Holiblog: The Rome Edition

For my husband Tim’s 28th birthday I bought us a trip to Rome. As you may know from previous blogs, Italy is our favourite country and Tim’s favourite Italian city that we’ve visited is Rome, it’s been 7 years since our first visit.

Read on to see what we got up to!


Day One


It was a early start for us to begin our Rome adventure, from Gatwick!

This meant we had a whole day to start exploring.

But, first lunch! And an ice cream stop at the highest rated ice cream place in Rome, it didn’t disappoint!

Trip Advisor: Best Gelato in Rome

We stumbled upon the National Museum of Rome and this was a great find. The architecture was amazing and we had a audio guide which was really interesting.

After all our exploring and walking around we had a chilled evening back at our room. We grabbed some take away pizza slices and a couple of ice cold cans of coke zero and enjoyed a them in our cosy room.


Day Two


Today we headed out early to have a look at the Colosseum. We went inside it on our last trip to Rome so this time we just went to have a look at it again from the outside, as well as the area around it.

We enjoyed a nice lunch and some ice cream before heading back for a siesta and our evening activity.

That evening we enjoyed our Italian cooking class, the first of our three planned activities for the trip.

It was originally going to be a pizza class (my husband is obsessed with pizza and this trip was planned by me for his birthday) but they changed the menu to pasta, as a summer alternative. Even so we had a great time!

We made pasta, a similar one to tagliatelle, Gnocci and then for dessert we made an amazing summer berries and white chocolate tiramisu. It was so good and it was so fun to cook proper pasta. You can really tell the difference.


Day Three


I think this was my favourite day of the holiday.

We had a nice early start to have a look round Palentine hill and the Roman Forum. We missed out on seeing these last time as we didn’t get there early enough and it is horrendous in the heat!

So, we made our way there nice and early and spent the morning having a look at the amazing Roman Ruins.

For lunch we headed over to the highest rated pizza place in Rome and it was delicious. This was my favourite meal and the man who owned the shop was so helpful and friendly. It’s a small little shop but so worth it.

Trip Advisor: Best Pizza in Rome

In the evening we headed to Piazza Campo de’ Fiori to have our second planned activity, a ‘By night walking tour of Rome’ Our guide was absolutely brilliant, born and raised in Rome so very knowledgable.

We saw so many different sights that we hadn’t seen before, such as the Pantheon and my favourite, the Trevi fountain (Which is SO beautiful) and much bigger than I expected. I’m so glad we got to see it this time.


Day Four


On day four our planned activity was an evening walking food tour, unfortunately it was cancelled so we had another think about what to do.

In the end we booked a morning trip, including a guided tour of the Vatican city. The tour included access to the Vatican museum, the Cistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basillca.

These places were all amazing and the artwork, tapestrys and architecture were amazing, as well as the history.

After a delicious lunch of Caprese salad, Pizza and the most amazing tiramisu we headed home for another afternoon siesta!

In the evening we took a stroll down to the Colosseum, after dinner, to have a look at it all lit up at night. It looked beautiful!


Day Five


On our final day we didnt fly out until the evening so, we wanted to make the most of our last day.

At breakfast we had a look on Viator to see what we could do.

As we didn’t make pizza at the previous cooking class we booked onto a pizza class for midday.

We stumbled across the Spanish Steps whilst we were looking for the cooking class location which was cool! Another landmark to tick off.

The cooking class was brilliant, with a lovely group of Americans & a Canadian lady. I really enjoyed making an authentic pizza in Rome and I loved seeing Tim make his favourite cuisine too.

They were really tasty!! A great lunch for our last day.

One of the other members of the cooking class mentioned a 5D experience that they were visiting later that day and as we had no other plans we thought we would check it out too!

We went for the full package 5D experience watching the history of Rome, the evolution of life and we looked around Roman landmarks with a VR headset on.

Once we had done all this it was a good time to slowly amble back to Termini to grab our bags and get the coach to the airport.

A great end to the holiday.

We had a brilliant time in Rome and I would 100% recommend it to anyone thinking of visiting Italy, especially if you are a first timer as there is so much to see and do.

& of course the food is amazing.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little post about our trip!

I wonder what next years Holiblogs will be about!? Time to start thinking for 2020.


Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Holiblog:Disneyland Paris🌟 The Parks πŸŽ πŸŽ’🎑

This second edition of holiblog is all things Disney parks.

There are two parks at Disneyland Paris, accessed via Disney village.

Disney village is so magical in itself, with it’s fun and tasty treats and happy Disney tunes on loop. It is lined with Disney shops and lots of cool eateries too.

It even has a cinema.


The two parks are Disneyland & Disney Studios.

Disneyland is akin to Magic Kingdom in Florida, it houses Main Street USA and the Disney castle, although this Disney castle is Auroras, in stead of Cinderellas. I actually love this, it’s so cool that they are different ones.

Disney Studios is much like Hollywood Studios in Florida. It has all the Studio style buildings and American streets.


🌟 Disneyland 🏰


This park is the bigger of the two and is home to classic rides such as The Pirates of the Carribean, Phantom Manor, Thunder Mountain, Hyperspace Mountain, The Carousel and much more!

The Disney illuminations take place at the Disneyland park. The lights show, fireworks ans music were amazing.


🌟 Disney Studios 🎬


Disney Studios is home to classic rides such as Rocking Rollercoaster Ft Aerosmith, Tower of terror and Toy Story land. Toy Story land was awesome and had some cool and different rides to the one in Florida.

We met loads of Characters here that we needed to tick off our list, the rest of the crew, Donald Duck & Pluto.

I also got to meet Goofy again 😁 My fave!


& just look at that Disney Castle!! 🏰πŸ₯Ώ

So pretty πŸ’– So magical 🌟


It really is one of the most magical places on earth!

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

My reading challenge: August πŸ“š


August edition


So, what did I read in July…

As I was on holiday and I’ve started my volunteering for the library Summer reading challenge, I actually ended up reading three books in July.

& for August I am going to try and read more too as I also have some time off, lots of reading time!!

In July I read:

The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown

Every breath by Nicholas Sparks

&

The guilty party by Mel McGrath


The prison doctor was a really interesting read, and tbf as horrendous as you’d imagine.

I have to say that I didmt enjoy this as much as ‘This is going to hurt’ by Adam Lay, which is a similar format but from the perspective of a Junior Doctor.

As always the Nicholas Sparkes book was one that I couldnt put down, a heart warming story, definitely one for all you Sparks fans.

The guilty party was a really interesting read, not only was it a gripping story but it was also quite thought provoking too. Do you really know how you would react in a certain situation? Can we ever know until we are in that position? And how profound are the decisions we make on our own lives and on the lives of others?!?


This months books are…

Give me the child by Mel McGrath

Imagine your doorbell rings in the middle of the night.

You open the door to the police

With them is your husbands eleven-year-old love child. A daughter you never knew he had.

Her mother has been found dead in their South London flat.

She has nowhere else to go.

Would you take her in?


An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchells Inn, they’re all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance.

With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from thr outside world. Nobody can get in – or out.

And then the first body is found…

And and horrifying truth comes to light. There is a killer among them – and nowhere to run.


All that she can see by Carrie Hope Fletcher

Cherry has a hidden talent. She can see things other people cant, and she decided a long time ago to use this skill to help others.

As far as the rest of the town is concerned, she’s simply the kind-hearted young women who runs thr local bakery, but in private she uses her gift to add something special to her cakes so that after just one mouthful the townspeople start to feel better about their lives. They dont know why they’re drawn to Cherrys bakery – they just know that they’re safe there and that’s how Cherry likes it.

She can help them in secret and no one will ever need to know the truth behind the gift.

And then Chase turns up and threatens to undo all the good Cherry has done. Because it turns out she’s not the only one who can see what she sees…


I can’t wait to get stuck into these πŸ™ŒπŸ»

As always, any recommendations are welcome πŸ˜πŸ“š


Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Easter hols diary: Week One


🐣Week One🐣


Friday 5th April 2019

β€’A trip to the cinema, with Tim, to see ‘Fighting with my family’β€’

A great start to the Easter break!


Saturday 6th April 2019

β€’A trip to the cinema with my nephews, to see ‘Peppa Pig: The Festival of fun’β€’

They loved dancing, joining in with the actions and watching some new episodes, great fun!


Sunday 7th April 2019

β€’Breakfast at The Harvester with Tim, my older sister Charlotte, her husband Wes & my Niece Evie-Maeβ€’

Yummy!

β€’ In the afternoon me & Tim took a stroll to a lovely local cafe got tea & cake! We took a few games to play whilst we were there too. I love it thereβ€’


Monday 8th April 2019

β€’A fun ‘Bear Hunt’ themed baby group with my niece Evie-Mae. Retelling the story, arts & crafts and sensory playβ€’

β€’My sister came with me to order our bathroom floor, FINALLY!! So excited to get rid of the current concrete situationβ€’

β–ͺAfter all that excitement we met mum for lunchβ€’


Wednesday 10th April 2019

β€’After working allday I went out for dinner with some of my school work friends. We had a lovely meal and a good chat too! It was nice to catch up and chat as we dong always get to properly doing the busy job thay we doβ€’


Friday 12th April 2019

β€’My two nephews Noah & Casey stayed over for a sleepover Thurs night/Fri morn and so I had a fun Easter day planned once they were awakeβ€’

β€’We started off the morning with Easter Bunny crumpets for breakfastβ€’

β€’We then made some Easter arts & craft using the magazine that I bought themβ€’

β€’We then headed off to a nearby soft play centreβ€’

β€’Our final Easter activity was an Easter egg hunt, once we had got homeβ€’

β€’They had a great time & were very pleased with their little chocolate haulsβ€’

β€’Outdoor cinemaβ€’

In the evening me and my mum went to our local park for an Outdoor cinema event. We watched ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ which is a brilliant film!

It was really fun (if just a little cold by the end) but we had our snacks & duvets to keep us going.


That’s it for Week One!

What have you guys been doing to keep yourselves (& the kiddies) occupied during the Easter holidays?


Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Half term diaries part 2

Part two of February Half term!

Here’s what I’ve been up to.


Wednesday 20th February/Thursday 21st February 2019


During both of these days I was at work allday 7.30-6.

Working with kids is good fun though and we did lots of fun activities.

I really enjoy planning fun activities to do during the holidays.


Friday 23rd February 2019


In the morning I met up with my twin sister and my nephews for some bowling fun.

Both of the boys really enjoyed themselves as Noah only had a go at bowling when he was very little and Casey has never been before.

The boys had a great time and they were really good at bowling, it’s safe to say Auntie Ro Ro lost 🎳

Afterwards we had some lunch and some treats (of course!) DOUGHNUTS!!

In the afternoon we headed to Norwich to stay with my Auntie and cousin for a long weekend.

We popped into the Norwich Primark en-route, in order to see if they had the onesie of my dreams…

…they didn’t disappoint!! & it was the only one left πŸ™ŒπŸ»

Once at my Aunties, we settled down for a delicious Mexican taco feast.


Saturday 23rd February 2019


Today me & Tim started off the day with a Parkrun in a nearby village.

Once we got back we spent the rest of the morning/afternoon chilling out, having lunch and playing games.

The Pointless Mini game was a particular fave.

In the late afternoon we went and saw my cousin, his wife and kiddies for a catchup up and a cuppa, which was nice!

We rounded off the evening with a delicous meal out together at Zizzi’s.

We played a few more games when we got back too. Love a board game!


Sunday 24th February 2019


Today we went out l to enjoy the lovely sunshiny weather, you’ve got to make the most of it when you get it here in the UK!!

We stopped off for a yummy snacky lunch at a lovely pub in Ranworth.

We shared some stuffed peppers, Cheesey chips, homemade houmous, falafel & flatbread and some onion rings, yummy!

After that we went for a little walk along the river. It was so pretty and just lovely in the early Spring sunshine.

A great weekend rounded off with a scrummy roast beef dinner and baked Apple dessert, when we got home.


It’s been a great half term!!

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

My reading challenge: February πŸ“š

Month One of my reading challenge is complete and I managed to read three books, one more than my minimum.

● Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

● The face behind the mask: The Annie Graham series by Helen Phifer

● The Good Sisters by Helen Phifer


Month Two of my reading challenge is here …

The books I will be reading for February are:

●Eve of Man by Giovanna & Tom Fletcher

Eve is like any other teenage girl . . .

Except that the fate of the entire world lies on her shoulders.

She’s the first girl born in fifty years. She’s the answer to their prayers. She’s the final hope. Which means she has one function alone . . . At sixteen, Eve must face her destiny and make a choice.

She will choose a man, one out of three carefully selected suitors.

But what about Bram?

The future of the planet hangs on Eve making the right choice.

Will she?

●Dark House: The Detective Lucy Harwin series by Helen Phifer

‘For years, the Moore Asylum housed the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But now, a man is found murdered in the derelict building, strapped to a steel trolley, launching a heart-racing investigation for Detective Lucy Harwin.

Lucy quickly discovers the victim was once a Moore Asylum doctor, and when a woman also linked to the home is killed on her doorstep, Lucy knows she must dig into its history. What dark secrets lie within the asylum’s walls – what was the scandal leading to its closure thirty years ago?’


Of course, like in January, if I find any more that I want to read and I can fit them it, I will. Obviously Feb is a short month so I’m not sure I’ll do three this time round.


What books have you guys been enjoying throughout January??

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Blogmas Day 24: Decorating gingerbread men.

It’s Christmas Eve!!

I can’t believe it, this Blogmas has been the quickest yet.

Only One day to go!!

love doing festive craft and cooking with my nephews and niece.

I found these cute ‘decorate your own gingerbread man’ sets in the Co-op.

You get six mini gingerbread men (perfect for little ones) some icing tubes and sprinkles to decorate.

This is great for little ones as the gingerbread men aren’t too big, a good treat size, and nice and simple for them to.

They were all very excited to get started.

The set came with a little tube of icing and two different types of sprinkles.

It was a nice little bit of festive fun for the kiddies and of course their favourite part was the eating!

Merry Christmas Eve!

If you want to know how we are spending Christmas eve have a look at Blogmas Day Five

Whatever you are doing, I hope it’s a good one πŸŽ„

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald βš‘

As you may, or may not have seen, the new Fantastic Beasts film has recently come out in cinemas.

Me & my twin sister Sarah LOVE Harry Potter and were very excited about this new release.

This is the second film in the new series of magical movies from JK’s Wizarding World.


The last film came out in 2016 so this has been highly anticipated…

…. & it didn’t disappoint.

We couldn’t go to the Midnight showing that our local cinema put on, like last time, but I did notice that they had a special preview showing on the Wednesday before it was officially released.

The preview was a double bill, the first film followed by the latest one, SO exciting.

With our Florida Gryffindor jumpers on (From Diagon Alley, Universal!!) Gryffindor scarfs, and a Starbucks in hand we settled down to watch the latest instalment.

The film was fantastic (No pun intended!) and was a brilliant sequel to the last one, much darker and with lots more detail into the Wizarding world and the story of Grindelwald, Dumbledore & the Lestrange family, all headed up by the adorable Newt Scamamder, the hilarious Jacob and quirky Queenie.


Definatly worth a watch! πŸ‘πŸ»

We will give going again for sure!

*But remember #protecthesecrets

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Bonfire night πŸŽ†βœ¨

I love an excuse for a get together and since I met my husband we have started up a little tradition on bonfire night.

We do usually go to a local fireworks display with our friends, as well, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it this year which was a shame!

But as the 4th was a Sunday and we usually head over to my father in laws for dinner, we were able to at least carry out our other bonfire night tradition.

It wasn’t too cold, just enough to warrant wrapping up and making yourself nice and cosy.

We had our traditional jacket potatoes and hot dogs to eat.

We followed that up with hot chocolate and baked apples, both of which were delicious and super warming.

It was so cosy sitting outside by the light of the tea lights and fires.

So yummy.

Inbetween the food we also had some large, gold sparklers to add to the bonfire night feel.

I love the smell of the fires and sparklers in the crisp, fresh evening air.

Gotta love a sparkler! πŸŽ†πŸŽ‡βœ¨

& we even managed to finish up the festivities just in time for Doctor Who.

A lovely, cosy family evening. Good food & good company.

I hope you enjoyed your bonfire night celebrations!!

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Holiblog: Florida edition pt 2


Universal Studios

🌎


One of (if not the main) reason why we chose Florida was to visit Universal Studios.

If you know me and my twin sister, or have read some of my previous posts you may know that we like Harry Potter… ALOT! So, making it to Universal and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a dream for us, for quite a while.

I still can’t believe, as I’m writing this, that we’ve actually been.

And yes, it’s every bit as epic as you can imagine (& then some) because I really think it’s one of those places that you can’t quite imagine until you are there.

Universal has three parks, Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure are the theme parks 🎒 and separate is Volcano Bay which is a water park 🌊

Islands of adventure homes Hogwarts, Hogsmede village, Seuss Landing, Juarssic Park, Superhero city, King Kong and loads more!

Universal Studios homes Diagon Alley, The Simpson’s, Transformers, Men in black, Minions, Shrek etc etc.

The rides are brilliant and, not just that, the queues!!

You never really feel like you are queuing up for ages because everything is so well themed.

The Harry Potter queues were EPIC.

You got to go through Hogwarts as you wait for ‘Harry Potter & the forbidden journey’

And you go through Gringotts bank as you wait for ‘Harry Potter & the escape from Gringotts’

The attention to detail is incredible, it’s just all so well done.

Even if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan you would love it.

It was so cool to go through Hogsmeade, visit the shops, have food in the eateries (just like in the books!!) Travel on the Hogwarts express and Shop in Diagon Alley. It’s just amazing.

The Hogwarts express train takes you from one park to the over so although you can walk this is a lovely way to go.

I will go into a bit more detail about the Harry potter section in a later post as me and my sister had a day at the Harry Potter parts 😁

Some of my other favourite parts of Universal include ‘Seuss Landing’

This is all themed like the different books by Dr Seuss, such as The Grinch, Cat in the Hat, Sneeches, Green eggs & ham etc.

It was absolutely brilliant. So colourful and fun you couldn’t help but enjoy yourself in there. We had a lovely lunch in The Circus Mcgurkis too which was fun as one of the rides goes through the restaurant.

This was a big hit with my nephews, very child friendly and as I said, lots of fun!

I also loved The Simpson’s area; ‘Springfield’ this again was so well done. The roads and decorations were all done in a cartoon style so you really felt like you were walking through the Simpson’s.

There were loads of the iconic shops like Moes Tavern, The Kwik i Mart, Lard Lad doughnuts etc. It was great. The Simpson’s rides was also one of my favourites too.

Universal have loads of Simulator rides which are fantastic, you really feel like you are in the experience whether it be the Simpson’s, Harry Potter, Spiderman. If you are a fan of 3D/4DX simulators then you’ll love these. They were great for me as I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to rollercoasters haha.

One of our favourite things about Universal was the refillable cups that they had on offer. You paid to buy it and then you could refill it as many times as you want! The machines had LOADS of different beverages with so many flavours. Each day you had to re activate it but it was cheaper to do so and when you are spending the whole day there it saves you alot of money.

It was a god send in the August heat!!

Universal was so easy to get to from our Hotel, we could walk in 30mins, although it wasn’t always advisable in the heat with small children, especially at certain times of the day (but we did go in August!!)

Our hotel also had a free shuttle to Universal and there were free shuttles to Volcano bay too which was super handy.

Volcano Bay

We spent an afternoon at Volcano bay water park and it was really good fun.

It’s quite a new park.

It was super easy to get to as I said and once you were there, there was lots to do.

You get these cool Tapu Tapu wristbands that allow you to book a space on a slide so you never have to queue, you just get notified of when there is a space!

We loved the lazy river 🌊

The Volcano at the centre of the park was really impressive and although I was too much of a wimp to try out the hideously high slides coming from it, it did look really cool.

We could even see it smoking from our hotel a few miles away haha.

It looked really cool lit up at night.

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚