bloggers – the joy of five

Children, Families, Family Life, Festivals, Large Families

We Are Camp Bestival Offical Rock Stars!

June 12, 2017June 12, 2017by thejoyoffive4 Comments

For anyone that reads my blog I’m sure that it hasn’t gone unnoticed that we are huge fans of Camp Bestival.

I have been getting so excited over all the fantastic acts that are set to hit this fantastic festival this year and with it being their 10th birthday it is sure to be even bigger and better than last year.

Last year I was asked to be an offical blogger at Camp Bestival and it was honestly the absolute highlight of our summer for so many reasons.

This is why I am delighted to announce that this year we have been chosen as Offical Rock Stars and can’t wait to get covered in glitter and rock out with everyone else at the best festival around!

Keep an eye out for updates on the ever growing acts that are coming through thick and fast and hopefully if you like what you see you can come along and join in the fun with us too!

Children, Families, Family Life, Festivals

Camp Bestival Offical Blogger 2016

April 8, 2016by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment

My face lit up this afternoon when I opened my inbox to see that I had been selected as a Camp Bestival blogger for this years festival.

It’s somewhere I have wanted to take the children for many years and I’m thrilled at the fact this opportunity has come up for us to go along and check out everything they have to offer!

Camping with four little ones is something I’ve not done before so we are going to get our preparations underway and will let you all know how we are getting along before the big trip!

Blogging, Children, Families, Family Life, Kid Bloggers

How To Tell A Blogger’s Child

December 11, 2015by thejoyoffive5 Comments

I’ve been blogging for around nine months now and it has bought so much more to my life than I could have imagined. It has also had a bigger impact on the children than I thought!

Here are a few things that I have caught my children saying and doing since I started blogging and I’m sure that many of you Blogger’s out there can relate to a few!!

“Mum that’s a nice wall” on many occasion we have walked past a big clean white wall or some stunning street art and the children will stop and say “hey Mum that’s a nice wall”. This is because a wall is one of my favourite backdrops to my photos.

Cheese! My love of walls has now made such an impact that every time we pass somewhere that looks like a good photo opportunity number five now backs up to the wall and stands there saying “cheese”. He will make a great model someday!

Waiting To Eat when we are out the children now dont wait to eat out of politeness, they hang back incase I want to take a photo! I can never resist a lunchtime upload to Instagram.

It’s Nicky! We tend to have quite a few visits from the postman or should I say post lady each week; in fact when the door goes in the morning now the boys run towards the door saying “it’s Nicky”. Oh yes we are now on first name terms and the boys love to have a chat whist bringing in the parcels.

“Can we play yet?” Once the parcels are in they love nothing more than ripping open the boxes to see what’s inside. They then sit their patiently asking “can we play yet?” This is because they know it’s going to take me forever to get some pictures before they are allowed to try them out!

“Where shall we sit?” We have always been a crafty family but this is now a little more structured than it used to be. I love to get pictures of the children whist they are creating their masterpieces but this requires good lighting and more often than not blocking out my bomb site of a kitchen in the background!

I pondered over these changes for a while now and to be honest if it makes them more aware of there surroundings, gets them out exploring new places and meeting new people and having the opportunity to try out new toys and read new books having a blogger as a mummy really can’t be a bad thing.

Blogging

The Blogger Interview

August 17, 2015August 26, 2015by thejoyoffive8 Comments

I was tagged by the lovely Katie at Growing Up Kater Tot to take part in ‘The Blogger Interview’.

It is wonderful to have been able to find out a little more about Katie and I can’t wait to have a read of the people that I am going to nominate to take part.

How did you get into blogging?

I love days out with my little ones and due to me spamming my Facebook on a weekly basis with our adventures I got lots of emails from friends asking advice on thing to do with their children. My Sister suggested I started up a blog and the rest is history.

What Advice Would You Give To A Blogger Starting Out?

I went into blogging completely blind with no real knowledge on how to write and absolutely no technical know how!

Luckily enough my sister and my son have been a great help on the technical front but I do feel im still muddling through with my writing.

I would have done a bit more looking into everything that goes into a blog before I started as I have found it all a little overwhelming and stressful at times.

How has your blog changed since you started writing it?

I was originally just going to blog about days out. Over the last five months I have really enjoyed adding recipes, crafts and parenting advice to. I know I may be better to have a primary subject to my blog but I am really enjoying the diversity I have found and I hope that my readers are too.

What advice would you give to PRs approaching you for a campaign.

As a family we are open to trying out a variety of different products and days out. We were lucky enough to be able to attend our first blogging event the other day.

As we have a large age range in our family there is a good opportunity to get different views on things from many perspectives.

We will always give a honest opinion on anything we are given to review.

Do you have a plan for your blog?

I still feel it’s early days for me and I am learning new things everyday.

I want to continue to improve my writing skills and gain more confidence at the keyboard.

My main aim to to write a blog with good content that will interest people and keep them coming back for more.

What do you think about rankings?

I would love to say they are of no interest to me but they would be so far from the truth!

I managed to get into the Tots100 top 500 last month and was complelty over the moon.

At the moment I am putting a massive amount of time and energy into my blog so it is fantastic to know that I am heading in the right direction and what better way to keep an eye on how your doing than to keep a check of your rankings.

I hope you have all enjoyed a little of what goes on behind my blog and I would love to nominate the following people to join in to:

Blogging

My Leibster Award Nomination

June 29, 2015by thejoyoffive3 Comments

A while ago now the lovely Charley Mulaney kindly nominated me for a Leibster Award.

This was a lovely surprise and is now down to me to answer the great questions she has set and then pass the love on to some more fab bloggers!

Here are the Liebster Award rules:

1 – Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.

2 – Answer the 10 questions given by the nominator.

3 – Nominate and link 10 bloggers (with less than 200 followers).

4 – Notify all the bloggers you’ve nominated.

5 – Create 10 new questions for your nominees to answer.

So a little later than it should be!! Here are my answers and my nominations:

Who inspires you? Although she will be shocked by me saying this, it has to be my Mum. I was the worst teenager you could imagine and she has always stuck by me no matter how hard it must have been for her. She is always there for any of us at the drop of a hat and I really hope that my children can feel the same way about me.
There are four seats around your dinner table, anyone can fill them – who would it be? My Grandma as I miss her so much and would love to be able to tell her how happy and settled I am now. Angelina Jolie as she is my ‘girl crush’ and I find her life fasinating. Elvis Presley as I’m a massive lover of his music and would love to find out what really happened in his last days – if they really were!! Mickey Flannagan to bring some humour, he is the funniest man I’ve seen.
What is your favourite song? It has to be Save The Last Dance by The Drifters as it was my first dance song.
You have the whole day to yourself – how do you spend it? Sadly I’m a gym bunny, so I would get up and spend a few hours in the gym, followed by a bit of a pamper by getting my hair and nails done then finished off with a lovely Spanish meal with my hubby.
Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter? This is a hard one as I love the freedom that the summer gives you with the good weather and longer days; but Christmas is my favourite time of the year so I really can’t chose!!
What was your first blog post about? My first post was a little bit about me and my lovely little family and my reasons for starting my blog.
Do you have a bucket list? If you do give us an insight into what’s on it. Ive not got a bucket list as I like to take each day as it comes as you never know what’s round the corner. I’m always onto the next thing and love building memories, but I’m not great at making plans.
Dogs or cats? Well as I’m allergic to cats it has got to be dogs!!
What are your guilty pleasures? I’m a simple girl and love nothing better than a long bath followed by a big bar of chocolate on the sofa.
What’s your best quality? This one has taken me a while to think about but I think it has to simply be, being a Mum. I’ve had my moments and I’m sure that my kids would not always agree, but its my biggest love and I like to think I put my all into it.