Dann Sullivan, Author at Jupiter & Dann ⋆ Page 7 of 23

Afternoon Tea with Cats at Whiskers & Cream Cat Cafe

Posted on June 17, 2021July 8, 2024 by Dann Sullivan

It’s no secret that everyone in this home really loves cats and kittens! Pancake, our own cat, is quite spoiled with toys, attention, and treats. We decided to go out one day to the Whiskers & Cream cat cafe to hang out with some new cats while eating treats of our own. When booking to visit the cat cafe, you can either pay an admissions fee (which comes with a free drink) or book for afternoon tea, where there are a bunch of different menus for food options from vegan to children’s menus!

We decided to go for lunch, picking the normal afternoon tea for us adults and the children’s afternoon tea for the children, but let’s talk about the cats. There are 9 cats in Whiskers & Cream – and you are told about each of them. All of these cats have different personalities and like different toys. After being introduced to everyone (and having our food served) it was up to us if we wanted to snack or go play. The kids were able to talk to the staff to find out different cat’s favourite toys, before trying to play with them! Many of the cats were playful, Jasper being the biggest, loudest, and most excited cat.

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Creating a moving 4-Cylinder Engine with Machine Works | Review

Posted on June 14, 2021August 27, 2024 by Dann Sullivan

[Ad- gifted product] Earlier this week I built a moving 4-Cylinder Engine, part of the Machine Works range with my eldest son. It’s a fascinating kit, perfect for those who are mechanically minded, or who really enjoy building models. There are a lot of different people out there, and as such there’s a lot of different hobbies out there. I’m not actually very mechanically minded; I struggle with instruction booklets and normally ‘process of elimination’ my way through troubleshooting things. However, I’m really like seeing how things work, from microchips through electronics to machines. The 4-Cylinder Engine kit is a safe, accessible way to learn the core of how an engine works, and comes complete with a manual full of extra information, as well as an AR-based App.

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KiwiCo Tinker Crate – Spin Art Machine | Review

Posted on June 9, 2021August 27, 2024 by Dann Sullivan

[Ad- gifted product] In our continued mission to find the best subscription boxes for kids, we’ve given KiwiCo’s Tinker Crate a go, and the first box was fantastic. Subscription boxes have developed a lot over the years, I’m not sure exactly when they first became a thing – but I think most of us remember the magazine subscriptions that offered one book of a set of twenty, or a single dinosaur bone per issue. Somewhere along the line, somebody started a cool, activity subscription box, and the whole thing has blown up since.

We’ve dabbled with a lot of these subscription boxes over the last year, giving the kids some fun new ways to learn while homeschooling or in lockdown. We’ve shifted them too, trying to make sure that we don’t get too comfortable with any one in particular. KiwiCo’s Tinker Crate was the next one up for us, and – as it turns out – they’re really onto something.

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A Day Out at Bodiam Castle

Posted on April 21, 2021January 30, 2025 by Dann Sullivan

I am a big fan of history and do enjoy walking around castles. There is something quite fun about looking around at ruins, especially those that use to look so daunting and impressive, but now have missing pieces, are no longer used, and are not up to current standards of living. I don’t often pass up an opportunity to share history with my children either, and with our National Trust cards in hand, I was excited to get along to some castles! One of the first on our list was Bodiam Castle, since it’s not that far from our home at all. This site end up being one of our favourite sites from the National Trust in Essex.

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My Perspective on Single Parents Day 2021

Posted on March 21, 2021July 6, 2021 by Dann Sullivan

Every year it feels like there are more and more national, or international, days. Single Parents Day is an interesting one because from person to person the definition of a single parent varies quite drastically. I don’t normally use the blog for much more than reviews or days out, as I’m quite a busy person, but this felt like a really good opportunity for me to talk about some of my experiences over the last few years. I’ve got three children, and they live between two homes. While they’re here I’m lucky enough to have my partner, Jupiter, helping me out – and she helps out a lot. So, in many ways, I don’t ‘parent alone’, but by some people’s definition, I’m a single parent.

The classic view of the role of a parent has changed a lot over the years. When I was at secondary school only one kid in our friend group had separated parents, and it seemed like a really rare thing. There was always a stigma around people separating, especially if they had children, and the general consensus was to keep muscling on in the relationship regardless. But at times that is the equivalent of telling somebody with a broken arm to “suck it up”. It turns out that divorce before 1900 was incredibly uncommon, with less than 1000 in a year in the 140 years before that. However, there was a big ol’ peak in that after WWII ended, and then it became incredibly in vogue through the 60s and 70s. Despite over 100’000 annual divorces (in the UK) since 1972, there was still a big stigma around couples separating. But, having a child or being in a relationship isn’t synonymous with marriage.

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