A family day out at Chessington theme park

Chessington theme park and zoo is a great family day out as there is so much to see and do, enough for more than a day, I wish that we had gone for two days. 

H.Top Molinos Park - A Review

On June 14th 2018 we enjoyed our third stay in four years at Molinos Park. We absolutely love the hotel as it is such good value for money so I wanted to share it with everyone.

Natural history museum

On a recent trip to London, we decided to visit the Natural History Museum as we had heard so many good things about it. However, I must say that although we did have a nice time we were not as impressed as we had thought that we would be. 

A trip to Shreks Adventure London

When I first heard about this attraction opening in 2015 I knew that I wanted to take FJ there, as she is a huge Shrek fan. Three years later and we finally made it there! DJ, CJ, FJ and I recently spent a weekend in London so a trip to Shrek's Adventure had to be included in our itinerary! 

Our romantic weekend away without the kids

In September 2016 I managed to tick off number 31 from my 40 by 40 list, which was to go on a luxury romantic weekend away with DJ. 

Our family holiday to sunny Salou!

In the car on the way to
the airport!

On June 25th 2016 I managed to check off another of my 40 by 40 goals which was to take a family holiday back to Salou.

Our camping adventure

We decided to take the kids for our first family camping trip and all in all, it was a lovely little trip away and great for not spending too much money as once you arrive there isn't really anything that they can ask you to spend money on!

Travelling with children

 Having three children, two of which are now in their teens, I have managed to pick up quite a few tips over the years. We have been on holiday's all over the UK which have involved long and short car journeys and train journeys. We have also holidayed in France and Spain which have involved plane and ferry journeys.

One year when we went to Spain Faith was only four months old and I must admit that I was pretty nervous about that trip! It turned out to be a brilliant holiday and Faith was a little angel and I was very relieved that all our planning had paid off.

Here are my top tips for travelling with children.

1) Plan ahead. Planning ahead to make sure every thing goes as smoothly as possible is always my number one tip as I am a strong believer in the old saying 'failing to plan is planning to fail'! Try and think about the trip in stages and work out ways to overcome any foreseeable problems.

2) Pack your child a travel bag. I have always done this for my kids and they love it almost as much as actually going on holiday. The idea is that you pack things that will keep the children occupied for the duration of the journey. Things that I have packed in the past have included; snacks and drinks, pens, paper and colouring books, reading books, puzzle books, travel games, simple craft sets, playing cards, home made bingo sheets for spotting things on car journeys, DVD's and portable DVD player and CD's/ipods.

3) If flying, weigh luggage before getting to the airport so you can avoid any extra charges or having to unpack and rearrange things in the queue at the check in desks!

4) If flying with babies give them a dummy or a drink in a bottle when taking off to avoid problems with ears. For older children, getting them to suck on a sweet can also help.

5) For long car journeys try to plan in ten minute stops every hour for toilet breaks and to give everyone a chance to stretch their legs. It does add time on to your journey but it is worth the extra time to help keep the children happy.

6) Don't be late and having to rush as you will be stressed and the children will pick up on this and react accordingly. Instead set out earlier then you need to so you can be relaxed and enjoy the journey.

7) Finally, chill out! You need to remember that not every thing will go exactly as you have planned and your children will not be perfect the whole holiday and take things in your stride with a smile on your face. After all, holidays are suppose to be fun!

This is my entry into the Mark Warner blogger challenge.

Dreaming of fun in the sun!

Even though we are in December and most of our thoughts are busy thinking about Christmas I do at times, when I'm standing in the freezing cold rain, find myself dreaming of a nice hot sunny summer holiday.

Before I fell ill with ME we would go on holiday every year and most of the time we would go aboard to Spain and it would be absolutely fabulous.

We would always centre the holiday around the children and we would always visit any local water parks or theme parks that were close by as we all really enjoy those.


We would always go to the beach to build sand castles and swim in the sea and of course, we would also make good use of the hotel pool.

Family entertainment in the evenings would also be important to us so if the hotel was not doing much then we would venture out to find somewhere that was exciting for us all.



We have always been a close family and the main purpose of a holiday for us is to have fun together and spend time together so we have never been one of those families that seem to let the kids go off on their own but we did use to love it if there was a good children's club at the hotel as it gives the children a chance to meet other children and we can rest for an hour too.

After I fell ill and my husband had to give up work to support me we could no longer afford a holiday aboard or even in the UK so it has been a long time since we have been able to get away and create happy family memories in a sunnier climate.

Now that I am feeling better I am starting to become more active and I would love to go aboard next summer and be able to try something new as a family. My two older girls and hubby would all love to learn windsurfing and as I'm not as fit as I use to be yet I would be happy to build sand castles with my little one and watch them learn and then maybe they could teach me and FJ the year after.

We have had so many happy times on holiday together as a family but poor FJ who was only four months old the last time we were able to go abroad has missed out on a lot of family fun.

It would be an absolute honour to be able to be a Mark Warner family holiday ambassador so that we could create some more family memories which would include all five of us this time.

This is my entry into the Mark Warner family holiday ambassador competition.