April 2015 Archives – Mummascribbles

Today marks one whole year since we became homeowners. Something we never thought we’d become. 

I moved out of my parental home when I was about 22. I’d not long left uni and now looking back, I left way too early. Because I was paying full rent by myself, I was unable to save (ok, I might have bought a few handbags too!). I then moved to a flatshare with three others when I had to move out of the flat I lived in alone and following my new ownership of a kitten, me and the other girl I lived with moved into a flat by ourselves. We only stayed there for six months and then me and kitty went into another house-share for two years. It’s during this time that the other half and I got together and moved into our little one bedroom rented flat in East London. We lived there for three years and spent our first year and a half of Zach’s life there, squished into our little one bedroom. We knew at that point that we needed to move somewhere bigger and were preparing ourselves to move into another rented home as whilst we’d managed to save (the other half had some previous redundancy money sitting in an account), we still didn’t have enough for that huge deposit needed on our own place. 

Then the government brought in the help to buy scheme. 

Then our dreams became a little more of a reality but still we weren’t sure. 

So we went to see a mortgage advisor who asked us lots of questions, inputting the answers into her computer, and we soon found out the computer said yes!! We could get a mortgage. We could buy a house of our own! 

It still seemed like a dream. Even when we started shopping on rightmove. When we started going for viewings. When we started putting offers on houses. Not flats…proper houses with stairs and gardens. 

And then it all got a little disheartening when our offers were being rejected. We only had a very limited amount and we couldn’t afford to go into what was then the 3% stamp duty rate (I know it’s all changed now!). We also had two very select areas because of two reasons. One, the cost! It is almost impossible to buy anywhere in London so we knew we’d have to move outside but we also needed to be in close proximity to my mum who looks after Zach for us three days a weeks. 

The disheartening continued, house prices kept rising and we started thinking that maybe we’d have to start looking at flats instead. 

Then one Saturday came along and we had four viewings booked in. One cancelled so we ended up seeing three. 

We put an offer on two.

The first, as we were expecting, got rejected. It was at the upper end of our budget so we had no budging space. 

The second – we got a phone call whilst at a 1st birthday party. They were considering our offer (we’d gone in at asking price since we knew they’d already rejected a lower one), and the estate agent told us he’d have it wrapped up by the end of the day. 

We started to believe it could be happening. 

We got home from the party, the other half was on the phone to his mum telling her about the viewings when I got the phone call. 

Hello Miss Cornwell…

and after a brief how are you, how was your day…

I’m very pleased to tell you the offer has been accepted. 

Aaaaaaaaagh! We got a house! A proper house, below our maximum budget and it had stairs and a garden, on a quiet road but still close enough to a bunch of shops and train stations! 

I cried! 

I couldn’t believe the other half was on the bloody phone when we got the news. He came into the front room and I screamed at him…

WE GOT THE HOUSE!! 

It was the best feeling ever. Ok, maybe not as good as the feeling of seeing my newborn son for the first time but you know, bloody fantastic! 

Then came the long weeks of solicitors, banks, waiting for searches etc. We were lucky that there was absolutely no chain. Not our end and not the other end. It was as simple as it could have been for a house buying process. In all, it took roughly ten weeks. Our offer was accepted on the 1st February and we completed on the 17th April. 

It actually happened. That day was amazing although we ended up not getting the keys until very late that day because the previous owner wasn’t in a rush despite having a deadline! But we got the keys and the house was ours. 

When we arrived at the house, the tennant who lived with the owner was still moving his stuff out so it was a bit of an anticlimax! We waited for him to go and then we did the obligatory photo of us as a family of three opening the door to our first house.

  

Zach loved exploring what was a mansion compared to what we lived in before. It was wonderful and he and my nephew played together while me, my sister and the other half cleaned! The next day, we had a van booked to move all our belongings and luckily we had a two week overlap where we still had our flat so anything we didn’t have time to move, could be moved during those two weeks. 

And that was it. We were in. In our own house. 

   

   

It still feels like a bit of a dream now, even though we’ve been paying a mortgage for a year now. 

Buying a house is the reason I had to go back to work full time. I still struggle with the whole working full time thing but I have to remind myself that if it wasn’t for my full time wage, we wouldn’t have this house. Zach has his own room, he has a garden, there’s a school behind our house which we hope him to go to and he has space to run around (I’m finishing writing this on my phone in the garden with him!).

There’s a lot to do. We’ve decorated Zach’s room (you can see all about that here and here), but that’s about it. We need new front and back doors, we need to paint the other rooms and eventually buy new furniture. We can’t afford any of that at the moment but in time it will come. The doors are the priority but everything else can wait, no matter how much the magnolia walls annoy me! We have also tidied up the garden. When we first moved in it looked like this…

 

And it now looks like this…

 

Everything else can wait though because what’s important is that we have a roof over our heads that we are paying for. The money is going towards our own house rather than paying off someone else’s mortgage. Something we thought would never happen.

Happy home-iversary to us  

Yesterday was adventure day number two and it featured a whole day outdoors. We picked yesterday for this trip because out of the whole week, it had the best forecast and we couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. 

Here in Hertfordshire, we have a place called Paradise Wildlife Park. I’ve known about it for years as I remember my nephew going on a school trip there but it took me a long time to go there myself – in fact, I think the first time was with the other half pre-Zach. When we started househunting and found our house, we realised that we’d be only a ten minute drive away from it which excited us! We first took Zach for his 1st birthday and then again last year, probably when he was 18 months or so. The difference in his experience then was huge so I knew that now at two and a half it was going to be immense. 

Paradise is set out in two sections. The first section when you enter is one giant playground. There are slides of all kinds and sizes. There are go karts and mini ride ons. There is a train ride and and a huge soft play area along with a bouncy castle and a bouncy slide. Over the other side there are the animals ranging from camels and zebras to tigers and lions. It is quite possibly one of my favourite places to visit. And now it appears to be Zach’s too! 

When we arrived, he immediately wanted to go on the promised choo choo train ride so we did. Along the train journey there are lots of animal statues including dinosaurs but there is also an enclosure of wolves (real ones), and also deer. Zach of course was slightly more interested in the train itself and specifically trying to see the wheels go round on the track. He was a happy train fan once again! 

 

After that, it was time to play and boy did he! We spent half of the day with him running from slide to slide, climbing the ladders all by himself and whizzing down with utter excitement and sheer joy. 

  

   

The slide he liked the most though was the bouncy one. Last time he went on one of these which was on his second birthday, one of us had to go up with him as his legs were just too little to cope with the bouncy steps! This time, he did it all alone! He may have caused a bit of a queue, but he did it! 

 

He came bouncing down time after time with the biggest laugh. It was so wonderful to watch. 

Then it was time for the big fire engine and a few more slides (yep really, he hasn’t had enough slides) along with a go on the stone picking up digger! 

  

       

Once we managed to drag him away from the slides, we wandered over to the animal side. First up, we wandered into the shop to buy him a hat as the sun was so intense! We managed to find the coolest hat ever which he liked for about five minutes before taking it off and we then sat down for a bird show which he enjoyed.

  

At this point we were all a bit hungry so we went off to find a shady place to eat. The first shady place we came across was a tiny house with tiny benches inside – Zach chose this as our somewhere to eat and we were a bit uncomfortable! But he was happy!

  

  

After lunch and with a rather tired boy, we went to look at some of the animals. 

  

    

By this point Zach was knackered so we put him in his buggy and tried to get him off to sleep – it wasn’t an easy task! He fought it as much as he could but in the end tiredness won!  

 

While he was having his snooze, I had a yummy ice cream while watching this beauty having a sunbathe! 

 

We then went for a little wander round the animals. I think it was a bit hot for them all! 

  

       

We then took a sleeping Zach into the 3.30pm show featuring ferrets and an owl. While we kind of wanted him to wake up by this point, we didn’t anticipate one of the first things to come out of the speaker being a warning alarm!! He woke with a start but thankfully didn’t get upset and got to enjoy the show  

After going to see the tigers again and Zach telling me that he wanted to cuddle one (!), we had one last visit to the playground area, a few more slides, another go on the train and then it was time to get home to make the dumplings for the stew that had been in the slow cooker all day! 

We had such a wonderful day at one of our favourite places. I can’t wait to go back again  

We have the week off work this week and we promised Zach some adventures. I mean, this is the boy who is happy enough with an adventure to the slide at the park round the corner so anything else is simply awesome!

The other half has been dying to take him to the Natural History Museum in London, well…since I was pregnant haha! I’ve been putting it off a bit to make sure that Zach was old enough and that he would appreciate at least some of what was there. I wasn’t expecting him to be standing asking questions about minerals and the Earth forming but I did want him to be involved in the day.

Of course, the first piece of excitement was that we had to get on a few choo choo trains to get there. We live just outside London so it meant one overground train and then two underground trains (South Kensington is such a long way!). Now, my boy is obsessed with trains. Every night we have to read some kind of train book, we have to pretend we are trains when we are out on a walk, Zach pushing the buggy and us being the carriages, and all he talks about is going on the train…every day! He is constantly jealous that me and his daddy get to go on trains five times a week. So when he gets to go, it’s the best thing ever.

    

When we got to the museum, there was a short queue but it didn’t take us long to get in. We didn’t go in the main entrance (we were told the queue was long when it wasn’t), and this entrance took us into the bit where the escalator leads up to the Earth section and he was immediately fascinated. We decided to do the dinosaurs first though because, well, he loves dinosaurs and we didn’t want him to get tired and not enjoy them! Before we reached the main hall where Dippy is, he was treated to a taster of what was to come!

 

Then it was time for Dippy. I don’t know if you know, but Dippy is being removed and replaced by the Blue Whale which we are saddened by. I do kind of understand that the Blue Whale is still alive and kicking today and therefore more relevant, but Dippy has been there for as long as I’ve known and so we wanted Zach to see him before it goes. He loved him immediately!

    

Next up, we joined the queue to get into the main dinosaur section. Again, it wasn’t a long queue…luckily half the schools have already gone back else it could have been! We weren’t sure how he’d like the dinosaurs but he was enthralled with them, spotting them moving, seeing the skeletons and roaring with them!

Then it was time for the big one. The moving, roaring T-Rex. This was either going to make or break him. We were about to find out just what level of braveness our boy has. Whether the huge roaring T-Rex would make him excited or make him cry! I’m happy to report that he thought it was fantastic!

 

Once we were done with the dinosaurs (he was saying goodbye dinosaurs as we were leaving the section), we wandered around looking at anything that may interest him and there was plenty!

            

It was then time to go up to the Earth section – the bit that he’d first seen and was so excited about!

    

Something else we did was go into the Earthquake section. If you haven’t been, there is a room that shows footage of an earthquake and shakes as it would have done based on the actual earthquake. Again, I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about this and he was a bit jittery and unsure but after the ‘tremor’ had ended, he wanted to experience it again! I don’t have any pictures of this as I was holding onto him tightly!

After this, we grabbed his buggy from the cloakroom as he was looking pretty worn out after running round like mad for 2.5 hours, and we headed off to the mammal section. He just (with a little help from mummy), managed to stay awake long enough to see the giant Blue Whale, but then he was gone. Off for a nap to dream about dinosaurs and earthquakes! Absolutely shattered!

So then the other half and I wandered some more but by this point my legs were aching and I needed a sit down. We begrudgingly paid a ridiculous amount of money for two cans of drink (we took our own packed lunch for earlier in the day so we didn’t have to spend a fortune!), and had a relax. We then visited the shop, decided not to buy anything and headed on out to the tube station. Upon me covering Zach with my cardi, he woke from his nap, happy that he hadn’t missed any of the train journey home!

    

I think it’s safe to say that Zach had an absolutely amazing day. I had some comments on Facebook as to how well he really took to it at two and a half and I would say he really did. Yes, there is lots he didn’t care abut but we purposefully picked sections that we thought would interest him and as you can see, he was absolutely fascinated. I’m so glad that the first trip of our staycation was a huge success. He was telling everyone about it at nursery today!

Have you had a fab day out with your little ones to the Natural History Museum? I think we need to try the Science Museum next – I’ve heard that it’s fab and that a change of clothes is required!

Yesterday featured one of those posts that I have to get out. The frustrations of being a parent that would boil up if I didn’t write it down. It’s so good to be able to get it out and then receive lots of comments of complete understanding!

I was going to write this post earlier today but didn’t have time. Since then, we have once again had a huge tantrum where I literally had to make him sit and calm down.

He did.

He picked up the leaflets he’d thrown on the floor in a temper; he apologised to me and he gave me a cuddle. All was fine again and that’s that. I shan’t dwell on it because after my post yesterday, I wanted to focus on the evening – the wonderful evening I had with my boy.

It’s spring. That means, the evenings are lighter. We have a park just around the corner and so I decided that we would have an after work/nursery trip there. On the way home from picking him up from nursery (where he had got majorly excited saying look, it’s my mummy, over and over until someone listened to him), I decided that we did have time and I asked him if he’d like to go. Of course he said yes. I parked the car at home, dashed inside to get him some food and water, then headed round to the park.

Oh what fun we had.

It was magical. It’s been a long time where it’s just been me and him in a park and I just loved it (although I was phoning daddy to see if his train would get in in time to meet us!).

He had a ball on the swings…

His confidence on the climbing frame/slide was amazing! He was running around and for the first time I didn’t have to follow him at every step – I was just there ready with the camera!

He loves going on the big slide but this time he was trying to get himself up the climbing section with a little help from mummy! I couldn’t take photos of that as I was ready to catch him if he slipped but here he is on the slide!

We went on the little see saw and the roundabout thing (it’s not a normal roundabout but goes round hehe)

And he even saw some para-gliders which I didn’t manage to capture in this picture but that’s him pointing at them and asking if he can touch them!

But most of all, he could run free and for me, there is nothing better than seeing him running with the wind in his hair, disappearing off into the distance…

And now??

Six hours ago I put my out of office on because me and the other half have the week off work!

Let the fun times commence!!

I feel sad today.

This morning Zach pushed all of my buttons. The day started out so well. He was awake and in our bed when I came back from the shower, having cuddles with daddy, happy and waiting for the phone so he could have a quick watch of Justin’s House while I was getting ready for work. I propped the pillows up for him to make him comfy and he asked for the covers over him. It was all very lovely, serene, happy, peaceful.

We went downstairs, he did a big boy wee on the big boy toilet rather than the potty which is fab and then it all went wrong.

I tried to put his pull up on and he didn’t want me to. He wanted daddy to do it but daddy was busy in the kitchen making lunch and I knew he needed to catch the train so I persisted with trying to get the pull up on.

It was impossible.

On a writhing, crying, strong willed two and a half year old, it was impossible.

And so I gave in. I lost it, left him there on the sofa with one leg in the pull up, stormed off to the bathroom (which is downstairs), swearing on my way through. The other half stayed silent because luckily he knows how damn frustrating it is when Zach does this and I took a moment. I got my lunch together in the kitchen, went back into the front room and Zach was still laying curled up on the sofa where I’d left him, silent and sulking. I hovered by my bag for a moment and I saw him take a sneaky look over at me and return to sulking, showing me that he was still upset with me. Still knowing that ideally, the other half needed to catch the train, I tried again. He started up again immediately and the other half ended up having to get him completely dressed and therefore missing his train and being late for work.

I then discovered that there were no jumpers downstairs for him so I nipped upstairs. My goodness it was like I’d abandoned him. He stood at the bottom of the stairs in floods of tears crying out mummy, mummy, want a cuddle. It couldn’t have been any more different to how he’d been just moments before. Of course, he didn’t want mummy to put his jumper on though so daddy had to do that too.

Then it was time to leave and it all went wrong again. He wanted to get himself in the car. He wanted to keep the car key even though I needed it to enable me to drive. And then as usual he didn’t want to go to nursery. This is his new thing, actually telling me he doesn’t want to go. It goes a little something like this:

I don’t want to go to nursery mummy; I want to go back home.

He reeeeally knows how to play at my heartstrings. When we get to nursery he says:

Don’t get me out of the car mummy, don’t want to go to nursery.

Of course, I have to take him to nursery because I need to go and earn some money to pay for the new bunch of clothes I ordered for him yesterday!

Thankfully there were no tears at nursery unlike other days. I handed him over to his bestie Laura and he was deciding what he wanted for breakfast. As I peered through the window making sure he was still ok, Laura gave me a thumbs up!

And that was it. A seriously emotional morning where nothing quite went right. I then got the tube to work and as I was walking from the station to the office, I felt tremendously sad. I remembered back to him lying on the sofa upset with me. I felt bad for losing my rag, for storming off, for being frustrated with him. I felt bad for having to leave him at nursery even though I know he has such a fun day. I felt bad for not being able to take him back home like he wanted me to. And at that moment, all I wanted to do was give him a massive cuddle. But I couldn’t because I was in South London and he was in Hertfordshire. I shed a few tears because it was going to be another nine hours before I can give him that cuddle.

It’s seven-ish hours now.

I’m counting them down.

And you know what’ll happen? I’ll pick him up, he’ll be all excited and then we’ll arrive at the house to which the following will be said:

Zach: I don’t want to go home mummy, I don’t want to go indoors

Me: But where do you want to go?

Zach: I want to go back to nursery!

Toddlers ay?!

Happiness.

It’s an important factor to life and something that can get lost in the whirlwind of nursery runs, cooking, washing and worrying. A wonderful post is doing the rounds titled 50 things that make me happy. I was tagged by the lovely Mrs H’s Favourite things and you can see her gorgeous post here. So here we go:

1. The sound of Zach laughing when he’s playing with his daddy

2. A full rack of BBQ ribs

3. Tulips and daffodils

4.  A bubble bath with candles and a magazine

5. Watching the delight on Zach’s face during the hokey cokey!

6. Light evenings so we can play in the garden when home from work

7. The other half

8. Picking Zach up from nursery and hearing him squeal with delight when he sees me

9. Cake

10. Listening to Zach singing nursery rhymes

11. Seeing a bee flying around (as long as it’s nowhere near me)

12. A Friday night with my other half, a bottle of wine and a Chinese takeaway

13. Online shopping arriving at the front door

14. Waking up on a Saturday morning with fully stocked cupboards/fridge

15. A full night’s sleep

16. Receiving photos or videos from my mum of Zach when I’m at work

17. Leaving work at the end of the day

18. Tea

19. Blogging

20. Overdue catch ups with friends

21. Looking back through photos of Zach as a baby

22. Sitting in a coffee shop rather than getting a takeaway

23. Cuddles from Zach, especially the ones when he’s in bed and he curls his arm around my head

24. Going for long walks through the countryside

25. The weather being warm enough to wear dresses and flip flops

26. Not having to set an alarm at the weekends

27. Pretty stationery

28. Taking Zach to cool places and seeing him having the most fun

29. Seeing lots of people joining in with my Twinkly Tuesday linky

30. Waking up to sunshine

31. Annual leave

32. Seeing the bond Zach has with family members – he adores each and every one of them

33. Our house – we never thought we’d buy one

34. Biscuits

35. The moment Zach falls into a deep enough sleep that I can sneak out of his room

36. Hot chocolate

37. Helen Fairweather art

38. Fitting into an item of clothing that I didn’t think I could (hasn’t happened recently though!)

39. Zach’s voice

40. Musicals

41. Getting into a bed with clean sheets and in clean pj’s

42. Comments on my blog posts

43. Being a mummy

44. Payday

45. Watching Zach play hide and seek (he’s not very good at it!)

46. Jurassic Park

47. The opportunities that blogging has brought me

48. A chilly but empty seaside

49. Listening to the rain while I’m cosy and snug indoors

50. Watching Zach gallop…his new version of running

I now tag

Jess at Mummy of Boy Girl Twins

Sarah at Run Jump Scrap

Em at Brummy Mummy of 2

Becky at Cuddle Fairy

Louise at Little Hearts Big Love

I’d love to hear what makes you all happy

At two and a half years old and with only recently showing any real interest in chocolate, I didn’t plan a chocolate egg hunt. I’m a bit of a mean/sensible mummy and try and keep chocolate to the very minimum. It’s each to their own but at this young age, I don’t think it’s appropriate to be plying him with chocolate even if it is only for one day.

I did however want to create his first ever egg hunt and so I took to Twitter for some non chocolate ideas. Hobbycraft was mentioned and I had a thought that I have to drive past one on the way to picking Zach up from my mum’s, so on Wednesday I popped in to see what I could find. It was perfect and I got a whole heap of goodies for ten pounds (the very small chocolate treats were already in the fridge!!).

Last night, I sat down to seperate them all out and share them between the eight plastic eggs that I’d bought.

There were 3D stickers, foam animal stickers, toy cars, Easter chicks and balloons. I was actually surprised at how much the eggs fitted in them!

Once they were all shared out, they were ready for the hunt this morning.

I wasn’t sure how well the hunt would go. I wasn’t sure if he’d really grasp it, if he’d get bored half way through or if he’d go in full swing! I went out into the garden this morning to hide all the eggs around and then gave him the basket that we use for our fruit and set him off on his challenge (with daddy who hadn’t seen where I’d placed them all).

Zach was so excited, I couldn’t have asked for a better reaction to my hunt! He was out there, hunting around shouting I’ve found one! 

He needed a bit of assistance to find a few tricky ones!

And then it was off up to the end of the garden for the last few along with a special crafty treat for him that I couldn’t get in the eggs!!

And then he’d found them all and it was time for a big hoorah!

It was then time to go back indoors and open up his eggs. His favourite things turned out to be the little chicks, ooooo a chick he’d squeal, and also the balloons which needed immediate attention to be blown up!

Followed by the obligatory  bit of chocolate that had to be eaten immediately!

All in all, it was a massively successful first Easter egg hunt and I was so chuffed that he enjoyed it as much as he did

Did you set up an Easter egg hunt for your little ones? Did they have as much fun as we did?

One day last week, Zach woke up in the night. As always he cried until I got into his room and he snuggled up to fall back to sleep. Upon returning to my own bed and snuggling up to return to sleep, he started crying again. I went back in, settled him and he fell back to sleep. So I thought! Once again, just as I’d snuggled back into bed, he cried again. Only this time it was different. This time, I noticed that the cry was getting closer. Suddenly he appeared in our room, climbed up and snuggled into my arms. He had never done this before. Yes he’s been in our bed lots but he has never got out of bed on his own and wandered into our room! 

The question at that point was, is it a one off? He’s always been a boy that stays in his bed. He waits for you to go in and in the morning when he wakes, he waits and shouts muuummmmy of daaaaady until one of us goes into grab him. 

Yesterday morning, again this changed! I had the hairdryer on getting ready for work and the bedroom door opened – initially I thought it was the other half as I’d heard him just getting out of the shower but I realised quickly that I needed to look lower down to see my little munchkin wandering in, bleary eyed and wobbly having just woken up!

So, it wasn’t a one off, clearly. 

That became even more evident last night! I woke up to hear crying and once again it was getting closer! He hadn’t even woken up and waited to see if I’d go in to settle him – nope, he just got out of bed, wandered into our room, clambered over me on the bed and curled up in the middle of us! I was awake for such a small period of time that I’d completely forgotten he’d come in for a visit! The other half didn’t even wake up to the small disturbance and the first thing he knew about Zach being there was when he felt a foot in his back! We were then awoken with a Zach in our faces saying morning, get up, let’s go downstairs! 

So, it is clear that it’s not a one off. He has discovered that if he wakes in the night, he can just get up and get into our bed. I can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing. It definitely means I have less of a disturbance, I don’t have to get out of bed and spend 10-20 minutes getting him back to sleep but I do get an elbow in my back, a foot on my leg, a hand on my face, and a bit more of a disturbed sleep! All I’m hoping is that this is a non frequent happening! He still seems to love his sleep, he’d still much rather be in his bed sleeping through (as would we), so I’m hoping it stays that way and he doesn’t start doing this every night! 

Do your little ones sneak into your bed in the night? How do you deal with it? Do you just let them and relish the sleepy cuddles or do you put them back in their own bed? 

Being a parenting blogger means that most of the reviews I do are child related. Every now and then however,  I get an opportunity to review something that isn’t for Zach! It’s definitely nice when the parcel arrives and I know that it’s for the other half and I, or even just me hehe! Unfortunately I have had to share the latest product with said other half, which is probably a good thing because otherwise I’d be a piggy all by myself, for this review is all about sweets!!

I was contacted by the lovely people from Ashby Treats asking if I’d like to review a jar of their sweets! The part of me that is trying to be a little healthier should have said no, but of course that little devil on my shoulder told me to say a big fat yes! So I did! And boy am I glad of it!

About Ashby Treats

Ashby Treats is based at a sweet shop called Sweet Memory Lane in a small market town in Leicestershire. Their shelves are filled to the brim with all of the typical sweets you would have grown up with and so much more! Along with just simply being able to order sweets, to devour at home (like I’m doing as I write this!), they also do party bags, wedding favours, corporate gifts and so on and so on!!

What we thought of the product
Seriously, I started writing this after dinner and had to get the jar over because I couldn’t write about them without wanting them!

The sweet jar arrived so beautifully packaged that I felt like I was opening the most gorgeous gift – I was oooing and ahhing while delicately pulling the stunning paper off of it!

When I did get it off, I was so surprised by what was underneath. I mean, how utterly gorgeous is this??

A bit more unwrapping later and I was in! And oh my word, it was like all of my pick n mix dreams come true! A jar full of Haribo hearts, mini eggs, strawberry chocolate hearts and mini love hearts among others! I was in heaven! My other half gasped and was just as excited – although his was about the jar itself even more than the sweets – he does love a good jar!

Overall we were seriously impressed with this – from the beautiful packaging to the mouth wateringly delicious sweets, I would have no qualms about buying these and they would make a really wonderful present to be delivered direct.

Is there anything we didn’t like?
Nope. No. Nada. Nothing.

You can find the wonderful online sweet shop at http://www.ashbytreats.com/

We were sent the Sweetheart Pink Jar for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and words are my own.