The amazing adventures of me

Lavania carrying Arlo on her back in the midst of a wildflower field on a sunny day.

This is our family adventure blog – the journal of our life – which is a bit of everything really.

We’re a fun loving pair. I’m Lavania, a single mum and teacher. I have a whole host of hobbies and interests – right now it’s all about balancing the craziness of life with Arlo, who is a five year old little whirlwind. We are based in Birmingham (UK) .

We share guides to our adventures in Birmingham as well as arts and crafts projects which keep us busy at home.

You can also find lots of play ideas and toy reviews, family friendly recipes, our home renovation projects, holiday journals, and the occasional journal and opinion based post within our family blog .

We hope you enjoy reading all about our days out and find inspiraton to have a family adventure today.

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🎨 Creatively Parenting a little whirlwind
📍 #Birmingham Based #familyblog
🍴 we cook #food
🎲 We Play #toyreviews
🚗 We go places #daysoutwithkids

Thai spiced fish cakes In school we have been wo

Thai spiced fish cakes

In school we have been working with @fish.heroes on a series of lessons discussing sustainability and the fishing industry as well as all of the nutritional benefits. Did you know that you’re supposed to eat two portions of fish a week and that one of them should be oily?

For our first foray in to cooking fish I chose this recipe as it incorporates a lot of skills. Poaching, boiling, panne’ing, etc - Some pupils chose to make their Thai curry paste from scratch and the strong aroma worked well to mask the “fishy” smell and incorporating mashed potato in to our cakes made for an overall pleasant texture and mouth feel. Entirely unexpected from pupils who were initially reluctant to work with fish.

Lots of positive reactions from the finished dish and great care with presentation too.

Beach baby I found another little break at a ver

Beach baby

I found another little break at a very decent price - this time I’m paying £40 for a weekend caravan holiday and we’re going to explore a place we haven’t been to since 2019 when Arlo was this tiny.

I can’t quite believe the price of this break compared to the exact same one next weekend when the school holidays begin.

I understand supply and demand price hikes but next weekend the price is five times as much. I’m so glad Fridays are my day off so I can plan and pack today and then hit the motorway as soon as the school day finishes.

It can feel a little hectic to get organised in term time but I think it’s all worth it when you get to the beach!

Winner winner This one pan chicken meal was just

Winner winner

This one pan chicken meal was just delicious - I marinated my chicken overnight in lemon juice, mustard, garlic and thyme before slow roasting in a large pan with new potatoes and wedges of red onion drizzled with olive oil.
Ten minutes before serving I added frozen peas, broccoli and spinach to the pan and popped it back in the oven.
The smell had us drooling before dinner time. Zingy lemon and fragrant thyme is a combination perfect for spring.

Shout out to a phenomenal woman! Dedicating a gr

Shout out to a phenomenal woman!

Dedicating a grid square to my mom today,
the most creative and free spirited person I know.

Happy Mother’s Day @doodles_by_donna_o

Launch day /ad 🦇 Have you caught the virtual

The Toucan cafe One thing I love about our adven

The Toucan cafe

One thing I love about our adventures is finding new food places. We wandered out of Butlins down along the Minehead High street and found this lovely hidden treasure of a cafe. @toucanwholefoods - It’s situated above a shop and when you climb up the stairs there’s an assortment of rooms which are inviting and cosy. We opted for three different dishes - all vegan - chilli loaded sweet potato fries, a sweet corn soup which were on the specials board and then Arlo also insisted he have beans on toast.

As always we shared each dish - Arlo was a huge fan of the soup and really enjoyed tearing and dipping the chunky slabs of bread in to the bowl. It was a delicate flavour and a huge portion which kept him going on our holiday adventures.

The vegan chilli was lovely - I hadn’t planned to order this but when I was stood at the counter and saw one dish going out to another table I paused mid sentence and changed my mind. A really mild heat but great depth of flavour made this quite moorish and I also got some hints and tips regarding a recipe for vegan mayonnaise.

I spent £23 on these three dishes and two soft drinks which I think is very reasonable, and then I popped downstairs and got some bits from the whole foods shop as they host some wonderful brands and fresh produce.

If you’re planning to visit Minehead for Butlins then I certainly recommend taking a stroll down along the seafront and in to the town centre - there’s lots of fabulous indie businesses to support

Sometimes you’ve just got to get in your car and

Sometimes you’ve just got to get in your car and drive to the coast for a little reset.

“In the end we only regret the choices we didn’t take”

On a roll /ad There are so many awesome things i

On a roll /ad

There are so many awesome things in my Mother’s Day gift guide blog - of course there is a little bit of a slant towards foodie items and I have to give a huge shout out to @kellylovesasianfood because they sent me out the most awesome bundle. An ultimate sushi making kit…. I was so excited I took the box in to school and opened it with my club. We made our sticky rice and then prepared some salmon, cucumber, carrot and avocado before trying out our first rolls. It took a lot of patience and a bit of trial and error but we got there in the end. Results were fabulous and the process was so much fun. Check out my blog for more unique gift ideas this Mother’s Day

Baby Arlo This picture was taken on the first mor

Baby Arlo

This picture was taken on the first morning I took baby Arlo in to nursery. I planned to return to work at the end of my maternity leave and so I had a phased settling in period which started with going in for an hour when he was only four months old.

I’ve woken up early today and gone though all my email invoices to work out exactly how much I spent on childcare - it adds up to over £13k (and that’s with a 20% discount) in the two years up until he received the 30 hours funding. This was part time too - I simply couldn’t have afforded to pay for full time childcare as it would have more than doubled.

When I look back to my life then, and compare it to now, so much has changed.

Im a single parent. I live in a different city. I have a totally different career.

I would not change things now for the world because I am genuinely happy (even if I am broke) but I do feel kinda resentful that it’s taken so long for the government to act.

Without going in to detail, the cost of childcare and the financial pressure I think was a huge contributing factor to all of the changes in our lives.

I wonder what life would be like if I had not had to worry so much about the cost of childcare.

I am so pleased for all families who will benefit from the budget changes and forever grateful for the personal support @pregnant_then_screwed gave me at my most difficult of times.

Let’s now focus on #flexappeal and supporting working families in to finding a healthy work life balance - it means more to the success of the economy and getting out of this cost of living crisis than I think anyone gives credit for.

Heart of glass /ad These beautiful earrings are

Heart of glass /ad

These beautiful earrings are made from black obsidian. I have been obsessed with this ever since learning that it’s “dragon glass” from the Game of Thrones series and I’ve been looking for a wearable piece of jewellery for years - @xanderkostromalifestyle were going to feature a completely different product on my Mother’s Day gift guide blog post but when I was mooching through the website I just had to get these little beauties. On a sterling silver hoop they’re simple but stunning and can be worn day or night.
When they were delivered, the packaging and unboxing experience was truly unique, the kind of details you can only get from buying from small businesses including the earrings being attached to a skull shaped cardboard which can then double as a decoration of sorts.

Certainly worth having a mooch through the website if you’re looking for unique gifts for this Sunday

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