Let's Go Fly A Kite!

It is believed that the Kite originated in  China over 2000 years ago - how wonderful to think that we still honour and enjoy the tradition of kite flying today! Festivals and events are held around the world  every year to celebrate it. 

                           

Whether you're an avid kite flyer or are wanting to give it a try for the first time, there are plenty of opportunities of for it across the UK this summer!

We found a great website, kitecalendar.co.uk, which is frequently updated with all the places and dates you can join in in the world of kits! Some events are focused on professional flyers that provide exciting entertainment with giant kites of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Other allow you to take your own kite along, get flying or meeting others to give you tips and tricks! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk

The Perfect Family Easter

Easter is fast approaching (how is it that time already) and it is the best time to spend with friends and family, having an Easter egg hunt and playing family games. What is your favourite game?

Our traditional sports day games, including the potato sack race, badminton and rounders set will get the family competition going this Easter holidays. Why not start a Easter Olympics tournament, taking on all the games with all the family? The added extras, a whistle for the referee, a finish line and medals are great for keeping the games on track!

You could also see who can keep their kite flying the longest too! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk

Family Fun this Christmas!

Christmas is such a great time to spend with your family and friends, now December has begun, the lead up to Christmas has truly started. Spending time with the family and doing lots of festive things is just the thing to get everybody excited for Christmas. 

We've compiled a list of our favourite things to do this Christmas (we are a bit in love with Christmas at Ellie Ellie, can you tell?), whether with friends or family or the kids, they are bound to get you in the Christmas spirit.

1. Watch your favourite Christmas film to get into the festive spirit

2. Make your grandparents Christmas cards, ready to send

3. Bake and decorate Christmas biscuits

4. Make your own Christmas decorations

5. Listen to Christmas carols

6. Write your Christmas cards

7. Decorate your Christmas tree

8. Write your Christmas list to Father Christmas

9. Make some gingerbread biscuits

10. Make a wreath for you front door

11. Go and look at the Christmas lights on neighbours houses

12. Have a family board game night - make it festive with mulled wine

13. Roast marshmallows over a fire

14. Read a Christmas book

15. Make paper snowflakes

16. Sing Christmas carols

17. Write a Christmas story

18. Go ice skating 

19. Have dinner by candlelight

20. Draw a Christmas picture to display on the fridge

21. Learn to say Happy Christmas in different languages

22. Build your own snowman

23. Prepare you milk and cookies for Father Christmas

24. Share a favourite memory of the past year 

Festive Ice Skating!

The festive season is upon us (our favourite time of year at Ellie Ellie), and a great way to get the kids and the whole family out and about is the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink in Brighton, which opens every November for ice skating!

Opening for the festive season, till January, the ice rink is a great excuse to try something different if you haven't tried it before, or get back on the ice for people who love skating. In one hour slots, you can book your tickets online and then all you have to do is turn up, get your boots on and get onto the ice.

For the kids, the pavilion have Mr Penguins, who help the little ones feel confident on the ice!

For more informaiton visit the Royal Pavilion Website and book your skating session!

Homemade gift tags

Making homemade gift tags for Christmas is a great activity for the whole family, getting the kids involved and giving them a chance to be creative. Gift tags are so easy to make, and they can be made from any materials you have at home. They are a great addition to give with your gifts for grandparents and family from the kids.

We've get together some materials we could potentially use for our Christmas gift tags. We have some old music score sheets, old Christmas cards and some kraft paper. See what you can find and get it all together!

We are going to use the kraft paper for the gift tags, and then the little shapes made from the music score sheets can be glued onto the tag for a simple and vintage design. You can create the gift tag shapes easily and cut them out ready to be designed by the kids. 

We've simply cut out Chrismassy shapes and stuck them onto the tags, using a whole punch to make the hole for the string. They are now ready to be stuck on your Christmas gifts. Easy peasy! 

The circular shape we used to make a bauble shape, using a pen to create the handing string to finish off the design! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk 

Happy Halloween - Prepared to be spooked!

Happy Halloween! 

We hope you are enjoying a spooky Halloween, filled with trick or treating, pumpkins and dressing up.

We did our very own pumpkin carving evening on Tuesday, which resulted in three very good pumpkins (if we do say so ourselves)

If you are stuck for something to do this weekend, head on down to Tulley's Farm in Crawley, West Sussex for their Halloween event, Spooktober Fest!

Spooktober Fest is the UK's No 1 Halloween family attraction and is jam packed full of activities, fun shows, excitement and haunted houses. Activities at the festival include a fancy dress competition, spooky trail and spook hunt, fireworks, horrid hayride and scary fun house! If you're planning on taking the children, don't worry, all the activities have a scare factor so you know exactly which activities to take them too.

 

For more information and tickets on the Spooktober Fest visit Tulley's Farm!

Garlic Garlic Garlic!

We wrote about the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival last year, and this year we finally got to go! We set off on the Ferry to the Isle of Wight to the islands biggest summer show. We saw a number of cookery demonstrations, of course all using the vital ingredient - garlic! As well as the giant garlic marquee, with was full to the brim of all kinds of garlic in every shape and size!

There is also so much to do with the family, with activities and fun for the kids and live music and delicious food!

If you get the chance to go next year, go! We will give you a little reminder before the festival so you don't miss it!

Isle of Wight Garlic Festival! 

Tulley's Puzzle Park

If you are looking for something different to do this Summer in the last weeks of the Summer holidays, look no further than Tulley's Farm in West Sussex! Tulley's Farm is a brilliant farm with a world wide reputation of family fun!

Happening this Summer is the farms country puzzle park, which includes loads of activities, including giant games, mini mazes and logic puzzles for the kids to get involved in. They also have their giant maize maze, which might drive you mad but is guaranteed excitement for all the family.

Visit Tulleys Farm website for opening times and tickets and give yourself and the kids a great day out!

Lets Have a Feast!

Jamie Oliver and Alex James present The Big Feastival on the 29-31st of August in the Cotswolds!

The feastival (see what they did there?) is an absolutely jam packed weekend celebration of music, food and family fun. Whether you go with family or friends you will enjoy music from top acts and chef demos in the Big Kitchen.

As well as entertainment and activities, there is also local produce stands, where you can sample the best of what the Cotswolds has to offer. There is much more going on with arts & crafts workshops and a vintage funfair and more....

Find more information on The Big Feastival and get tickets

Be a pirate for a day!

This Tuesday (the 5th of August) Arundel Castle are hosting their Pirates & Smuggler Day! Set in the lower lawns at the castle, this family day out will be a great opportunity to find out more about the Smugglers and Pirates of Sussex. Who menaced the waters around the World.

As part of the day, you can have a go at fencing, archery as well as other crafts. There will be lots of activities to entertain all the kids and adults too. Included in the day there are also some weapon demonstrations and story telling!

If you are up for something to do this Summer holidays with the kids, this is the perfect day out! Take a picnic and a big rug to have lunch in the grounds.

If you can't get to Arundel on Tuesday, there is also another Pirates & Smugglers Day on Sunday the 21st of September as well!

Find out more information about the events at Arundel Castle! 

Technology Free Time!

There is little time these days when technology, phones, social media and tablets don't get in the way of spending quality family time together. If you fancy some technology free time with your family there are so many activities you can do that doesn't involve documenting every step on social media.

You could introduce a technology free day each week, and a time for a technology free activity at the weekend too. With the summer here, the days are longer and warmer and there are endless opportunities of different activities in the countryside and city! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk 

Summer is here!!

We are very excited at Ellie Ellie HQ, as summer is here, the sunshine is out and we get to wear our summer wardrobe that has been gathering dust for months. If you are trying to think of ways to entertain the kids this summer when they break up for their long holiday, we've got a great list of activities for the kids and the whole family to enjoy!

www.ellieellie.co.uk

The Winter Olympics 2014

The Winter Olympics is in full swing in Sochi Russia, with winter sports such as alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, ice hockey and figure skating. Some interesting facts about the Winter Olympics you may not know:

•  The very first winter games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924
• Six new games debut at the 2014 games.  Men’s and Women’s Ski Half-Pipe, Biathlon Mixed Relay, Woman’s Ski Jumping, Team Figure Skating, and Luge Team Relay.
• The town of Sochi is roughly the same size as Omaha, Nebraska.
• There are 4 athletes who have won medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics in different sports.
• Only 4 winter sports are held indoors.  Curling, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, and Ice Hockey
• Norway has won the most Winter Olympic medals at 303. 

 Here are some fun activities for the kids to get involved in during the winter games:

• Olympic ring cookies
• Olympic torch ice cream cones 
• Make your own Olympic torch 
• Olympic ring hoop the loop (make some colourful Olympic rings and get the kids to throw them and hoop them round a target)

Take A Trip: Falmouth, Cornwall

Ellie Ellie believes there are many great towns and cities in the UK worth visiting, here we give you a quick guide to one of Cornwall's great towns, Falmouth!

Whether by Ferry, Car, Boat or train Falmouth is an exciting town worth a visit. Nestled on the South Coast of Cornwall, Falmouth boasts a huge variety of shops, restaurants, attractions and sea side fun, perfect for all the family to enjoy.

For families and children there is the action packed National Maritime Museum, featuring a range of objects, boats and collections to look at. The kids will be excited to see all the great collections and learn about boats and the water. If it is the beach you are after, Gyllyngvase beach is the perfect hotspot for relaxing, with a fantastic cafe situated at the top of the beach to fill those hunger pains.

  

As well as some great attractions and places for the family to enjoy, Falmouth is home to a thriving high street along with some great shops and cafes for browsing. The restaurants are also brilliant, with many sourcing ingredients, specially fish from cornwall, which makes it taste so much better.

The Shed and The Shack are two fun and buzzing restaurants and bars in Events Square, where you can order your favourite cocktail and taste a speciality fish dish!

Have you been anywhere in Cornwall we should visit?

May Bank Holiday Family Activity Ideas!

Well the bank holiday weekend is just around the corner, and we're all hoping the sunshine stays for some fun and games! We've put together a little inspiration, packed with ideas to keep all the family entertained with Ellie Ellie's traditional games! 

Ellie Ellie has just launched a fabulous range of nostalgic games, including our favourite Pin the Tail on the Donkey game kit! It's a family classic- good old fashioned fun for all ages! The game is definitely an investment and make the best of it, you can either play it outside on a sunny afternoon or take it inside and play in the living room! What ever the weather throws at you, you have hours worth of entertainment.

Ellie Ellie's Pin the Tail on the Donkey game! Complete with adhesive tails, vintage style blindfold, donkey poster and simply game instructions! Perfect afternoon family activity!

Ellie Ellie also offers the traditional Snakes and Ladders game which makes a great birthday present as well as a weekend or school holiday activity! Great fun and easy to play makes it suitable for a wide audience. The set contains simple instructions and rules of the game, colourful playing board, 6 wooden playing pieces, one die and a handy keep sake bag.

Vintage style Snakes and Ladders game - great fun come rain or shine!

If we are lucky enough to get a sunny bank holiday weekend, there really is nothing better to do than fly a kite! Whether you're off for a walk in the countryside, camping, taking the kids down the park or off down the beach! We LOVE these Traditional Diamond Kites - the very best of fun on a bright and breezy day with your best friends or family!

Ellie Ellie's gorgeous kites, complete with ribbon tail! Easy to assemble too!

If you are still stuck for ideas, how about a game of Pick Up Sticks? A great game of nimbleness and skill. Can be played inside or outside on the patio in the sunshine! Why not up the stakes and play for prizes? How about an ice cream to the winner?

Make your way over to www.ellieellie.co.uk for more information!