[Ad- gifted product] When it comes to what I wear, I have been making more of an effort lately – especially as lockdown has started to ease – to find clothing that looks good on me. My clothing did need a bit of an overhaul and finding smart t-shirts that could be versatile, something that can be worn with jeans for a casual look or done up with a cardigan to be something a bit more sleek, was exactly what I needed.
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. There are quite a few cat cafes nearby, including London’s first ever cat cafe Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, but many of those have age restrictions. Because of Robin’s age, 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 choose 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.
[Ad- gifted product]Â 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.
[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.
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.