Mayfield Lavender Farm

If its July, its sunny and youre in Surrey, this place is a must see! There are simply fields and fields of lavender plantations that will dazzle you with delicious smells and vibrant colours. Its great for taking special photos too. There is a quaint little lavender shop on site which serves coffees and some interesting lavender themed food!

Witch Party

We were honoured to have my beautiful little niece Stella visit from South Africa just after her birthday this year and her party mad Auntie didnt miss the opportunity to throw her a little celebration! She wanted a witch bash so here it is, the "English half" of the family were very happy to be share to celebrate this very special day :)

 

The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a perfect day trip or weekend getaway from London and the surrounds. The passenger ferry from Southampton to Rhyde is less than 15 minutes, and the car one takes around 45 minutes.

The beautiful sandy Rhyde beach 

Rhyde alone makes for a great day trip with the kids in good weather. The beach has its own "Rapunzel tower", amusement park, water fountain park, pool, waltzing water lake & swan boat rides, and a few beach side eateries. 

Venturing further into the Island there are beautiful stone villages and grassy landscapes to discover 

Godstone

On the far side of the Island are The Needles and Yarmouth.... the views are breath-taking!!

Yarmouth Harbour

The kids loved the ferry ride :)

West Wittering Beach

This is my favourite nearby beach, its an hours drive from Oxshott, and about an hour and a half from London. I definitely recommend it on a hot day, and its quite pleasant for swimming too as the water is shallow. Although the beach is huge, with acres and acres of parking, it does get busy and can be a bottle-neck towards the late afternoon .. so get there early and dont leave too late!

Perfect tobogganing conditions!

More fun activities for kids

Here are some quick, easy kids activities ....

1. PAINT IN A BAG

This is a great mess-free fingerprinting activity that can be used over and over again. Simply squirt some paint into a zip lock bag, squeeze out the air, and hang up onto a window .. Presto!

2. BUBBLE SOCKS

You will need  a sock, some dishwash solution, an old bottle with the base cut off and optional food colouring

Slide the sock over the bottle, and seal with sellotape ...

Squirt some colours onto the sock face, and dip the bottle into the solution. Blow into the pouring end and you will make a long rainbow of bubbles!

3. BAKING SODA VOLCANOES

Here mix vinegar with food colouring in different containers. Empty a tub of baking soda into a large tray and allow the kids to spoon in the coloured vinegar. The mixture will bubble and rise, my 3 year old loved this one!

4. GLOW IN THE DARK BATH

The title says it all... so simple! Poundland sells packs of glow sticks and other such illuminating things, switch off the lights and blackout the lights.. add some bubbles, and let them have a long fun bath. 

5. SPAGHETTI HOLDERS

Let the kids paint and an old Pringles tin.. and label it. Its the perfect size to store a lot of spaghetti! 

Paint Your Own Clothes!

Today we decided to play with fabric paints ...

A seller on eBay has sets of 10 fabric paints pens for £2 all in and they sure are worth their weight... we  really managed to spice up and personalise some old ragged t-shirts.

Heres what we did ....

First we printed out some extra large letters onto normal A4 paper. Then put greaseproof paper over the letters, traced them and cut out the inside. During this process, we made sure that the shiny side of the baking paper pointed downwards so as to stick onto the shirt during ironing.

Then I ironed on the letter outlines with the iron on full heat and steam function off.

Then the kiddies had their fun and scribbled bright colours all over their letters. (note- my particular make of greaseproof paper wasnt always holding well, so i eventually reinforced it with sellotape)

After the paints dried we peeled off the tape and paper... and voila!

Other designs were also made by using masking tape stuck vertical and horizontally across the shirt. This one is not bad considering and 18 month old painted it!!

Shaving Cream Artisans

Tonight the kiddies had some fun before their baths. We simply threw a few drops of food colouring into muffin "easels" of shaving cream!

Turned out it was more fun painting themselves in monsters than the bathroom walls :)

Here are some pics

... and it all turned into a monster painting session!!