Lifeasweknowit

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Perfect Prep review

Hi guys and welcome back to my Blog.

Today I am going to review the Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep Day and Night machine.

This product was gifted in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced.

When Penny was born in March this year I had heard so many mixed reviews about the Perfect prep , including a no go review from my midwife. So me and my other half decided against it and that we would just make bottles up as we went. This worked for us and we totally managed, but that thought was always there whenever I saw the product in the shop as should we shouldn’t we,and I know to many people its quite a large chunk of money to pay when babies accessories can already cost such a lot !

When Tommee Tippee asked me if I would review this product i felt like it was the perfect time to try it and either confirm my fears or fall in love.

And Fall in love I did ! The machine is completely and utterly amazing! It makes life at home (especially when you have more than one child ) super easy and less time consuming ! I first shared the product on my stories via Instagram and received a lot of positive comments straight away telling me how brilliant the new model is.

We were sent the perfect prep in Grey which is fabulous and goes with our room perfectly as I have decided to keep the machine upstairs now Penny’s a bit older it get more use at bedtime and first thing on a morning. They also sent us some of the 150ml new anti colic bottles in the lovely turquoise colour which I absolutely adore and have since bought more (I think I have an actual bottle and dummy habit ).

So basically with the machine when you first set it up it has a super easy instruction booklet with step by step on how to perform the initial cleaning procedure (please be patient with this it does take about 10 minutes but so worth it) after this its ready make a bottle following the steps below. (everything is prompted on screen, and have a large container at hand to run the water into.

Step 1- Select from the screen the size feed you want ( from 4oz-11oz )

Step 2 – Add formula powder( always read instructions on the tub for each brand ) we use Aptamil.

Step 3- Placebottle on stand ( adjustable )

Step 4 – Machine adds hot shot – you then add lid and shake

Step 5- Place bottle back on stand and press middle button

Step 6 – Machine adds cool water

Step 6 – Shake and ready to serve bottle

It is literally as easy as that !!

Penny loves to sit and watch the water come out and get excited seeing her milk being made.

Available to purchase at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0795RPS1V/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B0795RPS1V&linkCode=as2&tag=lifeasweknowi-21&linkId=7ee1934183624a8ae6cf24821a50e44f

Thank you Tommee Tippee for creating such a brilliant product we absolutely love it and would definitely recommend to new parents !

Jess

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Life as we know it ………………….

Hello I’m Jess from the North East of England, a mum of one little girl Penny , I also have 3 step sons 19,9 and 6. I have recently stared our bogging journey and have already fallen in love with the writing of posts, creating content and the friends I have made .

I Love writing about all things being a mum and family based but enjoy general fashion and lifestyle in little snippets too.

I love documenting our memories and trips and hope you’ll love reading them too !

Our instagram page is @jesslifeasweknowit pop on over and give me a follow if you enjoy reading today !

Jessica x

Planning a christening all you need to know!

This post has been sponsored by Mamas and Papas

Planning a christening ? Where to start!

Well I’ve planned and held 3 in 3 years so I’m almost the expert now !

So let’s get start at the start, how do you decide where to get your child baptised? For me this was easy all of my family are catholics and we more or less have a family church right in our doorstep where we’ve had all our family occasions, and luckily for me , Craig was happy to go with this too. There’s lots of factors when deciding which church to choose , I would say arrange a visit and get a feel for them if it isn’t a local one or somewhere you go often, chat with the priest and see what suits you.

Next thing was choosing godparents ! Who do you ask, who not to upset, who will be there long term for your children, it is definitely a great honour for whoever you ask! For our eldest we had my sister and Craigs brother, for our middle one we had my brother in laws and a close friend and for our youngest we had my little cousin and my best friend . Each time we asked them we got the best reaction and that for me made me realise even more we’d chosen the right people, people I know that’ll be in our lives forever and not just a newborn stage or a few nights out, family and forever friends.

Our you heats Matilda godparents- Joshua and Keighley

Next up is choosing your venue, will you have it at home? Or at a local hall or hired room. For all 3 of ours we have chosen local working men’s clubs with a room to hire , the rooms are always super reasonable £25/£30 for hire! (This will probably differ for different areas of the country. The staff at all of ours have always been super friendly and lovely for our event and the bar has been reasonable too. We’ve been able to provide our own catering and balloon decoration which was a big must for me as I didn’t want to pay a fortune for buffet per head and our friend has a balloon artistry business and she’s the best so we always wanted to include her! She can be found on Facebook at Pink Ball Events if your in the North East!

The most incredible balloon displays each time!

So that’s church, venue, and godparents all sorted! Now for the special little persons outfit! We have a gown in our family that my Nan made for me and embroidered my initials and D.O.B in it , then my niece wore it and had her initials embroidered in off my mum , and then my eldest daughter, my son and my youngest daughter . It really makes the day so special . They all wore the gown for the church service and then afterwards we chose them all a special outfit from Mamas and Papas and they’ve been and stunning every time!

Next up is catering and your cake!

We tried to stay local with all aspects of our christening especially our last one being just after covid using local businesses always helps them out! we looked at different ideas for buffet and for Penny’s we had a caterer and we find if your having 80-109 people we usually cater for 60-70 and there’s plenty but this catering company liger did one of everything so there wasn’t very much! So for Arlo and Matilda’s christenings we went with a well know local butcher and honestly the food was incredible! And so reasonably priced too so I definitely recommend doing your research into different food providers in your area !

THE CAKES! My favourite part my far! We used a local lady her business is layered with love by Susan and honestly just in service from start to finish! we had a theme each time and she absolutely did not disappoint with my ideas!

Each time our christenings are over I sit down in bed on a night and think wow what a day! I’m absolutely exhausted but I’ve the most amazing feeling in my tummy our babies have had the most special day surrounded by our nearest and dearest and are so very loved! I love planning a family event but christenings just have something special I love them!

I hope this post has helped if your going to be planning a christening and if you have any questions pop over to my Instagram @jesslifeasweknowit and ask away.

Thank you so much for reading today

Jess

Spike The Hedgehog

Today we are going to be sharing with you our vies on Spike the Hedgehog from Learning resources First of all let me tell you who spike is and what his purpose is .

Spike is a product created from the lovely people over at learning resources ( who by the way have a whole range of amazing products for all different age ranges to help your little ones learn ! ) He is designed to help children with their fine motor skills and counting, he is also designed in lovely bright colours as you can see in the pictures which I think is fab for grabbing their attention !

In the Box there is spikes base, top and a set of quills ( which do store inside for handy tidying up !)

Penny is just over 12 months old and the advised range for this toy is 18months+ so I didn’t expect her to fully be able to do the task on her own , but still wanted to give it a try as here is no harm is learning early is there ! We didn’t need to worry anyway as we had her big cousin Sadie on hand to help her put spikes quills into his back !

Penny first of all loved exploring spikes whole body and feeling his different shapes , she then once shown gave a good go at inserting the quills into his back. My niece is 5 and still very much loved his activity too , she really enjoyed showing penny what to do and helping her learn.

So overall I would give this toy 10/10 and would say although it says from 18+ months, go with your gut feeling if you feel your child is ready to try something then absolutely let them and you might b surprised ! the same as don’t put an upper age restriction on what children do as clearly at 5 year old with already brilliant fine motor skills she still enjoyed helped her baby cousin learn ! It was a great activity for bringing older and younger children together .

I have inserted a clip from the Learning resource website below showing Spike and his price along with some of the under 2 range as there are some brilliant options ( and many more not shown here )

Photo credit http://www.learningresources.co.uk

This product was Gifted to u in exchange for a honest review. All opinions and thoughts are my own .

Thanks as always for taking the time to read our review!

Jess

Stems review for Learning Resources .

Hi guys and welcome back to our blog thank you so much for clicking !

Today I’m going to be letting you know our thoughts on the product “stems” that we were kindly sent by the lovey people over at Learning Resources.

The packaging says ideal for age 5 years and over and my niece is 6 so I thought she’d love these!

When she first opened them and we got them out of the reusable tub which by the way is fab for keeping them tidy! They were a little stiff and both she and I found them difficult to join together which at 6 made her very frustrated, however after a few times of getting them out and she didn’t give up! They soon became much easier to connect together and play with to her hearts content!

Her and my sister got out the instructions and there was a few different design ideas to try and create, making the man and the ball she really enjoyed however the big ball uses every single piece and we all know how children love to loose that 1 piece ! So if this happens it can’t be made.

They were a really good toy for Sadie to play with around my daughter Penny who is a year this week! Penny couldn’t choke on them and was of course always supervised but Sadie really enjoyed showing her what she was doing and how to make things!

Overall I would say once getting into this toy and spending time together playing they can be a great activity for children and definitely helps with fine motor skills!

A set of these stems will cost you £25 and can be found on the Learning Resources website along with another fabulous range of toys for helping your little ones grin develop!

Learning resources gifted us this product in exchange for a review.

All words and pictures are my own.

Thank you for taking the time to read

Jess

Kit and Kin are they for you?

Hello everyone and welcome to our first review of 2019!

We have always used a range of Nappies with Penny right from the start as we wanted to make sure we were using what suited her .

Some of these we’ve loved some we weren’t so keen but I was aware there was numerous brands out there with not a lot of descriptions openly as to what the difference is, now I’m quite maternal and liked to baby shop for hours and research things online. If it’s a baby shop I’m there!

So when Bumppr got in touch and asked if I would be happy to review the Kit and Kin baby range I was delighted. We have used the Kit and Kin Nappies when Penny was much younger but never the bath range or the wipes and I thought now was the perfect time to review the nappies as she’s on the move so leaking can be much more prone if not a good nappy.

We have been using the Nappies and wipes and the bubble bath for around 10 days now and probably over the busiest period of the year so Penny has been constantly on the go !

First of all let’s talk bath time… Penny’s favourite time of the day ! The Kit and Kin bubble bath for baby is just perfectly perfect , the smell and how it leaves her skin feeling afterwards is just lovely! (I might of even sneaked some in my bath too and loved it just as much!)

Secondly how do we feel about the nappies and wipes after using them for the past few weeks?

Again our overall view on them both is fantastic (that’s my other halves thought aswel)

We love the designs on the bum , this is why makes them different in look to other brands and they are definitely the cutest nappies we’ve ever seen! So penny sleeps through the night now so has a Nappy on from going to bed until she wakes (and she’s very wriggly now) but while using Kit and Kin we haven’t had one leak through the night which is brilliant! The same for during the day, in and out of the car seat and pram , playing with family constantly on the move not one leak! Wahoo!

My favourite part is when she’s had a poo they mask the smell really well! Us mums can smell it which is good of course as we know when they need changing but they don’t stink it out in public which is always a bonus!

The wipes have again been brilliant have been super gentle on Pennys skin.

Thank you so much Www.bumppr.co.uk and Kit and Kin for the opportunity to review these products. We will definitely be continuing to use them !

Kit and Kin products can be bought in store at

And online at https://kitandkin.com/

(They also have a monthly delivery subscription so your never without a nappy) !

These products were gifted in exchange for a review be all opinions are my own.

Thank you for reading

Jessica

Beaker Creatures!

Hello everyone, I hope your all having the best festive period and all your little ones and you got lots of exciting things from Santa!

Today I’m going o share with you our thoughts on a particular product from Learning Resources , as I thought this was the perfect time of you like the sound of what we got up to , to spend Christmas pennies on!

Me and the boys were given an opportunity from Learning Resources to review there beaker creature set. What are beaker creatures you ask?

That was mine and the boys response to so we couldn’t wait to get stuck in !

So once unboxed and we had read through the instructions (which were fabulously easy to follow ) we got started with or excitement and as the pack says 5+ Bobby was keen to go first.

Assembly of the super lab was fairy simple and goes together in a few easy steps with minimal parts. The main addition is water , which I thought was brilliant as usually with science kits the boys have had there’s all-sorts to add and they get bored very quickly as they don’t understand or get frustrated .

Included in the kit were two egg shaped pieces (they look a bit like bath bombs) please don’t add to your bath or you’ll be sharing it with a beaker creature !

Bobby chose his egg and placed it into the container advised and then began to press down both large syringes to pump the water through, as he watched the water react with the egg he was amazed, as was Jack when it came to his turn. They were both very excited to see which one they had hatched ! At the end once all dissolved they used the tongs to get their beaker creature out and mark off on the list who they had got!

The boys and myself loved this piece of kit and they have already asked if they can use some of their Christmas money to buy more eggs and hatch more creatures !

Tidying up after was minimal fuss too as we just simply added all the contents to the washing up bowl!

The set is £25

And additional eggs are £4 making them great pocket money treats!

Thank you Learning Resources we love the Beaker Creature set and will definitely be recommending!

This set was gifted in exchange a review. All words and opinions are my own.

Thank you for reading!

Jessica