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Family

August 24, 2020

Why reading to your baby is important

First Hotel Stay with a Baby – Our Experience!

3 Month Old Baby Milestones – Arthur’s Progress!

First Father’s Day Gift Guide!

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Darenth Country Park 🌳🛝 Nestled just behind

Darenth Country Park 🌳🛝

Nestled just behind Darent Valley Hospital, Darenth Country Park has been a go to for us for years. I first discovered it accidentally as an excellent place for conker collecting in Autumn - honestly, I’m yet to find somewhere with more conker trees than here!

Boasting a large (and FREE!) car park, there’s lovely walks lined with fields of horses, steep hills with views of Kent and London, orchards, a small area of woodland and plenty of large open fields perfect for a picnic. You’ll likely find lots of dog walkers so be prepared for dogs running off lead.

They recently had their play area re-done and it is absolutely excellent for younger children - just take a look at the pictures! There was plenty to keep both my 2 and 5 year old occupied whilst also nothing being too large and unsafe for them.

Highly recommend for all families, especially toddlers and pre-school ages. We can’t wait to spend many a day here with a picnic in summer!

📍Darenth Country Park, 68 Darenth Park Avenue, Dartford, DA2 6NN

🚗 Large FREE on site car park

☕️ NO cafe - make sure to bring a picnic!

🚽 NO toilets

If you visit off the back of my recommendation, please tag me in your photos and let me know! #JodetopiaInKent

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ok, so a contemporary romance with a whole lot of sex isn’t my usual go to fiction (I’m normally a psychological thriller type of girl!), but I have to admit I quite enjoyed this book! It was a solid 3 stars for the majority of the read, until everything came together in the last segment, which had me racing to turn the pages with tears rolling down my cheeks. I had no choice but to bump it up to an unexpected 4 stars!

Pros:
📖 Easy to read which makes it a very quick page turner
📖 Switches between perspectives and timelines, leaving you desperate to find out what happened in between
📖 Great for a light read between heavier novels…
📖… but still be prepared to cry! The last quarter of the book is very emotional in a few different ways, but for all the right reasons. It’ll leave you smiling and crying and pondering your own what ifs. Any book that garners that kind of emotional response from me is always going to earn that extra ⭐️
📖 A great ending that left me satisfied (I cannot stand a book that doesn’t have closure at the end!)
📖 Leaves me wanting to read more from this author!

Cons:
👎🏻 too much sex for me, I found myself skipping over it a lot as it was very repetitive. I need more intellectual stimulation than just knowing who’s hands are where, but I can see why the girls over on #booktok go crazy for Colleen Hoover if that’s their jam
👎🏻 too much doormat behaviour from the female protagonist. I’ve been out of the game for a VERY long time - please don’t tell me women act like this in real life?
👎🏻 at face value, it’s a very boring and overdone plot. A friends with benefit situation where the girl ends up falling for him and things get messy? Yawn.

I’ll be dropping this off to my local #bookswap at @thebluebeancoffeeco soon - if you’re local to #ebbsfleet then pop in and keep an eye out!

Today I did my first ever @parkrunuk with my Couch

Today I did my first ever @parkrunuk with my Couch to 5k running group! 🏃🏻‍♀️

I joined the Ebbsfleet Community Runners for their Couch to 5k programme at the start of the year and what a journey it has been! I was fully committed for the first 5 weeks, fell off the radar for the rest of the programme then nipped back in for the final week of 35 minute runs. I definitely feel like I cheated the team a little bit, but it’s SUCH an amazing supportive group of people that honestly just want you to do the best of your own personal ability.

Today was our graduation run at @shornewoods.parkrun - it was harder than I thought it’d be and I made a lot of mistakes (most notably, getting ballsy and going off on my own and wearing myself out too quickly!) but receiving my medal and the certificate at the end made it all worth it.

Anyone that knows me personally will know I am NOT a natural runner. I’m not sporty in the slightest. I probably can’t even catch a ball if you threw one at me. So to run my first ever park run, let alone run it in sub 35 minutes is SUCH a big deal for me. A super big deal. Never thought I’d be able to run 5k kind of deal.

For anyone local to #Ebbsfleet that’s interested in running with a great bunch of people of varied ability levels, the Ebbsfleet Community Runners meet on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings - reach out to @ebbsfleetbaptistchurch or DM me for timings and location.

Can’t believe I did it!!

Kid’s Hobbycraft Workshops! 🎨👩‍🎨 Did

Kid’s Hobbycraft Workshops! 🎨👩‍🎨

Did you know that @hobbycrafthq host children’s workshops?

My son is really into arts and crafts, so we’ve attended many of the children’s workshops over the last couple of years. From making pipe cleaner spiders and paper mache spooky houses at Halloween, to painting and Christmas bauble decorating, there’s loads to choose from. Today we made some silly clay monsters at Crayford’s branch!

They’re small groups of normally around 5 children, and adults are free in the ticket price, which is usually £5-10 depending on the craft and whether it is a half hour or hour session. The Crayford branch are great at letting you crack on after a demo, doing as much as you can within the time limit, and will even grab you extra resources if you ask for them. I’ve heard that unfortunately not all branches are as accommodating, though!

Have a look on their website to find your nearest branch and see what workshops they’re hosting. Check back regularly as more get added on frequently, and they do book up quickly - especially half term and seasonal workshops. If you’re an avid crafter yourself, check out their range of adult’s workshops too!

Top tip - keep an eye out for their regularly advertised offers on workshops. We often bulk book a few whenever there is a 20% off workshops offer or similar which makes them great value for money, especially if you’re booking for more than one child as this can add up quickly!

If you visit off the back of my recommendation, please tag me in your photos and let me know! #JodetopiaInKent

Free LEGO Events at Bluewater! Did you know the @

Free LEGO Events at Bluewater!

Did you know the @lego store in @bluewatershoppingcentre hosts FREE events? From special events where you can bag yourself a goody bag to building limited edition sets in store that are then free to take home with you, there’s something to keep children and adults alike entertained.

The next event on is ‘Build a LEGO® Friends Mobile Music Trailer and take it home with you!’ on the following days:

⏰ 13/04 - 10:00-12:00
⏰ 14/04 - 12:00-14:00

Be warned - these events are VERY popular. Get there early and be prepared to queue.

They also often host free ticketed workshops but you need to be quick (and lucky!) to nab one of these spots, although there’s the option to watch a virtual workshop to join in remotely with the LEGO you already own at home.

Keep an eye on their website for full details and the latest events - go to the ‘find a Lego store’ page and pop in your postcode to find your closest store, then scroll down and they will have all of their upcoming events advertised.

PS - even if there’s no event on, the LEGO store at Bluewater is still worth popping into as they have some DUPLO and LEGO out to free play with, and sometimes they even have special prompts or competitions to inspire a build.

If you visit off the back of my recommendation, please tag me in your photos and let me know! #JodetopiaInKent

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