by jo

Project 366 – Week 2

Sunday 10th January. There comes a time when you realise your daughter’s trousers are too small, as when she sits down you see a little bottom poking over the top. So we headed to Sutton to buy some new ones as well as school shirts for September when she starts Junior school. Sutton got stormy, and one set of Christmas lights were still working.

sutton

Monday 11th January. Back to normal weeks again, and I know – KNOW – I took a photo today but it isn’t on my phone. It was to show how dark it is in the mornings, which actually isn’t going to be the greatest content thanks to it being dark. So already I’m failing.

Tuesday 12th January.We have been watching The Amazing Race on Amazon which is great as there are several series we hadn’t seen (via lesser legal means, ahem). We’ve got one more episode of Season 20 to go, and this hasn’t stopped H from creating her own version of the game – the Amazing Exercise.

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Wednesday 13th January. H went Horse Riding at Deen City Farm and had a blast! She loved it – 30 minutes being walked around on a small horse (age 20) – and with a borrowed pair of boots and a hat. She loved it so much!

Horse Riding at Deen City Farm

Thursday 14th January. New books arrived. Hidden away already.

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Friday 15th January. What kind of a child doesn’t like Peanut Butter (well, apart from ones who are allergic to them, of course)? Mine. Not even Reese’s Peanut Butter cups could turn her. I’m going to get some Skippy stuff and see if that works…

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Saturday 16th January. H had a party and Shaun and I sorted out things to sell and get rid of, donate, or whatever. Which means all my photos today are of things I’m selling which seems a bit weird to put on here. What a rubbish Saturday photo!

for sale

TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

FactFeed – The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Trivia

‘Love fun facts? Then you’ll love this book!’ says FactFeed – The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Trivia. So we delved inside – because there’s trivia and there’s randomly awesome trivia. Which was this book to be?

FactFeed - The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Trivia

FactFeed – The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Trivia is by Penelope Arlon, Tory Gordon-Harris and Karen Hood, and claims to be packed full of randomly awesome trivia.

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned it yet, but it is also one of the books which has made it to the final of the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 (the ‘Best book with facts’ category), which will be revealed this year. The BookTrust sent us a copy, and H has been poring over it ever since.

When you have a need for randomly awesome trivia, I would say this is the kind of book you need to go for. Well laid out pages with subjects grouped together – so for example, there are pages on extinction and several facts; from Extinct Animals and it’s ALL OUR FAULT, to Extinct Animals which made a BIG impression, to Amazing Animals on the brink of EXTINCTION (SAVE THEM!).

FactFeed is sorted into the categories of The Natural World, Science & Tech and Everyday life. Within everyday life you have topics like Superheroes, crisps, language, the human body, music, sports, states, movies.

I really like the Science & Tech numbers section – I’ve often had to try and go through the amount of zeroes for numbers (and truly, I did not know a centillion existed, nor that it was the biggest number which ends in -illion, so even I’m learning here).

See, there comes a point where your child starts to get a bit smarter than you – I don’t remember a lot of things I was taught at school, it was a long time ago. FactFeed is the kind of book where your child find even smarter facts, but you can have a sneaky read when they’ve gone to bed, so you don’t feel quite so daft.

You know in magazines where there’s always a section with random facts? Imagine that in a book – it’s really well laid out and while it isn’t the kind of book you’d sit and read like a story, it’s definitely one for trivia fans.

It’s perfect for a child of H’s age who is curious – and I’d highly recommend!

FactFeed – The Ultimate Book of Randomly Awesome Trivia is published by Scholastic and is available now. Watch Blue Peter on the 3rd March 2016 (World Book Day) to see if it wins!

by jo

Project 366 – Week 1

Friday 1st January. As has been tradition since I was pregnant, we headed to the sea for New Year’s Day. It was a quiet New Year’s Eve at home, and in fact I fell asleep until Shaun woke me up at five to midnight! We saw the New Year in and then I probably fell asleep again. We chose Brighton this year (we seem to alternate between Brighton, Bognor and Eastbourne, with occasional Portsmouth trips) and it was suitably freezing, there were big waves, and several shops open where I made the most of the sales. We stopped at Ed’s Diner where H was amazed there was a jukebox at our table and put loads of 20p’s in, to choose songs she liked!

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Saturday 2nd January. I bought myself Bridget Christie’s book, and have finally started reading it. (See, reviews and doing my own stuff took a back seat over Christmas and New Year, but I’m putting it right) Anyway, most of the first chapter is about farting. I went to get some sneaky chocolate so H wouldn’t notice and put my book down. Then it amused me I’m reading a book about farting and I placed it next to a whoopee cushion.

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Sunday 3rd January. We’re Amazon Prime members so I ordered the Harry Potter Box Set from their Prime Now service which generally gives you one hour delivery if you spend over £20 within London. So we watched the first two films with H, mainly to prepare her for my birthday trip to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour which I’m planning! Plus of course ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is released this year!

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Monday 4th January. Inse(c)t day. So we went to Chessington to meet with friends and to pick up our renewed Merlin Passes. H and her friend had fun and it was REALLY quiet as most other kids were back to school. The only ride open was the carousel which we had to ourselves for one go, it was that quiet!

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Tuesday 5th January. Back to school/work and so on. I was greeted by a pile of boxes on my desk which had all these goodies inside. It’s great getting deliveries at work, but not so great having to bring them all home on the train!

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Wednesday 6th January. Back to knitting – and back to tackling the Mollie Makes crochet daisy I managed to complete last time. It isn’t quite right this time, but I’m able to unpick and work things out which is progress. This is the start of it.

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Thursday 7th January. When we went to Brighton, I was a bit disappointed you can’t buy the individual Lego characters from The Force Awakens. We don’t need any new Lego kits right now, but H wanted a Rey. They directed me to Bricklink which is completely unofficial but meant I could buy a Rey for H. She arrived, anyway. She eventually made it to the Millenium Falcon and H spotted within an hour!

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Friday 8th January. I love that H’s school have some Shakespeare books for younger readers, and that she chose it of her own accord. I don’t love that H forgot to bring home a Free Reader sheet – she has to answer questions about the book once she has read it, but it’s all good in the end.

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Saturday 9th January. The laziest day of 2016 so far. H and I stayed in our pyjamas all day, the first week back was tiring, and her activites don’t even start until next week. So we were extremely lazy. H was happy The Voice has started again, was amazed that Boy George was that “Karma Chameleon singer from Absolute Eighties” and quite liked Paloma Faith.

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TheBoyandMe's 366 Linky

by jo

DisneyLife Questions

Today I was sent an exciting package – a six month subscription to the new DisneyLife service. So I thought I’d start this off a bit differently – as I feel like I have a lot of DisneyLife questions to ask.

DisneyLife questions, DisneyLife six month subscription

DisneyLife launched in November 2015, so is still in its early days, but has a lot of potential. Think of it as a child-friendly Netflix – at least, that’s what I’m reading from reviews.

So I thought I’d do a post before we’ve started using it, asking all my DisneyLife questions – and in fact, if you’re reading, maybe you have some to ask as well? Feel free to add them here and we’ll do our best to work it out.

My first one – is it worth £9.99 a month? What do you get? Considering we’ll spend quite a lot on Disney and Pixar related DVDs, could this replace our buying habits?

Question two – how soon do films come onto DisneyLife after being released on DVD? For Christmas H got Inside Out, The Incredibles and Big Hero 6. They’ll all be getting repeated viewings, so are they all available? I’m curious to find out what the turnaround time is.

Question three – how is the quality of the films? And which of our devices is it compatible with? At the moment we have two iPads, one Samsung tablet and two Kindle Fire’s (one of which has a subscription to Amazon Kids), as well as a MacBook Pro and a WiiU (which we use for Amazon / Lovefilm video). Add to that a Chromecast, and it should be something fairly straightforward to use.

Question four – you know what you’re getting with Disney. We have a LOT of Disney DVDs. There are going to be favourites in there – and I’ve noticed films like Snow White haven’t been available on DVD for ages – will DisneyLife have it?

Question five – Music. We have ‘Now That’s What I Call Disney’ on CD, and it’s wonderful, bringing back memories of my childhood. I’m looking forward to seeing which songs feature on the music part of the package.

Question six – what exactly is DisneyLife?
Movies, Music, Books, Kids TV Box Sets and Apps – in a monthly subscription of £9.99 which you can cancel at any time – I love things where you aren’t tied into annual contracts as I feel like the company has to work to keep you there rather than making it difficult for you to leave. This YouTube video tells you lots too…

Question seven – what are you looking forward to the most?

I can answer that – watching more DisneyPixar movies – we haven’t really watched the Cars/Planes series much, and have wanted to, so that’ll be one of the first ones!

So, lovely readers, do you have any DisneyLife questions you would like to ask?

DisneyLife’s website is here. We’ve been provided with a six month subscription for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

by jo

Bella Broomstick by Lou Kuenzler

Lou Kuenzler has a new book, Bella Broomstick, published Friday 7th January 2016. H is a big fan of her books, so when we were given the chance to review and feature Lou on Mum Friendly, she was super excited!

Bella Broomstick by Lou Kuenzler

Bella Broomstick is a witch, but a pretty hopeless one. Her nasty Aunt Hemlock sends her to live in Person World, and she isn’t allowed to do any magic ever again. However, Bella finds a kitten she names Rascal, who gets into a bit of bother – and somehow she finds herself helping the cat by using magic – oops….

The book has plenty of drawings accompanying the story, as well as being broken into chapters which are ideal for young readers moving into longer books.

H loves Lou Kuenzler’s books. She discovered Shrinking Violet Really Loves Ancient Egypt on a trip to the British Museum, and now has the whole set. She also has all four Princess Disgrace books – and loves them all. What I like the most about Lou’s books are the way they’re laid out – they were great at encouraging H to read expression aloud which I think is really important when a child learns to read – especially in longer books.

Bella Broomstick doesn’t have as many pages as the Shrinking Violet books – an ideal size for a bookworm like H to finish in ONE DAY! Like I said before, she’s a big fan. In fact, she’s on her fourth or fifth read of the book now – it’s safe to say it’s another favourite.

I met Lou in 2014 at Blogfest, and she kindly sent H a selection of Shrinking Violet goodies, where we also chatted about Princess Disgrace and how she has to go to school to learn how to be a princess, doing such things as training her unicorn and learn not to be clumsy. As a parent, I’ve found Lou Kuenzler’s books to have the right amount of humour for a child H’s age to understand – and I like how her characters get up to fun adventures – and most importantly, talk in a way she can relate – and they make her laugh. If you’re familiar with Lou’s previous books, then Bella Broomstick needs adding to your must-reads list!

H was really excited to get to ask Lou Kuenzler some questions too – and Lou herself tells us more about Bella Broomstick.

Lou Kuenzler

Questions for Lou Kuenzler from H Age 6
What is Bella Broomstick about? I’m excited to read this book!

Bella Broomstick is about a young witch who is so hopeless at doing magic she is expelled from the Magic Realm and sent to live in the Person World where is fostered by human beings instead. Luckily for Bella, her new foster parents are much kinder than her mean, old, witchy Aunt Hemlock (who always served frog’s spawn porridge for breakfast). Now Bella discovers ice cream and hot chocolate and finds a talking kitten too. There is just one rule: she must not do any magic, ever again. So, you guessed it! The first thing she does is … Whoops! MAGIC! And that is where the fun really starts …

Thank you for my Shrinking Violet poster and things, I love them! I am thirteen fish fingers tall! Do you have any more Shrinking Violet books planned?

I am so glad you like the fish finger poster. When I do school visits, children often come up with brilliant ideas of things they could measure themselves in. Chocolate biscuits is one of my favourites … but I don’t think I could be trusted not to eat a few while I was doing the counting! Ants are another good one, but it might take a while to train them all to stand in a nice neat line while you measured yourself against them. Perhaps they would have to balance on each other’s shoulders. If ants have shoulders …? Either way, it would take a lot of ant training! Maybe spaghetti would be easier. But should it be cooked or raw?

Oh dear, maybe fish fingers are best after all.

I would love to write another Shrinking Violet book. Perhaps one where she shrinks at school. It is definitely something I am thinking about but, at the moment, I am working on the next two books in the Bella Broomstick series.

I love Princess Grace. How many Princess DisGrace books are you going to write?

There are four Princess Disgrace books already. But, again, I would definitely like to write more when I have time. I think it would be wonderful to take Grace right through to the end of her studies at Tall Towers. That way, there could be a wonderful Princess Graduation ball and we could see Grace ready to face the royal world beyond the magical shores of Coronet Island …

How do you say your last name please?

Kuenzler is tricky, isn’t it? It is originally a Swiss name. Try saying Koons-la. But I tell you what … it’s probably easier if you just call me Lou.

Do you like writing books?

I love writing books. I get to sit at my big red desk (with my dog by my feet and my two cats peering over the top of the computer – they think they are very helpful). Then I just make stuff up all day long – it is like playing the best imaginary game ever … and I get to share it with readers and see my books for sale in the shops. I am hopeless at drawing, so other people always do brilliant illustrations for me. That is one of the most exciting bits … seeing how somebody else imagines the characters might look. Now, I can’t think of Violet or Grace or Bella looking any other way.

Shrinking Violet is Violetta Winzig in Germany. Do your characters have different names in other countries? What is Bella Broomstick?

My books have been translated into lots of other languages. It is always very exciting – and slightly strange – to know these are the same words I wrote but not be able to understand them. Shrinking Violet is known as Minik Violet in Turkish for instance. And Princess Disgrace is Princesse Catastrophe in French. As I have only just finished writing Bella Broomstick in English, it has not been translated into any other languages yet. But my husband, who is Swiss, says that she would be Bella Besenstiel in German, which I think sounds brilliant.

Will you be writing any more Bella Broomstick books?

I have almost finished the second book in the Bella Broomstick series – where we see her go off to school and make a new best friend. There is a bit of bother for Bella with some multiplication sums and a lot of magic rabbits! Once that one is done, I will start on Book Three which is going to be all about celebrating Halloween for the first time in her new human village. There is some magic trouble from Bella’s mean, witchy Aunt Hemlock. I am looking forward to that one, as writing horrid characters can be really fun.

Thank you so much for asking me these brilliant questions, H. I hope you find the answers helpful. You have really made me think!

Lou.

Let’s leave the final word for Bella Broomstick to H – “I liked when she went to the human world, it was funny and not scary. I liked she had to do magic even though she wasn’t meant to. If I saw the book in a bookshop I would DEFINITELY buy it! (but I would have to save my pocket money first or ask you, Mummy)”

This post is part of the Bella Broomstick blog tour – see the banner for other fab bloggers taking part. Bella Broomstick is published by Scholastic, and can be bought here. It has a rrp of £5.99. (affiliate link) Lou’s website can be found here and she’s on Twitter here. We received a copy of the book to review for this piece.  Also, huge thanks to Faye Rogers for organising this book tour!

Bella Broomstick blog tour banner, Bella Broomstick

by jo

Bluebell Railway and Sheffield Park

We’ve wanted to go on the Bluebell Railway for a long time now, but never seemed to time it right. We finally went on New Year’s Eve, driving down to Sheffield Park where it starts, making it with minutes to spare.

Bluebell Railway

From Carshalton to Sheffield Park on a good day it takes an hour, which isn’t bad at all – we bought tickets for the Fairy Godmother Specials (£17.50 per adult, £9.00 per child – slightly more than a standard all-line return), which gives you third class seats plus you get a mince pie and are served drinks. After a crazy end of year I was more than happy to sit down, watch the world go by and drink a glass of white wine.

For H’s ticket she got a pack of smarties, a balloon character made (Tigger!) and a little bag with a toy lion in it which was lovely.

The journey there and back took around two hours, and it was good to switch off and take in the Sussex countryside.

Sheffield Park National Trust

Afterwards we decided to head up the road to Sheffield Park, a National Trust place we’ve never visited. Our main purpose was to grab some food, and then spend their last hour open of 2015 wandering around the grounds. They had a trail which immediately appealed to H, looking for various wicker sculptures (A Winter’s Trail) around the grounds – so once we had eaten we headed out – and it was fairly easy to do in an hour.

One sculpture had blown away, but otherwise there were eight sculptures of varying designs dotted around the grounds which H loved finding (as well as stopping to splash in a few puddles). Sheffield Park is a landscape garden with much of the layout and design coming from Capability Brown, who worked on a few gardens and houses we’ve been to.

Sheffield Park National Trust

Sheffield Park has many lakes, joined together with interesting bridges, walkways, paths and gardens. You can hear the whistle from the Bluebell Railway from time to time as you walk around, but most of all you can breathe; the fresh, crisp country air is all around you.

We arrived at Sheffield Park train station for the 12.15 train, and left Sheffield Park National Trust at 4pm – and could have stayed for longer too!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

by jo

Project 365 Week 52 and a Half

Sunday 27th December.  Morden Hall Park, our local National Trust place. We needed to get out of the house after two days inside. I caught Shaun and H doing this from Big Hero 6 – love it!

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Monday 28th December. My sister bought H a ChillFactor Ice Cream maker for Christmas, which we’ve been pleased with so far. After reading some comments from other bloggers, it didn’t seem to work for them, but it did for us! While the quantity was quite small, there was definitely ice cream (and sorbet the day before) in there. 

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Tuesday 29th December. Polesden Lacey, and of course we did Polesdenopoly as it’s fun, silly and it wasn’t too cold either. My kind of trail.

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Wednesday 30th December. I think we had a lazy day. I don’t remember. I took this photo of H, as she had her hair cut and it really suited her, and I liked the lighting on the picture. When I think about how she was a year ago and how much she has grown up now, she does me proud. She loves reading (she has just finished David Baddiel’s ‘The Parent Agency‘) and has excelled at school. She is on the School Council as well as being one of the children who writes a little magazine in school too. She has made me a very proud mum – her confidence is starting to show now. 

H December 2015

Thursday 31st December. We visited Bluebell Railway and Sheffield Park National Trust gardens, before heading home for a quiet night in, and reflection on 2015. It has been an odd year, and who knows what 2016 will bring.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on

by jo

Project 365 – Week 52

Well, somehow I’ve done it and made the whole year. So let’s get this second-to-last week in.

Sunday 20th December. Work is over, school is over, what better thing to do than gatecrash your daughter’s best friends’ birthday party to watch Star Wars – The Force Awakens, right? (the gatecrashing bit is not entirely correct, as we were okay to go, but there was NO WAY we were missing it!)

The Force Awakens with a Six Year Old

Monday 21st December. It’s Panto season! So we headed to Wimbledon – I bought tickets a while back as we need a good panto substitute (as we didn’t get to York), so thought we’d try this. There were moments which fell a bit flat (to me) but other moments (when they did the 12 days of Christmas) that were hilarious. H enjoyed it, and Flawless really were good – open-mouthed-staggeringly good. She insisted on using the Opera Glasses.

Wimbledon panto

Tuesday 22nd December. Relief! H’s front tooth fell out at last. It had been really wobbly, so much that she was wobbling it all the way through the pantomime. So when she accidentally bit into some food with it and it came away, we were pretty lucky the tooth fairy and Father Christmas didn’t have to pay a visit on the same day. Phew.

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Wednesday 23rd December. H got a delivery which made her really happy – the new Lou Kuenzler book ‘Bella Broomstick’ which she read within a day, loves (we love Lou Kuenzler’s books anyway, H has quite a few!) and even more exciting for her, she has asked Lou some questions which will be coming on Mum Friendly on the 7th January. One thing I’ve realised about H this year, she does like asking questions – her school magazine had her interviewing her old teacher and some of the questions she came up with were really good! (must take after her mum…)

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Thursday 24th December. Twas the night before Christmas, so I charged up my old camera and got it out again to get a decent photo of the tree.

Christmas Tree 2015

Friday 25th December. Merry Christmas! Someone got LOADS of books as presents!

Christmas 2015

Saturday 26th December. The day after. I love Kikki K. I’m extremely excited they’ve opened a London store, as I would always spend too much money in the Australian stores, so now I can space it out a bit. Shaun bought me a 2016 diary which I am going to make sure I use as it’s SO PRETTY! Shaun got me some awesome presents this year and I really don’t feel like I deserve them.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on

by jo

Rain by Manya Stojic

We have been sent a copy of Rain by Manya Stojic, which is an enchanting and beautifully illustrated story set in the African Savannah.

Rain by Manya Stojic

Rain by Manya Stojic is a lovely bright colourful book. The story is set in the African Savannah.

“The porcupine smells rain in the air. The zebras see lightning. The baboons hear rumbling thunder. The rhino feels the first drops and the lion tastes the cool water...”

The book has you joining all the savannah animals, using your senses to help them track a coming storm.

However, the hot sun dries out the land again once the rain has stopped, and the animals have to wait for the next big rain.

“The sun shone over the plain. It was hot. Everything was drying out“

Rain by Manya Stojic

Rain by Manya Stojic has very fun, simple text which makes it an easy book to read, with lovely big text and bright colourful illustrations.

I like that the book has an embossed cover in the shape of raindrops – shiny ones – it makes the book stand out on the shelf.

Rain by Manya Stojic

I think this book is ideal for young readers – especially ones who are starting to get into expression, as well as teaching children about senses and the environment.

Rain by Manya Stojic is published by Pavilion Books and has a rrp of £6.99 and is available now! Click here to buy from Amazon. (affiliate link)

We were sent a copy of Rain by Manya Stojic for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

by jo

The Good Dinosaur – Our Review

Disney Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is in cinemas – and we went to see it a couple of weeks ago.

the good dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur is the latest Disney Pixar animation, and one H was desperate to see – her love of dinosaurs and our love of Pixar films meant we went, of course.

So what happens when several million years ago, that asteroid hurtling towards earth misses? Fast forward several million years later, and dinosaurs rule the earth, and we get to meet Arlo the Apatosaurus, born to parents Henry and Ida, as well as his two siblings Libby and Buck. Arlo is shy, unconfident and timid. He’s given a task of setting up traps to protect their silo – and eventually comes across Spot, a young feral caveboy who has been stealing their corn. Arlo captures Spot but sets him free.

In the meantime, the classic Pixar ‘thing’ happens, death. Arlo then sees Spot, who he blames for the death, chases him, hits his head on a rock and ends up being saved by him. Both then try to make their way home, meeting several characters along the way and becoming friends in the process.

How scary is The Good Dinosaur? It has its moments – but as with all Pixar films, it’s family friendly – just think of the relationship between Arlo and Spot as a person and their family pet – except Arlo is the human and Spot is the dog. I found it charming and enjoyable.

Watch the trailer here –

The Disney Store have recently launched some toys from The Good Dinosaur – we were sent a Spot Small Toy (rrp £12.95) and a Tin Art Case Set (rrp £12.95) to review. H loves the Spot toy – he’s quite small but has the characteristics of the caveboy – and I would say Spot probably steals the film, so H was happy. The Tin Art Case Set has everything you’ll need for any colouring or writing you might need to do – pens, pencils, crayons, paints, felt tips, ruler and rubber plus a notebook, and a pair of young-child friendly scissors (i.e. without blades).

We think it’s a fine selection of The Good Dinosaur merchandise, and it’s available in store and online now – see the slideshow below for what’s on offer!