Top 6 Gifts For A 5 Year Old Girl

Why does it always seem to be someone's birthday?

My children have been invited to so many birthday parties recently and because I like to go shopping with them for interesting gifts to give to their friends, it gave me the idea of putting together a little gift guide for when you find yourself without a gift and need some ideas.

Pick Your Own Fruit, Yes Please!

On a beautiful sunny day I can think of nothing better to do than spend an hour or so in fresh air picking fruit from trees and bushes, and that's exactly what was next on our list for things to do with the family this summer.
We hadn't had very good weather for a few days so when we saw the forecast for some truly summery weather coming our way, we jumped at the chance to plan a day out in the sunshine. If you read my blog regularly you will know that we live in the countryside which makes activities like this slightly easier and we found a place not too far away where we could go and pick fruit ourselves.

Time For A Nature Hunt

Summer is a great time to be out and about, especially with the little ones. When it's nice weather you don't want to be cooped up inside, you want to be outside enjoying the sunshine but what can you do so the kids don't get bored? Well here's a seriously easy and low-cost idea...

Healthy Chicken Wraps // Family Meals

I am on a constant search for meals for my family that are healthy, fulfilling and affordable. I want to make sure that we get the right nutrients that contribute to a balanced diet so I'm really happy when I can pull together a relatively simple meal like this that the whole family (including picky eaters) will enjoy.

Turning 31!

I can't believe that it's been a whole year since I entered into my thirties! Where did the time go? I feel like I was only just getting used to the big 30 and now I've got to add a one onto it.
I'm not afraid of aging as we experience things differently as we get older and I must admit that since last year I have been looking at my life and the world through new eyes.
I didn't want a party or anything like that this year because I didn't really see the point anymore. Instead my friends and family wished me happy birthday and gave me a few small gifts (even though I told them not to get me anything) and to be honest; I enjoyed this birthday far more than in previous years. Perhaps it is because I had no expectations and instead just concentrated on enjoying the day. I was in a seriously positive mood and the sun was shining so I just enjoyed my day and continued on with my normal daily life with the added bonus of cake ;)

Are you in your early 30's or about to enter them? Do you see things differently than you did in your twenties?

Have a great day!

An Afternoon At The Beach

Summer is finally here and the school holidays are fast approaching. If you are like me then you're probably putting your thinking cap firmly on and trying to come up with ideas of what to do with the little ones that won't cost an arm and a leg. It's no secret that money is tighter nowadays than ever and most 'family days out' just aren't very affordable so I thought I'd start a new theme of posts about finding things to do with the kids that cost as little as possible but will still be lots of fun.

5 Tips To Help Your Child To Brush Their Teeth Better

Teaching your children how to brush their teeth properly can be a bit tedious at times, especially when they're really small and don't completely understand why you want to stick a brush with slimy toothpaste on it into their mouths.

Packing Guide For A Sleepover

 

As any parent will undoubtedly encounter, there comes a time when your child will have their first sleepover. This is a time filled with mixed feelings of worry that they'll be away from home for the first time and also of elation that you will finally have the evening all to yourselves without having to be concerned whether the TV is too loud.

Bars Of Soap Are Making A Comeback

Just a quick one today as we head into the weekend. When I was growing up we always had lovely smelling bars of soap with which to wash with, but somewhere along the way bars of soap went 'out of fashion'. I'm not sure when this happened exactly but everyone began using liquid soap and I must admit that we followed suit. I don't know why. Especially when you consider that liquid soap is way more expensive, packaged in plastic and lasts a fraction of the time. Bars of soap became something that granny's use and weren't 'hip' anymore.

Healthy Chicken & Vegetable Stir-fry

I am on a mission to find healthy meals to feed the family, which can appear like a tall order sometimes. Fortunately there are loads of recipes around at the moment and everyone seems to be concentrating on these two key factors; healthy and cheap.

What to wear... Summer Dress Edition

Are you stuck for ideas on what to wear this summer?
You want to look nice and stay cool as we welcome in the glorious season that is summer. Here you'll find a selection of dresses that range from pretty florals to catchy prints and can be easily adapted for day and night.

Golden Flapjacks

I've been thinking about making something yummy for a while now and I've been a huge fan of oats since I had my youngest daughter. Having never made flapjacks before, I began perusing the internet for recipes and found that there are many different ways of making them. As I didn't find one that I was completely happy with, I decided to adapt one in my own way.

10 Ideas For The Easter Break

 

Only a couple of days left until a nice long weekend filled with chocolate, goodies and hopefully lots of fun! I am seriously looking forward to it so have been trawling through Pinterest (like I need an excuse) looking for ideas for food and fun things to do with the kids this weekend.

Decorating of The Easter Branch // Paastak versieren

Spring is here and Easter is almost upon us and here in the Netherlands you can find an abundance of chocolate eggs and decorations in the shops. You can also find these particular Easter branches (paastakken) for sale in supermarkets and florists. I'm not sure whether this tradition exists only in the Netherlands or if people also do it elsewhere in Europe, but the idea of it is to have these branches in your home to celebrate the arrival of the spring season.

March Beauty Faves & Chit Chat

It's warming up outside and winter is fast becoming a faded memory, finally! March was a busy month for me and I kept it pretty neutral and basic when it came to the beauty products that I used.

My Night Time Routine

I think that everyone has their own routine at the end of a busy day. That could be jumping straight into your pajamas or having a long soak in the bath. Whatever suits you to unwind and get ready for some well earned beauty sleep.

5 DIY projects to try this weekend

I'm always on the lookout for new ideas to add quirky splashes of colour and design to my home. Here are 5 DIY projects that are easy to do and have a great result, enjoy!

What I've been up to // Update

Well it's been a busy couple of weeks but I've managed to squeeze in some time to do a few things like baking and cooking healthier meals. I can't stand being bored but at the same time I don't like being rushed off my feet because I'm so busy. I prefer my days to be somewhere in between but unfortunately it cannot always be that way. Anyway, what have I been up to?

hola, amigos! // Learning a new language

Learning a new language is never easy and especially for someone like me who has never been able to truly wrap my head around any other language than my mother tongue. But that doesn't mean a girl can't try though and I've decided to take up learning Spanish.

Bursting blueberry muffins

When you're trying to live a happier, healthier life I think it's extremely important to treat yourself from time to time. That's why we decided that if we're going to have a dessert, then we'd only have one during the weekends. This doesn't mean that we pig out on loads of bad stuff after dinner, but more like we make our own desserts when we fancy it. When you make something yourself you know exactly what you're putting into it and therefore cut out most (if not all) of the preservatives and unexpected additives that food manufacturers add into the desserts you can buy ready done.

3 Great Drugstore Mascaras // Musthaves

I feel like I'm constantly in search of new mascaras that are both affordable and really good to work with my seriously stubborn lashes. Now I feel like I can narrow it down to my favourite three mascaras out of the ones I used. These are the ones that I will certainly consider buying again and would recommend to others.

Salmon & Broccoli Quiche // recipe

Finding the time to cook a meal from scratch can be extremely challenging when you're trying to juggle work and a family at the same time, but I think it is important to feed my family healthy home cooked meals.

7 Healthy Evening Meals

Meal planners are all the rage at the moment as we are all trying to better organize our lives so in line with jumping on the bandwagon, I've collected together seven of my favourite recipes from Pinterest to help you plan for every evening of the week. Enjoy!

Huishoudbeurs + Horus Egyptian Bronzing Powder

Well it's been an extremely busy week so I haven't had much time to sit down and relax my mind enough to post much. But I thought I'd take a few minutes to share something that I picked up at the huishoudbeurs at the weekend.

A journey of the smartphone kind

I've had many mobile phones over the years and I can remember most, if not all of them. They've all had their own charms from the very first Nokia I owned to the numerous flip phones and then of course, the generation of the smartphone began.

Budget singles

I am a huge fan of drug store brands and I thought I'd round up a few of my favourite single eye shadows.

My new MUA eye palettes

Whilst out shopping for a present for my daughters birthday last week in Den Hague I popped into a rather large Kruidvat and was pleased to find that they stocked make up by MUA. You can't find this brand in many of the shops here so when I come across one that sells it, I can't help but leap at the chance at picking something up.

Workout Wednesday

Well I must admit it that I failed to complete the 28 day Zumba challenge. I got about half way through and then had to stop for all manner of excuses reasons... too busy, injured knee, lack of energy etc etc. So now I'm back to my normal routine of going to the gym three times a week and the odd zumba session (due to the still tender knee) but I am always on the lookout for other exercises that I can try out at home and of course Pinterest comes in very handy as usual.

Birthday card DIY

This year is all about DIY for me and the girls' birthday cards were no exception so I put on my creative thinking cap and wanted to design some cards that were pretty and a bit different from cards that I've made before.

Party weekend

At the weekend, we celebrated 3 birthdays in total. Both of my daughters' had their birthdays and parties, and my sister-in-law also. I have never eaten so much cake in the space of a few days in my life!

Pretty Party Lights DIY

This is a very busy week for me as both of my daughters' birthdays are this week... I know, great planning! This is also the first year that they are having separate parties as they are now both at school and have their own friends so instead of trying to cater for kids with a 4 year age gap, I decided to take the plunge and plan two parties.

Tech update - Samsung Galaxy Note 4

It is no secret to those who know me that I am a bit of a tech geek. I love tinkering with gadgets and gizmo's so it's no surprise that my new phone is the fancy (tablet-sized) Note 4 by Samsung.

Tea light spruce up DIY

Just a quick post today to share one of the great ideas that I've adopted from my hours of trawling through Pinterest. This simple craft is so easy and adds a little touch of fun to those boring silver tea light holders.

L'Oréal True Match Foundation

Keeping with the theme of shopping my stash, I thought it was time to talk about this foundation. I have been falling in and out of love with it for a couple of months and find myself reaching for it again at the moment. The one I have is in the shade R5-C5 Rose Sand and is quite a good match for my skin tone.

5 Quotes I love

I'm not sure why but I have a thing about quotes at the moment. Perhaps I need that extra push that you get from inspirational words so that I can stay positive and keep my life on track. They definitely do inspire me and challenge me to look at things in different ways, so I want to share my favourites. Enjoy!

5 city breaks I'd like to take

There is something exhilarating about jumping in the car or hopping on a plane and taking off for a weekend away somewhere new. We've decided to take more mini breaks rather than one big holiday per year as I think you get to experience a lot more things and it's easier to keep to a budget. In December, we went to Brussels in Belgium which you can read about here. We were there only for the day but we had a great time taking a chilled out walk around the city. We also went to a very cool museum whilst we were there which was fun for both us and the kids.

Here are some more places I'd like to visit...

Most used lip products

In the aftermath of the festive season, many of us are tightening our belts and trying to budget as much as possible. I have noticed many bloggers having spend-free months so thought that I would jump on the band wagon and shop my stash and where better to start than with my most used lip products.

Sesame seed crunchies

I love baking and I love baking with my kids even more. I think it's a great way of teaching them about food and the wonderful yummy things that they can create. This time I was accompanied by my youngest daughter who is already an avid baker at just 4 years old. She felt like baking so we cracked on and baked these delicious sesame seed crunchy cookies.

Super quick nails with Catrice

I have never been a fan of white nail polish but I must say that this one is lovely. It has a mother of pearl effect which sets it apart from the standard white polish as it has a shimmery marble effect to it. 

With an already busy schedule, I wanted to do my nails really quickly and as I hadn't tried out this nail polish since I bought it, then I thought I'd give it a go.

Let's talk about kids!

As more people around me have become new parents, then I thought I'd share my views and experiences on the subject. I am the proud mother to two beautiful daughters who I totally love to bits. I can honestly say that becoming a mum has changed my life so much and I am thankful for every moment that I spend with my children. I'm not saying that it's easy though, in fact; it's bloody hard work being a mum!

Getting to know myself better

As I get older I find myself reflecting upon my life and myself more and more, and thinking about what I want in my life. I want to be healthier and take care of myself better so I have been doing more research into the little things that I can change to make me happier with who I am and what my life is like.

Shimmery natural day look

I'm a sucker for natural day time looks, so when I got the Naked palette from Urban Decay for Christmas, I was over the moon and couldn't wait to try it out.

Naked palette // Urban Decay

If I wasn't like a kid at Christmas already, then I totally became one when I untied the pretty bow on the lush black box and opened it to reveal the Naked palette by Urban Decay. I think I actually squealed with joy! (totally unlike me) I've wanted this palette for so long but haven't gotten around to buying it. My husband knows me so well of course and got this for me as a special christmas surprise.

3 New Years Resolutions for 2015!

Well another year has passed and you may or may not have achieved your goals during 2014. As you can't change the past, all you can do is look to the future and set some new goals for the new year.