Little Loves – Mexican Hats, Meal Planning and a Trip to Chester Zoo

My first Little Loves post of the New Year. Whilst I appreciate that January is a pretty dull and dreary time for most people, I love the first month of the brand new year. Here are my little loves from the past 2 weeks.

Light Box

Read

I purchased this book on Amazon after I saw a post on social media from another blogger. I don’t usually go for the ‘self help’ books, but one thing I want to do less of this year is worry about the small stuff. Big things that happen I tend to deal with fine, but smaller things that I can’t control, well that is a different story. So I am hoping that this book will give me a new outlook on 2017, and stop me being Little Miss Worry.

Mindfullness book

Mindfullness book

 

Watched

I am loving Insta stories at the moment, and just enjoying seeing little snippets into people’s lives. I occasionally will post a clip but I definitely prefer to watch than record. I will never be the next Zoella.

Made

I have made a real effort with meal planning this week, and so far we have stuck to the plan. It’s so much easier to have the whole week planned out, plus when the kids ask me for the 20th time ‘what’s for tea’ I direct them to the plan on the fridge. This week we have enjoyed macaroni and cheese, home made curry and cottage pie.

Homemade cottage pie

Heard

Lots of animal noises as we visited Chester Zoo on the 2nd January. We hadn’t visited for a few years and it was lovely to see the new addition of the Islands of Adventure. Sadly we didn’t get to see the new giraffe that had been born a few days earlier, but we did see this cheeky fella.

Monkey at Chester Zoo

Bird at Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo

Wore

When dining in Chiquitos it is the law to wear a silly Mexican hat and take photos. Look at how impressed Katie looks! As she went back to school the day after her brother, we took advantage and had a girlie shopping day and lunch out.

Chiquitos hat

chi2

And lastly

We have a really exciting week coming up. It’s my birthday on Sunday, and we are off to Chester to do some shopping and lunch out with the kids. Then on Wednesday the little lady turns 11, and she is having her hair styled, nails painted, dinner with the family followed by bowling. Oh to be 11 again and not 43 (eek that sounds old now I have written it down) . Have a great week x

 

24 thoughts on “Little Loves – Mexican Hats, Meal Planning and a Trip to Chester Zoo”

  1. It’s definitely so much easier with meal plans, isn’t it! My husband still though, after all these years of us planning, asks what’s for dinner. Men. Looks like a great day out at the zoo. Happy Birthday for Sunday, and hope you have a great weekend! #LittleLoves

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    • We had a 100% success rate with the meal plan, and quite frankly that has amazed me. Just need to continue for the rest of the year! The zoo was a lovely day out, and even though it was hard to remove ourselves from the sofa and quality street, the fresh air and exercise did us all the world of good x

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  2. I am loving the Mexican hat. So cute. Sounds like you have been busy to the start of the year. Meal Planning is so fab I wish I could stick to it. I am the one that opens the fridge 20 mins before eating time and throw things together. We have some really random meals sometimes. hahaha We love chester zoo. I think we are there in a few weeks. Looks like you had a blast. Hope you have a lovely weekend ahead. #littleloves

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    • January is always a crazy month for us, but lots of fun too. The meal planning went down well last week so just need to keep it up now. Though we are going out for 2 meals this coming week, yay to no cooking. Have a lovely time when you visit the Zoo. We are only 20 minutes away but hadn’t been for a few years x

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    • Yep I might skip that page! I need to sit down at the end of the night and start reading it. It’s got little exercises to do, but ummmm not sure about the digital detox. Chiquitos is fab isn’t it x

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  3. Happy birthday to you both! I’m impressed with your meal planning. We really need to do that. It’s so hard with my daughter’s dances classes though – which all fall at teatime! How lovely to have a day out with your daughter 🙂

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    • Thanks Sarah, it’s always a crazy few days starting tomorrow. I can’t believe we actually managed to stick to the plan ALL week. Yes it must be hard when the classes fall at tea time. My daughter has dance at 5.15pm on a Friday, but thankfully husband has cooked tea by the time we get home x

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  4. Happy Birthday to both of you, sounds like you have a fab few days planned! Love the sombrero pic, her face bless her! We’ve been looking at Chester as we’re heading to the Welsh border to see family next year and Chester seems to be the nearest place to stay. Might have to take a trip to the zoo while we’re there as both the kids love animals. Have a great week celebrating your birthdays x

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    • Thank you, I am certainly looking forward to the next few days and celebrating. Ah Chester is a fantastic place to stay and close to the Welsh border. Lots to do in the area and some great hotels to stay in too. Give me a shout if you need any recommendations x

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  5. I really love the look of that Mindfulness journal – the fact that I squirmed when I read ‘go a day without your phone’ means that I probably need to have a go! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve never been to Chester Zoo but it looks fab 🙂 Have a lovely week celebrating birthdays 🙂 xx

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    • I really need to start doing it Suzanne and wonder if you can just skip the ‘day without your phone’. I picked it up from Amazon and think it was around £6. Thank you, I am looking forward to a few days of celebrating our birthdays, always a crazy but fun time x

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  6. Oh, I love the look of that journal (although I’m not sure I could actually go through a full day without checking my phone!). Happy Birthday to the both of you, enjoy celebrating xx

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    • Thank you Stacie. I have done my celebrating and it’s daughters turn tomorrow. Hmmmm not sure whether I could go a day without checking my phone either. I might skip that page! x

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  7. I love Chiquitos, I haven’t been in ages and I’m sure O would love it. Fab pics from Chester Zoo, another place I haven’t been in so long and I really need to take O, the last time he went he was a baby and he would enjoy it so much more now. xx

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  8. This is literally my favourite week – Chiquitos is my favourite place for a nice meal out and I cannot wait to get back into meal planning and cooking. Chester Zoo is somewhere we would love to visit – it always looks awesome! x

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    • Chester Zoo is such a good day out Donna, you need a Northern break away. Meal planning was going so well last week, but faltered a little this week. I blame lots of birthday meals out x

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  9. Meal planning is the way forward for sure. I’ve got out of the habit of doing it, I really must get back to it. I love knowing what the plan is for the week and it definitely helps that the girls can keep track of it too.
    Chester zoo is one of our favourite places to go as a family. There’s so much to see that we rarely manage to fit it all in xx

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    • It drives me insane when the teen constantly asks me ‘what’s for tea’ from the minute he gets in from school to the second we sit down at the table. I might even whatsapp/tweet/facebook him the menu too lol x

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