Unk Pauw

Making up crazy games in the park with Sophia

My children bring me joy in so many ways every day, of course, but one thing that always gladdens my heart is seeing the unique burgeoning relationships each of them has with the people I am close to.  They see our dear friend Kim, Godmother to Sophia and Tatiana and present at both their births, often, and all adore her and her family, but other friends are alas further afield.  You would think in such a small country it would be easy to meet up with friends regularly, but with busy and often conflicting schedules and life demands, that is not always the case.

Love Books? Love Food? Win Four Food-centric Novels

Wondering which books to take on holiday?  Then why not enter our competition to win four 'Delicious Fiction' novels from Alma Books?  All with a foodie theme, they are guaranteed to get your taste buds as well as your imagination fired up this summer!

Family Holidays – The Stuff Of Dreams, Or Nightmares?

It’s summer – hooray! The sun may be shining (for the most part) here in the UK, but a lot of us have grand plans to go a little further afield, and that’s great (if not a little stressful!). When you’re planning a perfect holiday for you and the family sometimes it can seem a little easier to eliminate the whole ‘family’ thing from the equation. But unfortunately, you can’t – it’s called a family holiday, after all! So, with about six million and one other things on your plate, just how do you go about making sure everything goes to plan?

Spot the Difference

Sorting through the past couple of weeks' photos last night I found this one of Tatiana and I (right), and thought how much it compared to the one of Lara and I on the left.  They are so alike, same nose, same mouth, same eyes.  My cute little in the peach twins on their Christening days!

  

CBeebies Magazine Launches Summer-long Kids Go Free Campaign #CBeebiesMagKidsGoFree

CBeebies Magazine is set to save parents hundreds of pounds this summer with its newly launched Kids Go Free campaign.  The popular fortnightly children's magazine has teamed up with Merlin Entertainments to launch a Summer long campaign giving parents the chance to save up to £355 on top kids' attractions in the UK.

Christmas in July

So, that's Christmas over for another year.  The July version anyway.  The journalists, the photographers, the bloggers, the pundits, we've all done the rounds and noted down our favourite picks for the festive season.  The results of our exhausting travails will be available on your screen or via your newsagent in November and December, so that you can dash out and snap up the best decorations, gifts, wine and food there is.  And there are some real treats coming this year, I can tell you.  Your thoughts may be very far from Christmas right now, but here are a few sneak peeks to get your Yuletide juices flowing...

Stunning Christmas wreath at The White Company show

Silent Sunday #mysundayphoto

10 Years on UK TV! Win a Koala Brothers Prize Bundle

Some TV programmes grab the girls' attention instantly and get them hooked, whilst others pass therm by completely.  I remember the first time Lara saw The Koala Brothers on CBeebies.  She was about eighteen months old and immediately stopped what she was doing to watch this colourful, fun, slightly quirky stop motion animation.  It totally appealed to her from then on, and she is still delighted by it now.

Recipe: Chocolate Soreen Flapjack

"Mawl mawl" has been a staple in our house since Lara was a baby.  She was offered some Soreen Malt Loaf once at a friend's house when she was about 8 months old and that was it, hooked!  We have tried the whole range and I think the ready-sliced version wins for us - convenient and ready any time.  The girls can just pull up a chair, climb up and help themselves, a real bonus when the baby's crying!  But one thing we haven't yet done is bake with it.

Parenting Prompt