The Christie's; Mad Memory Makers

When I read the Center Parcs August challenge it really got me thinking about how we record our memories as a family. And do you know what? The list is endless; it appears I have an obsession with recording memories. These obsessions have worn off on Chris and the Boys and we all are constantly recording memories without even realising it. The beauty of this is that we have almost every event or holiday in our lives indexed in some form or another. The Boys love looking back at memories and laughing and chatting about them. 

Joe recording our activities at Center Parcs

Saying that, we are a very live for today and plan for tomorrow type of family, always looking towards and planning our next adventure. But there has to be a place in everyone’s lives for happy memories. And as the saying goes, you might always know where you are going, but it is important to remember where you came from too.

So here goes; some of the ways we document our lives. I was inspired by scrapbooking in Steph’s tips on the Center Parks blog, as scrapbooking is something I loves and the Boys have always been very involved in helping with this.

 It is important to take lots of photos wherever you go, I love the fact that my photos back up to your I Cloud on apple devices, if I ever lost my phone I would be more upset about my photos than anything else. With the I Cloud I can relax knowing my photos are backed up. I also back up to snap fish just in case.

Scrapbooking, below I have added an example of a Center Parks page the Boys and I made, we document almost every holiday like this. It is fun and we can all get involved. I love the fact that we can look back at these pages and remember the moment. Plus it is a great way to express our creativity.

Center Parcs Scrap Page

Center Parcs Woburn Forest

We have just returned from a wonderful weekend at Center Parcs Woburn Forest. It was our 12th visit to Center Parcs, but first to Woburn. Even though we knew what to expect from a brand that as become part of our family life (we have been visiting ever since Joe was born). We were super excited to be visiting a brand new Center Parcs. 

On first impressions the village was impressive, the pool complex in the village square was so impressive. Extremely modern yet reflected the lake and greenery around it, to blend into the surroundings.

We had a few issues with our lodge, as when we arrived at 3pm it had not been cleaned, as a result was as the previous occupants had left it. I was lucky that Mike from maintenance was walking past as I ushered Joe out of the lodge. He was great, contacted guest service straight away, who had us moved to a nice clean woodland lodge within 20 minutes.  

As it was slightly further out, we were provided with bikes. Guest services were so helpful, are were very concerned that we were happy to enjoy the rest of our break. I must say in reflection they dealt with it in a very professional and speedy manner, these things happen in life don't they? It is how it is dealt with that is important. Within an hour we were unpacked in our beautiful spotlessly clean lodge with a glass of wine and anti pasta.

Below is our little Lodge Vlog, I always like to know what accommodation looks like in real terms rather than photos. So thought this would be a nice idea to show the lodge. Please bear in mind, I am no Steven Spielberg. But it does show off how beautiful our lodge was.

Center Parcs, Ice Lolly Challenge

When Tots 100 and Center Parks announced the July bloggers challenge was an Ice-lolly challenge, I knew I had to get involved. The boys love ice-lollies, as a result I buy copious amounts every week. I try to stick to juice lollies that are lower in sugar so Jack can eat them as snacks, without them affecting his blood sugar levels.

The idea of finding healthy recipes, that also integrated their 5 a day was great. I started by reading Deb Roberson’s, the Center Parks ice lolly enthusiasts’ top tips on successful lolly making and decided to make a Greek yogurt based lolly.  I found some recipes on the Internet and adapted them to integrate low carbs for Jack, and low fat for me. This is what I came up with.

You will need;

• 150g strawberries
• 50g sweetener (By using sweetener instead of sugar, they become sin free, just don't dip in chocolate.)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 500g tub of fat free Greek natural yogurt
• 100g melted white/milk chocolate
• Hundreds and thousands

Put strawberries, sweetener and  vanilla extract in a bowl. Crush fruit until broken up and the sugar has dissolved.  Mix in low-fat natural yogurt. Pour into ice-lolly moulds and freeze. 

Once frozen, take them out of the moulds and dip  the lollies in melted  chocolate. Be careful not to over melt your chocolate, I did this half way through, so had to quickly melt some more chocolate. Once dipped in the chocolate, roll the lollies in the hundreds and thousands. 

Once I had done this I stood the lollies upside down on the lolly mould in the fridge to allow the chocolate to set. Then wrapped them in foil to store in the freezer. 

Wow they tasted delicious.  This has started somewhat of a lolly frenzy in the Christie household. The boys have busily been experimenting with different flavour combinations. I am thinking I may try a cocktail lolly for us adults so watch this space.

‘This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots100 July challenge. If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Whinfell Forest’.

Day and Night On Our Door Step in Spring

Recently I received an email detailing how to enter the Center Parcs and Tots100 May Challenge. The grand prize is to become a member of the Center Parcs Family Blogger Club. I know wow, we are massive Center Parks fans, and the boys have been every year since they were born. I really believe Center Parks is the perfect family break.

So I have hunted through my blog as I have taken lots of spring snaps, and wrote a list of what's missing to fill my inspired post.  I have looked at Pinterest and was inspired by the beautiful picture of the tree, from this I decided to post about a day and night on my door step, the Lancashire countryside.

I have always loved the countryside and have been snapping away since I started my blog, I have noticed things I never notice before. It has made me appreciate it so much more. We also went on a picture finding expedition to ensure we had just the right pictures for this post.

The problem is; we found too many, we tried to shortlist and couldn't so we all agreed we would make a collage for each subject we wanted to show,when discussing our idea of Day and Night on Our Doorstep.