A Strong Coffee

Middle man is at it again. Time for bed I say. Does he say yes Mummy and run up the stairs to get his favourite book? No he climbs in a picnic basket complete with Mickey and Donald and snuggles up!


I manage to coax him out only for him to find another sleeping spot. I ask him to move "I can't" He is clearly too tired to walk up the stairs.


Too tired that is until I get him into his bedroom and then it's playtime! Where is the strangest place your child has tried to have a sleep?

Taking my boys to the cinema is a bit of a task with three under five. However, now it's the school holidays the odd DVD is keeping them entertained. It is strange though that what I think is an absolutely fabulous cartoon is slightly different when I sit down with my boys. Finding Nemo for example - a lovely film about a fish I thought. Ah forgot that his mother dies almost immediately and then he gets totally lost in the ocean. Then Toy Story 3, "Yey Woody!", cries middle man in excitement. We have seen Woody at Disneyland, so what could go wrong? Before I know it, middle man is running in circles screaming "I scared" at the rubbish tip scene. Ah forgot about that too! On the plus side I got some middle man cuddles which aren't a regular occurrence.

Then there is the copying of actions in movies to consider,and big man is currently spending most of his days pretending to be his newest favourite movie character. And what is his favourite movie of the moment? Here is a clue.





                                           Answer: Kung Fu Panda! What was your guess?

Well here is my last Mischievous Monday link. I would love to say that middle man has stopped his mischief making - but that would be a lie! I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts - and a big thank you for linking up and letting me know that I am not alone with having a mischief maker and not always talking to myself on my blog! It was a hard decision, but last weeks mischief maker is to go to Misty and her gorgeous little girl. A simple but lovely post.




This week I want to show you my new dog! If you have been here before you may have read that I am scared of dogs. It all stems back to an overweight and over friendly Labrador named Benji and my sister teasing another dog that decided to attack me when I tried to give him his ball back. This dog, however, is well behaved and goes by the name of Pattersley.




Yep middle man has decided he is a dog. Strangely when in dog mode he is better behaved than in middle man mode. Earlier he was playing with some slime at the table. I called him and there was no response. I shouted Pattersley and there was an immediate turn and a woof! Big man has been encouraging doggie behaviour by throwing things and getting Pattersley to fetch them! This was fine until middle man came bounding up to me with a stick in his mouth! Apparently dogs can speak as long as there is a woof at the beginning and end of the sentance. "Woof, stroke my nose, woof." Sometimes, however, middle man also morphs into "Kitty" the cat "meeeeeooooooowww!" Is this usual behaviour? Big man never did this. How many more animals will I have in my house. At least middle man isn't weeing up trees - well not yet!

Please link up if you have a mischief maker too!

Twinkle twinkle little star is a favourite nursery rhyme of big man. Having said that he is singing the variation of Twinkle twinkle Christmas star at the moment! He particularly likes it as a way of calming down babies. When middle man was having his injections he sang it to him (and one of my friends babies who was there at the same time). The louder the crying, the louder big man sang. It all got very noisey. But strangely, the babies did seem to give up their crying and listen to big man singing - a little out of tune.

This might not be the best photo of the stars but it still makes me think how small we all are in this vast universe.

I love construction toys. I am the kind of person who likes taking things apart to see how they work, and thanks to middle man and some 50p's our wii box has been opened a number of times. I was therefore just as excited as big man when we were sent some Mic O Mic vehicles to review.



Mic O Mic is a German made construction toy. Big man is nearly 5 and they are recommended from 5+. I was impressed with how well he did at constructing them. The pieces are small and require a lot of pushing so he did need some help with this. They are well made toys with no sharp edges. The racing car was slightly easier to make than the dumper truck as all the connectors were the same size and the black pieces mostly laid flat. The hardest part is when you need to bend the connectors, and big man doesn't have the dexterity to do this at the moment. Big man particularly liked the tweezers that can be used to take the toys apart again. I think you will agree from the photos below that in the case of big man and me construction = concentration!






They are well made toys, which would make a great gift for any child that likes constructing things.There are a variety of vehicles including areoplanes and boats as well. They are good for improving hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and patience - something my boy doesn't have a great deal of! Once constructed we had two beautiful vehicles that middle man could then play with.


We were given these toys to review by DKL Toys but all the opinions are our own.

Summer is finally here, the children are having fun in the park and the ice cream van is selling 99's at a much greater cost than 99p. I have just been charged a whopping £6 for a two scoop ice cream. Even the seller confessed that "It is quite expensive.....but that is O.K. because it's pretend Mummy."






My boys love to role play. Their favourite and most used toy is their play food collection. I say collection as we have a vast array of different food to enable their restaurant to serve the delights of peach and ham soup and other mouthwatering combinations. Maybe they will one day rival Heston Blumenthal with their unusual ideas. However, now the sun is out they are enjoying playing with their ice cream set from ELC costing £8.

Another week has past and middle man hasn't been too mischievous! I enjoyed reading last weeks posts and decided Jess' story was the winner as it reminded me that big man used to collect things in his pockets, which I had totally forgotton. So here is the badge she may display of she so wishes!



Daddy walking through the door often causes excitement in our house. I am excited that I don't have to cope with the bedtime routine alone, and the boys are excited that their fun parent has returned to hang them upside down and "rah" loudly at them. This particular day I wasn't feeling my best. My lovely husband came home early and I had a rest. When I came downstairs I was greeted by a butt naked middle man. I shouted him over and asked if he knew he had a "bear body" he giggled (it's not a bear body it's a human one) and then pulled down my trousers in one swift movement! He then ran off. The next minute, big man shouted that middle man was doing a wee. Hubbie rushed to see what was going on and found a very well aimed, pool of wee in his trainer! Strangely this really perked me up!

If anyone has any great ideas of how to clean trainers I would love to know. I want to chuck them in the washing machine but Hubbie is rather reluctant to do this.(Maybe he just wants to buy a new pair!)

If you have a mischief maker please link up below. I am also going to link this to Actually Mummy's wot so funnee? as there is a great poo story linked so here's a wee one!

My boys like hide and seek. There are three main problems with this game. Firstly they aren't that great at counting. Secondly they aren't that good at hiding and thirdly they are rather predictable on where they have chosen to hide!

If you haven't seen last weeks link up please go and have a look. There are some funny posts, and I found it much harder than I thought to choose a winning post. So I ended up asking Hubbie to help me choose and we finally decided The Crumby Mummy's story was a worthy winner. The prize being the satisfaction that you made my husband and me laugh and a badge below that you can display if you wish!



And so for this weeks post. Middle man has been a nightmare with bed times this week. Maybe it is because it is hot, maybe it is because it is light, or maybe it is just because he is a mischief maker. As usual when it was me left to put him to bed by myself then he played up even more. Here are the facebook status' I wrote whislt repeatedly going up and down the stairs.

Middle man has 2 new phrases "I can't Mummy" and "No way" neither of which I enjoy hearing whilst trying to get him to go to sleep

And now another thing I don't want to hear from big man "Mummy middle man is having a dance party!"

It was at this point that I decided that it was probably best to bring middle man downstairs so that he wasn't keeping big or baby man awake. Big man was actually saying he was tired! So I thought if I ignored him and the TV was off, he would get bored and go to bed. I didn't think about locking the playroom!

And he is now having some kind of music talent show! Why did I move all the musical instruments and bring them to his attention? And why did I ask my Aunt to buy him a trumpet? I am starting to question my sanity.

Ahhhhh electronic bongo drums what was I thinking!?!

Does this look like a tired boy to you?




And then everything got better. Daddy came home!

Yey! Daddy's home! He can sort out the mischief maker!

Anyone else having trouble getting their kids to sleep at the moment? Do you have a mischeif maker post you can share?

Gone are the days of having nice bags - my handbag has lots of squashed raisins in it. Last year I purchased this lunch bag. It helps me put things in perspective on a day out with my boys. On the whole they are very good, but taking three little men anywhere by yourself is a challenge. A lot of people are shocked that I even venture out of the house. I get a lot of "I don't know how you do it?" comments. I take them out because I have to. I really would go crazy if I stayed in all day every day. I love them dearly but there is only so much leaf soup you can pretend to eat. And with that I better go and sort out our packed lunch for tomorrow!

The summer holidays are flying past and what another great week. Quite frankly I am shattered!
We visited some lovely friends this week in Bristol and Cardiff. I don't have great photos of this to share but I have some lovely memories.

On Friday we arranged our own little sports party for our friends. I stayed up late thursday night making what felt like 101 gingerbread medals. It was worth it though even if they were tucked into almost immediately!

On Sunday we went to the Olympics. Which was a great day. I particularly liked finding Wenlocks!


Baby man has now outgrown his BabyBjorn Baby Carrier Original but he is happy in his new back carrier.



Then on Monday I started my first linky. I am only doing it for a month (in a hope that middle man might turn a corner and become good!) I was so pleased to see that people liked it and some have already linked up. If you haven't seen it, go and have a read and if you have something to link up please do! If your little one is always good - go and see what you may have to put up with soon!


Now that is enough about my link up, this is infact a post to be linked with Bex at the Mummy Adventure, so go and show her and those linked with her some blog love too x

My boys love ice cream. I try to avoid chocolate ice cream as they get it all over their clothes and it doesn't come out. They loved the Kelly's of Cornwall clotted cream and strawberry ice cream. The only downside of it was that middle man insisted picking out the strawberry pieces, making him even more messy than usual.


Kelly's also have a clotted cream and blackcurrant flavour, which I have yet to track down, but look forward to tasting when I do!



We were given some money off coupons towards payment of the ice cream for the purpose of the review - but the opinions contained here are my own.

Last week we had our own kids sports day. I used to be a secondary school teacher and there is a reason for this! Trying to organise a large group of 4 and 2 year olds is very hard work - give me 32 teenagers any day. We had a few races and then they all had gingerbread medals that I made. Most were half eaten before we got a group photo! And here is my big man with his egg and spoon - his face just makes me smile!

On Sunday hubbie, big man and I went to watch the gymnastics at the Greenwich arena. I had been very "Bah Humbug" about going until a few days earlier when the Olympic bug finally bit! We finished lunch earlier than expected so had 10 minutes to spare to go on the hunt for some of the giant Wenlock and Mandeville statues that are dotted around the city. I was over the moon to have found three!


We then headed off to the gymnastics. I would be lying if I said we couldn't get any higher up - there was one row behind us! We watched men's floor, women's vault and then the most exciting - men's pummel. The crowd went wild for Max Whitlock and Louis Smith. Unfortunately, so did big man. At first he started screaming like a ghost and then he started crying because it was a bit too noisy.  He also loudly announced, as Max was about to start, that he needed a poo!


It was great to be at a medal ceremony with 2 team GB medals - even if Louis just missed out on Gold. Big man particularly liked the Sky TV 3D TV outside the arena  - because he got to wear a pair of glasses! The person that deserves a medal more than anyone is my sister for looking after our other two lovelies.

Well here is my first attempt at a linky, in honour of middle man. To find out more check out the Mischievous Monday's link.

This week has been another week of fridge raiding. I still haven't got a fridge lock, and if I leave him for a second he is there eyeing up the delights contained within it. I do feed him! It's just he seems to like to hunt for his own food. It must be his little caveman instincts. Last week he helped himself to not one but four apples at once - just taking a few bites out of each and spitting the peel on the floor. We visited a friend who was unaware of middle man's apple obsession and had left some newly washed apples on her work top. Yep you guessed it - he hunted those apples down and chomped away.

He is generally very healthy in his fridge raiding - for example here is the cucumber he attacked!


Earlier this week I left him watching TV whilst I changed baby man's nappy. This is what I returned to....

I offered to review the new Mensa Academy on the wii for a number of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to prove to myself that after having three children I still had a brain. Secondly, I wanted to see if big man could do something on the wii that may help him educationally. The game states that it is for ages 3+

I made the mistake of having my first go at the game when I was tired. Well that is the excuse I am using anyway! That and I am so impatient, I refused to read the instructions on each task.


You can test yourself with a 15 minute test. Beware you will need a pen and paper at the ready! It is not easy - you have to think, and if you are like me you need to do some working out too. I couldn't help but think how good this would be for a teenager to use. Before I had my boys I was a secondary school teacher, and my pupils were tested in cognitive ability tests for the school to use as indicators to future grades. I believe that playing a game like this would really benefit a child taking such tests as it would help them with their maths and reasoning skills.

I had a few goes at the various practice games and then I jumped straight in and took the test. I found it hard as I hadn't practiced some of the tasks but managed a score of 119. I will be retaking the test when I am not so tired and have practiced more!


After you have completed the test, you are able to review your answers, finding out which you got wrong. You can then read further information on how to answer the question - and trust me for some of the questions you need an explanation!


After having a play myself, I thought I would let big man have a go. He is nearly five. He can't read, and a lot of the challenges are too hard for him. However, the memory category just needed some explanation from myself and reading of the tasks. Once he had practiced a few times he showed some improvement in his memory skills and enjoyed remembering the robots faces.

You are able to play by yourself in solo mode or can compete with up to 4 players.

Mensa Academy for the PC, Wii, DS and iOS is scheduled for released in September.


I was given a copy of Mensa Academy for the purpose of the review but all the opinions contained here are my own.

mis·chie·vous
Adjective (of a person, animal, or their behavior) Causing or showing a fondness for causing trouble in a playful way
I would love to say that middle man was only mischievous on a Monday, but if you follow my blog you will know that it is a regular occurance. I have therefore decided to make him his own linky for the month of August. Each Monday I will post some of the mischevious things my middle man has got up to during the week and invite you to link up with any of your stories or pictures - it doesn't even need to be something your children have done. Maybe you have been less than perfect. I hope that I am not the only person in the world that has eaten the sweets from a party bag. I am helping them out aren't I - sweets are bad for you? If your kids are being suprisingly well behaved in the school holidays/you are too exhausted to write a new post, link up an old one.

Check back on Monday 6th August to link up your posts. Feel free to grab the badge above. I love winning badges too, so providing there is more than 1 person that links I will award the best story or picture each week with a mischievous badge.

Baby man is now 8 months old and loving his food. Back in June, organic baby food brand, Plum, ran a competition to win a sought after place at the first ever Plum Cookery School.


Five lucky mums were invited down to Buckinghamshire where the Cookery School opened its doors to reveal some of the tasty secrets behind Plum’s recipes and offered expert advice to support parents through the weaning process. The cookery school was made extra exciting with two special guests, celebrity chef Rachel Allen and child nutrition expert, Beverley Glock, who were both absolutely fabulous as you will see in the new weaning videos.

Plum’s new weaning videos are designed to ensure that other mums can take advantage of Rachel and Beverley’s advice whilst  learning lots of cooking tips, eating fabulous food and having many of their weaning worries resolved. Click here to see the Plum Cookery School action in the second of Plum’s weaning videos. This video covers stage two of weaning, where Rachel Allen recreates a Plum, stage two recipe and Beverley Glock puts a twist on the traditional dish, cauliflower cheese with sweet potato.


And, if this video has got tummies rumbling and you can’t wait to learn more, all you need to do is head on over to Plum’s You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/plumbaby) where you can watch all four episodes!

This is a sponsored post, but having watched the video, I am determined to have a go at the recipes so all the family can enjoy them. Unfortunately, having two older boys running around means that I don't have as much time to cook as I would like. I find the pouches particularly good for using when we are out of the house. They can be easily warmed in warm water and if I don't have a spoon to hand baby man sucks the puree straight from the pouch.

After having watched the video above I purchased the minted peas with lamb meal, and feel the need to edit my post to let you know just how yummy it is. I often taste the pouches I buy as I feel that if it is something I would hate to eat, then I can't expect baby man to eat it. Well there was no fear of baby man rejecting it, as this tastes really nice. Now I must really try harder and make the whole family roast lamb!

If you haven’t yet tried Plum products I’d urge you to do it, they taste amazing. Plus, with a free coupon available to download on Plum’s Facebook Page, now is your perfect time to introduce baby to Plum! They are going thick and fast though and they only have 10,000 to give away, so do hurry! www.facebook.com/plumbaby




Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however, the opinions I have expressed about the pouches are my own.