Baby shower ideas

Are you planning a baby shower? Do you have any idea how to do one?
I have been to two in the last few months very different and luckily the first was the one I didn't have to plan so gave me some ideas as I was disorganised with getting stuff sorted. Luckily I had a fab co host Olivia who I know after hen nights and a wedding of my bestie who also wanted to do one for her so we teamed up.

The first one was at my friends mums house who had alongside her best friend layed on a fantastic spread of food and games. The cake was handmade and amazing!! The guess the baby photo and baby charade games were very funny.

For my besties shower me and Olivia both wanted a venue where the food was provided and she knew of a fab venue called Brownsover country house and hotel which is in Rugby, Warwickshire which is where my best friend lives. We had a private room and an afternoon tea which was amazing. Add a few decorations and presents and a few games job done!  I think it was less stressful as we didn't have to sort out the food.

Game ideas
Sniff the nappy-should of made harder smells
Guess the baby photo
Measure the bump
Design a baby grow/bib

Sweet favours
I bought some little sweet boxes from Hobbycraft and filled them with a random mix of sweets and made little labels for the boxes that I printed off.

Cake
There are so many amazing cakes you can have made but if you are on a budget and are not capable of making one just buy a cake and add things to it.  Olivia bought ours from Sainsburys and added a cake topper.  Photo of the cake below.

Decorations
You can go as crazy as you want to but most party shops will sell baby shower balloons, banners and decorations.  Also amazon and ebay do a good selection cheap.  I did not order anything from this website as they were more expensive but I loved https://babyshowerhost.co.uk/ as they did so many different themes. 

Reccomendations for ideas-Look on Pinterest!!

Hope you liked this blog and its taken me 3 months or so to write it as Baby girl is now here born on November 26th and she is so gorgeous.  I'm going to another baby shower in a few weeks so be good to pick up some more tips if ever I have to throw another one.

Activity of the Week- Making Tesco freefrom brownie mix

Last weekend the hubby bought some brownie mix to make some brownies he can actually eat.  In recent years he has become intorlent to milk based products so a lot of premade cake mixes etc he cant eat as they usually contain cows milk.  We have tried the chocolate cake mix before and that was also really good.
The brownie mix is gluten, wheat and milk free so is perfect for any little ones with food allergies.
Rather than me writing out the recipe I have posted the photo of the packet below but it doesn't really matter as if you buy the mix your have the recipe on the back.
It really is so simple and I love it as I'm not a baker so I like simple to do baking even if it does involve some cheating. At least you know its going to come out right.

The importance of Role play areas

Role Play is an important part of childhood.  It enables children to use their imagination and act out what they see in their everyday life.

When working in a nursery it is common that you will find a good role play area but there is no reason why you cannot make one at home and this blog will share some ideas on how you can do this.

Hospitals, Shops, Restaurants
Easy to recreate as children will often have small tables, pretend tills, and dressing up outfits already so you can go from this.
For my example I am going to show you how you create a shop.


ideas on what you can use

• pretend tills
• plastic food, empty food packaging
• dressing up clothes
• wendy house/playhouse if you have one

Extras

• make some price labels
• posters to put over areas In your shops
• print out vocabulary posters to help children learn new words

Outdoor role play

Another popular role play area is construction and this is great for having outside in the garden.

This photo is a great way of showing you what you can do and you can source a lot of this stuff at tips.

Where to source items for role play areas

• leaflets
• menus from takeaways
• Charity shops are great for sourcing old dressing up outfits
• amazon and ebay
• asking around
• brochures from travel agents

Do your children like role play? Have you created a role play area?

Activity of the Week-Building Dens

This weeks Activity of the Week is building dens.  Who doesn't like to build a den? Whether its getting some blankets and sheets and chairs together in the living room or being more adventurous and gathering sticks and putting them together to build something in the garden.

Below I have showed two very different types of dens.  One indoor, one outdoor.


What you need

• carboard boxes
• blankets/sheets
• cushions, soft furnishings

Children can construct dens themselves particularly indoor ones but may need more assistance with outdoor ones as they are working with least manageable materials.  Lots of outdoor places do den building activities within their opening hours look online to see whats near you.

The eden project website gives some great advice about how to build your own den so I have the link below for you to have a look:

https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/how-to-build-your-own-den

Happy den building

Rush Trampoline Park-High Wycombe

During the Christmas holidays I got to go to Rush which if you haven't heard of them are a franchaise of trampoline parks in the UK.  Trampoline parks have become really popular with children and adults and bonus is that it is really good for you.  We don't actually have any in Oxford but we decided to go to the one in High Wycombe which isn't to far to drive from us.

Image from website

Is it expensive? £10 per person will get you a 60 min slot (booking required in advance) for a general session.  Look at the website for details for different kind of sessions.  As activities go this is not the cheapest but it is really fun for a trip out.  You can also get your moneys worth as the is more than just the main trampoline bit.

To do?  As well as the main trampolines they have a dodgeball area, rush wipeout, tumble lanes, slam dunk basketball, assault court and battle beam.

Facilities? Large café upstairs with drinks and food.  Didn't personally go up there so cant comment on the food.

Will I be back? Definitely will be coming back it was so much fun and great for children of all ages.

Tips?
I definitely advise booking especially in school holidays as it can get very busy!!!
Wear comfy clothing, definitely not jeans as you will get so hot.


Website link-https://www.rushuk.com/
Twitter-https://twitter.com/@rushuk
Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/RushUKTrampolinePark

Activity of the week-Snowy days

Hello hello.
 Have you had any snow yet? There's been a pathetic amount in Bicester not really a lot to do with however I know some of you have had more in the UK  so thought a snowy days blog is appropriate at this time of year/winter time.
 Last night I tweeted a link to my Pinterest board where I did a board on the snowy day activities. Normally for my activity of the week I just do one activity but today I thought I would share a few with you.

1.Snowmen building
I do understand this is completely dependent on how much snow there is which as I said there is none here to do one which is such a shame.

2.Winter themed Small World play

This is so easy to do with a tray from your house.  Put some shaving foam and cotton wool in for the base.  You can then add in some of your childrens toys to make this really fun.

3. Winter Walk and collages
Take your little ones on a walk and collect some items to bring home to make a winter collage.  Take your camera to take some photos and then when you can come home you can create collages of the photos and items you collected.

Hope this has inspired you for some snowy/winter fun.  Check out the link below for my pin board for more ideas.
https://uk.pinterest.com/nbicester/snowy-days/

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year hope everybody is feeling well today and embracing 2017 already(or not and your in your pjs feeling rough).
Today is the first day of a brand new year and lots of people will be making resolutions.  Why not encourage your children to get involved with this and make some of their own resolutions. 

I plan to blog more in 2017 and make my blog look more professional.  How do I do this people? Any advice greatly appreciated...

Anyway Best Wishes for 2017 and ill speak to you soon...well hopefully!

love
Nanny Bicester x