoing celebrations we'll be joining friends and family down our local pub for a few drinks and fun times.

Happy Mum and thank you for everything you do for me - I hope I have your energy and enthusiasm for life when I reach sixty.

Legoland Windsor Day Trip

When my brother text me a few weeks ago asking if I fancied taking my nephew Brody to Legoland I jumped at the chance, as did mum and into the car we climbed and made the trip to Windsor. The first thing that struck me on our arrival was that the park doesn't open till 10am.

In my experience most children have been up a good few hours by 10am and I can imagine if staying at the hotel on the complex that by 10am parents will be pulling their hair out with excited children desperate to get into the park.

We were able to pay before 10am and enter 'The Beginnings" which is essentially a central area of the park with a Lego shop (no surprises that was open!) and a shop where we grabbed ourselves a coffee and mum friends with Luigi.

I really think Legoland are missing a trick not having refillable coffee cups available for purchase!

At last the gates opened and we were let inside the park and made our way to the first of many rides. Any thrill seekers this is not the park for you and all attractions are very much geared towards the younger Lego fans out there.

Legoland very much follows the themes of Disney and Universal Parks in Florida split into areas such as Adventure Land and Pirate Shores that are comfortably spaced apart with much to look at - all made of Lego of course (even the hygiene certificates in the toilets were inside Lego frames).

Despite the park being busy we didn't have too long waiting times, 15-20 minutes at the most although I was surprised that many of the food stations were closed or didn't open till late in the day. Again I think most children start to feel peckish and can't hold out as long as us adults. We hit the newly opened Burger Kitchen for lunch, essentially your typical fast food burger joint. For three adult and one childs meal it came to around £30 so it was no surprise many families were sitting in the sunshine enjoying picnics of packed lunches.

I was a little disappointed by the lack of characters dressed up floating around the park but thankfully there were plenty of Lego brick ones to take some selfies with - I even found my twin!

Mum's favourite part of the park was the model village with some familiar landmarks

and of course mine was spotting Lego flamingos!

Then much to Brody's delight it was time to visit the Lego shop before heading home and he was able to build some characters (with nan's help)

So what did we make of Legoland and is it worth the visit?

My main thoughts as I left Legoland were how do families afford such day trips. It cost us £86 with half price tickets plus lunch not taking into account the Lego shop spending. There are always half price tickets around so I would definitely say it isn't worth visiting at full price so keep an eye out for those. Also if your children are older they may find it a little tiresome. Brody at five was just the right age and thoroughly enjoyed it although dare I say he said his favourite thing about Legoland was the shop - we could've saved ourselves a fortune and taken him to Westfield.

It was a great day out which I thoroughly enjoyed but would I go again, not for a few years.

Have you ever been to Legoland, let me know what you thought of it.

Halekulani In Room Dining

Despite some fabulous restaurants at our hotel Ben and I chose to eat elsewhere most evenings, until that is our final night in Hawaii when in the midst of packing and readying ourselves for the next leg of our trip we quite frankly couldn't be bothered. 

A quick scan of the menu saw that I could indulge in another steak and Ben would be able to sample some of their fabulous seafood dishes. The service at the hotel once again excelled as Ben made his requests for specific dishes and pretty much made his own bespoke main course.

To start I chose French Onion Soup which was delicious and filled with such flavour. As I mentioned I went for steak which despite a brief time waiting in the heated cubby hole under our table was cooked to perfection and the mashed potato was so deliciously creamy I could've ate bowls of it - even the vegetables which seemed sparse on arrival were more than enough to satisfy my hunger.

For dessert we couldn't not chose the famous Halekulani coconut cake. This cake is possibly the lightest cake I have ever sampled. Even such a huge slab the frosting and coconut flavouring didn't leave me feeling overstuffed as so often even a small cupcake can.

This was a perfect way to spend our last night in Hawaii.

Breakfast at The Wolseley and more

Last Friday I took another day off of work for some festive fun with my friend and her little prince Charlie. First order of the day was breakfast at The Wolseley. I've walked past The Wolseley so many times but never ventured inside so I was really excited and dived straight into my french toast with bacon - it was as delicious as it looks. 

The Wolseley is like walking onto a Downton Abbey set and is lively and buzzing with atmosphere and I'd highly recommend a visit (don't forget to book in advance). The staff were fantastic and I was particularly impressed that they brought Charlie's food up immediately after ordering to ensure that he didn't have to wait too long and get restless.

We decided to walk off our breakfast in Fortnum and Mason Christmas department where Charlie made friends with the reindeer. My mum and I are planning our annual Christmas trip the weekend before Christmas so I'll try and get some photos for everyone and do a more in-depth post then.

Next item on our agenda was Hamley's where Charlie admired the Christmas windows. I don't know if anyone else has been to Hamley's lately but I found it rather disappointing. Compared to Toys R Us and the like its quite small and extremely expensive. We saw toys we'd brought previously for in excess of £20 so we decided to save our pennies for elsewhere.

Last stop was Santa's Grotto - a good place to stop if you ask me. We decided to book the Grotto at Westfield Stratford after comparing prices at other venues and it made sense for us to park there in the morning. Despite not having children myself I've spent a number of years accompanying friends children on their visits to see Santa and this is by far the best I've ever seen. 

On arriving you are taken into playroom where photos are taken of the children and they can run around climbing on a sleigh and putting together a soft Christmas tree. Then you are led into a small theatre where a Christmas story is shown, featuring the faces of all the children present (hence the earlier photos). Once the short movie has finished 3 families are taken in to meet Santa. You are all invited to sit round at Santa's feet whilst he has a chat to all the children about how busy he is etc and then it's photo time. I was thoroughly impressed and at a cost of £4pp it was one of the cheapest on offer.

It was time for Charlie to head home after a long exhausting day so I decided to do some more shopping at Westfield and then relax in the cinema to watch The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. I'm not an uber fan of the films, I didn't mind the first but wasn't particularly impressed and thought the second was worse, quite slow and boring - it was nice to sit and take the weight off my feet for a couple of hours though.

I'll leave you with the photo of me and Santa and don't forget to comment and tell me about the festive fun you've been having.

Mickey Flanagan - Shall we go out out?

For my birthday in April my friend told me I had the choice to open a present or an envelope. Despite slightly materialistic tendencies I chose the envelope as I rightly suspected it would contain details of a night out with friends. I made the right choice on this occasion as it was tickets to see one of my favourite comedians Micky Flanagan at the O2.

We were originally due to see the show in October but unfortunately it was rescheduled but this made for great timing as it kicked off December for us and Monday evening we made the trip to Greenwich after work.

We decided to grab a quick burger and margarita in TGI Friday's which apart from the sweet potato fries I wouldn't recommend. Sticky tables, cold bacon and overcooked onions rings all served whilst we watched a member of staff emptying microwaved bags of vegetables onto plates wasn't ideal but thankfully the cocktails numbed the pain.

I've only recently become a fan of stand up comedy and was interested to see how a one man show would work in such a large venue as I'd only ever seen bite sized performances at The Comedy Store. We had great seats and Micky was fantastic and we laughed throughout his 2 hour performance (which I assure you had nothing to do with the beer we were drinking).

His style of comedy is very near the mark so I would suggest if you're not a fan of shall we call it un-pc humour you'd be advised to steer clear but otherwise you'll be rolling in the aisles with laughter.

Are you a fan or seen the show for yourself?