We love parties!!!  Planning the kids birthday parties each year is so much fun and something that we love to do all together.  From Ethan's very first birthday party to his fifth party that we're just starting to plan now.  There are so many fantastic ideas for party themes for toddlers, and I really do think that a theme makes a party, so here are our favourite ten themes!



For Ethan's first birthday we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, which is so sweet and perfect for a tiny toddler.  Lots of bright colours and so much inspiration from the book for food and decoration ideas.



For Ivy's first birthday we had a teddy bear themed party, another one that is just perfect for little toddlers.  It's just so cute and cuddly, we were able to give out teddy bears to each of Ivy's little guests and have a little teddy bears picnic for food, it was lovely.



Toddlers always love all forms of transportation, so I love this car themed birthday party from 2Littlefaces.  All the little details are just so sweet and fun for toddlers on the move.  Another firm favourite for all toddlers is definitely pirates!  Check out this adorable pirate party from Hodge Podge Crafts for lots of inspiration!

Any story book themes really are lovely, and we love Winnie the Pooh so that is definitely a fun choice.  The characters are adorable and can easily be used for food and decoration ideas, and it is so easy to find party favours and games to suit the theme.  Another similar theme that works really well for toddlers is Mickey Mouse and there are loads of great party ideas on Spaceships and Laser Beams.



All toddlers love farm animals so a farm party will always go down well, I love these farm themed outdoor party games from Adventures of Adam.  They've also done some adorable farm themed party food.  We had Ivy's second birthday party at a farm, so it had a bit of a farm theme to it, but the main inspiration was Miffy the adorable little bunny.  By using lots of bright orange accessories and cute bunny cut outs we were able to make a perfect day.



Of course you've got to consider kids favourite TV shows as party inspiration too, and there's a big chance that we'll be getting inspiration from this Peppa Pig party from The Jenny Evolution and Paw Patrol party from Kids Activities Blog for this years party plans!



This post is part of a top ten blog hop, check out all of these incredible party ideas for kids!



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We don't get very much snow here in London, we got a small sprinkling a few weeks ago, but that may be it for the whole winter.  So we do as much indoor pretend snow play as we possibly can.

• white balloons
• play tent
• play tunnel

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We are hooked on love bugs!  They are just so cute and we can make them in so many different ways, so today we used egg cartons to make the sweetest little love bugs.



What you'll need:

• egg carton
• red and pink paint
• paint brushes
• googly eyes
• pipe cleaners
• heart stickers
• pom poms
• scissors
• glue

This post is part of a Valentine's Day blog hop of fun ideas!

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We love sensory play, so I'm not quite sure how we haven't made sensory bags before!  But we've now tried our first ones, and absolutely love them.  All the squishy fun without the mess, perfect for those days when you've just cleaned the house but want a great sensory activity.



What you'll need:

• zip seal sandwich bags
• tape
• hair gel
• shaving foam
• heart confetti
• plastic letters

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I can't believe that we have never made cloud dough before!  It's so easy to make and the kids absolutely loved playing with it!



What you'll need:

• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil (or other vegetable oil)
• Kool Aid (cherry flavour)

Most recipes suggest 8 parts flour to 1 part oil and to use either powdered paint, grated chalk or oil based food colouring to colour it.  I decided to try something a bit different with the colouring as I wanted to use something that would be taste safe in case Ivy put some in her mouth. I decided to try Kool Aid as I use it in our favourite play dough recipe and I hoped that it would have the same effect.  Unfortunately it didn't created the same vibrant colour, but it did made our cloud dough a light pink colour and made it smell delicious.


It was easy to mix up and ready to play with in about a minute. I set up a tray each for Ethan and Ivy with our lovely cherry scented pink cloud dough and a variety of heart shaped cookie cutters, scoops and spoons, silicone cupcake cases and a heart shaped ice cube tray.



They were both very intrigued by the cloud dough and were crumbling it and squeezing it together to make shapes. The ice cube tray is a great tool for cloud dough as they can fill it up with as much dough as possible and press it all in, then tip the tray over and push out the formed shapes.


They can also be turned out, Ivy loved turning them over, tapping on the bottom with her spoon and making sandcastle style cakes that she could the sprinkle more cloud dough on to decorate.



The cloud dough was so quick and easy to make and both Ethan and Ivy were completely taken by the activity, both were so focused on what they were doing and played for ages with the cloud dough.  I will continue to experiment with recipes to try and find ways to make vibrant colours and variations of our new favourite dough!

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We've been to see Peppa Pig Live in the newest show called Peppa Pig's Surprise.  It's touring around the UK at the moment, we saw it here in London but you can check the tour website for all of the upcoming dates.

Show images from Peppa Pig's Surprise

We managed to keep it a surprise from the kids, even though we dressed them both in Peppa and George t-shirts and let them bring their Peppa and George toys with them on the train, they didn't ask any questions!  Then as we came closer to the theatre we started spotting children carrying Mr Dinosaur balloons and the kids began to suspect that something was up.  Then we saw a sign for the show and Ethan and Ivy got very excited about what was going to happen!


We got to our seats and Ivy was excited just to see the set, it was already like being in Peppa Pig's world!  She got a bit restless as we waited for the show to start, but as soon as the music came on and the first characters came onto the stage she was absolutely transfixed.  When we saw Peppa's head poke out for the very first time Ivy pointed and shouted 'There's Peppa!!!' and was physically shaking with excitement!  I don't think that I've ever seen her so amazed as that moment.


The show did not disappoint, all of the scenes were staged so well and took place in favourite places from the show like the little red car, the bath and the bunk beds which the kids were so excited to see.  The songs were catchy and got the kids involved with the actions.  The story was sweet and kept the kids interested in what the surprise from Mummy and Daddy Pig would be. 

Image from Peppa Pig's Surprise

The kids absolutely loved the show from start to finish and didn't want to leave when it was over!  I would highly recommend that you take your children to see it as it really is sweet and any little Peppa Pig fans will be completely in awe of seeing their favourite characters up on the stage.  It's a great first show to take kids to as there are so many young children that no one notices if your little one is noisy or moves around a lot in their seats.  It was fantastic and we may just have to go see it again!

Image from Peppa Pig's Surprise

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* This is a review post, we were given tickets to see Peppa Pig's Surprise in order to write our honest opinions about it.*

We have been reading the lovely Three Little Pigs - Slide and See book from Parragon Books.

It's a great book that follows the traditional story of the three pigs, but with the added fun of the slide out pages.  At the end of each page there's a little symbol, then I ask the kids to find the slide out page with the matching symbol and we pull that out and read the next part of the story.  The kids absolutely love sliding out the extra pages, it made the story fun and interactive for them to read it along with me.

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* This is a review post and also contains an affiliate link, we were sent The Three Little Pigs book from Parragon so that we could read it and write our honest opinions about it.*

As the sun sets so much earlier in the winter we are often left with dark afternoons and looking for new ways to play.  One thing that we always love to do is play with toys that light up or glow in the dark.  It's a fun way to explore light and dark, to have some sensory play and to keep busy on a gloomy day.


We have quite a few play tents that we play with in different rooms of the house, but one afternoon we decided to set up our own little tent village all together with a tunnel to connect them.  


Then we collected all of the light up toys and glowing toys that we could find and filled the tents with them.  We also put in a few good books to read, then settled ourselves into the tents with some cushions and blankets for a cosy place to read with our lights.


Ethan and Ivy both absolutely loved it, they were able to have nice cosy quiet time for a little while, then experiment with the different lights, crawling through the tunnel and shining the lights through to guide their way.  It's a fun way to spend a dark afternoon that we'll probably be doing a lot more of throughout January and February!

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We love Winnie the Pooh.  I read the books as a child and read them to my children now. It's wonderful to see that they enjoy the same sweet and simple stories that children have for generations.  In The House at Pooh Corner the characters play a little game called Pooh Sticks, and it's one that Ethan and Ivy love to play as well.



What you'll need:

• a flowing river
• a bridge
• a stick for each player

This post is part of the Winnie the Pooh Day blog hop hosted by Peakle Pie.  Take a look at all of the other Winnie the Pooh fun that people are having today:


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