Lalalab.

Hello and a very happy new year to all my lovely readers. I thought we'd start off the new year with a blog milestone here at bebebearcubs with our very first collaboration. This is with the photo based app Lalalab (previously known as Polagram)

Lalalab kindly gave us the chance to review one of the fabulous products in their range, the 21'' x 21'' photo book.

What greater way to cherish your snapshots from the year gone by than a book brimming with all your fun filled memories.

There are so many choices out there for photo books and photo gifts nowadays and the online market is briming with them.

So here's why Lalalab was our choice.

-Quality

I have ordered prints from Lalalab before and have been immensely impressed with the quality. You can see some examples of the prints we recieved and what we did with them here. From a mobile app I'll be honest I was naturally a bit apprehensive but there was no need to be. Their prints are great quality and on a fabulous Fujifilm Archive Supreme gloss paper. They are far superior to any prints I have collected from high street retailers, we were pleasantly surprised.

-Convenience

All your photos are at your fingertips. Being an app on your mobile phone Lalalab can gain access to your photostream (with your permission) and off you go! Just select the images you want printed, the product you wish to purchase and click to order. No faffing around on the PC, no rummaging around for memory cards, everything you need to create a wonderful keepsake of your images is there in your hand. I have a Fuji  mirrorless camera for my photography too so I simply use wifi connectivity to ping these over to my mobile if I wish to include some higher quality jpgs (you're not just restricted to mobile images)

-Fresh, modern and fun.

Lalalab are slightly different to your usual photo products because they offer the retro style Polaroid look to their product range which is very on trend right now. Getting your photos printed in polastyle gives them a fun appeal and there are heaps of creative ideas of what to do with your Polaroids on Pinterest. The app also ties in nicely with Instagram and the square style photo streams which are really clean and fresh. As a blogger I adore the photography style look and layouts online and these are reflected nicely in the photo books. Your photo book cover can effectively look very much alike a hard copy of your Instagram feed at a glance and inside are the larger images (still available in the cute square shape) to enjoy , it's a great way to treasure these as a hard copy.

So Lalalab were happy for us to give their photo book a test run. We had our first family holiday as a four to Portugal recently so used our photo book to capture all our adventures.

The photo books start at the  base price of £19.90 and you can choose from 26 images to fill it. You can add further images if you wish to (an additional 14, these cost 79p each) giving your photo book a total of 40 pictures.

The front cover is a collage of some of your images which can be shuffled to suit .

The app gives an option to add a title to each page but we choose to keep it plain, there is also an 'effects' function to edit and adjust your images if you so wish to. Many of our images already had a vintage film applied as that's the look we wanted so we also didn't use this functionality. It's nice to have it as an option though especially if you are feeling creative.

In summary our Lalalab photo book is unique, modern and fun. The pages are more of a matte than a gloss like the Polaroid prints and the focus is most certainly on images rather than reams of text (if you want your photo book to have a written story or documented descriptions then this probably isn't for you on this occasion) but you can add titles to each page if you wish to. The photo books have a good quality hardback cover and nice chic white background. I think they'd work really well at capturing an event like birthdays, an engagement, summer adventures or even just a really novel way to store your Instagram or mobile phone snaps as a hard copy to enjoy flicking through. 

There are definitely more comprehensive photo book sites out there with more choice of image layouts, greater customisation and different album sizes but the Lalalab app isn't pretending to be another one of these. It's grasped back the simplicity of uploading your digital files straight from your mobile phone and creating a simple but fun and fresh photo book to cherish these. 

The photo book pictured was given to us for review purposes. All feedback is our own opinion and is a true and honest reflection having used the app and received said product. In return we are happy for Lalalab to use our comments or photographs for press release or social media purposes.

A festive review. Stansted Park.

There's so much going on this time of year, Santa's Grottos, Pantomime, Nativities, Christmas crafts for the children and the garden centres are full of decorations, fairy lights and santa's genuine fleet of reindeers to visit. With this in mind I thought it would be nice to visit one of our local events and write a review.

So for anyone wanting a day out this weekend here is a quick overview and a sneaky peek at The Stansted Park House & Grounds Christmas Fayre.

Stansted Park is a beautiful grade II listed Edwardian House and Grounds dating back to the 11th Century when it orginated as a hunting lodge. It is situated on the Hampshire/ Sussex border between Chichester and Portsmouth.

The exact location if you're thinking about venturing down there can be found on their Find Us page.

If you take a visit there is a garden centre, farm shop, (selling produce all year round) woodland walks, a maze and Victorian walked gardens,The Pavillion tearoom, outdoor play area and a miniature railway.

The Christmas fair is £6 per head and includes a marquee in the grounds full of festive delights. The stalls continue into the house which is beautiful to look around itself and great for shelter from the crisp winter air.

The Marquee features everything from fabric wall art for the children's bedrooms, wooden toys, knitted outfits (booties, hats, cardi's) bee houses, candles, soaps, home made crackers, faux fur accessories, personalised pictures, chocolates & sweeties galore, and leading up to the marquee were some great carved wooden pigs, ducks and other ornaments. 

Inside the house we saw lots of beautiful bespoke hand made jewellery, cards, vintage style gifts, hand painted fine china and gift wrap and tags.

There is also a mouth watering range of tasters and food stalls downstairs, luxury and seasonal cheeses, sausages, Greek olives, pickles and chutneys alongside wine tasting and some delicately decorated Christmas cakes available. 

What I really liked about the array of stalls was how unique they all were. Sometimes these fayres can all seem a bit of the same thing but there genuinely were a great number of products I'd never seen before and lots of beautiful handcrafted and one of a kind items.

Inside the marquee you can stop for a hot drink and other refreshments including hot soup of the day, pasties, sandwiches and cake.

If this doesn't take your fancy the tea rooms looked absolutely delightful and all lit up with fairy lights. We didn't actually stop here as we ran out of time but would definitely make a return visit to do so. The Pavillion Tearoom serves breakfasts, light lunches and beverages & cakes as well as Afternoon Teas if you fancy a treat.

There is a horse and cart ride at the entrance of the house for £1.50 per person but we chose to take a golf buggy ride for free. Oscar absolutely loved it and it was nice to rest the legs for 10 minutes and see some of the beautiful grounds, we were treated to 'choo choo' and 'toot toot' sounds the entire way round ( got to love toddlers). 

Unfortunately the miniature railway wasn't running today but I hear it will be this weekend, so train fanatic children and adults alike can hitch a ride on the railway.

What astonished me is just how much there is to do here. The garden centre will be hosting its very own Grotto if the kids wish to visit Santa and recieve a gift. Santa will be in his Grotto on Saturday 21st Nov from 10am- 4pm and a visit costs £5.99. There is a play area adjacent The Pavillion tea rooms with a bucket swing, baby swings, slides and tunnels -great for tiring out endless bundles of little energy! 

The small Chapel is definitely worth a visit, it's absolutely beautiful and so quaint. All the Christmas decorations are up and it looks really magical.

There is also a small studio on site where you can try your hand at personalising and painting some keepsakes. Crafts and pottery decorating will be running on both Saturday and Sunday giving you the chance to get creative and make something special for family & friends this year.

I would fully reccomend a visit if you're heading this way or if you're stuck for something to do this weekend. I honestly felt it was a whole day out and bursting with festive treats, smells, sights and a heart warming festive atmosphere. You won't be disappointed. 

Top tips:

Wrap up warm. The temperature really dropped yesterday so wear your hats, gloves and all your layers.

Bring your wellie boots. The fields to park  in can get muddy and a little mushy, best to bring your wellingtons for this one.

Don't forget some cash. Entry to the Fayre is cash only and although the Pavillion Tearoom and Christmas Cafe accept cards a lot of the stalls deal with cash transactions.

If you have a young baby bring your sling/ carrier. There are no pushchairs allowed in the house so it's handy to have something to carry baby around in whilst you browse and take in all the festivities.

Nuby Bandana Bibs.

Hi everyone, well there's no denying it the festive season is fast approaching and we love to get into the spirit of things.

So when a friend signposted a chance for us to try out the Nuby range of festive Bandana bibs we jumped at the chance.

We also have a great sample of the oral care range to try so will feedback on these products as and when we use them.

The Nuby bandana bibs are from 0 months + which is awesome as they can be used from newborn age. So note for Mummies to be they can be packed in your hospital bag (:

Bandana bibs are a real hit nowadays, they have a modern look to them and can actually look great teamed with babies outfits (not to mention protecting them) 

This range feature some festive fun prints for Christmas and ours had a cute reindeer motif and gingerbread theme.

The bibs are incredibly soft, they have a velcro fastening which is quick and easy to do up (saves faffing with poppers) and are of a really good length so perfect for teething and dribbles.

Here is Lottie enjoying her Christmas bandana bib.

Would I reccomend them? Yes, we would.

They're colourful, fun and practical and what we liked most was the length of these bibs ( a good inch or so longer than most we have in the drawer) and how soft and absorbent they are. They're long enough to catch everything ( yes that includes sick burps) and do a great a job at protecting our little ladies cute outfits, they really are a great dribble catcher!

Thumbs up Nuby! (:

If you would like your own festive bandana bib they can be found in Tesco stores for £2 each or bought online at http://www.nuby-uk.com/ use the code FBNOV15 at checkout for 20% off your order.

The bandana bibs and oral care range were samples from Nuby for us to trial, we were not instructed to write this blog post nor has it had influence on this piece. All feedback is of our own opinion following testing and is a true and honest reflection having used the products. In return we are happy for Nuby to use our comments or photograph for press release or social media purposes.

King George V Play Area

Today we went to one of our local parks with the kids, King George V Play area which was recently refurbished and given a fresh new look by Fareham Borough Council.

It was chosen as one of the parks being given a mini makeover in which old equipment has been painted, missing items reinstated, safety surfacing improved and fencing and seating areas painted (source Fareham Today Publication, Summer edition)

20 of the Boroughs play areas are to receive a mini makeover, you can find the full list here:

www.fareham.gov.uk/minimakeovers

We have been to King George V Play Area before and Oscar enjoyed running around and using the toddler swings but to be honest there was not much else for him to enjoy there prior to the mini makeover.

Today was a different story and his eyes lit up as we arrived at the park.

The toddler play equipment was a huge hit, Oscar adored independently climbing up the apparatus, whizzing down the small slide, listening through the sound tubes and really enjoyed the brightly coloured rocketship painted on the pathway.

The toddler swings are still featured but have been updated and modernised, alongside this there is a new bucket swing and a big snake swing at the rear of the park. Another addition is an inclusive roundabout which is accessible to wheelchair users.

You can tell a lot of thought has been put into the refurbishment and this is reflected in the fact that children from the Locks Heath Junior School helped choose what play equipment was to go in the play area.

Before the park was simply an excuse for us stretch our legs but now it's much more that that! Oscar throughly enjoyed his play time there and was giggling and exploring the whole way round.

Thank you Fareham Borough Council and all involved in the mini makeovers of these local play parks, what a huge difference it makes to the children and adults (appreciated the additional picnic benches for breastfeeding) they are an asset to the community and it's so refreshing to have a safe, fun and vibrant place to play on your doorstep :)

Polagram Review ( Discount code included)

The blog is well over due a review post and I have recently stumbled across Polagram an app which prints photos direct from your Facebook, Instagram or

Camera roll so though I'd check them out. 

I am forever taking photos on my camera phone and rarely print copies so Polagram offers a fun, accessible and easy to use interface for ordering prints of your favourite daily snaps and those special moments you've managed to capture.

With use of a £5 discount code I ordered a set of 19 prints for only £2.20 (including postage)

I loved how easy the app was to use.

Polagram offer 3 styles of print. These are

Pola Style

Square

Regular

My personal favourites are the Pola or Square style as they look so crisp, with that retro modern vibe about them.

I placed my order on Monday and they arrived Saturday so was waiting about 5 days for them to drop through the letterbox.

So here is how they arrived in the post:

Inside a brown sturdy postal envelope was this pink envelope containing my prints. It's s nice finishing touch and cute way to enclose your goodies.

And the finished result:

I was really chuffed with them. The print quality is lovely, the images are clean and  have a nice gloss to them and the colours are vibrant and clear.

I wasn't entirely sure what to do with my prints so we went down The Range and placed them in a nice big square frame to display in the living room.

Here's how they turned out:

What's great about these is you can change the photos regularly so it's not a static piece of wall art. The combinations are endless.

Polagram have a range of fantastic products including a similar style poster print which looks gorgeous, a photo book, gift box, canvas and even phone cases. 

The prints are also a perfect size and easy way to display your favourite photos  on your desk at work, string a few together at a party to create a photo garland or to fill some of those smaller sometimes fiddly gaps in a multi aperture frame.

I adore them! 

Thank you Polagram for creating an easy, user friendly way for me to enjoy my digital files and cherish these moments again.

Here is my discount code for all my readers 

PGN9DNMJ 

for £5 off any order, so go check them out and order yourself a few prints. You can order 10+ prints including postage with the code and create some lovely wall art of your own :)

Down to Earth Community Farm- Review

I just had to write a review of this place! Its a little Gem!

For Mothering Sunday my Hubby & Son took me to the Down to Earth community Farm in Southampton.

Entry is £2 per adult and children are £1 although Oscar is under they age of 2 so was free admission.

The farm is a local social enterprise run by volunteers and offers educational visits and craft courses and you can even book birthday parties there. This includes activity days such as making your own bat box, wood work, bush craft and felt making as just some examples of the courses they run.

We arrived just in time for the farm tour at 2pm and were guided round to see and hear more about the project and all the animals on site.

We paid 70p for a bag of feed so were able to feed the chickens and then hens as we went round.

First stop was the gorgeous pair of Kune Kune pigs Primrose and Precilla! The tour guide called their names and the pigs came right up to us! They're obviously very loved and looked after and comfortable around people! They had a gorgeous muddy pen and little stick hut to roll around in.

Moving on from the pigs we saw some beautiful bearded and very friendly goats! Here is Oscar probably getting a bit too close and personal!

The goats shared an enclosure area with a gorgeous white cow called Snowball and some fluffy Shetland sheep which you can feed straw through the fencing.

We also saw the vegetable crop area and further developments going on at the farm on the way round including the area being cleared for a new poly tunnel.

Final stop was the small animal room, here we were met by some very friendly volunteers and got to hold a African Pygmy hedgehog and bearded dragons and even feed them! Oscar's little face says it all :)

In the animal room there were also tortoises, sugar gliders, gerbils, a snake, and lots of other animals to learn about. If you have a specific interest or animal you'd like to meet the volunteers were very happy to get them out of their little homes to handle them and tell you all about them.

I must say this was one of the highlights of our visit, we've been to quite a few farms and zoological parks and although you can sometimes pay for up close encounters we've never got so close to animals and learnt so much as part of the admission to a farm. We've seen the usual chicks, bunnies and guinea pigs but the animal enclosure had a real variety of different species which we'd never had the chance to meet before, making it really unique!

The community farm also had a gift section if you want to treat yourself to some souvenirs of your visit, we saw some jams,  lovely birdy bunting, insect houses, fairy doors, woollen finger puppets and my hubby & son got me an adorable hedgehog letter holder :) 

If you're looking for refreshments there is a little community room on site and as a special Mothering Sunday feature they were offering afternoon tea! We didn't stop for anything as we had already had some lunch but we saw some gorgeous home baked cakes available and they serve freshly made sandwiches and other tasty snacks daily.

You may recognise the community farm when BBC's Mr Bloom took a visit to collect some chicken eggs, they were featured in series 2 of the popular children's programme and you can see a snippet of the episode here on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/K1THaFF5nac

Why not take a look for yourself and visit the farm! On March 28th/29th and early April they'll be holding an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones :) 

Down To Earth Community Farm 

There are also some great April Holiday Activities lined up. I believe these are for ages 3 and up and you can contact the farm to book your place.

We thoroughly recommend a visit and had such a lovely family outing there :) It's refreshing to see so many fun and interactive activities and there's a real community feel here,superb, affordable and educational day out right on our doorstep. Thank you Down to Earth Community Farm!

Drusillas Park

I am writing this post as a review of Drusillas Park and Zoo.

I am one of those endlessly hopeful people that enter competitions online on a weekly if not daily basis, sometimes wondering if the majority of them are genuine as I never seem to win much.

Then back in late Summer I received a message online notifying me I was indeed this time in luck! I'd liked and shared a Zoo borns and Drusillas Park post and be drawn as the winner! I was super excited as this meant I'd won my son a cuddly panda, book about baby animals, an iPhone case (which unfortunately doesn't fit my phone- yes I'm still on an iPhone 4) and most amazingly free tickets to visit the park with my little family! :) what an awesome

prize!

The prizes got sent out very promptly and zoo entry was for the next year so we could choose any date at our convenience.

Shortly after we found out we were expecting our second child so we knew straight away it might be nice to visit whilst mummy was still able to comfortably walk around and enjoy the day.

A few months passed by and suddenly Christmas was nearing when we decided this would be a perfect excuse for Oscar to meet Father Christmas for the first time whilst enjoying a trip to see all the animals.

Christmas at Drusillas involved the additional attractions of their winter wonderland, light illuminations show, reindeers, hug a husky and of course Santas Grotto! We couldn't really afford the £50 price tag per adult to visit more local attractions such as Peppa Pig World or Marwell to meet Father Christmas so this seemed the perfect

opportunity to use our free tickets.

Well we're we glad we did! 

We visited on a Sunday as we thought it would be a little quieter, on arrival out first stop was the Explorers Cafe (of course! ) we easily got a table and highchair and ordered fish and chips, macoroni cheese and for Oscar sausages, chips and peas! 

Here is our little monkey enjoying his lunch at Drusillas.

After filling our tummies we walked through to see lots of gorgeous marmosets, squirrel monkeys, snakes, farm animals including the kune kune pigs, goats and cows and then decided it might be best to head to Santas Grotto. We knew there would be a queue as visiting Father Christmas is always high on the agenda and didn't want Oscar to miss it or fall asleep so off we went to find his house!

We joined the queue and after 45 minutes of our tiny toddler being good as gold we reached the front! :)

We walked in to see Mrs Christmas who directed us straight through to Santa! His cabin was beautiful! Surrounded by lots of toys and sat in the corner in a rocking chair was Santa! I held Oscar's hand and walked him over and placed him on father Christmas' lap to meet him. 

Here is the special moment:

As you can see Oscar felt quite happy to see him! After a little chat Oscar then received a gift from the Santa sack and waved goodbye!

On exiting the Grotto we opened Oscar's present together and he got a gorgeous cuddly reindeer!

Mummy also took quite a liking to him!

We thoroughly enjoyed taking Oscar to meet Father Christmas, it was only an additional £6 and the gift was great quality and brilliant value for money. We weren't disappointed! 

After this we continued around the zoo and met penguins, the red pandas, squirrel monkeys, a croc and my personal favourite the gorgeous beavers! 

Even Daddy got involved in feeding the birds!

There is also a huge play area at Drusillas, Thomas the tank engine and hello kitty world, not to mention Amazon Adventure a 300 sq metre soft play area! We didn't get time to venture inside as Oscar fell asleep for his afternoon nap but it looked lots of fun!

What we loved about it was how child and family friendly this place was! A lot of it was sheltered (more so than you would have thought) perfect if the weather is not reliable. Lots of activities and chances to get up close to the animals (without additional costs) this included feeding the birds and walking amongst the lemurs. 

We will definitely be back in the summer when bump has joined us :) 

Its clear to see why Drusillas was voted in no 4 of the top 10 places to visit Santa in in the UK and Europe 

http://your-hols.com/top-10-places-to-see-santa/

Widely regarded as the best small zoo in the country we'll no doubt be back! :)

Drusillas Park is based in Alfriston, East Sussex. You can find out more information about a visit on their webpage:

Drusillas Park

***Update- My blog review has been featured on Drusillas Park's own Twitter page! So glad they liked it :) click on the link to see what they had to say and for their live Tweet from today***

https://twitter.com/drusillaspark/status/559635634181398528

https://twitter.com/drusillaspark/status/561877913512214528