Suprise! Who doesn't love a surprise???

Surprise Weekend Vlog

I also done a vlog the whole weekend if you fancy a watch!

This year for Christmas I decided to surprise my best friend with a weekend away to London. 

This was a total shock to me as what I had planned for her didn't actually last till Christmas so I had to improvise. I said to her that the surprise was her early present. She was absolutely fine with that. 

So I love giving surprises to people as I enjoy seeing their faces once they've realised what they've got. A few years ago I surprised my mum with Adele tickets to the London O2 and the year after I surprised my other best friend Gemma for her birthday and we went up to London as I got her tickets to go see the lion king. I done a clue every month leading up to the day we was in London. She didn't have a clue and she didn't even think when we was standing outside the theatre. So I pretended to take a picture of her when I was actually filming her reaction. This was priceless for me. She ended up screaming and the people around us probably would of thought what are those girls doing..

So I thought as I love giving surprises, I would surprise Hollie with a weekend away in London. 

Hollie comes over every Thursday so I thought I could come up with some clues to give her every week leading up to the day. I always thought when you give clues to someone they should always rhyme. 

These are the clues that I have given to her..

This was her first ever clue. She had no clue what it was.

This was her second clue. She still didn't have a clue. Kept calling me Dr Seuss because she liked the rhyming I had done.

This where I kind of slipped up and mentioned we was going to London as I thought we had already spoken about it. OPPS!

This was her fourth clue and she mentioned something about Winter Wonderland. Which I had to say that doesn't open till late November.

This was her fifth clue. Yep she still had no clue what so ever.

This was her last ever Thursday clue. We was 2 days away and she was starting to get really annoyed with the fact she still didn't know what we was doing.

 

This was her first clue for the BIG DAY. I gave this to her once we got onto the train, so it gave her something to think about.

 This is the clue I gave to her once we arrived outside the theatre. Once we took a picture outside the Musical poster. 

I also came up with a London To Do List

I had done this as I had to somehow get her to the place we needed to go too.

This included things that you would normally do in London without throwing her off the scent of her surprise.

My to do list I made included things such as:

• Take a picture at Bexhill station
• Take a picture at underground
• Take a picture of us eating lunch
• Buy one item from the Disney Store
• Take a picture of us outside the hotel room
• Take a picture of our posh room
• Take a picture with a old telephone box
• Take a random funny picture
• Take a funny video
• Take a picture with a Landmark
• Take a picture with our favourite musical poster 
• Take a picture of us in our pj's 
• Take a picture of our pudding order 
  

Little did she know that the thing in purple was her actual surprise!

I also wrote her a little letter that I had put in a Thank You card to give her once we arrived at the hotel as this year has been a tough one and I just wanted to give her something to say thank you. I cried whilst writing that letter so fingers crossed she doesn't cry. 

Turned out she did cry! My job was for her to know how thankful I was for her not to make her cry!

We then got ready and of course we had to take a few selfies I

  the mirror. What isn't a girls night without any pictures?? 

And some funny ones too!

Off we went on the tube to Piccadilly circus tube station! She still had no clue what her surprise would be. Until the final clue was read out loud.

FINALLY THE SECRET IS OUT!!

STRICTLY BALLROOM THE MUSICAL!

We saw it on the last day the musical was going to be in London but we also saw it during the night so it was the last ever performance of it! This made it extra special for us. The musical is such a classic to Hollie and I and once I found out from West End Live that it was going to be on I thought we need to get tickets asap!

Once the musical was over we was on such a musical singing spree so on the way back to the hotel we was singing songs non stop. But this made me not realise we had actually got on the wrong tube and good thing Hollie noticed otherwise we would of had a very long walk back!

The weekend was an absolute hit! 

I cant wait for the next adventure we have which I believe it going to be going to see the Spice Girls at Wembley!!

Log cabin bliss..

So this year after all the hospital visits and everything, I was so thankful that we had a holiday coming up. 

This place we went to we have been there 3 times before first 2 times we stayed in the same log cabin and the 3rd we stayed in a bigger one due to my auntie and uncle joining us. 

Well this year it was mum, dad, Martha, Rosey and my myself. So we decided that we would stay in the original one that sleeps 5 people. This was a fantastic lay out as my parents had their own bedroom with a double bed and in the girl's room there was a single bed downstairs and across the ceiling that made a 2nd mini bedroom up there. Which had 2 single mattress in it to make a double bed so that it could sleep 2 people. This was a space you could only really get into if you was a small person or a child. To my little cousins they thought this was the best thing ever! Their own little space all just to them as none of us could actually fit up there. This was the first picture I took of our whole holiday our little log cabin..  
This is the website that we used to book and honestly if anyone is wanting time away from the world and just be in nature, this is the best place to be.

http://www.kareliaholidays.co.uk/

Also a plus side, the log cabin had been upgraded since we was last there and there was actually our own private hot tub!!

This was a fantastic idea as after the busy days we had out and about after tea it was nice to be able to relax in the hot for an hour and have our mini dance parties.

The bonus about where this log cabin is located is that it is not even 10 minutes away from Moors Valley. This place is a MASSIVE country park. It has a bike riding hire, play trails, Go Ape, Walking, Mini steam train rides, Golf course & so much more!

We ended up at this place nearly everyday even when it was raining we still went on our walks in the woods. Definitely made us of our wellie boots and jumping in muddle puddles.

https://www.moors-valley.co.uk/  If your ever near Ringwood, this is a place to check out!

These are some of the photos from Moors Valley..

We were also near a place where you could go crabbing. This was such a great memory as we had done this before and it was so strange going back to it. But we managed to catch a few crabs and some of them fell off the line when we brought them out the water.. Little hint if you go near muddleford the crabs like scotch eggs. 

We also planned a day to go to Monkey World. This was another favourite day of mine. Love being able to see the animals and more importantly seeing my two little cousins using my canon camera to take pictures and being shocked on how amazing some of them actually turned out. I'll just show you a few of the pictures rather than talking about it as a picture speaks more.

As I like to have things planned and came up with the idea so that the two little ones didn't depend on their ipad's and made them so they wasn't unsociable. My mum and I brought some colouring books, maths & English books, puzzle books. We wrapped them up and gave their stack of presents on the first night we arrived so that after a busy day they could relax and just have some fun with the books. 

But something that I am especially proud of was I thought of when ever I was younger and my mum and dad took me anywhere, they would get me to save everything from that day and put it into a scrapbook. Now I look back at all of the ones I made and i'm so thankful to mum and dad for making me do them as it brings back so many memories of my childhood. 

So I went out and brought each girl their own scrapbook and a massive tub of crafts which included funny scissors, stickers, glue, glitter, shapes, felt pens, pencils. It was honestly such a massive box which I think that I can remember I brought it off of amazon. So after everyday out we wrote the date up the top and they wrote down about what they had done on that certain day, so like on the day with went bike riding, they stuck in the bike cycle map, and drew pictures of their bikes that they rode. I also brought my mum a HP SPROCKET for Christmas last year. 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/printers-scanners-and-ink/printers/hp-sprocket-mobile-photo-printer-white-10153564-pdt.html

This is a little machine where you can connect to your phone via Bluetooth and it prints out pictures just like a polaroid. They have the choice to be a thick picture but they can also be used as stickers so you could stick them on paper. So the girls had 2 photos a day that they could choose from what I had taken during the day that they could print out to stick in their book. This is such a great little device. I'm so glad I had brought it for my mum. It also comes in handy for presents, and definitely with Christmas coming up instead of using tags you could stick a picture of the person it belongs to on their present.

We also managed to book the Log Cabin for Rosey's 6th Birthday! Which she was so made up with. So the night before I got out all of the decorations to put around the cabin to celebrate. 

We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and her reply was....

So we made sure everyone got on their swimming costumes and trunks and headed to the main pool for the birthday party.

We also went to Burley which is a little National park that you drive through and their is wild horses walking around and if you go into town there is a little place where you can get a tractor ride to feed the deer's.

The girls really loved this day as they were able to feed them and they didn't realise that they come right up to the tractor and they would eat the food right out of your hand. 

But this place is such a quiet place, we already looking to go back next year as no matter how many times we have been and everything is the same, it is such a wonderful place. The staff is incredible as any problem we could just ring the person on hand if we had any questions for him. 

Were so thankful for the experience they give us every time we come to this Log Cabin.

So if anyone is looking for a little get away, they do a minimum night with is 1 night and it is such great prices as well. You get to use the main pool whenever you like. Go check it out :)