Insect Lore Butterfly Experiment - Day 1

They've arrived!!!!

5 teeny tiny caterpillar's from Insect Lore

I ordered them on Tuesday for a dispatch date of 27th April and they arrived on the 28th April in a little box with "OPEN IMMEDIATELY" emblazoned across it.

Everything we need for the caterpillars is provided in the jar, so I have no need to do anything yet other than make sure they don't get overheated (or too cold) and make sure the kids don't knock them over.

Can you see them?

Isaac can't decide on names, so I thought I'd open it up to you guys - what are you best suggestions?

Silent Sunday 29th April 2012

Insect Lore Butterfly Garden Experiment - Introduction

I was super excited when Isaac got Insect Lore Butterfly Garden for his birthday as we have wanted this for quite some time.

For those of you who don't know what it is, you watch the Caterpillar's grow and transform into beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.

• Raise 5 LIVE butterflies from caterpillars and release them to Nature with the Butterfly Garden Kit.
• This kit contains reusable, collapsible Hatching Habitat, Caterpillar Coupon, instructions and activity booklet and feeding pipette.
• Redeem your coupon to receive your caterpillars with food at your requested date (p&p fee required). Caterpillars sent March through September.
• Witness one of Nature's most spectacular transformations up close. Recommended age 4 years and up.

I am going to blog our progress. 

I ordered our caterpillar's on Tuesday and they were dispatched yesterday so hoping they arrive today.  The ordering process was very easy, although I did struggle to find the English paragraph on the large instruction sheet at first.  You can decide your own dispatch date too, which I thought was a good idea. 

My one criticism is that you have to pay an extra £2.50 p&p for delivery on top of what the box cost, but, it is made clear when purchasing.

Now all we need to do is wait for the postman!

Saturday is Caption Day - 28th April 2012

I think this picture speaks for itself and I absolutely adore it, so come on - give me a memorable caption to accompany it!

Silver Birch Crafts Yellow Spotty Bag

Over Christmas there was a competition on the Childcare is Fun website to win a personalised gym bag for your child. The picture on the competition rules was of a beautiful deep purple drawstring gym bag with silver lettering and I immediately thought this would be a lovely design for my daughter for when she started playschool.

I entered the competition and forgot about it, so was really surprised when I got notification that I had won. I handed over my details and waited to be contacted by Silver Birch Crafts who had donated the prize.

When I received the email, I was really surprised by the choice of bags I was offered, but one really stood out for me. A yellow spotty, gym bag. My son Isaac is a huge Mr Tumble fan and I have been really disappointed that there is no real merchandise out there, so this was perfect.

(sorry Eliza, but I have time to order you one before you start school).

The lovely people at Silver Birch Crafts kept me up to speed on my order via twitter @SilverBrchCraft and my order arrived really quickly. I am amazed by the quality. It isn't a cheap shop bought gym bag, but a lovely bright yellow cotton bag, with re-enforced corners and top and felt spots all over it. Isaac's name has been stitched on to one side and it continues the spotty theme on the other side. I was initially disappointed by it's relatively small size (in comparison to shop bought gym bags), but it is a perfect size for a 3 year old!

Isaac was literally bouncing around the lounge when we received this bag, and insisted on taking it to school instead of his Gruffalo Bag (a huge compliment indeed). The next morning, with his change of clothes and a pair of shoes fitting perfectly inside off we set. I was stopped every few hundred yards by a variety of people admiring his bag, so it took a little longer to get to school! Even his teacher remarked on his bag and asked if I had made it! Isaac is now the envy of all his friends.

For more information about how to get yourself one of these bags, and view their entire yellow spotty range, please visit their website here

For other ranges, including their personalised gym bags you can visit their website here: http://silverbirchcrafts.co.uk and if you have any questions, they are on facebook and twitter - Oh, and did I tell you, they are an SBS winner too!!

Inspired Gift - A Review

My gorgeous daughter turns 1 tomorrow and I hadn't got round to getting her a name plaque for her door when I spotted a tweet from Jayne Sharp (ex-Mrs Comedy Dave) recommending @Inspired_Gift

I immediately contacted the lovely Alie to see what she could do. Her response was super fast and I was impressed at how much detail she asked for and what I would like to have.

Eliza has occupied her brother's room and I have kept the decor as it is lime green with an animal theme. I just changed the curtains and the bedding to something a little more girly with ladybirds and rainbows.

Alie happily got to work on my plaque and sent me a photograph of what she had made to check that I liked it. I LOVE IT!

I chose to have a sticky back on my plaque so I could attach it to the door, but Alie can also make plaques with ribbon attachments and door hangers too. Please see her website for more information here: http://www.inspiredgiftdesign.co.uk/

In my opinion the plaques are very reasonably priced, well made and truly beautiful

Buggy Brolly from Love Umbrellas

Like most of the products I have bought recently I found Love Umbrella's on twitter @LoveUmbrellas. I had a nosey around their website "oohhing" and "ahhing" over their beautiful wedding umbrella's, thinking what a wonderful idea!

I didn't really think anything more about it until I saw a tweet about them doing a brolly that attaches to your pram / buggy. My attention was caught!!! Being a mum of 5, I have often thought about someone inventing an Umbrella that attaches to a pram (normally when I get stuck in a rain storm), but never actually done anything about it.

I know others have umbrella's out there, but at Love Umbrella's they customise it for you too, so it will co-ordinate with your buggy. Just let them know what you want and off they go.

What impressed me most was the fast delivery time - it arrived within two days!!

So what is it like:

It is a standard umbrella size (not huge like a Golf umbrella), but certainly big enough. It comes with a cover to protect the umbrella end, and with the exception of the stalk, it folds up small and neatly. The Stalk as you can see from the picture does stay extended by 40cm, so it will sit under my B-Dual but not the Noa.

I have two pushchairs - the Britax B-Dual and the Maxi Cosy Noa and it fits both comfortably. The pushchairs are different colours two, so I have a mixture of coloured buttons and pink bows around the edge so it will happily blend with both.

The umbrella itself feels sturdy. It would not survive the gales we had yesterday, but I don't think any umbrella would. It was very breezy today and the umbrella managed very well and kept me dry.

It has 3 height positions too, which I think is such a good idea. It will comfortably accommodate my husband at 5ft 9" on the Noa (this buggy sits quite low to the ground), but will fit someone taller on a larger pushchair, especially if the handle is adjustable. If you are taller than 6ft, then I would speak to the guys at Love Umbrella's for advice!

The buggy attachment is a standard claw clip, which you find on most parasols, so it is a universal fit. I also think that it could happily be used as a sun parasol on it's lower settings during the summer, so you can save those pennies and just invest in this.

My umbrella was £33 incl p&p, which is more than a standard umbrella, but if you have ever tried to push a pram and hold an umbrella at the same time, you'll certainly understand that it's good value for money!

For more information, visit their facebook page or tweet them @LoveUmbrellas

I shall add one final photo, but please excuse the fence in the background - waiting for the neighbours to pull their fingers out and get it fixed!!!

Moon Dough - A Review

I had never heard of Moon Dough until I saw a couple of other bloggers mention it, so when they were looking for reviewers I volunteered as I was Isaac was eager to test it out.  I had no idea what to expect.



My first impressions were good.  It was well packaged, brightly coloured and clearly showed what was in the box.  Isaac, his friend Alfie and Alfie's mum were eager to try out the contents so we unpacked all the goodies.

There was a blue plastic strip with shapes cut into it, that looked a bit like an ice cube tray, plus a sheep, a dog, an apple and what looks like a pizza cutter (15 all together).  There were also tools to cut, flatten and shape the moon dough, of which three colours were supplied - yellow, red and blue.

If I am honest, I was expecting the moon dough to be a lot like playdoh, but it is completely different.  It feels like foam it to moulds well, which I wasn't expecting.  Whats more - it never dries out, it's wheat free and hypoallergenic!

Alfie turning out his shape

We all got stuck in, trying it out.  It is surprisingly easy, even for the little ones and we had great fun making trains, pizza's and animal shapes.

Isaac impressed with his shape

Look what I've made

Alfie's mum and I decided to leave the boys to their modelling and disappeared for a cup of tea and the Moon dough kept them occupied for a good 40 minutes (a record if you know these boys).  They very proudly showed off their achievements and even came up with a story.

Clearing up was a breeze too.  Because the moon dough is dry, it picks up with no trouble at all.  We rescued as much as we could from the table and floor, but any remaining bits were swept up with no problem.  Even the bit that baby Eliza smuggled unknowingly to the fabric sofa came off with no trouble at all.

Best of all, it all packs away nicely back into the cute travel case.

Tired Mummy of Two Takes Over!

The lovely Laura @TiredmummyofTwo has wrestled my blog away taken over my blog, but it's all for a very good cause.  Please read and donate if you can:

Hello there, I bet you didn’t expect to see me here did you?

I am on a bit of a mission to hijack blogs everywhere to get you all talking about my wonderful and exhausting prize draw. Some of you might recognise my name as I ran a hugely successful tombola just before Christmas where I put 196 presents under peoples trees. As this was so successful I started to think of other things that I can do.

In January my sister in law gave birth to my nephew, he was 10 weeks early and very small weighing 1lb 4oz. Obviously this meant he was kept in NICU and then the SCU. When visiting him I came across Bliss and all the lovely work they are doing in these units to support the parents of these gorgeous babies. From providing leaflets and information to training specialist nurses Bliss are there for them and for my sister in law.

I decided that I needed to do something for Bliss and bought some running shoes, I couldn’t even run after a bus when I started but now on 20^th May I will be running 10k. Obviously I am trying to get people to sponsor me to do this but as a little thank you I have arranged a prize draw for everyone who sponsors me.  At the moment I have more prizes than I do sponsors so it is looking very likely that people will be getting something nice through the post soon.

You can find a list of the prizes here

To sponsor me you can Text “XOGY47 £1” to 70070 or click on my Just Giving page  

To be entered into the prize draw you must validate your entry here this is to abide with competition and gambling laws.

A Puff of Smoke

I made a discovery this week that made me feel physically sick and absolutely powerless to do anything about it.

My beautiful 18 year old daughter has started smoking!

It had taken two lots of antibiotics to clear what I thought was a stubborn chest infection but the truth finally emerged before Isaac's birthday party.

She was helping me with the prep and was wrapping up the pass the parcel when we discovered we had an extra packet of sweets as a prize. I quite innocently opened up her handbag to drop them in and there was a packet of cigarettes.

I didn't say anything immediately as I didn't want to go off like a rocket, so I walked away and busied myself with some baking.

I suppose I ought to let you know some background. Her dad and his family are all heavy smokers and his family don't seem to think anything of their children following in their footsteps! I used to smoke (never many as I didn't like it) but gave up for my pregnancies and finally quit 12 years ago for good. My daughter used to nag me stop!!

I don't know how recent this is, but I'm pretty sure it's been in the last 6 months. All the friends she hangs around with smoke and she was in Sussex visiting family last month for her sisters 18th.

So, has she been influenced?

I still don't know. When I asked her she said she didn't smoke much. She certainly didn't have any at all on Monday whilst she was here, so she can't be dependant on them - yet!

We discussed the expense of them and what a waste of money they are as well as the health implications.  I just hope with the smoking ban and the other government objectives to help try and reduce the amount of smokers out there, she will realise that there are far better things out there to spend her money on.



However, I can't force her to give up. I have to stand back and watch and hope she makes the right decision.

Sometimes being a parent is just so damn hard!

Monster Pet Supplies - A Review

I am the proud owner of two cats so when I saw a tweet from @MonsterPetTeam asking for fussy felines to review some of their products, I accepted on their behalf.

Monster Pet Supplies appreciate that every pet is different and has their own personality. They have known cats that hide their toys under the bed so you can’t tidy them away and dogs who’ll repeatedly pounce on their own reflection in a puddle. Those endearing little quirks make you love them for who they are. There’s never another pet quite like your own.

So when they decided to open an online pet supplies shop, they knew it was more than okay to be a little bit different. They stock the biggest range of products from fish food to reptile supplies, to horse supplies and hamsters and pride themselves on excellent customer service.

My box of goodies arrived within 2 days and the cats were impressed with their goodies.  First to be tried were Whiskas Tasty Textures which according to my cats were delicious.  I know they loved it as they seemed disgusted a little disappointed when I gave them their normal food later in the day.

Scamp and Muggles devouring their treat

Next up was the Whiskas Cat Milk.  I never normally give them anything other than water, so this was a real treat.  It actually caused a little friction between the sisters as Scamp wouldn't let Muggles get a look in, so again I think this was a hit.

You can share ladies!!

We were also lucky enough to receive some Dreamies Mix cat treats which are currently on offer at £1 (instead of £1.56).  I mixed a few of these with some dried cat food and they went down extremely well too.

Please do not disturb me when I am eating!

The website is easy to navigate and each section is clearly defined so you won't be hunting for what you are looking for.  The search bar function was super efficient too.  It would be easier for me to say what they don't stock, than what they do as their range is huge!!

You can find them on facebook and twitter for extra special offers and they even have their very own blog too.  My advice - don't let your pet loose with your credit card as they'd buy it all ;0)

Win a Family Ticket to In the Night Garden Tour 2012

Top-selling children’s show, In the Night Garden Live, is back by popular demand with a new 2012 tour and I have tickets to give away! The smash-hit show brings the world of In the Night Garden to the stage with children able to see their favourite CBeebies’ stars Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and friends up close.

 

In the Night Garden Live takes place in its own all-weather, purpose-built inflatable showdome with many family-friendly facilities. This site-specific structure proved to be a huge hit with children and parents on its previous tours and this summer will be travelling to 3 London venues: the Live Quarter at The O2 (24 May to 9 June); Old Deer Park, Richmond (16 – 30 June); and Brent Cross (7 – 22 July).

To be in with a chance with winning a family ticket (for 4 people, minimum 1 adult

• Fill in the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• Please read the rules below
• Closing date: Midnight 16th May 2012
• If there is no form hit refresh (f5) and it should appear

If it still not working check that your computer is running Javascript

You need to complete the mandatory entry first – answer the question

Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf making it really easy to enter!

Really want to win the prize? Come back every day for bonus entries via Twitter

Olly the Little White Van Review Series 1

The lovely tweeps at @Ollythewhitevan have recently sent me the DVD of the first series of Ollie the Little White Van to review, after charming both Eliza and Isaac with the fun characters when we reviewed series two here.

It really didn't matter that we haven't watched the series in any particular order, as each episode is beautifully animated and introduces you to the characters, whilst telling a delightful story of Olly trying to help all his friends in Bumpton.  The message really comes across of always trying your best, whilst being thoughtful and considerate but in a fun way.  I love that there is a song in each episode too and that always gets Eliza dancing!

If you didn't know already, the lovely Justin Fletcher is the voice of Olly and he brings his own zany humour and great voice to the character that all kids seem to love.  They also have the most fantastic competition running at the moment too:

Has your little one ever dreamed of appearing on TV?

Well here’s your chance!

The popular children’s TV series Olly the Little White Van has teamed up with children’s presenter Justin Fletcher to launch a new campaign whereby children can win the chance to appear on ITV and show off their dancing and singing skills!

As the voice of ‘Olly’, Justin Fletcher is leading the campaign to encourage parents to upload a video of their little ones dancing and singing along to the Olly theme song and the best videos will be chosen to appear in the series credits on ITV.  And one special fan will win the chance to go behind the scenes with Justin at a special voice-record session of Olly.  Beep!Beep!

The competition is now open at www.ollythelittlewhitevan.com and they will also be featuring a gallery of the best videos on their social media networks at Facebook and twitter.

Please check it out and upload your video today for a chance to be on TV and meet Justin Fletcher!

Here is our attempt (a little shy when you point a camera at him lol)

Run run as fast as you can - you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man

I haven't done a recipe post in quite some time, but after baking some Gingerbread men yesterday for Isaac's birthday I got a couple of requests for the recipe.

It is an easy one to do and kids of all ages just love to help!

Ingredients:

300g Butter
125g Caster Sugar
125g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
225g Golden Syrup or Treacle
725g Plain Flour
2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
3tsp Ground Ginger
1tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method:

Part One:

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter together with the sugars and golden syrup (or treacle)
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of sofa, ground ginger and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl
3. Add the melted butter and sugar and mix
4. Knead the mixture for a few seconds until it comes together, adding a teaspoon or so of water if necessary. (Don't allow the mixture to become too wet - it should bond and hold nicely together without crumbling)
5. Flatten the dough slightly into a round about 2cm thick, wrap with clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Melting Sugars

It should look like this the it comes together

Have a break and go and enjoy a cuppa whilst it chills.  Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) / Gas Mark 4 and Line two Baking Trays with greaseproof or parchment paper.

Part Two:

1. Remove the dough from the fridge
2. Dust the work surface with flour and roll all of the dough out to about 5mm thick
3. Cut out your preferred shapes using cutters and transfer onto the baking trays
4. Cook in the oven for 12 minutes, until they are slightly firm, a little darker at the edges and slightly drier on top.
5. Allow the shapes to firm up for a few minutes whilst still on the baking tray and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool

Rolling out

We chose Bats as my son is Batman mad!

It is up to you how you decorate.  As ours were for a child's party we chose to use Dr Oetker Writing Icing so the children could decorate their own gingerbread shape themselves with minimal mess, however if you want to make your own you will need:

Icing:

175g Icing Sugar
1-2 Tbsp Boiling Water

1. Sift the Icing sugar into a bowl and add the water
2. Beat until the icing comes together, adding a little more icing sugar if necessary (be careful not to make it too runny)
3. Using a small palette knife or the back of a spoon dipped into boiling water (to make it easier to spread), spread the icing over the gingerbread shape

If you wish to pipe on details, such as faces and hair, spoon the icing into a small piping bag with just the smallest corner cut off

Whilst the icing is still unset on the biscuits, decorate with silver balls, smarties or whatever decorations you are using and set aside for the icing to set!

Concentrating on getting it perfect

Win Regal Robes for your Little One in time for the Jubilee Celebrations

If you saw my review of the delightful costumes that Mrs Dress Up makes then you will know I am a huge fan, so when she asked if I'd like to run a competition for her I said yes immediately.

Dressing up seems to be a favourite activity for most children aged over 3, and my son is certainly no exception.  We put our heads together to decide what costume she could make and as it is the Queen's jubilee soon, what better costume than regal robes?

I have great memories of strutting up and down the Close where I lived in a net curtain and a white frilly dress when Charles and Diana got married and now your little one can be the star of your jubilee celebrations, whatever they are.

Model is the gorgeous young Master Dress Up

The coronet is 20.5" in circumference, and 3.5" tall. It has gold velvet, gold venice lace, white, amber and red acrylic 'jewels' all around. The jewels are self-sticking and fabric- glued on, due to their size, this coronet is for over 3's only.

The cape is red fleece, with a white cord tie and elasticised collar. It is edged with white faux fur and this is embellished with black fleece to simulate ermine fur, and gold filigree lace down the front edgings. It measures approx. 31" from collar to hem, the hem is 42" wide and the neck is 14". This will fit from approx 3 years old.

As you can see this costume is suitable for both boys and girls and can be used for any number of dressing up / role play scenarios. 

TO ENTER…

• Fill in the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
• Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
• Please read the rules below
• Closing date: Midnight 20th May 2012

How Rafflecopter Works

• If there is no form hit refresh (f5) and it should appear
• If it still not working check that your computer is running Javascript
• You need to complete the mandatory entry first – answer the question
• Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf making it really easy to enter!
• Really want to win the prize? Come back every day for bonus entries via Twitter

Tickety Toc - New to Nick Jr

On the wall of an old clock shop hangs a very special clock.  Every hour, on the hour, it chimes and out pop our little heroes.  But what happens when they go back inside?

Tickety Toc is the gateway into a rapid paced, dramatic and colourful CGI world full of eccentric characters and slapstick surprises.  It's a fantastical and funny place inhabited by puppy dog trains, hare-brained rabbits, cooking cows and weather obsessed chickens.

In the eye of this chaotic comedy storm are our two heroes - twins: Tommy and Tallulah.  Each action packed adventure challenges Tommy and Tallulah to save the day, return life to normal and keep the clock ticking.

So, what did we think.  Both little ones aged almost 4 and 14 months sat through it transfixed.  Eliza immediately started dancing to the theme music (a good sign).  The first episode was about getting exercise which I though was a good message.  We meet the puppy dog train first which I admit I found a little odd, but Isaac liked it.  He was particularly fond of the cow too!

Each episode last 11 minutes, so perfect for little ones and each episode focuses on familiar aspects of everyday life, allowing children to explore the concept of time in a fun engaging way.

Tickety Toc launches Monday 23rd April at 8.15am on Nick Jr 

Sky - 615

Virgin - 715

TalkTalk - 318 

Tickety Toc - Promo from Patrick Kydd on Vimeo.

Saturday is Caption Day - 21st April 2012

Eliza at 14 months is turning into little Miss Independant, but not sure I can take this mess:

Give me you best caption for this:



Crabbing at Mudeford Quay

A few weeks ago I took my kids for a walk around the place where I used to live as a child - Mudeford Quay, near Christchurch in Dorset.

It is a very popular location, with a beach hut currently up for sale for over £145,000 (yes really).  One of the draws of the area is the opportunity to go Crabbing and whilst we were there the boys were fascinated by crabs that everyone had caught.

On Sunday, we decided to have a go ourselves and I was surprised at how easy it was.

Equipment:

Hook-free crab lines

Washing tablet net bag

Bucket

Crab bait - you can use fish, wet cat food or bacon

Catching net

Once you have your equipment, with the exception of the crab bait it can be used over and over again so it is a good investment. 

Look - I caught a Guppy!

We established our spot and got to work.  We put the bait into the net bags and added a couple of stones to weigh it down as it was quite a breezy day, and attached the bags to the line.  Simply drop in the water, making sure it hits the bottom and wait.

Preparing the equipment

We waited, pulled the lines in and nothing.  We did this for about 20 minutes and Isaac was getting bored so I took him off for a walk to see other peoples catches, whilst the older boys came up with their master plan.  10 minutes later, having reassured him that there were crabs to be caught, we were back and it wasn't long before we got our first one:

He was a monster!

Sadly, he took one look at us and thought better of it and fell back into the sea.  The boys blamed me - apparently I wasn't quick enough with the net!  (It's always mums fault).

Isaac is ready and waiting

Just a minute of two later, our patience was rewarded again, and this time Kian had control of the net.

Named Colin apparently?

The tides were now changing and we were in quite an exposed area, so we decided to move somewhere more sheltered to see if we could get more, but I just have to show you this gorgeous pic of my boys first.

Isaac, Callan and Kian

We hit jackpot - we caught six crabs all together and had three excited boys very proud of their achievement. 

Proud of his haul

Kian posing

We were there for 3 hours and if it had been warmer we would have stayed longer, but it is a great day out and all the boys want to do it again.  Putting the crabs back was a fun affair too - we had a crab race, and watching them scurry back to their home was great fun, especially as mine won!

Come on boys, lets get outta here!

If you are after a cheap, fun day out that all the family will enjoy, then I wholeheartedly recommend this!

Eliza gets a kiss

supervising