As a parent we all know about the sleepless nights, the running around after active toddlers and children, the rush of the school run and the multitasking we all have to do. I think we are all in it together! One thing I have discovered a love for to help me through is coffee. Yes, I have actually fallen in love with my nespresso machine! I am sure lots of you can relate to this.

I have discovered a great brand of coffee to use in my machine…..cafepod. I was lucky enough to be sent a range of cafe pod coffees to review, which I must confess I have very much enjoyed trying them out.

Smooth

First up was the cafe pod smooth. It is a medium coffee (strength 5) which I found made it perfect to have mid-morning with my homemade shortbread. As the name suggests it is a lovely smooth coffee with an underlying hint of chocolate and walnut flavour. I felt this was great for anytime of the day or place.

Ristretto

Next I tried the Ristretto, as it is the strongest (strength 10) and I needed a pick me up after a night out with the girls. It was a very deep, bold coffee which revived me at my kitchen table with breakfast. It had flavours of dark chocolate and red fruits as well as an underlying hint of spice. This is definitely a great choice when needing a wake up boost!

Intense

I tried the cafe pod Intense (strength 8) sat outside in the garden whilst blogging. It was a rich, heavy bodied coffee which I enjoyed. It had a slight hint of dark chocolate. I am pleased to say this kept me going through my writing.

Arabica Lungo

Then lastly, I wanted to try something different. I tried the Arabica Lungo (strength 4) as an iced coffee. It was such a lovely day, I fancied my coffee iced. It had a lovely aroma of toffee and a pleasant sweetness with hints of red berry flavours. It was very refreshing sat outside watching the birds cooling down with my iced coffee.

I very much liked all the coffees, they all have slightly different flavours and strengths which makes them perfect for different times of the day. I don’t think I could choose my favourite as it very much depends on my mood (or tiredness) of each day. However, I think the Cafepod smooth is probably the most versatile and is lovely drunk anytime of day, anywhere.

 

Disclaimer “I was sent four boxes of coffee for the purpose of this review, however, all opinions are my own”.

 

One of our goals this summer is to decorate and kit out the children’s den. Last weekend I thought we should make a start.

We have an old shed type building tucked round the side of the house which hardly got used, so I cleared it out with the idea of turning it into a den for the children. We recently gave out little playhouse, which they loved, to my Nephews as my kids had outgrown it, so I wanted to find them another area in the garden they could have fun in. 

After clearing out the shed a few weeks ago, we added a picnic rug to the floor and a few cushions I found in the loft. I placed a plank of wood on some bricks to make a shelf. This was all good, but it looked boring.

So I rummaged round in the garage and dug out three pots of old paint, gave them to the children with some brushes and let them loose on their den.

They had a great time painting and decorating. They had a wall each to paint and 1 tin of paint colour each. That was how they started.

However, a little later, they all decided to swap paint colours. They wanted a multicoloured wall! As it is their den, I let them do whatever they wanted and this is the result……

I must admit, I think they did a really good job and they are very pleased with their work. Now they can’t wait to start adding the rest of the decorations. I will let you know how we get on.

This is a linky all about letting kids be kids, getting back to basics and having great childhood fun. We live in such a fast paced modern world with so much technology and stresses round every corner, we often need to be reminded to just ‘play’ and have fun, it’s healthy for us all (yes, that includes you parents!).

Please join me in spreading the word, for encouraging children to step away from the technology for a while and go out, run around, use their imaginations and just have general basic FUN!

Last week, we had a good time with some salt painting and we have made a start to decorating the children’s den which is one of our summer bucket list activities, though we still have lots more to do.

As always there were lots of fab posts linked up last week. I loved the ideas for a rainy day boredom jar via My life my love and Becoming a stay at home mum had loads of fun recreating the beach at home. I also thought the fathers day bunting at Loving life with little ones was fantastic and you could use it for other occasions too.

There’s not many rules, just link up your posts (screen free), old or new, about genuine childhood fun (of any age). It may be fun outdoors, jumping in puddles, nature hunts, riding bikes or making mud pies. Or it may be fun indoors with arts and crafts, making dens, cooking, messy play or reading. Or how about visiting a farm or fun at a fete. Or a discussion about children growing up too fast, etc.

Whatever basic fun you have been having or discussing, link up and share your ideas, visit others to get inspiration and comment on as many as you can to give each other encouragement and support, but most importantly, HAVE FUN!

This linky will open every Tuesday for 6 days, so there’s plenty of time to add your posts.

Please spread the word and grab my badge if possible from my sidebar.

If you tweet me your link (@karenattwinlife), I will happily retweet.

Follow the let kids be kids linky board on pinterest.

If you have any good posts that you think Let kids be kids would like to hear about, please share on my Facebook page too here.

Back in April I was lucky enough to be selected to become a wildcard for the 2013/14 Center Parcs Family Blogger club! You can enter too if you take a look at the blogger challenges here. 

As a family we have been so excited about our holiday to Center Parcs. We couldn’t wait to get there. Here is our Center Parcs experience……

Center Parcs experience

Center Parcs Longleat is set in a very peaceful, beautiful environment embedded in the forest. During our stay we were surrounded by nature, which means we couldn’t prevent the feeling of tranquility and happiness, great for stress reduction. It is quite hilly though, so if you go be prepared for a bit of exercise too. However, there is a land train which regularly drives around the village if you prefer.

We stayed in a woodland lodge, which was very spacious, clean and had good facilities. We cooked meals quite comfortably, alternatively we could even have used the BBQ. Our lodge was amongst the trees of the forest, hence we were able to relax in the evening and watch the wildlife outside. The best part was seeing a deer with its baby right outside our lodge, the most relaxing entertainment we could have asked for.

One great thing about Center Parcs was that during our stay (apart from arrival and departure days), there were no cars in the village, which makes it fantastic for children to run around safely and ride bikes without the worry of traffic. We each hired bikes for the duration of our stay. It was very easy to hire the bikes, there were loads to choose from depending on your ability and age. There were even trailers for little ones.

At first my son was a bit wobbly on his bike, he is not quite confident on two wheels yet and hubby hasn’t been on a bike for 25 yrs, so we went for a gently ride around the quiet roads until everyone settled into it, then we were off. The kids absolutely loved riding their bikes. It was great to see BB gain confidence as well as Pinky and Boo, looking very cute on their little bikes, enjoying their cycling experience that we don’t normally get to do as a whole family. We even went for a bike ride after dinner, which made a lovely evening activity together.

There is so much to do at Center Parcs, with loads of activities to choose from, take a look here. There are activities suitable for  all ages, from toddlers through to the older adults. I would recommend you take a good look at the activities before your holiday if you go and book them in advance to be sure of a place and also budget. My children all chose to try mini jet skis and they really loved it! They all rode round on their skis in the water independently giggling away. Hubby chose to do aqua jetting. He said it was good fun being pulled along under the water. I didn’t have any activities booked, but after watching everyone else having fun learning something new, my family persuaded me to choose something, so I booked a segway experience as it’s something I’ve never tried before. This was also great fun and I would recommend it. All our activities I will write about in a separate post.

Apart from the organised activities, there is still loads to do. The children loved the playground, especially the zip wire. They even took to standing on it at the end! We spent quite a lot of time in the playground, on the slides, climbing, swinging etc. We also had  fun on the beach at the lake. The kids loved playing in the sand and water, watching the pedalos, eating ice cream and getting wet!

The other fantastic thing to do there, is swimming. The swimming pool is amazing! It is the best pool I’ve been in. There are family changing rooms and don’t forget to take £1 for the lockers (which you get back). There is lots to do in the pool and the toddler area is perfect for small children with  slides and even a sand pit. The big pool has waves every half an hour, a lazy river to float around, there is a jacuzi, water shutes and slides for bigger people and an outdoor pool which is just like a bath it’s so warm! We had a lot of fun in that pool. We even borrowed buoyancy aids. It felt like they really have thought of everything.

We enjoyed a couple of meals out during our stay. We had a wonderful Fathers day meal at the Grand Cafe. The food was delicious and the staff were very friendly and helpful, they even came to help me serve my children, as I don’t have enough hands to help 3 small children at the same time. We also had a meal at the American Diner which has a kids buffet  that the children loved and also a children’s play area, so they could go off and play whilst waiting. I must admit, you probably need to budget for meals out as they can be quite pricey, but they are worth it.

All in all, we had the most amazing holiday at Longleat Center Parcs. According to my son:

“Center Parcs is the best place in the world”!

Well, you can’t really beat that quote can you? I asked BB to write down the 5 best things about Center Parcs, here is his answer…..

1. The jet skis
2. The swimming
3. The lodge house
4. Riding the bikes
5. The forest

My top 5 tips for your 1st stay at Center Parcs:

1. PLAN – I think the key is to plan your holiday. Check out the activities and book them before you get there. Plan your budget and meals. There are lots of great places to eat out, or there is a good shop for you to buy food to cook in your lodge too.
2. SWIMMING POOL – If you go to Center Parcs, the swimming pool is a must. It is fantastic for all swimming abilities and ages, there is something for everyone.
3. BIKES – Hire bikes or bring your own, it is the best way to get around as the village is quite large, the roads are quiet, though you do need to be careful of other people and it is fun.
4. EXPLORE – Take a walk or ride around the village, through the forest, around the lake, it is all beautiful, quiet and relaxing. You find all sorts of interesting things when you explore the area.
5. TRY SOMETHING NEW – Center Parcs has so many fantastic opportunities to offer, I would recommend having a go at something you’ve never done before, it’s great!

This was the best holiday we have had as a family. It gave us good quality family time together from the moment we got up to the moment we went to bed!

Here’s where you can find out more about Visiting Center Parcs.

This weeks theme prompt for play, fun and activities is rainbow.

My kids love drawing rainbows, you can pretty much guarantee in every drawing session Pinky will draw one. This weeks weather seems to be so changeable, I thought this would be a nice choice for a theme to prompt some activities.

10 rainbow themed activities

If you like drawing rainbows like my children, then here is a great idea for some lovely rainbow art via Buggy and Buddy.

I always think it’s a good idea, for kids who are old enough to understand, to show them how to create a rainbow with some simple science. Here’s is a really fun way to demonstrate this via Inner child fun.

I love the look of these bright and colourful rainbow sensory bottles and musical shakers, great for babies and toddlers, but also good for older children to dance around with to some music from My little 3 and me This idea for a rainbow scavenger hunt is a fab idea for toddlers to learn colours from How wee learn.

How about creating a rainbow with some outdoor chalk paint from Learn play imagine.These rainbow cupcakes look delicious and easy to make. I think children would love them from A typical English homeThe Nurture Store has a great post on rainbow themed math activities if you fancy throwing some learning into the mix.

This rainbow spaghetti sensory play from Fun at home with kids is a lovely way to talk about colours at the same time as enjoy some sensory play.I love the idea of making a rainbow necklace, it’s bright, fun, creative and will teach sizes too from Hands on as we growHere is another simple fun craft activity to make rainbows from Happiness is homemade

I must admit, I love the theme this week, it is so bright and colourful, there are so many things you could make and do. It is a fantastic theme to help teach little ones about colours and maybe older children about mixing colours. Or you could use it to teach children about the weather.

I hope you have lots of fun with your rainbow colours this week.