JW Adventure

At three you can still be considered a toddler, but Archie, when you wake up you will be four and I will have to admit that that phase of your life has passed.  The countdown to school has began and you are ready for it in so many ways.  Really, you stopped being a toddler quite a while ago but behind the excitement of each new stage, I am reluctant to let go of the last one. Three was the year we cut off your beautiful hair and I cried real tears in the middle of the hairdressers.  I have found peace with your new style and it suits you.  You are never mistaken for a girl anymore, it doesn't get in your face as you run and hair washes are so much easier.  It was the right choice (I will begrudgingly admit) but I did love your long blonde locks. Every year you change so much and I can see quite how much you have grown since I wrote to you one year ago .  You are still exactly the same though, unapologetically you, determined, loyal, loving and ...

Hamburg isn't usually the first city you think of in Germany, but we were recently invited to visit and we loved exploring this fascinating city as a family. We have always enjoyed city breaks and rather than stopping them when we started our family, we have instead tried to find a family friendly way to do them.  Most cities are full of brilliant attractions for under 5s if you look below the surface and we loved discovering this side of Hamburg. I checked the Hamburg website before we arrived and noticed that we were arriving in time for the Hamburg Dom .  A huge fair that stays for a month at a time, three times a year, the Dom is free to enter and full of lights and colour.  After our drive it was the perfect place to explore, although the weather had turned and it was getting chilly.  It wasn't exactly a cultural visit, but we loved noticing the difference in food stalls, the giant cookies emblazoned with 'Ich liebe dich', the donuts and spirals, th...