As many of my readers know, we live in the New Forest. We live in one of the most beautiful areas of the UK and we are lucky to have some lovely locations to visit on our door step. One of our favourite places to visit is Bournemouth. Bournemouth is not only a great tourist attraction, it has plenty to see and do. It is great for all ages and is perfect for families, couples and singles. There are plenty of tourist boards, plenty of places to eat and shop and some brilliant locations to visit. If you are thinking of visiting you are even able to book a hotel on the sea front with sea views!


The Oceanarium: We visited here on Maxwell's Birthday and we had a wonderful experience. There is plenty of parking near by and the Oceanarium can be found on the waterfront. The Oceanarium has plenty to see and do. It is full of all different types of marine and most recently they have added penguins and jellyfish. Inside the Oceanarium you will find a lovely gift shop as well as a cafe which serve delicious food. If you are wanting to visit, you are now able to swap Tesco clubcard vouchers which means the ticket price is great value for money. We spent the whole day here when we visited and were impressed with the talks as well as the feeds.

Canford Cliffs: This is a lovely place just a short drive away from Bournmouth beach sea front. Canford Cliffs is easy to get to and has a small little car park which is fairly cheap to park in. Past the car park you are able to find Pinecliff play sculpture trail which is amazing for children to visit. You are able to find large wooden sculptures that are fun to play on. You are also able to find a play park which is based around a shipwreck. Once you have finished playing you are able to go on a lovely walk down to the beach below which is the beach of Branksome Chine.

*In collaboration with the Travelodge

Recently I have been searching the internet, I have been looking for toys that would be suitable for Maxwell's Birthday. Maxwell will be 4 years old this year and has a massive collection of toys. I have been looking for bits that would be a little different to gift him this year and have compiled this toy wishlist.

Over the past few month's Maxwell has started to get into the Lego craze, something that I was excited about. Recently I made Maxwell a Lego table and along with the Lego table,  I also gave Maxwell some of my own Lego from when I was a child. Since Maxwell received his Lego bit's off me, he has spent a lot of hours building me things.Maxwell has a great imagination and his Lego models have shown this.

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As a family, we love each others company. We love making memories, capturing moments and spending time together. Last week we were lucky enough to be invited to Harvester - Windhover Manor in Southampton for a family meal. We were invited as part of their new initiative to get families around the table at meal times and spend more time together.

On a busy Saturday in the half term holidays, we adventured to Harvester. We had a table booked for 4.30 and we were very excited to see what Harvester had in store for us. I was wary of how busy it may be due to it being the school holidays but I needn't have worried as we had a wonderful experience.


Harvester - Windhover Manor is around a 20 minute drive from us in the New Forest. It is in a fantastic location, just off the motorway. The venue was easy to find and when we arrived, we found there was plenty of parking in the car park. The premises looked warm, friendly and clean and after venturing inside, we found that the inside was just as nice as the outside.

We arrived early however this was not a problem. We were happy to wait for our table sitting however after a short wait, we were taken to our table and we were seated. We were seated next to a window where we were able to see the cars come in and out of the venue - much to Maxwell's entertainment. We were given our menus and Maxwell was given his menu and crayons and we were left to sit and ponder over the menu.


The menu was packed with different meal ideas, I felt like the Harvester menu had something for everyone. From light bite meals to large main meals, from sides to sauces you were able to take your pick. After a short while and a lot of deciding, we placed our food and drink order and we proceeded to the unlimited salad bar.

The unlimited salad bar was well stocked, there was lots of different salad options for everyone. I noted that there were plenty of bowls for customers coming up to get their salad and the salad looked fresh and it did not look dry. There were fresh rolls located near the sauces for the salad and the sauces were well stocked. There was a little mess around the sauces which I noted but this did not make a difference to our experience.

Once we had all eaten our salad, our table was cleared and our main meals came out. We were in for a real treat. The portion sizes were large, the food was hot, fresh and well presented and the customer service was brilliant. Andrew who served us made sure we had all the sauces we needed to go with our meals and he ensured that the food was up to the standard we wanted it to be.

Maxwell decided to have chicken bites with peas and chips. He also opted to have a little roll from the salad bar with it. I decided to have the chicken skewers, Grandad decided to have the triple chicken and Ben decided to opt for an original combo. All the meals had a side as well as a sauce.

We all tucked into our meals and not one of us had a complaint. Although I found my own meal to be quite large and I found it difficult to finish, the boys all ate their dinners and complimented their meals. The meals were filling and I found that Harvester were very generous with the meat that they put on out plates.

Once we had finished, our table was cleared and we were offered desserts however we opted out of desserts however I did take a sneak peak at the dessert menu and I was impressed with what I saw. There were cake desserts, ice cream desserts and desserts that would tickle any child's taste bud.


Our meal cost the same as a average family meal which I thought was fantastic due to the service and the food which we received. With my meal and unlimited refill drink costing around £10, Harvester offers a large menu that would suit many people's budget.

Overall we had a fantastic time at Harvester. It is a great venue to take the family as Harvester caters for all ages. Their menu has something for everyone and the service was speedy, friendly and fantastic. We are looking forward to returning as a family in the future and would love to thank Harvester for the brilliant meal we had at Windhover Manor.

*We were given a complementary meal at Harvester for the purpose of this review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

1. Recently our water bill has gone up. I believe it has gone up due to the fact we have been watering our plants a lot in the summer. The sun has been out, the weather has been hot and my plants have been dying. I have watered my plants most nights and I dread to think how much water I have managed to waste. To improve our water bill, I would love to install a water system in our garden so we are able to save our own water which is free when it falls from the sky. If we managed to collect our own rainwater, we would waste less money as we would not be using a large amount of tap water.

Over the past few weeks, I have spent my evenings decluttering my home. It has been a boring time however after 2 weeks I am seeing the rewards. In 2 weeks I  have made myself £140 which does not seem a lot to some, but its a lot of money to me for stuff which had been sat around my house and had been forgotten about. I also have a clean, cluttered free home. Here are my 5 top tips to decluttering:
1 - Start at the bottom, work to the top - This is one of my favourite tips. When I first started decluttering I took a box into each room and sorted the rooms out, one by one. If I had moved on to other rooms before I had finished the first room, decluttering would have taken me ages. With clutter in a box, I found it easy to take a full box into our conservatory and photo the contents. I was then able to put the contents back into the box and wait for the buyer to collect.

2 -  Be ruthless - If a item is broken, hasn't been used for 6 months or it will not be missed, bin it, recycle it or sell it. Maxwell had a load of old baby toy's that he no longer used, parting with them managed to free up a lot of space in my conservatory and getting rid of them meant Maxwell had money for a new toy. Although he was upset to see them go at first, he soon came round to the idea that the toys were not needed due to the fact he no longer played with them.

4 - Focus on the finish - Decluttering can be a endless task but it is a task which is important to do. I often get bored halfway through and end up wanting to stop for a few days however the fact is, if I stopped I would more than likely not start again and over time the clutter would just get worse and worse. If you are bored, focus on other rooms around the house to declutter or focus on how you plan to get rid of the clutter you have already accumulated.

1. Maxwell was a fantastic pageboy at my Sisters Wedding
2. Maxwell's speech continues to improve
3. Maxwell is developing every day
4. Maxwell has had a brilliant start to the holidays
5. Maxwell is ready to go back to preschool

I was recently tagged by Bex in a tag called The Blogger Interview. In the tag, a few different questions are asked about blogging and you have to give your answer. I have answered all answers honestly and in full!