Seriously? Give me a break! When does make believe stop?

At “coming up to 9″ I’m a tiny bit pleased that GG still holds firm to make-believe. But seriously, I wonder if I’m being played? *Sighs* anyone know where I can get mermaid stationery? In bulk…?

Now, if you have your own post to link this week, grab the badge code from the sidebar, and click the link below to enter your post – I can’t wait to see what you have! It’s not obligatory, but if you include a link back here in your own post, I’ll return the favour with a tweet-out. If you’re new here you can check out theWot So Funee? main page for more info.

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“It’s really nice here, even though it’s a bit posh.”

nice  [nahys] adjective, nic·er, nic·est. 1. pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit. In other words, kids like it.

posh [posh] adjective. sumptuously furnished or appointed; luxurious. A posh place. In other words, adults like it.

You couldn’t really get a better recommendation for a family friendly hotel.

Happy kids + happy parent = great weekend.

We’re just back from a very cool weekend in London with the kids. Before the children were born, we spent a lot of time in the capital, wining and dining, visiting the sights and soaking up the atmosphere of the fabulous city. We’ve often wanted to share the London experience with the children, and we’ve had a few day trips, but we’ve never really spent time as a family doing the tourist thing. We were always held back by the big question. How do you really do London with kids?

I don’t know what we were worried about. The kids relished the city, walked further than we could have hoped, and we saw London through a different set of eyes! Here’s a plan for an overnighter in London with the kids:

Day 1:

1. Arrive at your family-friendly hotel. Take 10 minutes to relax while the kids pounce on their welcome packs, devour a plate of biscuits, and try on their dressing-gowns.

2. Take a walk from your hotel to a cool attraction. In our case, the walk from the Cavendish Hotel in Jermyn Street, to Madame Tussaud’s was just manageable for our 8 and 6 year olds. Detour via Bond Street and visit the weird and wonderful Victoria’s Secret, where your daughter will be fascinated and appalled, in equal measure, by the jewelled frillies masquerading as underwear. Your son will have no idea where he is.

3. Spend a happy hour or two posing with your favourite celebrities at Tussaud’s:

4. Take a trip in a proper London cab, and save your feet the walk back to St. James. If you’re lucky you”ll get a proper London cabbie, who will tell you anecdotes about the city – did you know that Nelson looks down the Mall because he’s watching over all the ships you can find on every lamp-post?

5. Return for a drink in the Cavendish bar, before donning your best frock for dinner in the Petrichor restaurant. (GG wears her most recent – and coolest – outfit from River Island Girls). You can eat any time from 5.30, which makes this a great dining option for young families, or for a pre-theatre dinner.

6.  Order from a gorgeous menu – we had Scallops and Duck Salad, followed by a delicious Pork Belly. Our waiter was happy to recommend a sensibly-priced wine, which went really well with our food. He also quickly heard and used the Bug’s name, and waited for him to overcome his shyness for the time it took him to make his own order. Not having heard GG’s name mentioned, he simply called her Princess. This went down well.

Responses to my tweeting this menu came quickly:

“Good value!”
“Wow never seen steak on a kids menu!”
“How refreshing to see real food offered to children. Just as it should be.”
“10.30pm!”

The kids chose rib-eye steak, were offered their choice of vegetables, and additional chips were no problem. The food came quickly and was good. My children are good eaters, so they were done by the time our main courses arrived. “Uh-oh,” we wondered – did we need to go back to the room for the Fruit-based electrical entertainment? But before we could leave our chairs our waiter arrived with activity packs to keep them busy. Actually Daddy was soon engrossed in a Spot the Difference…

If I had one criticism, it would be that the children’s dessert menu was limited. Ice-cream and fruit are fine for younger children, but GG would have liked to see a chocolate brownie or a sundae. Even a meringue goes down well with us. As it was, the Bug took a fancy to the adult’s cheese board, and our waiter was happy to go through cheeses with him to put together a child’s equivalent. He’s now a firm fan of Brie!

The restaurant wasn’t busy when we were there, but it was early on a Saturday evening. It suited us, because we’re always conscious of the fact that some guests don’t want to be bothered with the natural chatter of a young family, but we needn’t have worried. Here is what our waiter thought of our behaviour:

Now, a waiter who takes the time to fill out a form about his guests deserves an accolade of his own, doesn’t he?

Finally, retire to your room, dive into the expansive bed, and fall asleep in front of a movie:

Day 2:

1. Surface to the aroma of the proper coffee Nespresso machine working it’s caffeinated (or decaf) magic on the senses. Search everywhere for the milk, until your daughter  follows the instructions and finds it for you.
2. After a lavish breakfast hop in a taxi down to the Southbank and take a trip on the London Eye. It pays to get there early, as the queues start to grow later in the morning. The ticket includes a 4d cinema experience which the kids enjoyed.

3. Stroll at leisure through Westminster and St. James’s park, admiring the pelicans, until you arrive at the Mall. If you time it right you’ll catch the end of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. We followed the guard and their band up Marlborough road where we watch them salute and fall out. Only in London…

4. After a quick gander at the food hall in Fortnum and Mason, collect your car from the Cavendish car-park, and head home. Who knew London with kids was so easy? So easy that the Bug felt compelled to exercise his writing hand:

I love mum and dad than you fore being a blogger mum

Disclosure: we were guests at the Cavendish hotel. Our room charge and meals were complimentary.

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This year I’m going to BritMums Live for the 3rd time. This year I will be speaking at BritMums Live for the first time. This year I am sponsored to attend BritMums Live for the first time. This year, I think you should come too. So you should enter this giveaway to win a ticket to BritMums Live.

I have been fortunate to go on 2 Siblu Holidays since having my children. I never thought I’d be comfortable with a “holiday camp,” given the trips I have taken with Actually Daddy. California driving, South Africa safari, Maldives diving, we’ve been lucky. Such trips with young children are difficult. Aside from the risk of being eaten, kids find that kind of thing dull, and an iPad battery only lasts so long.

So we took the plunge and booked our first campsite holiday with Siblu. We were pleasantly surprised by the facilities and the people there. We discovered that when children are happy, grown-ups have a break. We had fun. We booked again. So if you ask me about holidays when you see me at BritMums Live, I’ll tell you that’s where we’re going.

As well as my holiday plans you’ll hear me talk about how to work with brands. How not to wait for a contact from your dream brand PR, how to make your own approaches, sell yourself, and win the pitch that you want the most. And here’s a thing – I’ll show you my media pack, and give you a copy if you want one.

Go on, enter the giveaway – good luck, and see you there!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Seriously, I don’t know why Daddy ever lets her out alone!

Anyway, I’m told there were lots of reasons to be there beyond the social, and that even seasoned eventers came away with tons of new ideas. For example, there was the session about how to make the most of your Facebook page, with  Cathy from NurtureStore. Mummy has been tinkering ever since, with massive results, as you will see from this post – eek! She also met Nadine, from JuggleMum, with whom she will be speaking at BritMums Live. In the space of 45 minutes they had hatched a plan to go on holiday together, where they would drink wine and eat pasta. You will find them tweeting random stuff about sausages and valpolicella at ridiculous hours

There was a very intelligent bloke, who had figured out that the way to be happy in life, was to decide to be happy. Not rocket science, but the genius was in the fact that everyone in the room had also decided to be happy by the end of his talk! And there was an inspirational panel discussion about how to get a book deal. Mummy has recently decided she’s doing this, so she quizzed Rachel Lucas author of Sealed with a Kiss; and Becky Goddard-Hill, on how they did it. Here is what she managed to ascertain:

How to get a book deal:

• Get a brilliant cover design – Rachel used @danthescribbler for hers and it has been instrumental in her book going to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts
• Grab the reader’s attention straight away – people are busy and they give up quick. You have to compel them to read your story
• Readers must identify with your character, empathise with them, or hate them – either is alright, but make them irresistible
• Bring your characters to life – identify with them yourself and this will be easier
• Every story needs a problem
• Tear-jerkers are always handy – even I know the power of a good cry
• That problem? It needs a satisfactory resolution, or no-one who gets to the end will recommend you
• Don’t forget the blurb on the jacket. It’s what makes the book sell itself off the shelf!

Actually, most of the above are my own tips, gleaned from my writing lessons at school. In addition, the wonderful panel had this to say:

• Pay for an editor – it’s a worthwhile investment. Who wants to be my editor? I’ve got £3.58 in my piggy bank
• Be prepared for rejection – it can take 40 or more agents before one will say yes.
• Self-publish – then you can show the world how wrong 39 agents were…

Right then, see ya – I have a book to write! xxx

For more info on what you missed, head over to the Blog Summit post on Tots 100.

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Creative writing: This year she has a lovely teacher who has ventured into the dangerous waters of loosening the reins on her creativity. For our recent holiday to Florida, she gifted GG a large, brand new exercise book. What I could write on those immaculately tidy, lined pages! The idea was to let her mind run free, to scribble her adventures unrestricted by the national curriculum, fired up by her once-in-a-lifetime experiences. It was a nice idea, in theory.

Describing words: On holiday she claimed she was too busy experiencing the thrill to put pen to paper. A promise was extracted from her to dedicate half an hour a day to her assignment once home. When asked to jot down a word or two to sum up her emotion, as a reminder once home, she wrote “EPIC.” A lot.

Homework ethic:

I might have predicted the daily wrangles that would ensue once back on home turf. She whined, I bossed; she wheedled, I stood firm; she stropped, I didn’t once bat an eyelid. Finally, she acquiesced, wrote one glorious page, and chucked a tantrum. I resorted to emotional blackmail:

“You’re the luckiest girl in the world! You’ve just had the most incredible holiday ever – in term-time (I was laying the guilt on thick by now), doing things I never dreamed I could do, and you can’t fill a schoolbook with all your adventures? You don’t want to impress your lovely teacher?”

She glared at me, and disappeared. She was gone for hours, past teatime, past bedtime, locked up in her father’s study. When she emerged, she had filled the book:

What do you think? Do I give her points for ingenuity? How do you inspire kids to write? All tips appreciated!

Now, if you have your own post to link this week, grab the badge code from the sidebar, and click the link below to enter your post – I can’t wait to see what you have! It’s not obligatory, but if you include a link back here in your own post, I’ll return the favour with a tweet-out. If you’re new here you can check out the Wot So Funee? main page for more info.

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