Blogs, books, films and fun – Edition 1

Once upon a time, in a blog land not too far away, I used to write weekly happy posts. The updates were titled A week of smiles and the posts were all about the different things that had made me happy over the last 7 days. Unfortunately, due to being disorganised and the fact these posts usually got 0 comments (!), the series fizzled out and I stopped writing them. Obviously, this is something I now regret as the A week of Smiles posts are the ones I enjoy looking back on the most. With this in mind I have decided to start a monthly round up post with a bit more to it, a new place for me to write down all the fun things me and mine have got up to as well as sharing some love for blogs I have loved reading and books and films I have enjoyed over the past month too. So without further ado, welcome to..

Blogs, books, films and fun – Edition 1.

As I spend so much of my time reading other blogs there was no way I couldn’t include a round up my favourites in this new monthly feature and share some blogger love. So, the blogs I have loved reading this month are..

Reflections from Me – I love Mackenzie’s blog, her posts are always so inspirational and always get me feeling motivated every Monday morning when I link up to her MG linky. This post about making mistakes and becoming happier because of it was a really great read.

Blabber Mama – This is a fairly new blog find for me but after reading this post about not comparing pregnant women on their baby bump size, I have fallen a little bit in love with this blog.

Hello Archie – I have loved reading Kaye’s blog for a long time and I am following her pregnancy journey with lots of interest and would love to read in a few weeks that she got to have the hypnobirthing/home birth she was hoping for. I really enjoyed reading this post about her hopes and fears for breastfeeding the second time around as it answered a lot of the questions I have myself about feeding my little one when he arrives in October.

Bad Dadu – Amongst all us thousands of mum bloggers out there, there are also a fair few Dad’s giving this blogging thing a go and one of my new Dad blog discoveries is Bad Dadu, I love the humour in the posts on this blog. This post about the day Bad Dadu held his son for the first time had me laughing but also made me a bit emotional.

Rhyming with Wine – Ok, I’m just going to say it..I love Dawn. What a super talented blogger she is, not only can she write posts that are completely relatable, funny and sometimes make me want to cry but she also manages to make them rhyme, amazing. I really loved this poem about the little presents toddlers love to give us.

Ahh I really haven’t had much time to read this month as I have been busy with blogging and freelance video work. I have managed to read about half of The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern, I am enjoying it so far but keep forgetting what is going on as I leave it so long between picking it back up. After I finish this one, the next book on my reading list is After You by JoJo Moyes, I recently read Me before You (review here if you fancy a browse) and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Oli has not long finished reading the Mr Mercedes trilogy by Stephen King and he loved it. He honestly didn’t put those books down and I was basically just talking to myself for a couple of weeks. If you like crime thrillers then this trilogy is definitely one for you.

Leo has really been enjoying all his old favourites when it comes to books but we have found some new reading material this month too. Five Minutes Peace has been a regular at bedtime lately and the week he had Sharing a Shell from his play school library we must have easily read it 100 times.

Oli and I love watching films together. It is our favourite way to relax in the evenings after a busy day or work and looking after Leo. This month we have watched How to be single which was awful! Seriously do not waste your time with this film, I love Rebel Wilson but even she didn’t make this film fun to watch. We also watched The Nice Guys which is a black comedy with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. We. Loved. This. I can’t explain how funny this film is, Ryan Gosling is fantastic in it and it is not all about cheap laughs, the story is really good too.

Being big super hero movie fans, Oli and I obviously had to buy Deadpool on DVD. This is not your typical Marvel film, it definitely lives up to it’s 18 rating certificate and Ryan Reynolds is hilarious to watch as the sarcastic, foul mouthed, not really a super hero Deadpool. We have also been to the cinema to see the new Ghostbusters film and I was surprised at how good this film was, I laughed a lot and I’m not ashamed to say that even though it’s a 12A I jumped a few times!

July has been a busy month for me and Oli. I have had a lot of sponsored posts and reviews to get done, more so than ever before and I have had to start writing during the day while Leo plays next to me in the living room otherwise I would be staying up until 3am to get everything done. I have also been working on my first freelance project but despite all the extra work we have managed to fit in lots of fun too.

At the beginning of the month we went to visit my lovely sister in Stourport. We went for a lovely walk, ate yummy food and just spent some quality time together. Leo loved seeing his cousin and playing with my sister’s big dog Oscar.

The following weekend we headed to my other sisters’ house in Oxford so I could get some filming done. We had a big family bbq with my nan and parents there too and Leo again got to spend time with some more of his cousins.

Leo and I enjoyed lots of sunny days in the garden together during the one week of summer we had, making dinosaur lands out of play sand and getting soaked messing around with his water table. I also took Leo to our local lido, this was a great way to spend an afternoon and Leo loved splashing around in the big outdoor pool.

During the week of the heatwave, one evening after Oli finished work we headed across to Dorset in search of a sandy beach. We found a lovely stretch of sand at Friars’s cliff near Bournemouth and stayed on the beach until 9pm. We ate lovely seafood in a beachside restaurant, dug holes in the sand and filled buckets up with water. It really was a perfect evening and was nice to forget about the routine for once.

Leo and I also managed a weekend up in my hometown at my parent’s house this month while Oli went off to celebrate his friend’s 30th. The local carnival was on and seeing Leo’s little face light up as the lorries full of people in fancy dress went past was amazing.

One afternoon last week Leo and I headed to our local National Trust property , Mottisfont, and had lots of fun finding little houses in the woods and playing with adorable little tea sets on the special Beatrix Potter trail. I really needed this trip out with Leo as I felt he had been a bit neglected lately due to all my extra work. I also took him for some splashing fun at The Rapids in Romsey and we spent nearly 2 hours having the best time in the water, Leo had so much fun he napped for nearly 3 hours that afternoon.

We have also been up to Leicester to visit friends this month for their little boy’s birthday party. It was so lovely to catch up and Leo loved playing on the bouncy castle with his old friend and just having another child his age to mess about with, he’s really missed this since play school and toddler groups ended for the summer. While we were up north we had a day out at Thomas Land which was great fun, you can find out all about our day full of trains in this post.

Last weekend Oli and I had a baby free weekend! Leo stayed with his lovely aunty who had arranged and paid for Oli and I to go out for a gorgeous Thai lunch and stay in a 5 star hotel! If you want to know more you can check out my separate post all about our babymoon.

That’s it for the very first edition of Blogs, books, Films and Fun, I hope you have enjoyed reading it. It has been fab to look back on all the fun things we have been up to as well as share some film and book recommendations with you and share some blogging love for some of my fellow bloggers out there too. See you in a month for the second edition of Blogs, books, Films and Fun!.

Do you like to write monthly or weekly updates about what you have been up to? Feel free to share a link to them in the comments and I’ll pop over for a nosey. Do you have any good film and book suggestions for me? How do you like to share the blog love?  I would love to know. I hope you all have a lovely August 🙂

 

This post is linked to some of these amazing blog link ups. If you love blogs, go check them out and share the love.

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* After my recent blog move from Blogger to Word Press, some of my posts have been left looking a bit strange. I am working my way through everything and sorting out the formatting, hopefully it won’t take me too long! If you come across a post with strange looking formatting please let me know as I might have missed it. Thank you 🙂 *