Get UP !
5.30 alarm rings whoppeee I’ve had 4 hrs sleep (lots more than I use to get when breastfeeding so… hey ho) Milk and snacks packed , hair straightened and mascara on I warm up the car , is that a dad thing to do? I always remember it was dads main job if we had to leave anywhere early “John have you warmed up the car” “on it love , on it”, Anyway car warm I teleport my sleeping children into their seats and head to the station only to realise that there’s no bloody petrol, I mean none , I basically free wheeled on fumes into BP . By the time we got to the station Wilba had pooed so cue a full car nappy and clothes change for both kids culminating in The boy doing a wee next to the parked Audi 😬 By this point I wasn’t confident of making the 7.05 as it was 7.15 so after all that rush we got a McDonalds breakfast and waited for the next train. It would be close at the other end but as long as it ran on time we would be fine …. The train got in 15 mins late! I had been preparing my now SAS briefed tots for the last 20mins as I hovered near the train doors, rain pouring and Wilbas pushchair steaming up we dashed towards the tubes. I had planned which trains we needed to take that would accommodate a buggy but at out first set of steps ???? and exchange with a tube worker… that plan was out of the window and we headed for the central line, the central line , in rush hour , with two kids , and a buggy , from Norfolk, with rain wear, and snacks, and iPads and and and a very sweaty stressed mummy.
Random Acts of Kindness
Firstly I would like to thank all the people that helped, it does restore your faith although I must admit most were women, one lady in heels and a very short dress who I was in awe of . But the biggest thanks of the morning goes to Mr Spec-tacular on account of his glasses and general awesomeness. As I prepared to go on my first downward escalator having successfully put the fear of god in my 5 year old of escalators from this day forth . Mr Spec-tacular offered to help , So after i got The boy on his way down , he grabbed the front of the pushchair and I the back and we balanced the buggy for 59% off the way very successfully . I had already started to thank him when literally the wheels fell off ! Both front pushchair wheels and fittings rolled noisly down the escalator narrowling missing The Boy who was now nearing the bottom , panicked, Mr Spec-tacular lowered his end sending the entire contents of the under buggy storage down the escalator including the boys i-pad! an alarm went off and the escalator came to a grinding halt , quickly followed by a tube worker who did not look best pleased, Me and Mr Spec-tacular, red faced, continued to walk down, The boy forgetting his previous fear now scaling back up to retrieve his beloved iPad (I swear he would rescue that thing over me ) other passers by did try to help collect our belongings as including the standard tampons ( why do those things always find a way out of your bag , it’s a design flaw I tell you ) before sending all the other commuters back and closing the escalator .😬😬😬🙄🙁 Needless to say at this point I knew I would not make it so emailed Boots and continued the rest of our journey.
London …..well MacDonalds in London.
After reaching Piccadilly we realised we wouldn’t have time to get to the V&A and back before the next Fearne event so instead went to the Lego shop and M&Ms before yet another trip to Maccy D’s . That place is like a sanctuary for kids I honestly don’t know why it gets such a bad rep , it’s literally my happy place. Re fulled we made our way to the Red Consultancy building and into the literal bosom of some friendly faces which by then I was in dire need of . First to greet us was Lisa from @newmumonline, her daughter Lottie is an absolute diamond and I was also privileged to meet Aaron her eldest who Wilba took a real shine to. Kate was there to from @essexkate and we both agreed that for girls like us London was a very scary place . Thankfully all would be OK from then on as they had put on a magnificent event filled with craft activities for the kids food and drink and there usual friendly and warm reception .
The Main Event
Rachel, with whom I met at the first event greeted me with a much needed hug like an old friend before checking in with both my kiddies and allowing me the freedom to roam and have a look at the new Autumn / Winter collection, and oh my it’s amazing and great value . I love the mini club navy value jumper with horizontal stripes at only £10 it’s a bargain as looks so expensive and the quality of all their clothes is ace . Durability, wash-ability get top marks from me, Wilba has worn her summer dress to the death and the soft denim jacket she has from boots is my favourite piece as it literally goes with anything . The woodland explorer range has lots of cool animal prints like the fox jumper which The Boy is in love with and I really love the country feel of the girls dresses and flower motifs and appliqué. My favourite range though has to be mini clubs Bows and Arrows, being from the coast I love that nautical look and there’s enough stripes here to throw a dingy at . The girls stripes blouse is so versatile it would look great with jeans and some little brown boots and the boys wear is so smart, but with comfortable fabrics which is so important. The boy would rather go naked than wear something constricting or itchy.
I’m trying not to think of Christmas yet but their Christmas jumper range is brill and with 3 for 2 including the pjs how can you not bag some for the Christmas Eve box ! There’s also a really clever puddle suit which comes in a bag, if you follow me regularly you’ll know that Wilba has a bag fetish so this is going to be on her birthday wish list in a couple of weeks. Next up was my mate Fearne 😉who introduced her new line with such passion and the “Make your mark get arty and be creative” slogan really shone through, the clothes are so cool , the pink parker as well as the silver skirt and cloud jumper there’s lots of gender neutral pieces so you can really have fun with the range , but from a self confessed uncool mum I don’t think you could go wrong with any pieces and my younger sister ( 10 years junior ) self confessed fashionista was very impressed with the Fearne range in particular the animal print one-sie and matching Bow for Bo poop. They now go up to 7 years so The boy can still fit in too. I think Boots miniclub are most well know for their baby clothes which as always are gorgeous. I love the grey colour palette of the wild world clothes, it makes it really gender neutral, I always struggled with the acid pinks from most shops for Wilba! Refusing to conform I put her in blues and greys and some of The boys hand-me-downs until my heart was content. But the most impressive section was the new premature range which had been created alongside the bliss charity, to not only make it cute and adorable but also delicate with baby soft Velcro fastenings and beautifully soft cotton fabrics which are designed to open flat to care for your baby from birth, I posted about this on my Instagram @cookiecrumblesuk earlier in the week and the feedback was extensive and so positive , some stories involved mothers in the past having to dress their babies in dolls clothes because there were not enough brands who did a premature range. So well done Boots Mini-club we salute you! These will be available in store on world premature day which is 16th November 2018. All the other items are in store now apart from a few of Fearnes pieces which will be in store in October . Oh and if your a Disney fan there’s also some great Mickey Mouse pieces to celebrate the 90th anniversary .
Home Time
After a great event I was determined to make my way to the V&A and it was less eventful (thank god) although on arrival, as I enthusiastically looked into the buggy to tell Wilba we’d made it i realised that she was fast asleep and missed the whole darn thing !!!!! however me and The Boy got some quality time before returning on the train to Norfolk with a wide awake and ready to party Wilba. I won’t bore you with how that went I think you can probably guess. The new Boots mini- club range is store now as are most of the Fearne for miniclub , so get down there and treat your little rascals to some top quality clothes from a team of top quality people!
@bootsminiclub @boots #fearneforminiclub #bootsminiclub #kidsfashion #kidsfashion2018 #autumnwinterfashion @newmumonline @essexkate @cookiecrumblesuk