23/10/2012 by jo

Review – WigWam from Garden Games

Once upon a time we had a Peppa Pig wendy house. It took up a lot of space and eventually was moved into the under stairs cupboard – mainly due to H having too many toys and us running out of space to put them in. Actually, the wendy house had also got a bit bent, as it had a lightweight metal frame and had several of her friends fighting inside it.

Big Game Hunters (part of the Garden Games group of websites) offered us a chance to review their wigwam, and after careful checking with Shaun if he would be okay with this (he was!), one arrived on my day off.

It’s quite a small package, so I assumed it wouldn’t be too big – oh how wrong I was! It’s huge!! I assembled it easily on my own putting the two parts of wood together with plastic joiner (technical term there), then slotting them into the tent outer. Then it was a case of threading the cord around the top of the tent, using a ball to space it out a bit, pull it tight, stand it up and voila! We have a ginormous wigwam in our living room! (extra bonus – no tools are required to assemble it)

Everyone who has seen it has been impressed – it’s a really hardwearing fabric, definitely suitable for outdoor use (though not waterproof, you’ve that big hole in the top!). The wigwam has had two children and most toys inside it whenever any of H’s friends have come to play, and is currently ‘the hospital’ (according to H). She loves it – and will often sit in there with her friends chatting – a proper little den and loads of space. The patterns on the outside are great too.

The best bit? We can pack it away and it doesn’t take up much space at all – something we’re running very short of as it is. The tent’s dimensions are H 120cm x W 172cm x L 146cm

As far as play dens go, we can highly recommend this wigwam – it costs £49.99 and is available here.

We were sent a wigwam to review, all opinions are our own.

18/10/201206/01/2015 by jo

We Love Books – Room on the Broom – coming to the West End soon!

Julia Donaldson is one of those authors you’re pretty much guaranteed to have in your book collection, or to have read a book of – aside from The Gruffalo there’s a bazillion other books out there – a good chunk of which we own.

Room on the Broom is one we’ve bought recently – a story of a witch on her broom who keeps losing things due to the wind – as she picks up friends (a daft dog, a beautiful bird and a friendly frog) along the way – ‘is there room on the broom for me?’ they ask. Eventually the broom breaks, the witch ends up in a scary incident, but of course as it is with all books targeted at this age, there’s a happy ending thanks to her new friends. An added bonus, it’s also illustrated by Axel Scheffler who needs no introduction should you be familiar with Donaldson’s work – he illustrated The Gruffalo (and many more).

The best thing of all is how the rhymes flow – H has been reading this at nursery for a couple of months now (in fact just after we’d bought it), and joins in when we read – there’s plenty of scope for reading and letting your little one finish the sentence or indeed letting them read it to you – the rhyming is simple and tells the story perfectly.

Room on the Broom was first released back in 2002 – so it’s ten years old now! There’s all kinds of great things out there – how about a reading of it by Sanjeev Bhaskar over on Jackanory Junior? I found some educational resources for downloading over here – flashcards, sequence cards and matching cards to download and print. However, the most exciting thing for us is that it’s coming to the stage! (actually, I say coming, it’s been around a while now, it’s just new to us – and will be in the West End from the 21st November 2012 until the 13th January 2013).

The company behind it are Tall Stories – and it’s a magical musical adaptation! Tall Stories’ also brought The Gruffalo to the stage, so its going to be a good ‘un.

Room on the Broom is aimed at ages 3-8 and is a great introduction to theatre for kids and their families – expect puppetry, sing-a-long songs and plenty of fun for everyone.

Room on the Broom is presented by Kenny Wax and Nick Brooke, in association with Tall Stories. Directed by Olivia Jacobs, alongside Toby Mitchell as Creative Producer (both founders of Tall Stories), Room On The Broom has lighting design by James Whiteside, design by Morgan Large, puppet design by Yvonne Stone and sound & music design by Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw of Shock Productions.

The cast is as follows: Witch: Morag Cross, Cat: Emma MacLennan, Dog/Frog: David Garrud, Bird/Dragon: Sam Donovan, Understudy: Owen Guerin.

LISTINGS INFORMATION – ROOM ON THE BROOM – LIVE ON STAGE!

Dates: 21 November 2012 – 13 January 2013
Address: Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 7ES

Box Office: 0844 412 4661

Website: www.nimaxtheatres.com www.roomonthebroomlive.co.uk
Ticket prices: £12.50 – £15.50 (plus 50p restoration levy)
Family ticket top price only: £58 (excludes premium and level 3 prices)
Premium seats £20 (includes free postergramme)
School and group bookings of 10+: £9.50 (includes 50p restoration levy) buy 10 tickets get the 11^th ticket free.
For Schools & Group bookings call 020 7494 5837

Performances:

Wednesday	21 November 2012	11am
Thursday	22 November 2012	11am
Friday	23 November 2012	11am
Saturday	24 November 2012	10am & 12pm
Sunday	25 November 2012	10am & 12pm
Wednesday	28 November 2012	11am
Thursday	29 November 2012	11am
Friday	30 November 2012	11am
Saturday	01 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Sunday	02 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Tuesday	04 December 2012	11am
Wednesday	05 December 2012	11am
Thursday	06 December 2012	11am
Friday	07 December 2012	11am
Saturday	08 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Sunday	09 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Tuesday	11 December 2012	11am
Wednesday	12 December 2012	11am
Thursday	13 December 2012	11am
Friday	14 December 2012	11am
Saturday	15 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Sunday	16 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Tuesday	18 December 2012	11am and 2pm
Wednesday	19 December 2012	11am and 2pm
Thursday	20 December 2012	10am and 12pm
Saturday	22 December 2012	10am & 12pn
Sunday	23 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Monday	24 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Thursday	27 December 2012	11am & 2pm
Friday	28 December 2012	10am and 12pm
Saturday	29 December 2012	10am and 12pm
Sunday	30 December 2012	10am and 12pm
Monday	31 December 2012	10am & 12pm
Tuesday	01 January 2013	Day off
Wednesday	02 January 2013	11am & 2pm
Thursday	03 January 2013	11am & 2pm
Friday	04 January 2013	11am
Saturday	05 January 2013	10am & 12pm
Sunday	06 January 2013	10am & 12pm
Thursday	10 January 2013	11am
Friday	11 January 2013	11am
Saturday	12 January 2013	10am & 12pm
Sunday	13 January 2013	10am & 12pm

18/10/201226/03/2018 by Karen

Messy Tunic from Messy Me – Review

Food times almost always equals messy times, therefore I was excited to get the chance to review the Messy Tunic from a company called Messy Me.

The Messy Tunic is made of oilcloth and slips over the arms and fastens with Velcro at the back. There are four designs that are available: Dusty Rose, Olive Grey, True Blue and Vintage Rose. Whilst the selection isn’t huge the designs are very classy and pretty, which makes a pleasant change from some of the loud designs out there. I especially loved the Vintage Rose, which was beautiful, though I don’t think my boy would have shared my enthusiasm!

Messy Me Messy Tunic

My son is a famously messy eater, because of this I am always enthusiastic to give anything a go that will make food time a cleaner experience! The tunic covers the torso, fitting under the high chair, this means that there is no chance of food getting behind the material, which I am very grateful for. I am so happy with this product that I am using it for most meal times. I also like the fact that it could also be used for arts and crafts and such like, making it very versatile. The tunic was very easy to clean, a quick wipe and food and mess came off very easily. It could even be machine washed at 30 degrees (though the website states that this should only be done occasionally). When done the tunic dried very quickly, which was very convenient.

Messy Me Messy Tunic

At £11.99 this product was a bit on the pricey side for me personally, but if I were to see these on offer I would snap these up immediately, as they do such a good job!

A Messy Me Tunic was sent for the purpose of review – all opinions are our own

17/10/201226/03/2018 by jo

Review – Reading Eggs

We first heard about Reading Eggs back in February – I received an email, signed up but didn’t take it much further as H was two and a half, and was just starting to get her head around the alphabet. However, now she’s older we’ve started to look into it and begin our journey (as well as me feeling less paranoid about her starting school next September!).

Reading Eggs - games with the letter S Reading Eggs comes from ABC Kids in Australia – they have UK and US offices too. The lessons in Reading Eggs complement what they’re taught in schools – and are also used by homeschoolers. It’s a good straightforward programme and is browser-based, which means anyone with a PC or Mac, and an internet connection can use it. The programmes range from age 3 to age 13 – which go on to Reading Eggspress, aimed at 7-13 year olds.

The lessons work on a one-to-one basis – your child goes at their own pace rather than being timed to complete a level – though on some sections I’ve seen you’re encouraged to join the dots faster – which she is still a bit wobbly with! Each programme has been developed by a highly experienced team of educational teachers, writers and developers. The Reading Eggs programme focuses on a core reading curriculum of phonics and sight words using skills and strategies essential for sustained reading success. It supports what children learn at school and will help to improve your child’s results at school.

Reading Eggs - joining the dots to make an S

Moving forward to now, she’s three and she’s pretty good at identifying letters (especially her name) and we’ve a few games on the iPad which help to write letters, so I felt she was ready to try out Reading Eggs. They have a computer in her preschool room at nursery which has similar games to this, so we felt it complemented what she’s learning perfectly.

H doing Reading Eggs

There’s just one minor problem – we’ve never let her use the laptop before! But after a quick lesson she was pretty whizzy on the touchpad – though we kept it really simple. She started in the easiest sections – identifying letters and playing games or choosing words relating to that letter. H’s development means she often knows the letter, but when she doesn’t she tends to guess – and get frustrated when she can’t work it out. In the context of the Reading Eggs site she puzzled and worked it out herself, with minimal frustration.

Reading Eggs - identifying the letter S

I liked that even though she can’t read, if you place the cursor over a picture it will tell you what it is. This helped H a lot especially with her confidence.

Generally we tend to play more iPad Apps than anything else, so to see that Reading Eggs have some apps available is great – I really want H’s learning to be fun and while she’s had a head start by going to nursery, anything which helps with her development is a very good thing – and this definitely is.

If you like the sound of this, I have a special code which means you can try it out for five weeks – rather than the regular two. You need to add the code UKB24MBT when registering.
I’ve also had a few emails recently offering me fantastic discounts for a years membership – so it’s worth signing up and trying it out!

Reading Eggs - identifying the letter S

We were provided with a code to give us five weeks free use of Reading Eggs for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

17/10/201206/01/2015 by jo

Review – USB Cup Warmer and Instant Heat Pad

Okay, it sounds a bit daft, but I’ll let you in on a secret. Actually, it’s no secret, I moan about it (quietly) all the time – I have the coldest desk in the office at work* – and I’ve been feeling it a lot lately. Short of wearing a slanket at my desk (I don’t own one yet, I’m working on that) there aren’t many ways to beat the chills. Usually by mid-afternoon the room and I are a good temperature, though in the mornings you can guarantee I’ll feel the chills.

I’ll often make a hot drink to keep my hands warm – and more often than not I’ll forget it’s there and end up with some freezing coffee at the bottom. It’s annoying, especially when I’ve drunk it without realising.

So the opportunity arose via Fuel My Blog to review the USB cup warmer and the Funky Instant Heat Pads from Paramount Zone, I applied and I got lucky; so I put it to the test… and found it works! However, my regular cup is a little bit too wide for it – though there’s no shortage of cups and mugs at work, so I did find one that fit. It plugged into the USB port in the side of my keyboard (which in turn is plugged into my MacBook Pro), and worked perfectly. There’s a little light in the front so you know it’s on, and it doesn’t boil your cuppa, just keeps it nice and warm.

USB Cup Warmer from Paramount Zone

I was also sent a mini hot water bottle-a-like which you can leave to soak in some boiling water for ten minutes, then get up to 30 minutes of warmth – it’s great! Not too hot and warm enough to tuck into my handwarmers and still be able to type. The first time you use it you just click the element, once you have you can no longer use that method, though it is reusable so you can do it the way I originally described – so yet another thing to help keep me toasty.

Hand Warmer from Paramount Zone

So yes, what may seem like the kind of gadgets you’d think you don’t need, are actually really useful for me – if you’re in a similar situation I’d recommend trying it out – especially if you’re like me and your cuppa often goes cold – I had no idea they exist.

Both of these are great stocking fillers for Christmas – and are suggested on the site as presents for your boyfriend or men in general – but being female and someone who feels the cold (and who is now thinking this could be excellent for an afternoon at the football), they’re pretty good unisex presents, especially if you’re not too girly like me and spend most of your working day at your desk sipping hot drinks (which go cold).

Both are available from Paramount Zone – the USB cup warmer is £4.99, and the Instant Heat Pads are £2.99.

* to be fair, work did offer to put a radiator in our part of the room, so I’m not in any way criticising.

16/10/2012 by jo

Review – What To Expect When You’re Expecting

We were given the opportunity to review this film, and I’ve been intrigued as to how you can make a (fairly serious) textbook into a comedy, as the two seem a million miles apart.

Starring Cameron Diaz and Matthew Morrison, we get straight into their story – they’re dance partners on a tv show, which is where Cheryl Cole makes her appearance as a judge. They win, and Cameron promptly pukes into the trophy, commencing their journey into parenthood.

You meet other couples, as well as the pair who meet over their burger vans – and it all seems quite nice and jolly, everyone goes for their scans and gets to find out the gender of their child (but as we know you never truly know if it’s 100% correct until you meet the child) – when I started to get a little bit cross.

See, while I wasn’t wishing it, I hoped one of the couples would have a miscarriage, as not everyone is successful – within ten seconds of thinking it, a couple had. It was dealt with pretty quickly, with very little explanation other than the girl didn’t want to see the boy afterwards – I kind of wish they’d gone into it in a bit more depth.

The other couples continue their journey – the Baby Guru’s husband meets other dads in the park, one of them being Chris Rock who delivers a monologue about fatherhood with the other dads nodding in agreement. There was a quite sweet moment where they all lined up between the buggies to pick up each side and take them down the stairs. Very practical.

The couples all have their babies, and of course if you’ve been there yourself you’ll know it’s almost always never as you plan it – which is quite well shown in this film – the mother who was adamant she wouldn’t have a c-section has one, and so on.

So really, the verdict? It’s an odd topic for a light and fluffy comedy, and I’m afraid to say I didn’t laugh once. It’s a tricky subject to cover in a limited amount of time – I wish it had been set around, say, an antenatal class – cut out the bits at the start so you get to know a group of friends thrown together for their own journeys into parenthood – that might have warmed me to the characters a little more. I felt like the majority of the characters weren’t that likeable, and that’s half the battle with enjoying a film.

Ultimately, making a comedy from a book which covers almost every aspect when you’re pregnant may have been an ambitious move, but actually, it fails. It tries to do too much and delivers too little.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting is released on Monday 22nd October on DVD and Blu-Ray, certificate 12.

14/10/201226/03/2018 by jo

App Time – My PFF – My Pelvic Floor Fitness

“Don’t forget your tight schedule.”

A random link on a Facebook group of new mums and I’m on my way to recovering my overall wellbeing by exercising my pelvic floor via iPhone App (there’s an app for Android too!).

My PFF
My Pelvic Floor Fitness (PFF) might sound like a joke, and its tongue in cheek reminder certainly has a sense of humour, but pelvic floor fitness to a new mum or in my case a second time mum, is top priority if we are ever going to sneeze and stay dry down there again.

Of course the last thing on a the post natal mind is exercise – we are too exhausted to think about much other than those precious little people who have turned us into wobbly jiggle bits. Having a toned pelvic floor is important: you may not feel like getting frisky with daddy now, but you will, and you’ll want to know that everything is still in good working order. You may think that holding your wee for hours on end devoted to a demanding baby is enough to keep you dry, but what happens when you sneeze?

My PFF
Pelvic floor muscles are not just important for wee wee and nookie; your overall health and wellbeing is at stake. Since downloading this awesome FREE app – there isn’t a day that goes by that I forget my “tight schedule”. Tutorials to help you do it right as well as daily reminders, this app is genius!

Review by Tracy – thankyou!

14/10/201226/03/2018 by jo

BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge – Week 4

Week Four. I fear I’m getting a bit evangelical about it all, as I slowly tot up points and work out what I can or can’t eat. It’s all feeling quite easy, although in my head there’s a touch of self-doubt – like, I’m succeeding so much right now and losing weight, so it’s all set to go wrong soon too. I guess I’m just not used to things going well quickly, and maybe a few listens of the SlimPod (which I can recommend, while it hasn’t helped me lose weight it’s helped me think differently) and I’ll get back on track.

Anyway, I had a sad day yesterday, an anniversary so I finished it off with wine, so things are a little more ‘down’ this week than previous ones. I stayed well within my limits though. So… here’s the weigh-in…. and… I’ve lost 1lb*. But I’m happy with that. However those sneaky WW gremlins have officially moved me down to 29 points on the app, so now I’ve got to work that bit harder.

I’m starting to think we are quite boring food-wise. I get in from work at 5.30 and we eat at 6.30, so generally I have 30 minutes to prepare, cook and serve food, which isn’t very long. We’ve never taken the ready meals route, and I’ll always serve fresh vegetables, plus we always sit and eat as a family together at that time. Taking a photo of every meal this week does show this too – the same vegetables, plenty of them with different sauces – and surprisingly the biggest points is the soup! (thankyou bread rolls)

I tried out the recipe calculator for our bread making (which is done in the bread maker) to get a proper points value, and was pretty shocked to find that it’s 3 points per slice – I’d thought it was 2 – so I’m trying to find ways of improving the recipe – though the points come with the flour and there doesn’t seem to be alternatives (and with our busy lives we need to just put stuff in the bread maker and have bread in the morning) – so if anyone has any good tips to share, please do!

I do a weekly shop with Ocado and have found their WeightWatchers selection of foods to be pretty good – and most importantly of all they have the chocolate digestives in! I’ve still not found the vegetarian pizza – every supermarket has the meaty option which isn’t an option.

Other than that, I tried some different options for my lunchtime when I’m at work – though while Waitrose do a wrap which has the same points as Sainsburys (and tastes loads better) it’s double the price – so I’ll be sticking with Sainsburys for now. Also, I was making myself do their meal deal, so rather than having juice and snack a jacks with a sandwich, I’m now just getting a sandwich for 99p which does me fine and saves a bit of money too.

So, this week I decided to take a photo of my evening meal each night and add the points total. What you’ll see is a mass of sludge when I cook, and a beautifully laid out plate when Shaun does! Hey ho…

Sunday – pasta and veg with quorn – a kind of spag bol (though it’s angel hair pasta) Sunday - pasta and veg kind of bolognese

Monday – butternut squash, veg and basmati rice curry Monday - Butternut squash, veg and rice with quorn

Tuesday – left over curry and cous cous Tuesday - left over curry and cous cous

Wednesday – Butternut squash soup with bread rolls Wednesday - Butternut squash soup with bread rolls

Thursday – veg and pasta with tofu Thursday - veg and pasta with quorn

Friday – curry with vegetables, sweet potato and butternut squash
Friday - curry with vegetables, sweet potato and butternut squash

Saturday – sweet potato and butternut squash with veg and pasta

Sunday - pasta and squashed butternut squash

Goodness, we’re boring, aren’t we? (apologies for awful resizing of photos too)

One thing I found this week – Iceland do WeightWatchers chips, coming in at 5 points per portion – one to remember when the need for chips starts. Actually, that’s what I like about WW – the options are there so you don’t have to get a bag of chips from the chip shop if you felt tempted. Having said that, I was sat next to a girl on the bus eating chips from a bag and oh GOD they smelt so good, I was like the Bisto kid taking in the aromas.

There’ll be no update next week as we’re away. The next update will be when I’ve more to share. Don’t forget you can try WeightWatchers for £1 for seven days – so you get to try out the app too.

I received six months of WeightWatchers membership for free, and a load of WW food goodies to try out. All opinions are my own.

* I have been reliably informed by Shaun that our scales may be being a bit odd right now, and need a new battery which I’ll be getting tomorrow. I’m sticking with 1lb though.

10/10/2012 by jo

We Love Books – Nick Butterworth – When There’s Work To Do & When We Play Together

I have to be honest and admit that I don’t read much to my 11 month old. Receiving these lovely little books was a fantastic opportunity to start our reading habit together! The books were small and durable, with thick cardboard pages to withstand a good amount of baby handling(!!). The stories were also nice and short with only about 10 words on each page, enough to hold my little one’s attention and give me a chance to talk about the lovely pictures.

What I really like is that this series of books have a regular set of soft toys that feature, with their names on the back of the book so that you get to know them. I think this is a really nice touch as one becomes familiar with the toys and this in turn gives an extra depth to the stories.

These books are £4.99 each, which I think is a reasonable price to pay, especially as places like Amazon do offers regularly. I would definitely recommend these books as I believe they make the perfect first book to share with your little one.

When We Play Together and When We Go Shopping are both available by Nick Butterworth now!

We received copies of these books for review – all opinions are our own – review by Karen

07/10/201227/03/2018 by jo

BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge – Week 3

I’m starting to feel like there should be some kind of announcer, a bit like when The Apprentice is on, doing a swift recap of the previous week and all the things I’ve learnt.

If you don’t want to read what I’ve found out this week, then let’s just get it over with – I’ve lost another 2lb!

Actually, one of the great things about this challenge is finding out what others are doing, stealing the idea and making it work for me – and one of those is the very excellent Sonya over at Ramblings of a Rock n Roll Mum who suggested substituting butternut squash (nul points – to be said in Eurovision voice), when everyone’s having baked potato. Even better, I made a ton of veg and added some mashed butternut squash to the top and voila, a sort of veggie Shepherds Pie which came in around six points – and there’s enough for two nights too.

Work-wise I’ve got my snacking under control (though it has been a stupidly busy week) – my Graze box I’ve been getting has snacks at around 100 calories tops, so 2-3 point snacks.

I’m finding my way around the app a bit more now too – every night I was typing out the same vegetables until tonight I spotted the ‘Recently Added’ section which saves me a bit of time. Also Clare at Seasider in the City pointed out the app will also work offline which I hadn’t realised – something that I’m going to find useful as I’m on my iPod Touch relying on free internet when I’m out and about (but not any more!).

I’ve also started looking at the recipes – and I’m liking that you can add the ingredients to your shopping list within the app, so you know exactly what to buy, so I’ll be planning my Ocado shop this way this week. I did notice some of the recipes in the cookbooks weren’t in the app, so I’m adding them manually as I go along.

Oh, and we made a Pea and Sweet Potato Korma from the WeightWatchers cookbook which was delicious!

Things I’ve found out this week: most supermarkets stock WeightWatchers food – however, most of it seems to be ready meals that are meaty, so not much use to me. Those supermarkets that don’t have their own brand ones (cough, Tesco, Waitrose), but the vegetarian options are poor – for example broccoli and pasta – which would take around 5-10 minutes to make anyway. Nowhere is stocking the cheese and tomato WeightWatchers pizza which I’m dying to try – though Sainsburys are stocking the meaty ones which is a start (even if I can’t eat them).

Poundland again came up trumps as far as snacks go – I picked up another £5 worth of snacks including pitta bread. They stock the wraps too – and there are deals to be had which is a much more impressive range than the supermarkets.

I checked out our local Iceland who have some of the Heinz WeightWatchers meals, including six chocolate eclairs at £1.50 and only two points per eclair. They taste pretty good too, we treated ourselves yesterday. A regular one would come in somewhere between 6-8 points (and I just looked up Krispy Kreme’s – 10 points – that was out of curiosity, but that’s a meals-worth; food for thought there) – worth knowing when you don’t want to deny yourself the food, but you don’t want to go over your points allowance.

Super Amazing Mum has a bloghop going on, so head over there to read others progress on the BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best challenge – and don’t forget, you can try it for £1 if you click this link (and you get to trial the app for free too)!

I’ve been provided with six months of free WeightWatchers membership, plus I received a hamper of WW goodies. All opinions are my own.

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