As with all Little Dish meals there is a fab colouring in sheet on the inside of the cardboard sleeve. Perfect for them to scribble on when their meal is in the microwave. Max has a prince and princess week at preschool this week so this was perfect to get into the royal spirit of things.

There is also some great information for parents, filling you in on all you need to know about Little Dish and also the great charity Kid's Company that they are working with. Proceeds from each meal goes to the charity to help provide hot meals for those UK children that would otherwise go without.


Little Dish meals can be found in the chilled section of most supermarkets and on Ocado priced for £2.50 each.

• If you are going during a school holiday, book your adrenaline passes well in advance, these are there to give you guaranteed access to the paid for activities on site. This is great for the older kids that don't particularly want to see the shows aimed at the preschoolers.
  
• Same advice goes for the B-Line passes. These allow you early entry into the centre stage which can get really busy at peak times before the shows. Giving yourself that bit of extra time allows you to settle down before the crowds descend.
  
• Download the Butlins App. This shows you what is going on during your stay, a site map and any contact information you may need. We used it to give us a rough idea about what we wanted to see, when it was happening and remind us throughout the holiday of the moments we didn't want to forget.

• Don't rush to see the kid's shows immediately. Most of them are repeated again later in the week so take your time to enjoy your break!
  
• If you have a dining plan book your meals as soon as you get there, the popular time slots get booked up fast and you don't want to miss out.
  
• Most of the hotels have dedicated swimming times where you can go and swim for an hour before the rest of the resort joins you. This is great for the smaller members of the family.
  
• Know the closing times of things such as the funfair, tots fair, soft play and Scoop. These close at around 5:00 each day so it's best to know to save any disappointment.
  
• Book any character theatre tickets as soon as you get there. These shows are magical and well worth the cost of the tickets.
  
• If you want to attend any of the meet and greets with any characters then it's wise to get someone in the party to start queuing about 15-20 minutes before it happens (right next to the skyline stage) as it can get really busy and the time is limited. 

• Don't forget things such as Tots Soccer, these have experienced professionals teaching and gets the kids and parents involved together. It's a great time to step away from the hustle and bustle of the Skyline.
  
• We booked early dinners and went back to the hotel after to prep for the evening, this meant filling our bag with a blanket for Max and popping him in some trackie bottoms and a tshirt. We also took the buggy so he could relax in it at the Centre Stage when the evening events were on and potentially fall asleep.
  
• The cheapest souvenir we found was the Butlins egg cup which is part of the dessert at the Diner. It's a great talking piece and brings back loads of memories for Max when we serve him dippy egg and soldiers.
  
• Don't forget to take a photo on the giant Butlins deck chair! You'll regret it if you don't.
  
• Finally take photos, smile, laugh and enjoy yourself. You are on holiday and the Butlins staff are there to make sure it's one you never forget!

When I bought my ticket this time last year for BritMums Live I had no idea what to expect. In all honesty I wanted to go to meet some of my blogger friends, have some time away from the boys to be myself and chat with a few brands. Never did I know I would learn so much in such a short amount of time about not only my blog by myself.

I'm normally a shy and reserved person. It might not seem that way online as I have a screen in front of me and can generally make any situation funny with my stupidity, but in reality I'm shy and self conscious. I went into this not knowing what to really expect and how I was going to say hi to all those bloggers I really loved!

I headed down on the Thursday to meet up with Abi who I run #pbloggers with. The alcohol flowed, the chat didn't stop and after drinking a considerable amount and wolfing down pizza we crashed in bed at 1am.

Friday we woke up bright and early, got ready and headed to Starbucks for some brekkie. When we got back we found a lovely Irish blogger stranded in the hotel reception as she was too early for check in so we took her up to our room (along with some others later in the day!) to rest before registration started at 2. In that time I sped over to Waterloo to meet Helen, my blog twin (she blogs at Mummy to the Max!). Then we went to registration...


The People
Let's just say that I met so many amazing people that I don't think I can even list them all! Notably the wonderful Helen, Abi, Kerry, James, Lotte, Michelle, Vikki, Kara (both of them!), Hannah, Kirsty and Clara. It was lovely to catch up with local bloggers whilst meeting those that live just that bit too far away to see as much as most of us would like.
Bloggers are a strange type. We spend most of our time in front of computer screens or camera lenses for a hobby or living so when so many of us come together it's a mass of selfies and 'OH MY GOD I RECOGNISE YOU FROM INSTAGRAM'. We are such a diverse range that even chatting over drinks at the hotel bar left me with learning new things that I never imagined to. To all those I met, thank you for being so lovely, thank you for being kind and all of you are fabulous.



The Workshops/Talks
Looking at the timetable there was so much to choose each day. Every morning started out with a wonderful keynote to inspire us. We were all roaring with laughter from Emma Freud and sobbing with Benjamin Brooks-Dutton. Both these people gave an amazing insight into the power that blogging can do. Whether that be to help charities, help people or just give a voice to someone that wouldn't normally be able to. I left feeling full of bright ideas and a new found confidence.

Beyond that I attended a talk by Lucy of Capture by Lucy where she explained all about blog design and how to make everything look gorgeous. I left wanting to reconsider my blog design and tweak bits here and there. Especially as I'm in the middle of designing my photography website.

The Pinterest talk left me knowing the best ways to use it with my blog, how to do things that I didn't even know you could do and how to actually gain traffic from there. I'm one of those people that use it for that wedding of their dreams.

Etsy did a great talk about affiliate marketing, whilst they have spoken with me before about affiliate schemes I didn't really know what the benefits could be (not too sure though that some of the things that were said were 100% correct from the blogger they brought with them).

I learnt all about the power of food styling. It's something that I know I need to up my game in photography wise. I'm great with people but still life has always either bored me or I'm too hungry to take photos. Learning the tips and tricks I did will hopefully bring those recipes to life that I'm trying to put on here!

Of course we had to pick up a dessert though. Scott going for the sticky toffee pudding which was the best he had tasted and Max going for the ice cream sundae which resulted in him licking the bowl. I went for the salted caramel bubble bar, full of chocolate, biscuit and caramel it was a small bar with a big amount of flavour. I had to take some of it home!

There are loads of lounges across the UK. So pop over to the site, find your local and have a great time relaxing this summer.

This year for Father's Day Scott wanted to do something different. So we grabbed a net, bucket and line, bundled into the car and headed to Keyhaven for a bit of crabbing. To be honest it isn't my cup of tea but Scott and Max had a barrel of laughs and I loved helping Max throw the line over the bridge. Before we got there we asked how many crabs Max wanted to catch, when he informed up he wanted 3 we had to stay until we caught all 3 of them! It was great to show him how crabs scuttle back into the water and how using a bait (in a net bag) can lure them in.

Beyond the shows there are still loads of things for the children and parents to enjoy, we were never short of things to do on this holiday. And considering most other places charge you for soft plays etc, it's amazing to think it's all included in the cost!