The Prices do Blenheim Palace

Back in July we went to Blenheim Palace for the day to meet up with some of my old Uni mates. Basically this involved sitting in the Pleasure Gardens drinking champagne all afternoon whilst the children had a ball in the maze and on the adventure playground! However, you can upgrade your one day pass for an annual pass, so we did this – planning to go again and see more of what the huge estate had to offer.

Today was the husband’s birthday (43 – although he was convinced yesterday he was only going to be 42!!) – and his destination of choice for the day was Blenheim Palace.

When we got there I immediately upgraded my annual pass to a ‘privilege pass’ for the grand total of £5. You are then entitled to 15% off in the various restaurants and shops – and with 4 kids, this has more than paid for itself in one visit!!

We hopped on the train (rebranded a ‘spooky train’ as it goes through a shed with some halloween gubbins draped around it!) from the Palace Station down to the Pleasure Gardens (it costs 50p for a single journey for over 5s). Again we did the maze – nothing quite instills fear like a 2 year old announcing ‘Mummy, I need a wee’ in the middle of the maze!! Thank goodness for the fold up potty. And the kids (and big kids!) all enjoyed the adventure playground. We also used the sundial today (typical in British weather terms that we could use it in October but not in July!!) and found out that it can’t cope with changing from British Summer Time yesterday – but would have been spot on last week!! We also went through the butterfly house (well, everyone else did – I looked after the pushchair and bags as I’m not a huge fan of flying things!!)

 

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We tried to go for lunch in the cafe over at The Pleasure Gardens but it was RAMMED (sunny day for the first day of half term meant there were thousands of people there!)

There was quite a wait for the next train back so we walked – and I am so pleased that we did. There are some AMAZING trees in the grounds which all of the children really enjoyed climbing – we got some ace pictures too.

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We tried to do an arty ‘everyone throw leaves in the air at the count of 3’ photos – but the 9 year old decided to chuck his leaves directly into the face of his 11 year old sister and so a HUGE strop ensued!!

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We made it to the Palace and stopped for lunch there – which was pricey and there wasn’t much choice – but the kids coped with crisps and cake – they have been taught well!! But everyone was tired and bit a grumpy, so we headed home – and STILL haven’t done the palace itself! Oh well – the tickets are valid until July 2015 so plenty of time for a return visit.

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It was a lovely Autumnal day out – and reminds us what a green and pleasant land we live in. Thanks for a lovely day Blenheim – we’ll be back!

Lucky Lifebox Libby!

A few weeks ago I entered a competition on the Sticky Fingers blog – and won it!!  I should put in a disclaimer at this point – as I actually do know Tara – the Queen of Sticky Fingers – in real life.  This was a totally legit, drawn by rafflecopter competition – and a complete fluke that my entry – of the 416 – won!!  I was delighted when Tara emailed to check my postal address (see, we don’t know each other THAT well!) for the Junior Lifebox prize to be sent to.  I then had an email from the lovely Jenny at Lifebox  and she said that they were based really close by – so could she drop the first box over.  I had envisaged welcoming her in open arms, having fabulous photos taken ready to share them on here – but instead the Price family had had a very surprising lie in, I had wet hair, no make up on and was wearing my dressing gown – so you’ll have to make do with these photos of the fabulous box and its contents instead!

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Now we have A LOT of potential testers in the Price family – and all were put to work on the various contents – so here goes! (It was just after bath time – hence wet hair and pjs as a look – thankfully you’ve only got photos of the kids – not me and the husband!!)

Rebel Kitchen Coconut Mylk

We are a house of chocolate milk lovers – so this dairy free alternative – made with coconut milk instead of cows milk – had a lot to live up to – but the votes from the 2 and 9 year olds was that it was DELICIOUS (I have to say this 40 year old had a slurp too and thought it was yummy!)

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 Nakdraisins

These were again tested by the 9 year old and the 2 year old – and I have to say neither were particular fans!  The raisins were lemon infused and quite strong.  Thankfully husband and I thought they were lush and polished them off!  I’ll definitely investigate the other flavours though – as all the kids love raisins and it’s nice to spice them up a bit.

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 Clearspring Fruit On The G

This time the 4 year old stepped up as tester.  She is a big fan of fruit pouches, and so knows the market in this area well.  This was an apple and mango one and got a definite thumbs up – and was described as nicer than her normal ones!!  And to stick my oar in too – I was impressed this had NO EVIL BANANA in it – it is amazing how many of these types of things have a particular flavour given, but neglect to mention that they have other fruits as fillers – generally banana – which I can taste in the smallest quantity.  This was apple + mango = fabulous.

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Conscious Raw Chocolate Bar

And now time for the eldest to step into the frame – an 11 year old tester!  She saw the word chocolate and decided to go for this one!  Although on reading it was dairy and sugar free started to turn her nose up.  Her actual description after one small piece was ‘Eurgh, it’s like a mouldy Quality Street’ – which I am guessing won’t be used as a marketing strapline!  Undeterred the 9 year old tried it, and said it was lovely -but so rich you couldn’t eat much of it at once.  I *may* have disproved this theory by polishing off the rest of the bar from the fridge this afternoon……….

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 Inspiral Superfood Bites

This was an acai berry bite – and the 11 year old wanted to try this (to take away the taste of the chocolate bar!!) Apparently it was delicious and her favourite thing.

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We still have the ‘Lifebox Junior Nuts on the Go – Raw Almonds and Mulberries’ to try – and then the very exciting recipe to make!  This is called the ‘Trial Size Lifebox Goodness Gracious Snack Balls Mix’ – which using the recipe card enclosed, and some of the coconut water and some vanilla extract – we should be able to rustle up some mini snacks that can keep in the fridge or freezer (if they last that long!)  These are on the to do list for this weekend!

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Overall

So the Junior Lifebox has been a big success – lots of interesting things to try that I am sure I wouldn’t have got the kids to chose if they hadn’t been in a special box delivered to the door!  Excellent for keeping you on track healthwise – but interesting and feel like treats too! Our only issue is too many pesky kids – so they end up fighting over the contents.  Guess we’ll just have to order more than one in the future!!

It’s also a great way to taste different things which you may want to buy more of  (I have already scoped out that Ocado sell quite a few of these products – and in larger sizes too!).

We luckily won a 3 month supply – so it will be interesting to see how November and December compare.

A big thank you to Lifebox and Sticky Fingers from the Price family! xxxxxx

Wicked Wednesday – 22nd October 2014

After the husband and I had an AMAZING 4 day childfree break to New York (sorry!!) it was back down to earth with a bump, not literally – the British Airways landing into Heathrow was very smooth – but it was then a mad dash up the M40, drop off husband and bags (and put loads of washing on – obvs!) and then take youngest 2 daughters to a soft play party for one of their friend’s who was 4.  Neither of them would leave my side, so I had to join in all of the ‘fun’ rather sit nursing coffee and cake.

Why is it soooo difficult to get photos of kids using soft play stuff………….

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Possibly the only half decent photo – and it is only one of them!

This is my entry for this week’s Wicked Wednesdays over at BrummyMummyof2’s – go and have a look at other people’s fab photos too.

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Talent – The Photo Gallery Week 205

The theme of The Sticky Fingers blog for The Photo Gallery this week is talent.

I guess my talents have generally been recognised as musical and academic rather than sporting.  Back in the day I passed my Grade 8s on the piano and the flute – although rarely get chance to play nowadays.  I did ‘perform’ at my Great Aunt’s 80th birthday recently – as did lots of my family members.  However I think my daughter / niece / cousins would lynch me if I put any of the photos of us all performing out in the public domain!!

So therefore I think I should share this week’s potential new talents for the Price family!!

The youngest Price daughter started ballet with her big sisters on Saturday – here they all are looking very proud!

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And then the third Price-let joined her older brother and sister at rugby on Sunday – she ADORED it (this may be because it was lovely and sunny – we will witness her true commitment when it’s pouring and freezing!)

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And another set of boots for the husband to clean on a Sunday night……

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Not sure if they will prove to be great talents – but I’m just pleased they’ll all have a go at such disparate hobbies. And don’t worry – the eldest is carrying on the tradition and learning the piano and flute too – we’ve even been known to duet!

Do pop across to The Photo Gallery and see other people’s talents…..

Sticky Fingers Photo Gallery

Eyes – The Photo Gallery Week 203

The topic for The Photo Gallery on the Sticky Fingers Blog this week is ‘eyes’ inspired by the charity #seethemiracle.

My 2 youngest daughters both have huge eyes that are frequently commented on by people wherever we go – so this week’s picture(s) had to be of them. Sometimes the fact that they have different coloured eyes makes it easier to tell which is which in baby photos (this was never so much of a problem with the older two as we could rely on gender stereotypical clothes to highlight which was which!!)

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Do pop over to #thegallery to see what other people have posted for the topic ‘eyes’ and to learn more about the charity that inspired this week’s topic.

Sticky Fingers Photo Gallery

Friday Funtimes

So ‘Friday Funtimes’ is similar to ‘Monday Meltdown‘ but a different day requires a different alliteration.

My day so far:

0520 – husband gets up to go to meeting in London
0545 – disturbed by her father, the 4 year old comes and gets in with me, wriggles a lot
0630 – alarm goes off, shower, nag children, dressed, nag children,  breakfast, nag children
0720 – nanny arrives, drop daughter at station, go to work
0920 – leave work and go for lovely manicure and pedicure as pre Fall Ball preparations (tomorrow night’s fun!)
1120 – quick butcher and hardware store trip (support your local businesses and all that)
1145 – back at my desk for the afternoon, drink coffee when really want gin
1625 – leave office to go to station to collect daughter again, sneaky bit of Kindle reading
1700 – get home, quick handover with the nanny
1740 – text message from husband to say he’s stuck on motorway and won’t be home for ages
1745 – round up 3 of the children to come with me for spray tan (more pre Ball prep)
1800 – don paper pants and be sprayed, leaving children with my phone watching Peppa Pig

And seemingly taking random photos.......
And seemingly taking random photos…….

1810 – 2 year old upset that she can’t have her ‘face painted’
1820 – get home, leave 3 kids in car, straighten eldest daughters hair
1825 – back in car to take eldest to party
1827 – do quick U turn as daughter has left present for birthday girl at home
1829 – back home to find husband in garden, locked out with no keys having just got back
1830 – deposit son at home, little ones remain in car
1840 – drop eldest at her party late, apologise to all adults who see me for ‘spray tan and no underwear’
1845 – huge meltdown from 4 year old as she wants to stay at 12 year olds party
1847 – 2 year old wants a wee, have to hold her over the gutter, being careful not to get wee on feet (streaky tan)
1855 – drop auction vouchers for tomorrow’s Ball at organisers house
1859 – walk back into the house and be presented with cold glass of sauvignon blanc by husband

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is it time for bed yet???

Wicked Wednesdays – 1 October 2014

After the success of last week’s strop photo (now known as ‘Ballerina Bum‘) for Brummy Mummy of 2’s Wicked Wednesdays I’ve chosen another child’s strop photo this week (we could have a recurring theme here with 4 of the blighters!!)

This is the first time our youngest adopted the ‘I have my arms crossed so this means I’m in a really bad mood’ approach to stropping….

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I have to say it’s a skill she’s worked on – in fact my favourite photo of our entire summer which I blogged about here was a variation on this theme!

Make sure you pop over and see other people’s entries to Wicked Wednesdays

brummymummyof2

Monday meltdown….

As I’ve mentioned before, our eldest has started a new school and this has given me lots of time to wait around at the train station for her – and catch up on my reading. A Monday is the one day of the week when we have no childcare (4 children and running our own business means that a nanny is the best option – and she works Tuesday to Friday every week).

This morning husband did the train drop off. Today was the day the train was 25 minutes late. He will not have been reading a book (he doesn’t do reading – unless it’s work or rugby team related, or trying to find an edition of NCIS or one of the Bad Boys films on the Sky planner) but will have used that half an hour or so to start the days work – emails / calls aplenty. Now he was also supposed to do pick up – but the delay to the start of his day meant a later train back from London – so I had to take the 3 younger siblings to pick their big sister up.

They were INSISTENT that they should wait on the platform rather than in the comfort of the car – even the bribe of another viewing of Frozen on DVD would not entice them to remain in the vehicle.

Here they are waiting excitedly:

Monday meltdown

This was before:

a) a lady was struggling with a pushchair, and loads of commuters and teenagers just watched her – so I had the 2 year old in one arm and helped carry her pushchair up the stairs with the other

b) an overtired 4 year old (first full day at school) had a full on
meltdown because she didn’t want to walk quickly up the stairs to go home once we’d rendezvous-ed with her big sister

c) the 2 year old stropped to be put down and proceeded to run off down the road in the opposite direction from the car

d) the 4 year old wouldn’t be strapped back in to her car seat unless it was moved from the middle row where I can easily do the seat belt to the back row by her brother

e) my phone started ringing with a problem at work

Roll on tomorrow when I can sit in the car on my own and read my book after a nice relaxing day in the office……………

We are family – I’ve got all my ‘cousins’ with me!!

According to Wikipedia ‘A cousin is a relative with whom a person shares one or more common ancestors. In the general sense, cousins are two or more generations away from any common ancestor, thus distinguishing a cousin from an ancestor, descendant, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew. However in common parlance, “cousin” normally specifically means “first cousin”.’

And I am lucky that I have brilliant ones – seen here along with my sisters (well, one of my sisters and one sister’s arms!) at my ‘epic’ (well I’d say that if I was younger) 40th birthday party earlier this year.

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And I love that my children and their cousins recreated this photo last Saturday at my Great Aunt’s 80th birthday party (although this photo, and party, was less booze and boob filled!!)

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Having a big family is great – my parents went from no grandkids to 7 in 7 years – and then I had an extra couple for good measure! And whilst it’s noisy and chaotic when we’re all together – it’s also great fun.  I wish we could do it more often – but geography doesn’t permit.  So until next time cousins – ‘cheers’ x