It's no secret that we've struggled with bad dreams with our boys. We went through, what can only be described as, a hellish 18 months of night terrors with Sammy. Every night with almost no exception, we would have to console a sobbing, wet, sweaty mess every 2 hours. Nothing helped and we became completely exhausted with the situation. Exhausted and frustrated. I cringe when I think of how cross I got on a number of occasions at 4am when we'd only just got back to sleep.  It wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it and we felt powerless to stop it.

We tried it all, dream catchers, changing the temperature of his room, letting him sleep with us (which led to 18 months of Richard sleeping in the spare room - I promise that is not a good recipe for a happy marriage) and anything else Dr Google came up with.

It is horrible to watch your child have a nightmare, it's horrible having one yourself, but at least we can calm ourselves down. We know it's not real within a few seconds. They can't and it's heartbreaking. 

I'd like to think ours have never watched a film they shouldn't. Even the Lego movie felt a step too far. They are so impressionable, so vulnerable. I on the other hand, am a hopeless romantic. My ideal film finishes with two people getting married and having babies with a fast forward to the future to show that they did indeed have a happy ending! 

You feel like you are in a hopeless cycle, unable to soothe your most precious person who is literally screaming for your help. As one of the Slumberdown Ambassadors I am pleased that I have a way to share our experiences, to try and help other parents who are awake in the middle of the night with a distraught child, to know you are not alone. 

I ended up consulting our health visitor who as helpful as she tried to be, talked about this awful period as a phase, but it felt like a never ending phase! Two years on the bad dreams are back to a manageable amount. Once a week we will hear a scream, an inconsolable cry for one or both of us. The heat doesn't help. This muggy, sticky heatwave that is sweeping across Britain just leads to a soaking mess at 2am for us. Hot and bothered and full of vivid dreams that leave them confused and tearful.

But nightmares aren't just for children. I suffer occasionally, so does Richard and I've even woken up to a text message from a friend saying "I had a terrible dream about you last night, I just wanted to check all was ok." 

So I wanted to do something different on the blog, to get the boys opinion. 

Here they are...

Slumberdown recently carried out a study to try and find out what films make us adults petrified in the night. My sister is totally in the 25% category who need some sort of light on at night. For years she slept with the tv on on mute! 

We all kiss our children goodnight and often whisper sweet dreams as we leave their rooms. That's what we all want, the sweetest of dreams.

Have you seen any of these films?! I don't think I could get through any of them!

I'd love to know if your children suffer from nightmares too and what you have down to help them. Literally as I finished typing this at 11.54pm we heard a familiar sound... help!

With a heatwave hitting the UK this week, I have joined hundreds of thousands of other parents and set up water play in the garden, slapped Factor 30 on the boys before school and even managed 10 minutes in the garden yesterday for a long overdue hit of vitamin D.

I can't help it, I love the sun. I love the feeling of the sun on your face when you close your eyes, that powerful sensation of the sun's rays blasting your skin with warmth that transports you back to holiday memories, that stepping off the plane moment and being engulfed by heat.

But after a lovely brunch with the sun safety team from Boots, I was amazed by how little I knew about really being safe in the sun. I listened to the horror stories from the pharmacist, the tales of the little babies being brought in with sun burn after every spike in the weather. And the everyday stories that I just hadn't given my full attention to. Holiday tips, device for the children, easy things to forget.

The brunch took place at the beautiful Folly Restaurant in London. Every where you looked was a photo opportunity! We headed downstairs to a private room, with a table laden with goodies and suncream!

We all shared our sun safety stories, I told them all how I cringe when I look back at our holiday photos, because there's a common theme. Not only did we seem to only take holiday photos at dinner with a drink in our hands but all I now see are burnt faces, orange skin, all natural, but all damaging! At the time I remember feeling more confident, happier about my body and without a care, smothered my precious skin in Factor 15 and Factor 8 oil. OIL! What was I thinking?!

Quite frankly I can see now I look ridiculous. I can see in a lovely photo with our best friends that they look healthy and sun kissed and I look like a female David Dickinson (Oh and spot the helpful red eye correction tool baaahhhh!). And this year when we head to warmer climes I am going to put to the test everything I learnt from Boots. You can still tan and protect yourself! You can fake it rather than bake it!

I sat in a school assembly last Friday and was chatting with one of the other mums whilst we waited for the class to arrive. And we got onto the subject of sun cream before school and she pulled up a photo on her phone. A friend of hers specialises in skin analysis and she had been for her own comprehensive skin test. The sun damage photo was frightening. You can't really see it when you look at her, it's what you will see as she gets older.

As much as I would love to have my own face analysed I'm not sure I'd like the results. I know I've been silly, worn cheap sunglasses, not protected my body on a sunny Saturday in England. I've burnt the skin on my chest numerous times and that will show when I hit 40. Already I can see my chest is a little bit crinkly instead of smooth. Aaah! I've peeled like a snake, burnt my lips, all for an orangey glow that fades before you've got up to date with post holiday washing. 

As parents we do everything we can to protect our children. We know they need to wear sun protection suits, stay out of the midday sun, wear hats and high factor protection. But we don't seem to apply the same care to ourselves. So here are a few tips I heard from the Boots team that I won't forget in a hurry.

• A wet t-shirt offers you ZERO protection from UV rays. UV sun suits are more expensive than regular swimwear and so it should be! 
• Look at your surroundings. Grass, the pool even buildings are all reflective surfaces and bounce sun rays back onto your bodies. So if you are heading to Greece where a lot of the architecture is white - remember even in the shade those stone and painted buildings will reflect the UV rays right back at you!
• Sunglasses are not a fashion statement! I think there's a common misconception that sunglasses are cool for a photo and not a necessity. I know I've got the boys to pose for a photo and then the sunglasses get discarded onto the grass. Protecting your eyes is an absolute essential. Look out for the CE mark on labels to be sure even a cheap pair of sunglasses offer UV protection. As parents we persevere with hats for babies and kids but we let them not wear sunglasses. We need to think if them as equally important!
• 80% of your eyes lifetime exposure to UV light and damage will have happened by the time you are 18. That is a scary fact! I know I've let the boys play with iPads or our phones for some quiet time around the pool but NO don't do it! Screens act as a terrible reflector bouncing the UV rays straight into your kids faces! So I will be leaving the screens in the hotel room this year. 
• Suncream has a shelf life of just one year. Boots unlike many others, don't rotate their stock so you know when you buy your new supply each year it's in date and good to go! Don't keep it in the fridge either. When you apply it don't rub too hard or it will separate and stay on top of your skin in cloggy lumps, which we then work even harder to rub in! Lotions are much more moisturising for your skin than aerosol sprays and a golf ball sized amount is enough to cover a toddler head to toe. 
• If you suffer from insect bites in the heat wear light coloured clothes and avoid perfume, they love it! Be extra careful with your ankles and wrists too, it's where we often miss rubbing lotion or spraying a repellant and they get us!
• Your skin remembers where it was burnt, which is why you will burn again and again in the same place. Sun burn is not big and it's not clever. It just hurts.

Thank you to Boots for opening my eyes to all these top tips. I shared with the group how I almost felt embarrassed to be the "over protective" British mother with her lily white children on the beach in Spain last year. Covering them from head to toes in UV suits and taking them off just for 20 minutes or so to get a vitamin D burst (which they all need everyday!) towards the end of the day.

All children under 5 should take a vitamin D supplement and have around 15-20 minutes of sunshine every day without being smothered in sun block. 

Neither of mine have ever taken vitamin supplements and it's made me realise, in a busy life, how easy it is to rush home from school, eat tea, watch some television and miss out on that precious time outside. Tell me I'm not the only one?!

We are heading for a hot country this month - any other tips you'd recommend for keeping them cool?!

For more expert advice visit their Web MD page

We had a very special first in this house recently. A first that made everyone under 6 bounce off the walls and everyone over 6, want to run for the hills! I'm teasing of course, but there's something about a first school sleepover that filled me with worry and dread!

It's a huge responsibility being in charge of someone else's most precious cargo. Mine still wake in the night with bad dreams and need a cuddle, they have accidents, misbehave and when they are over tired, are difficult to contain! So when I promised Sammy that his two best pals from school who were away for his party could come for a first sleepover, he leapt so high into the sky, there was no going back!

This was the first school friend's sleepover and the first time one of his friends had stayed away from home. I tried not to plan the hours out minute by minute as I knew that 4 boisterous, spirited boys would need to let off steam and too many planned activities might feel like I was stifling their fun.

Their eyes all light up when we revealed the 16ft water slide which the boys were sent to try out! What a scream. We first tried it out on Sammy's birthday with his little 2 year old cousin who thought it was the best slide she had ever been on, even though there was no water! She managed all the indented steps all on her own (much to my sister's amazement when she independently scaled the 6ft wall) and the shallow pool at the bottom was long enough to stop her blasting down and over the inflatable frame. The lighter the are the more they seem to zoom!

We found the flattest area of grass and filled the large weights with water which clip either side of the main body of the slide. They weigh the slide down which is great for when there's one at the top, one climbing up and one sliding down simultaneously! Rich used the 4 anchor pegs to give it even more stability and ran an extension lead from the house to the electric fan that comes with the castle. Within 3 minutes, if that, it was ready to go! 

And then came the water. Oh now we had a party! Wet giggling boys, screaming through the overhead shower attached to the underside canopy, chasing each other around. Ollie was at the cannon, yes the cannon, I think they all thought it was there for display purposes only! Because it's inflatable you can angle it (As I found out the hard way, Mama's with cameras don't giggle quite as much when they are soaked!) and aim it at the person coming down the slide! 

We filled the pool area at the bottom and when we turned the cannon off for a few minutes they happily used it as a splash pool! 

The clouds came over and we wrapped them all up like newborns in beach towels. As soon as they were dry it was onto the next activity! More water... they had spied a leftover packet of water balloons from the party! But, instead of aiming them at each other, I poked 4 garden canes into the grass and set up a starting line 4 ft away. The aim of the game was first to hit the stick and burst their balloons, then round two was all about who could roll theirs so gently along the grass that it could reach the stick without bursting. 

Round two lasted about 15 minutes longer than the 2 minute round one! And no one got wet!

My top tips for a fabulously fun but not out of control sleepover are:

• Set a time limit. Invite your mini guests over in the afternoon say 3-4pm and ask for parents to collect them by 11am the next day. It is plenty long enough. End on a high!
• Send a reminder message the day before to confirm all the details. If you are like me you don't have a supply of extra toothbrushes and special bedtime favourite toys. A gentle reminder will help parent's remember the easy things to forget.
• Plan 3 activities. You might not need all three or any of them at all but have them prepared. We let them play freely until they started jostling for leader of the pack position and then stepped in. We knew the simple pea shooters and a makeshift target would be popular with these boys, as well as the water balloon game and a lego making challenge. Think about activities they all can play rather than video games for example where one or two get left out. Taking turns is not so fun!
• Feed them a proper tea. Yes snack foods or a party tea may sound easier for you, but all the sugar and processed foods only add to the excitable frenzy! Check with the parents for dislikes and likes before and make something in advance like a bolognese. Hearty and filling and healthy. Then have a treat for pudding. That way they all go to bed on full tummies.
• Start the actual bedtime routine early! It may sound terribly mean but, it takes them so much longer to settle than usual. We used a film as an easy way to calm them down. Pjs after tea and then pudding of popcorn under blankets. They felt it was so exciting but really we had started that wind down period at around 5.45pm. By 7.30pm their tired eyes were all ready to go up to bed and within an hour two out of four were asleep and by 9.15pm all four were snoozing.
• Don't be shy to ask the parents for bedding. We don't have lots of spare duvets and pillows and bringing their own means they have their familiar bed linen, smells and comforts from home. It may feel like they are staying for a week when they arrive but you'll be thankful not having to do two extra loads of washing! Ask for an extra set of clothes too. All of them got through two paris of shorts in the first couple of hours!
• Take a landline contact number if they have one. I realised I had the parent's mobile numbers but if for whatever reason their phone ran out of battery or had no signal, I would have no way of contacting them in an emergency! 
• Smile. Kid's pick up on your energy so be reassuring particularly at lights out! Making them feel like you are happy they are staying will help them feel more secure in foreign surroundings.

The boys all had a fantastic time, they still talk about the "weekend" even though it was less than 24 hours! The bouncy slide was a huge hit and it made us think how much our boys would use a home bouncy castle rather than thinking they are only for hire for birthday parties. 

So if you are looking for bouncy castles for sale online check out the range now on sale from Toyz World. There is something for all budgets and age ranges, can you guess which one the boy's would love for Christmas?! Yep it's this one. Umm...!