I mean what sounds better than spending a week in a Tuscan villa?  It was glorious, but I do want to share a lot of the details as it was a bit more difficult to plan than some of our other holidays.  I think because most people want to just chill out and explore, not over plan like me!  But in case you are an over planner, hopefully hearing what we got up to will help you a little bit and give you a few ideas to add to your list!


We flew from London to Pisa, then drove our hire car to the villa that we had booked for the week.  We booked the villa through Airbnb and it was sensational, it had absolutely everything that we needed and more.  The villa was in Montecatini val di Cecina and it took us about an hour to drive there from the airport (longer actually as we got a bit lost trying to find the actual villa, which tells you how remote it truly was!)


We arrived on a Sunday, which meant that many shops were closed, but luckily we found a small shop to buy some basic groceries to last us the first day.  I would highly recommend looking for a shop on the way to the villa as once you're there you won't want to leave again.  Then we were able to spend the rest of the first day at our villa getting settled in and swimming in the pool.


On day two we drove into the town of Montecatini val di Cecina and explored a bit more.  There are a few cute little shops, a deli and a bakery and a couple of restaurants as well.  We had lunch at a restaurant called La Terrrazza sul Borgo and went for a walk up the hill to get a view of the valley below.  It is absolutely beautiful, definitely worth a look around if you're in the area (but not somewhere I would recommend going out of your way to see as it is quite small.)


On day three we went to Volterra, which I would definitely recommend going to!  We parked down at the bottom and walked up to a scenic lookout over the town. We then wandered through the cute little streets and found ourselves at Teatro Romano di Volterra which is the ruins of the old roman theatre, we were too late to buy tickets to go in, but we actually got a fantastic view by walking on the roads all along the top of it.  We had pizza for dinner at a restaurant called La Mangiatoia which had outdoor tables and really nice pizzas.  Then went to a place across the street for gelato.  Volterra was not overly busy and just had a wonderful feeling to it, it is definitely a town I would visit again.


On day four we just had a pool day at the villa and relaxed and ate lots of lovely Italian food.  We found that even the food that we bought from the big grocery store in Volterra was so good, but we had also picked up some local produce and olive oil to enjoy while we were there.


On day five we ventured into Florence to explore and see the sights.  It was an extremely hot day and very, very crowded.  We saw the Piazza san Marco and walked along the Ponte Vecchio bridge.  It was actually a bit much for the children so we didn't stay for too long.  We had lunch there but not at anywhere that fantastic that I would particularly recommend, and we had gelato at one of the little places by the bridge.  Florence is beautiful, don't get me wrong, and luckily my husband and I had visited and stayed in Florence for a few days years ago.  But this day was not the ideal time to visit and the kids just were not into it.  So I would highly recommend doing a bit more research and having a plan if you are planning to take kids to Florence as I am sure that there are more things that they would enjoy which we just did not find.



Day six was beach day!  We went to Marina di Bibbona for a swim in the sea and a walk around.  It is a lovely beach and we were able to find a nice spot to get settled to spend a good few hours paddling.  There are several snack bars further along the beach, so we were able to go there to pick up some gelato (of course!) and there were loads of people selling all sorts of items on the beach, so even if you are completely unprepared you would be able to buy absolutely anything!


That evening we were looking for a place to have dinner and stumbled upon the town of Bibbona which was a short drive from the beach and was absolutely breathtaking!  We had dinner at a fantastic pizza restaurant called L'Orto Etrusco and then walked around the village at night.  It was like walking through a film set based in Tuscany, it was so beautiful that it actually didn't look real!  Photos do not do it justice, but please do visit if you are nearby.


On day seven we went for a fabulous lunch at a restaurant on the outskirts of Montecatini Val di Cecina called Locanda Le Giunche which we would highly recommend.  The food was fantastic and the scenery is sensational.  We all had the most wonderful relaxed lunch and it was the perfect was to end our stay in Tuscany.


There are a few sunflower fields nearby so we stopped for some photos on the way back to the villa.


On our very last day we sadly packed up the villa and drove to Pisa to finally see the tower before our flight home.  We found a place to park quite near to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and walked over.  It was extremely crowded and busy but we managed to get some fun photos and buy a couple of cheesy souvenirs.  I definitely think it's worthwhile to see the tower, but it's definitely not necessary to spend more than a day in Pisa as there wasn't much else to see or do there.  We weren't successful in finding very good food for lunch, but we did find some fantastic gelato at Gelateria De' Coltelli which is definitely worth the trek to the bridge to find!  Again I am sure that there are some other terrific sights and eats so I would recommend a bit more research if you can (but do visit the gelateria we went to as it was so good!)


And that was the end of our trip!  It was lovely and relaxing at the villa, we enjoyed exploring all of the little villages and eating as much gelato as we possibly could!  We weren't extremely impressed by the bigger cities, not that they don't have incredible historical sights, but more because of the extreme crowds and summer heat, which are both things to take into consideration.  Have you been to Tuscany, please let me know what you enjoyed and I can add it to the post!



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As you may remember from last month, we are part of the summer Bloggers Board Game Club with Asmodee and had so much fun with our Who Did It? Game Review last month.  This month we're playing Exploding Kittens and it is another hilarious and fun game to play as a family.

If you do get an exploding kitten and have a defuse card, you then play it and place the exploding kitten back into the deck.  This can also be done strategically if you want to place it on the top for the next player or similar, or randomly in the deck.


However if you don't have a defuse card you are then out of the game.  I can see how this is another game that will be brought out again and again and how the children will become more and more strategic about how they play.  It's definitely a keeper!



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* This is a review post, we were sent the Exploding Kittens game as part of the Bloggers Board Game Club, to play with and review all opinions are our own.*

The lovely people at Jazwares have sent us a full set of Nanables to play with and enjoy (read our full Nanables review here) but they have also allocated us two to giveaway to one lucky reader!




Enter here for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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We have been sent these absolutely adorable Nanables from Jazwares and I just can't get over how cute they are!  They are teeny tiny little houses and shops from the Sweetness Town and Rainbow Way sets.



We received a box of six different Nanables (which are available to buy from Smyths Toys) to play with and explore.  Our first impressions were that the houses are adorable!  They each come with two little Nanos (people) which really are tiny (so these toys are definitely only suitable for slightly older children, they recommend age 6 and above).



The Nanables are perfect for collecting, exploring and playing with.  We've got the Dusted Donut Diner, Milk and Cookie Mill and Lolli-Pop Stars Dance Studio from Sweetness Town set and the Sparkle Day Spa, Rainbow-tique and Twinkle, Twinkle Inn from the Rainbow Way set.



When you open up the packaging you will see the dwelling and one nano through the dome, then when you take the base off and turn it over you will find your second surprise nano.  You can then use the enclosed guide to identifying the Nanos that you have for each building.


Each of the Nanables also has a viewing window, so you can peek through and see inside the teeny tiny buildings.  What you see inside goes along with the theme of the building, so it will often be one of the little Nanos running a shop or doing something inside, and again there are plenty of details to be observed each time you take another look.



There is also a Nanables app which allows you to explore the world of the Nanables even further.  You can play the game with whichever Nanable is available for free that week, as well as scanning in your own collected Nanables to play with anytime.


We love our collection of Nanables, they are fantastic to play with and look adorable as a collection up on a shelf as well.  The perfect little toy to keep children busy when out and about and they would also make lovely little additions to gifts or small stocking fillers. 


We are also lucky enough to be giving away 2 Nanables to one reader, head on over to our Nanables Giveaway post to enter!


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* This is a review post, we were sent six different Nanables toys to play with and write our honest reviews.*

We have been sent these new Awesome Bloss'ems toys from Spinmaster to play with and review.


We were sent 2 Awesome Bloss'ems (which is perfect so that Ethan and Ivy each got their own).  They are a surprise toy with a difference, which we really love!  It's great to open up a blind bag and find a little collectible inside, but as a parent I do appreciate when there is a bit more to it, so that the experience lasts a bit longer, which is what you get with the Awesome Bloss'ems.



After doing this for a little while your doll will suddenly grow and blossom from the seed!



You can then remove the doll from the seed and discard the soil and the seed pod.



Then you can assemble the doll's little home, there are a few little accessories to punch out of the card and your doll can stand up or lay down in her hammock (that leaf scoop doubles as a doll hammock, which I love!)



Of course each doll is a collectible and there are 26 dolls available, 5 in each of the 5 sets plus one ultra rare doll which has a real diamond in her tiara!


These Awesome Bloss'ems dolls are great to play with after the fun of blossoming them as well, I love that they then have their own little homes with accessories.  They would be perfect to bring out to play with at a restaurant or while travelling as they are completely portable and contained in their houses.
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* This is a review post, we were sent two Awesome Bloss'ems toys to play with and give our honest review. *

It is finally the summer holidays and we are so excited!  We aren't going overboard this summer with loads of activities every day, as the kids are so tired from a busy year at school.  But we are going to have lots of fun and want to remember it all in years to come, so we are going to keep summer journals.  In the past I have just bought the children a cute notebook and expected to be able to keep them motivated to write in it every day, which hasn't worked, so this year I was more prepared and had special notebooks ready for them.


I started with a plain notebook for each of them, the size to fit in a half a piece of paper (is that A5?  All these years and I still haven't quite got my head around UK paper sizes).  That way it is easy to stick in any of these print outs with just a bit of a trim.  Then I decided on a few different sections that I wanted to include, and prepared my print outs.

Summer Activity Inspiration Section

This is where they can draw their own title page, then I have done a print out of a summer bucket list so that they can colour in or circle all of the activities that we do over the summer.  There is also space for them to draw in any other activities that they would add to their own bucket list that I might have missed.


I've also made a days of the week inspiration list, so on the days that we have no plans we can look to our lists and follow a daily theme for ideas.  So on a lazy Wednesday at home we could decide to follow a 'water play Wednesday' plan and get out the sprinkler for some water fun.

Daily Journals

I really wanted journal pages with room to draw a picture and to do some writing.  This way it is suitable for both Ethan and Ivy at their different ages and will suit the differing days as well.  


I left room for the date, added little location pictures which they can circle based on if we're at home or on holiday or a day out, and also little pictures for the weather.  Then there's space for them to draw a picture as well.  This gets stuck on a page opposite a lined page where they can write about their day.

Summer Reading Lists

We love to read every day and over the school holidays we always have our daily Smoothies and Books session which we started last summer!  Both of the children are doing really well with their reading, but it can be so easy to fall behind over the summer, so we are going to try very hard to keep reading every single day!

Summer Movie Lists

After the summer began I decided to add a section for movies as we were having such hot days and spending the afternoons indoors watching films.  So just for fun we're keeping track of how many Disney movies we can watch this summer!


These journals are definitely a work in progress and I could see us adding a few more sections throughout the summer as well.  What other sections would you include?



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We are part of the Blogger Board Game Club with Asmodee over the summer, so we will be playing one new game each month!  





For July we have been playing Who Did It? and really enjoying it!  It comes in a small box which makes it perfect for a summer game as it will be great for travel too!  There aren't too many pieces to lose either, just the box itself (which closes magnetically), 36 cards, 13 poops and the instructions.



The game is aimed at ages 6 and up (although Ivy is 5 and picked it up really quickly as well) and can be played from three to six players.  The aim of the game is to prove that your pets are not guilty of doing a poop in the living room, ha ha!  Each player gets six cards (the same six pets on their cards but different colours) and you are trying to prove their innocence. If your pet is guilty you have to take a poop piece for that round.  You keep playing rounds until one player has 3 poop pieces, and they lose the game.



The youngest player starts by placing down one of their pets and declaring their innocence by saying "My cat didn't do a poop in the middle of the living room floor, it must have been one of your..." then names another animal.  The other players then have to try to be the first to place down one of those pets.  Whoever gets their pet down first then goes next, declaring that pets innocence and blaming another.  

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{ad - gifted} We are a part of the Blogger Board Game Club with @asmodeeuk over the summer! The first game that we’re playing is called Who Did It? and the kids are loving it (who wouldn’t love a game all about finding the pet guilty of pooping in the living room!) Read our full review on the blog (link in profile @playandlearneveryday ) 💩 @boardgameclub__ #boardgameclub #whodidit

A post shared by Niki - Play & Learn Every Day (@playandlearneveryday) on Jul 30, 2019 at 7:55am PDT

The two ways of having a guilty pet are either to be the last player with a pet card (so being too slow to place down your cards) or to accuse a pet that there are not any left of (therefore meaning that your last placed pet is guilty).



So the game works on your listening skills, quick reflexes, memory and deductive reasoning skills.  Plus it involves poop so the kids think it is absolutely hilarious!  This is definitely going to be a popular game in our house!



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* This is a review post, we were sent the Who Did It? game from Asmodee to play and to write our honest opinions. *