The other day, the boys had a dentist appointment in town - Impressions/molds, xrays and photos of there teeth ready for braces in a couple of months. They did SO well. Whilst we were in town, we decided to visit castle park, which is a huge Roman castle with a massive play area which has recently just been re-done and it's 'EPIC' (Charlie's words!)
 Castle park is always beautiful but during the Spring time, the flowers are all in bloom and they're so pretty! They also smell AMAZING! (So glad I took a hayfever tablet before we left)

A post shared by Sara ♡ (@sassyserz) on Apr 10, 2017 at 1:07am PDT

A post shared by Sara ♡ (@sassyserz) on Apr 8, 2017 at 1:15am PDT

Ellie and I had a little bit of time on our own today! The boys were fishing with there dad - Again! They love fishing a lot. So it gave Ellie and I a chance to have some time together. Which is always welcome :) We took a look around the shops. Ellie picked a couple of Dr Suess books from the charity shop, she adores books, just like I do! After we'd finished looking around the shop. I asked Ellie is she fancied some sausage and chips from the fish & chip shop, for lunch. She of course loved that idea! So that's what we did, we grabbed some lunch and sat along the river and had a lovely lunch whilst watching the boats and swans go by.

It's just around the corner and up a little from where I pet my sister for lunch the other day!



After Ellie had finished lunch, she played on the sand for a bit. I think it's lovely that there's a little bit of sand next to the river! "I wish it was sunny and warm" Ellie said. Still though, it didn't stop her having fun! There was a swan quite close by that kept watching Ellie, it was quite cute. (The swan was a good distance away)





Ellie and I had a good half an hour or more on the 'beach' (that isn't really a beach because it's a river, not an ocean) playing and drawing in the sand. And then the rain clouds came over and it looked like the heavens were about to open up at any minute! We headed for the bust stop.




The view from the bus stop is so pretty! There's also a bench, Ellie decided she was gong to read her new book while we waited! Thankfully the bust was on time and we only had a five minute wait! Phew. We got back home just as the rain started. We had a fab time though! Can't wait to do it again and next time we'll take the boys... Maybe we'll try some crabbing when the weather is warmer.

This past weekend, we were blessed with some lovely spring weather. It was so mild and the sun was shining! It was such a pretty day, we didn't want to waste it sat inside so we decided we'd have a little walk to our local park. (I may have had to persuade the teenager with a treat! He was all "Why though? I wanna play FIFA".. you know, typical teenager and all). Charlie was out with his dad for the day (Harry didn't want to go there either), so it was just Ellie, Harry and myself!


The kids wanted to ride there bikes, so that's just what they did. When we arrive at the park, it was empty! Which was shocking because it was such a beautiful day, I thought it would be packed. I was wrong. So the kids had the whole play area to themselves!

Ellie and Harry enjoyed playing on the round about together. It's lovely to actually see them play together because of the age gap, it doesn't happen very often! They took it in turns pushing each other and I think Harry was actually glad to get out of the house (despite his protests about how playing FIFA was more important!) They had a blast playing on that round about.

 "Look mum I can turn upside down!" Ellie yelled at me across the park! She was so excited to be outside in the mild weather. "It makes a change for it not to be freezing cold" She said!

After they'd finished playing on the park (and finishing up the sweet treat I bought them on the way to the park), we decided to have a little walk around the field. Well, I walked, they rode there bikes. We couldn't go in the woods because it's not exactly bike friendly, that's ok though, we can do that another day!


 Ellie wanted me to take her photo next to the "Big old oak tree where the owl lives" haha. I don't know if there is an owl that lives in that tree but there should be!

We had a lovely time, we were only out for just over an hour as I needed to get back to prepare lunch and the kids had enough of riding there bikes! We are so, so looking forward to the warmer weather. We will be spending a lot of time exploring the woodland and playing on the park this spring!

Have you ventured out lately? I hope you've all experienced some nice weather, too!

Sarah xXx

We were delighted that Brainbox sent us there new Bounce Animals card game to test and review. We're a huge 'Family Games' family and just love all sitting down together to play games. We have played brainbox games before which we thoroughly enjoyed playing. Needless to say we were very excited to play Bounce Animals from Brainbox!


I just want to talk about the packaging for a moment. The cards come in a thick plastic case. Which is so much better than a paper case because the packaging is strong and sturdy, it'll last! The cards are easy to take out of the packaging and put back in, too! There are instructions on the back of the case (And also instruction cards on 'how to play' included). Bounce animals is aimed at aged 7+.
Bounce Animals contains 52 picture cards and 2 rule cards.



There are two ways to play Brainbox bounce. First up we played the memory game. We shuffled the cards and put the cards in a pile and all picked a card. We studied our cards and remembered which each picture contained. The cards contain scenes of animals in there natural habitats which we have to try and memorise. After we'd studied our cards, we then passed our cards along to next player. On the opposite side of each cards are questions. The person we passed our cards along to then asked a question on the card. The questions varied like "How many animals are in the picture?" And "can you see three or four birds flying?". The cards themselves are beautifully illustrated. The pictures are bright and colourful and certainly held my children's attention! Ellie loved the pictures and thought they were very cute indeed.

The front of the card.

The back of the card.

 Each card also has a 'Did you know?' fact on the bottom of each card, below the picture.



The game moves around each player, taking it in turns to ask and answer the questions on each card. The game moves quite fast depending on how many players and how many questions you chose to ask from each card. My children loved this game a lot! We played many rounds and we each all won a game! Charlie (10 years old) was like "This game is SO cool, I don't think I'd ever get bored of this game"
(I wish my boys would let me take there photos!)

The second game that can be played with these cards is spot the difference. There are two of each card that are very similar with eight slight differences. This is a really good game to play as a family or can be played alone. Ellie (aged 8) quite enjoys sitting at the table and spotting the differences on each card, by herself.


Overall, we really enjoyed playing this game as a family. We've had hours of fun playing the above two games. Priced at just £5.99, this game is more than worth the money. It's great fun, educational and suits all ages above 7 years old. Even my (almost) teenager joined in! This would make a perfect gift, too! Brainbox sell a wide range of childrens games for all ages.
You can also follow Brainbox on twitter.

What games do you like enjoying as a family? What were your favourite games to play as a child?

Sarah xXx



We received a sample of this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own, honest, personal opinions. I was not paid for this post. All photographs are taking by myself.