Our Easter plans and taking a toddler to London

The four day weekend is almost upon us and the Easter bunny will be hopping by with some chocolate treats too if we're lucky.

Today, Ethan has an Easter parade at preschool, where he's donning the Easter bonnet I made him, then our Easter plans fall into two parts. Tomorrow, we will be having our own Easter celebration at home, as we will be away in London from Saturday. 

I'd like to do a spot of baking if we can, like we did last year with help from the Co-op's cupcake kits, and then we have an Easter egg hunt planned. It's something that's really easy to set up at home but if you're time pressed to get everything together, pick up an Easter egg hunt kit like this and you're good to go.

It comes complete with lots of small and extra small hollow chocolate eggs, cut-out bunny paw prints and clue sheets that you can write on to help your little ones sniff out their treats.

I think Ethan is really going to have a lot of fun with this.

I popped to my local Co-op - as they're always good for a change or to find seasonal ideas - and we'll be starting Good Friday with hot cross buns because, why not?

I was going to pick up a lamb joint or some salmon, but I'm going for a twist for our Easter meal this year; lamb tagine and fresh veggies. I wanted something easy to put together as we've got quite a busy day and I like this twist on lamb.

Whilst there, I also picked up some blooms - how cute are these little fellas? And just £3 too.

Excuse the poor lighting - they had just started to bloom first thing and I had to snap them

For more Easter inspiration from the Co-op, pop across to here.

Then comes Easter part two - a toddler in London!

I love London and whilst I go quite a bit for work so it loses a little shine, I still love seeing all the sights. I haven't had the chance to be a tourist in London in years in fact but this weekend, we are going away with my in-laws - and Ethan too.

Mummy has the Kikki K store on her must-see list.

Daddy wants the Disney Store on Oxford Street.

Nanny and Grandad are taking us to their favourite restaurant, Rules, in Covent Garden.

But what about Ethan?

To be honest, I haven't a clue what to do with a toddler in the big smoke. It's always so busy when I go and even though I like the underground, going with Ethan kind of terrifies me (I'm told we will be getting taxis places, so we can avoid this part).

Growing up, we would go on coach trips from my home town in Hampshire to London, and Natural History Museum is one of my favourite places to go. Ethan loves dinosaurs so I think this will be on our list - it's free and there's a Great Barrier Reef 3D experience on at the moment too - plus the London Transport Museum is supposed to be great for kids too and the Shrek experience sounds really fun.

I'm also thinking maybe an open top bus tour will be a good way of seeing the sights?

The last time we went to London 'just for fun'... way before Ethan!

Some kind blogger peeps jumped in to help me out, and share their posts on planning a great day out, or weekend, in London with a toddler in tow.

So, if you're interested, may I recommend:

The DADventurer - 5 free things to do in London with a toddler

Play and Learn Every Day - family days out in London

The Three Musketeers - a perfect weekend in London 

(love the sound of the Peter Pan playground!)

Mama VIB - the perfect city getaway for little people

The Spirited Puddle Jumper - London with kids

Two Point Four Dad - Tate Modern and Tower Bridge experience

Truly Madly Kids - exploring the city of London

I'll be sure to share plenty of photos from our weekend away, and my advice too after (hopefully) surviving our London break.

We've been telling Ethan that we're going on Thomas (Tank Engine) to London to see the Queen, so he's pretty excited...