We are spending lots of time in the garden this year. Even though the sunshine has gone we still get outside most days to ‘burn off some crazy’ and wear out the kiddos.

Annie loves playing on the swings and bouncing on the trampoline while Ez enjoys throwing, kicking and catching. He has just learnt to roll a ball down the slide and looks very proud of himself as it rolls along.

We all went outside last night as dinner was cooking, Annie found a stick that she pretended was a wand while Ez played ball really happily (with one odd random outburst of crying).

Afterwards we all went inside feeling that little bit happier.

We also finally finished* the beach hut (wendy house). When we picked it up it, the wood was soaking wet so needed 3 weeks to dry out fully before we could paint it, then we took our time to paint the stripes before building it this weekend.

It looks fab in it’s corner, of course within 30 seconds the kiddos had broken the latch on the door but I think it was made of tinfoil and not really strong enough to cope with 2 excited kiddos!

(Please excuse the poor iPhone photo, it has been raining every time I have gone to take a photo of it in the daylight so far!)

Over the next few months (once next door have finally finished replacing the fence) we’ll dig, and fence, a little garden around the sides and ‘prettify’ it further with whirligigs and the like. We’re also considering putting some vinyl flooring down inside to make the floor a bit comfier to sit on.

The idea is that the ‘garden’ around the edge will be for the kids to maintain with a bit of help from us. I think it’s going to look amazing when it’s all put together finally.

I will admit that we are making the sort of garden that Jon and I both wish we could have had as children. I love how kiddo orientated our garden is, that we can let them outside knowing they will come in worn out and happy from all the exercise, that there is lots of choice when it comes to playing and how complete the garden is looking all of a sudden.

We couldn’t have done it without help from the Actimel Family Well Being fund. Being granted money from the fund for play has made such a positive impact on the family as a whole I’m not sure I can accurately describe how awesome it is. If you are a blogger the fund for Connect is now live and I suggest that you head over to the website and check out the details.

*technically we still have to fit the fiddly window panes and surrounds but that can wait for the dry weather to come back

Do you have any tips for how to ‘pimp our beach hut’ further?

My two adore bath time, the playing, the splashing, the squirting each other and us!

They both love their stash of Nuby bath toys, Ez loves the floating tub time turtle and uses the bath time net out of the bath to ‘catch’ his toys downstairs.

Annie uses the squid the squirter to get us all wet and to make raspberry noises pressed against her tummy. She also loves the bath letters and numbers which get stuck not just on the bath and wall but also stick to skin very well.

I am very happy to be able to offer a set of Nuby bath time toys in this competition. The lucky winner will receive:

• Bath Letters & Numbers worth £5.99
• Bath Time Net worth £5.99
• Octopus Floating Bath Toy worth £4.99
• Tub Time Turtle worth £4.99
• Squid The Squirter worth £4.99
• Splish Splash Stacking Cups worth £4.99

It really is a great prize so to enter simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below. Please make sure you complete the compulsory step and then do as many of the extra ones as you fancy for bonus entries. If you can’t see the Rafflecopter widget please refresh your browser window.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Rules:

• Only one Rafflecopter entry form per household
• Open to UK entries only
• You must be over 18 to enter
• The competition closes at 12am June 3rd 2013
• I will contact the winner shortly after the competition closes to get their address so Nuby can post their prize directly

Since we started doing up the garden for the kiddos I’ve found myself spending more and more time out there, especially in the evenings after dinner. I would love to have a garden that came alive as the sun went down, with lots of lovely lights dotted around.

Firstly I’d get some of these pretty string lanterns around the top of the workshop. They’re such bright colours so they’d look great in the daylight and all alight at night too.

The kiddos love anything that changes colour so the outdoor ball light would blow their minds. I can imagine it’d be pretty mesmerising after dark.

Just yesterday we finished building the kid’s beach hut (wendy house). I liked the idea of somehow putting some lights inside and had no idea that they made solar lights for going inside sheds, or beach huts in this case – perfect!

Finally I’d like a couple of outdoor burners to make up for the fact we don’t have room for a fire pit! These brushed stainless steel & teak ones would fit the bill admirably.

All the products on my garden wish list are available at the John Lewis website. So Jonny, if you’re casting your eye over this post, you know what to buy me for my half birthday, a gift giving holiday I have just devised but think should be a real thing!

What would go on your garden wish list?