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This day I love.......

As my girls get older their individual personalities begin to show more.  I love watching them change and develop, from babies to toddlers to little girls.  As they grow their tastes begin to change and from liking everything pink they now like everything blue.  I think mainly influenced by the blue dress that Elsa wears.

As they grow and start to form their own opinions they want more personalised spaces in their bedrooms.  It is however not very economical or practical to decorate every time they discover a new like, but what can be done simply and easily is add wall stickers to add personalisation.

My eldest daughter is currently having her room decorated, it was done nearly 4 years ago when she was 2 years old and so is very much in need of a refresh.  We have just changed the flooring in her room to a wooden floor, which hopefully will help with her eczema, and are now wanting to update the walls.  The walls are going to be kept neutral and we intend on having a nature theme, as she loves the outdoors.  One of her walls has been painted different to the others in order to create a feature wall, and we intend on using a nature themed sticker to create this feature in her room.  Her favourite is this one:

nature wall sticker

I have to admit to really liking it too, as it not only is in keeping with the theme it will also last her as she grows.

My youngest daughter does not need her bedroom painting but she could do with the theme of her room updating, as it is currently very nursery orientated.  Her loves at the minute are butterflies and birds but yet would not want a nursery sticker.  The sticker would need to be more tailored towards a child.  

What is great about wall stickers is that you can lay them out on the wall in your own design.  Even though the design might be similar to this

butterfly wall sticker

We could choose not to use the cat sticker and reposition the butterflies on her wall in our own pattern.  This would make for a perfect design for my youngest

Wall stickers are a great way to add a touch of personalisation to a room, in an economical way.  They can be changed as often as needed which is perfect for children as they grow up and their tastes change. 

This is a collaborative post
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The summer holidays have begun and with it the challenge of entertaining the girls.  Money is tight at the moment and so I am looking at low cost ways to keep them entertained.  Staying at home every day simply is not an option as they would get fed up.  I decided to make the most of the weather and of our RSPB membership and head out for the day.  We headed to our local RSPB site Old Moor.

The girls love the freedom that Old Moor offers and the variety of wildlife.  The free pond dipping activity had the girls very excited

skipping with joy

There are several ponds at Old Moor for pond dipping and we went past the first two as they had a few other children pond dipping and instead opted for one of the quieter ponds.  The girls took it in turns to dip and were eager to catch some fish.  Unfortunately for us all we caught were water boat men.

the girls pond dipping

After catching all the water boat men in the ponds it was time for exploring Old Moor.  We found some lovely games to play including Leap frog and Hopscotch. 

playing hop scotch

We had a lot of fun pond dipping and exploring.  It was great to be outdoors and exploring nature

This day I love hop, skip and dip
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It feels like ages ago since we were at Bluestone Wales. It was a truly magical holiday that both girls loved and as a family we enjoyed.

Bluestone Wales

Bluestone is situated near to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, to say the scenery is breath taking is an understatement. It is simply beautiful.  The lodges blended beautifully into the surrounding scenery.  Our accommodation at Bluestone was a 2 bed room lodge. It featured tall ceilings, with lots of light coming through. Open plan living and dining giving the lodge a spacious feel. Both bedrooms were of a good size and the bathroom was modern. The whole lodge was kept very clean.


Our lodge was situated around the lake which made for great evening walks. It was also close enough to the main village hub that we decided against hiring a bike or a golf buggy, although we did see plenty around. There are no cars allowed on site, except for the initial unloading and loading day, but we enjoyed this car free time.

lake at Bluestone

The main village had plenty of shops and the main village shop stocked medicine which we needed as our illness started whilst away, although I must add this had nothing to do with Bluestone. Our girls loved the ice cream/tea shop which had some beautiful cakes and of course ice cream.


Both girls loved playing on the tree tops adventure play ground. This was split into two areas to allow space for the younger children to play. It was lovely watching them climb and explore and I think if we had let them they would have spent all their time playing here. I am trying to work out if we can replicate it for our garden.


Nearby is a beautiful church which the signs say is going to be restored to allow for weddings.  It would make a beautiful spot to get married in.  I could have stood and admired the beauty of the church for a lot longer.


The short walk from the village to the swimming and sports complex is up hill, which both of my girls at 4 and 2 could manage but I could also understand the need for a golf buggy.  We found the swimming area clean and warm.  The girls would have happily spent all day in the water.  As it was we did spend all afternoon.  The lazy river and pool had enough to keep children and adults entertained, even out the water it felt a comfortable temperature.


When the weather is cold or wet you could easily spend a day in the swimming pool or in the sports arena.  There was a huge sky play area for the bigger kids, a circus room for the babies and enormous soft play for the ones in between.  Added to this a Lego Wall, indoor mini golf, bouncy castle and arcade machines there was plenty to do.


The girls were too young to try the paid for activities but this did not matter there was so much happening that we had lots of fun.  They managed to complete the treasure hunt and they met all the characters at Bluestone.  Our favourite though was taking a walk to Camp Smokey for lunch, toasting marshmallows on an open fire was I think the highlight for the girls.


Bluestone is a truly marvellous place and a holiday which has created some wonderful memories. 


 The only thing for us which would make it better, well two things:

1. Be closer so we could go all the time and 
2. Be dog friendly so we can take our dogs with us.

If you are looking for an amazing family holiday with clean air and plenty to do for all the family I would highly recommend Bluestone. 

Happy girls at Bluestone

This post was written in exchange for accommodation at Bluestone.  All words are my own opinion 
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Prior to our Cornish holiday my youngest had never had the need to wear Wellington boots.  She also never had the desire to put on her own shoes, well why would you really at 16 months?  Needless to say I was intrigued as to how she might find wearing boots.  

Our first day we spent all day outdoors, played with the animals on the farm and had lots of fun running around.  The second day we did the same, which meant on the third day I was awoken to the following:

putting on boots

My youngest daughter awake bright and early, in her PJ trying to put on her own Wellington boots.  I love how excited she was to be on holiday, how she could not wait to get outside to play, how she had an urgency to explore and play with her sister.  Well who can blame her really when you have an entire beach to run around on and a sister to play with.

exploring the beachrunning free on the beach

This to me is my Glisten moment as it truly shows how much enjoyment she was having on holiday and how she wanted to be outside and experience new things.  That and the photo I took of the girls deciding where to visit on our next holiday

Girls picking a holiday from map


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The girls and I are fully fledged members of RSPB.  With the girls interest in the outdoors and wildlife growing and my love for outdoors I thought it was a great investment to support a worthy cause.  We decided to make the most of the lack of rain today and headed to our local RSPB site, Old Moor.  

One of the lovely things about being a member of the RSPB is that activities like pond dipping are included.  The girls, their Grandma and I went in search of some pond life.  We picked up our nets and trays and headed over to the dipping pond.  

I am not sure that my eldest could quite believe her luck.  She was given her own net and told she could use it in the pond.  I showed her that when she had 'dipped' it we had to put it in the tray to see what we had caught

checking the netpond dipping

My youngest loved it too and she was so pleased that she could have a net to 'dip' with

pond spottingwaiting on the pond

We emptied the nets into the tray to investigate what we had caught

looking at the bugs

Here are our trays

pond dippingpond dip tray


We caught lots of water boatmen, a fair few snails in a variety of different shells, water flea, a tick, a bloodworm, lots of water plants and the girls favourite some fish

fish

After we had done our pond dipping we headed out on a nature trail, we needed to find

A bird in the water
A bird in the sky
A bird whose name you know
A beetle
A flower
A butterfly
A dragonfly
Something small
Something you have never seen before

tick off listspotting nature

The girls started looking and began ticking off items as they found them.  I really liked that the nature hunt was done like this as it meant that both girls could get involved and look for things themselves.  They pointed out that they had never seen a flower in a shoe before

plant in shoe

and together they looked for all the other items on their list

girls nature huntingyoungest exploring


youngest in grass

We headed into the family hide to look for birds on the water and in the sky.  I really love the family hide as there are child friendly chairs for the girls, colouring, activities on the wall and glass low down so the girls can see out the window at the birds

girls bird watching

We even managed to tick off a bird whose name you know, as my youngest pointed and shouted 'Geese' at the Canadian Geese.  

girls spot bird

We found everything on our list and headed over to play in the playground

youngest playingyoungest in tunnel


girls on a swingyoungest in play ground


girls playinggirls in swing


eldest climbingyoungest hiding


youngest peekingslide down

The girls and I have had a really fun filled day.  I loved watching them work together and play together.  It is so lovely that they have an interest in outdoors and wildlife and that they got the chance to explore and learn.  We shall be visiting again soon.

This day I love Beasts, bugs and crawly things. 
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About me

About Me

Welcome to This Day I love.

My name is Leyla, also known as Mum to my 3 humans and dog Mum to J. I have a passion for the outdoors and love to run. I can often be found off road exploring the trails and fells and covering distances all the way up to 50 miles. As a family we love travelling and discovering new adventures, as I try and run around the world!

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