Who doesn't love a good selfie?!

Well I was so impressed when Sammy came home from school with their activity for World Book Day.

Not all parents can or love putting together (or buying) a dressing up outfit so instead of fancy dress, his school is creating a wall of "shelfies" in the school hall!

Absolutely brilliant!

Thank you to all the parents who have joined in too - I have loved seeing all these shelfies!

What a great way to encourage children to love their books.

We have books in almost every room of the house, on shelves, in bookcases and in baskets and boxes.

And our coffee table is littered with books that I flick through and read almost every day for inspiration. I may only get about 10 seconds somedays but I will always find something in a book that sparks an idea.

One of my favourite "books" is the photo book my sister made me for my 30th Birthday. A picture tells a thousand words and this is full of happy memories for me.

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Ok so whilst this book may not be full of wonderful prose or an epic story, it is my epic tale, up to 30!

First hours, first friends, face packs, first love, first job, first baby and first holidays.

My biggest inspiration, my family and friends.

The last pages are so special. It was just after my sister's wedding that we said "Wouldn't it be lovely to have another baby!"

3 weeks later at my cousin's wedding I had no idea our wish had already come true in a heartbeat.

You can join in with the #shelfie idea by sharing a photo of you and your little or big ones by their books!

Little Luca and Me have posted their shelfies too!

Happy World Book Day everyone now put down your phone or laptop and pick up something with pages ;)

When I started blogging about food a good while ago, my inspiration was flowers. And nothing has changed.

The house is full of anemones (my favourite hint hint) after stumbling on a sweet gardener in Cheddar who sells his home grown flowers for £1 a bunch! There are 16 stems in each bunch. 16 anemone stems people! 16!

And the stunning vibrant red ones have inspired today's post.

The ultimate pancake recipe.

To make your batter mix you need flour, eggs, milk and salt. You can find a master recipe here or use a pre made mix that you just add water to like this one. Yes it's cheating but who cares?!

My tip is to pour your mix from a height into a hot oiled pan. Form your shape then turn the heat down to medium. Last year we made hearts :)

This year it's all about the anemone inspired recipe, so as your pancake mix is cooking toss in a sprinkle of chopped strawberries and desiccated coconut and then drizzle with balsamic glaze. I topped mine with a light dusting of icing sugar too.

Delish.

I love the pops of red in the pancake and the richness of the dark black balsamic. Just like the centre of the anemone.

What are you making today?!

In every stage of the boys' little lives books have been at the forefront.

From a memory journal recording their pregnancies to a baby plastic photo album, to touch and feel collections, to building up a classic children's library on their bedroom shelves, not a day goes by when they don't pick up a book and read.

The baby album has been passed onto their little cousin and the photos updated with all her family from both sides and now Sammy has learnt to read at school, books take on a whole new adventure.

In an age when 6 months old know how to swipe a touch phone and our 2 year old can unlock our phones and casually find Disney films on YouTube, books have never been more important.

As someone almost permanently glued to a laptop, sitting down with a book is a real treat. It feels so much more of an experience, to thumb the pages and my current obsession is finding vintage party games books, inspired by my birthday present from my brother and sister in law in America last year.

So it was a resounding yes when I was contacted by Miles Kelly Publishing to join in with 25 other bloggers to celebrate World Book Day and exchange secret choices for their children. You can read all about it here.

Parents - World Book Day is Thursday 6th March and I am sure every school around the country will be encouraging the pupils to dress up so if you are anything like me and school notes get left in car seat pockets and gym bags, put a note on your calendar now!

Last year Sammy was inspired by a rather quirky children's book, Anyone for Tennis?! Don't you just adore the broken glasses he wore?!

But this year it is all about sailing on the seven seas!

What a wonderful choice for my two - whoever the blogger was! Thank you.

Bright, colourful and above all sturdy! And hopefully Sammy is only a few months away from being able to read it all by himself. The illustrations are young and the story isn't frightening for a bedtime read, which is my complaint about a few pirate tales. 

The boys loved stretching out on the floor and what's great about this book is that it's long enough for no squabbling! Sharing is a real issue at the moment and this has engaging content in spades.

Pirates - An activity and story book in one and a ship made for two :) 

Have a read of the other posts for some inspiration for books to add to your children's libraries. You can find them on the Miles Kelly Twitter feed. A link to all of them will be posted on the Miles Kelly website. (I will update this post once it's published.) 

Do start with this one from Lauren and her lovely boys.