We’ve had a really good week although its been very busy and I’m starting to learn the hard way about social media!! If this is the first time you have come across the Happy Days Linky it’s hosted by WhatKatySaid and Jenna at TinyFootSteps, please check out their blogs when you get a minute for some inspiration. And if you want to join in then please do, you can find more details here.
Out & About – We’ve been squeezing lots in this week, the extra day off work definitely helped. Saturday morning we went to visit some piggies owned by a friend of mine , they are now 9weeks old and like nibbling shoes. Monkey wasn’t sure, he was really excited about visiting them but once standing in the pen, he hid behind his Daddy for most of the time. I must admit I was smitten, we have often talked about having pigs of our own and this visit has just made us want them even more. One day… 
Saturday afternoon we went to the theatre with some friends to see ‘How the Koala Learnt to Hug’, its a warm uplifting show with a great story and message for little ears. I was so impressed I have written a post here.
We had 60th birthday celebrations over the rest of the weekend for Monkey’s Bumps, he got to play with cousins in the garden for most of the afternoon and throughly enjoyed himself. Monday we hired a small local pool for a swim, the pool is normally available to hire during the school holidays as the normal swim lessons are not on. It works out about the same if we were all going to go to a local pool and Monkey really benefits from spending time in the water with his Daddy. He always seems to learn a lot more with him.
Friday we headed out early (8am!) to a new local park called Dinosaur Island. We had initially visited Monday morning but it was manic! Monkey loves the park and at that time in the morning there was only one other family, with the added bonus we enjoyed the only hour of sun of the day. I wrote a post on it here, and it was this post which has taught me a valuable lesson on social media! 
We then went onto the garden centre and Monkey planted his own veggie box, although he opted to fill it with strawberry plants, for £5 it was money well spent.
Fun at Home – We have had great fun with water beads this week – so much so I have not been aloud to put them away yet! Froggy small world play.
He has also had a visit from the dummy fairy which went surprisingly well, I have realised that most of the concerns were in my head and we probably could have had a visit a few months before!
Monkey turns three in a months time so I have decided to start ‘trying’ to introduce letters to him this week we have been doing letter ‘A’ activities. I will be writing more about this in the coming days, but at the moment Monkey’s favourite activity to date is an ant we made from the letter ‘a’, pipe cleaners and paint.
We have also been eagerly awaiting the first stage in our caterpillar’s journey towards butterflies as they turn into chrysalides, three were fully formed yesterday, two hanging as J shapes so I expect by the end of the weekend we will be able to transfer them into the net. Whereas the caterpillars were pretty robust, as chrysalides they are much more delicate which will be another new learning experience for Monkey! Our butterfly experience.
Time for me – This hasn’t really happened this week – although I have enjoyed planning all our letter A activities.
My Happiest Moment – Spending time in bed on Saturday morning pretending to celloptape broken eggs back together before placing them in the cave… Monkey was full of beans and his imagination is coming on so well made me feel very proud of our parenting journey.
On the other hand I had a bittersweet moment when a post on Facebook (fully admit I am not good with this form of social media) resulted in 2800+ page views on to the blog. Truely amazed but then very disappointed that it did not result in one new follower. I wanted to add a pop up box to follow (as think it’s a bit hidden) but as I am not self hosted I can not do it in WordPress :(. Knowing how my brain works I suspect I will be looking into going self hosted shortly, not something I was really expecting only 3 (almost) months in.
Next week I would like to – research into being self hosted – if any one has any suggestions/experience it would be great to hear about it.
Hope you all have truly amazing weekends with you little families
Mudpie xx 
22 Comments
I’ve been looking into getting a pop-up box to subscribe myself this week and all the feedback I’ve had has been that they are annoying so I’ve decided against it! If you want to give it a go though, check out SumoMe.com – it lets you have a pop up box even if you’re not self hosted.
Don’t be disheartened 2800 page views is an achievement and a half! #happydays
Debbie
http://www.myrandommusings.blogspot.com
Thanks Debbie :), yes that is a bit of a worry – may trail it for a while and see? xx
It’s worth a try, just keep an eye on your stats – if it seems to be working, great! If it seems to be putting people off you can always remove it!
Debbie x
Sounds like you have been busy. I would advise against a pop up, common feeling is that people really dislike them and it would actually make people click off your blog. Views are more important than subscribers anyway. When you want to start earning from your blog PRs will only ever ask for page views and unique users (plus other bits) but not blog subscribers x
Ah thanks 🙂 I was thinking subscribers were more important! Thank you – will give it a miss then! xx
That is an amazing number of views, I have never reached anywhere near as much congratulations. I too am not great with the facebook side of it, I can’t seem to attract any facebook followers, and although I have told some people about my blog I dont really want all of my facebook friends knowing yet, probably silly but its a confidence thing. x
Thank you – Im the same Ive kept it pretty independent from my friends so know exactly where you are coming from on the confidence thing – but have joined some mummy groups which seems to be helping ..a little bit! Thank you for stopping by and commenting 🙂 x
If you get a chance can you let me know some of the group names, I’m not sure where to look on fb for things like that really. X
Try searching for your town name followed by mum as you would a friend. You should get some groups come up they are normally private but you can request to join, but only when you are using it as you not as your page. I joined the ones in the local area – any problems DM @mudpiefridays xx
I am rubbish with FB to, but love twitter, instagram and pinterest. I love pigs they have such cute factor don’t they ? Just off to read your viral post x
Not tried instagram yet – its my next ‘one’ 🙂 They are great to talk to apparently xx
What a lovely week. The pigs look sos happy! Great page views on your post 🙂 Amazing. Good luck with going self-hosted, it is fab you can create more with it 🙂 Jess x
Thank you – think I am definitely going to be doing it once I have built up the courage. xx
Dinosaur Island looks like so much fun! I’m glad you found the #happydayslinky I really enjoy documenting my week and reading about how others spent their weeks! x
Well done on those page views. I wouldn’t bother with a subscribe button, I find them quite annoying and as Aby mentioned, views are more important anyway. Well done, you.
I don’t use facebook for my blog because I know it’s one of the most difficult social medias to work with when it comes to blog promotion. I tend to focus on Twitter as that’s my main source of traffic, and even then, I don’t think I’m all that good at it!
Thanks for joining our #HappyDaysLinky
Jenna xx
Thanks Jenna, I had this misconceived idea that I had to get followers not views Doh!! Am now less stressed and trying not to focus too much on the numbers. Thank you for your advice, I find social media a minefield and I am a bit of a technophobe 🙂 I also prefer Twitter. Thank you for hosting 🙂 xx
Those page views are fab, I don’t worry about subscribers!
I was thinking of getting some water beads for O, might have to now. I have always wanted a pig too, a pot bellied pig!
Have a fab week
#Happydays xx
Oh yes do they are brilliant Monkey loves them so much. You can get miniature ones that live indoors as pets… apparently a Monkey and a cat are enough according to Hubby :). Thank you for stopping by xxx
A lovely week -and I’m inspired by the water beads, haven’t tried them with my little man yet but think they’d be good fun (for us both!). #happydayslinky
Definitely fun for mum too!! Thanks for stopping by x
I tell you, I cannot wait for your butterflies to hatch!! I am like a child- so excited to see!! Thank you for joining in our #HappyDaysLinky x
Still waiting… :D!! lol. Think I am more impatient than Monkey!! x