I do love a to-do list. Just not the chore kind. Those lists depress me. A list of fun things to do this summer, though? That I can get excited about. Since we actually managed to do everything on our slightly insane Advent Calendar, I thought we’d try a summer list and see how we fare. So, here goes. Autumn officially begins on September 22nd so that gives us nine weeks of summer. Nine weeks, nine goals? Let’s round it up to ten. 1. Go on an open-top bus tour of our home city Talitha has been intrigued by the…

Talitha turned three last month and, after flitting from Gruffalo to angel to dinosaur themes, she settled on a Winnie the Pooh birthday party. This was the first year she understood birthdays, so it was exciting all round. Our friend Helen, from Cat’s Whiskers Face Painting in Bristol, generously offered the main attraction. I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like it – she was so quick and accurate. She also made the amazing Eeyore balloon pictured above. I grabbed some printables off Disney and Disney Baby to make a colouring wall and stickers for the party bags and snack boxes.…

Circus Queen’s husband here, reporting on what the toddler and I did at 10 days postpartum. Another hair-brained activity with the toddler. Find a bit of land, build a fire and cook something. Great idea in principle, but I learned a few things from this experience. ) • Maybe pick a better weather forecast. It was incredibly lucky that we actually found a dry window in what was quite a blustery and wet day. • Don’t do it alone with the toddler, unless you are Bear Grylls and can build and look after a toddler with your eyes shut. Due…

Circus Queen’s husband here, reporting on what the toddler and I did at 8 days postpartum. I first came across Alistair Humphrey when her Majesty showed me an article he’d written in Green Parent Magazine. She knew his ideas where right up my street and could see that it had captivated my imagination, so she bought his book 10 Lessons From the Road for my birthday. This led me to his blog and more research into “microadventures”. He describes a microadventure (or #microadventure for the cool hipster blogger) as… “Simple expeditions and challenges which are close to home, affordable and…

Circus Queen’s husband reporting here on what we did at birth plus two days: As her majesty languishes in bed, recovering from her wounds and trying to establish breastfeeding, I am trying to find as many ways as I can to keep our toddler entertained. Activity number one is a bike ride. Two birds with one stone, fun for Talitha, and I get to keep my fitness up during paternity leave. The route I got given a toddler bike seat for Christmas and I’ve taken it out for a few short rides with Talitha since then, but nothing properly substantial.…