Recently I was offered to review an item from Joker's Masquerade. This year, we managed to miss the "dress up as your favourite character" for World Book Day. However, I am sure that next year we will have to so I thought I would look ahead. I am a massive Harry Potter fan and although we have only just started reading it with big man, I am certain that he will soon love the books like I do. I chose the deluxe robe and a pair of Harry Potter style glasses too. The robe is made from a velour type material and has the Gryffindor badge on. It secures with velcro and has a red satin lining.


I like that it can be popped over the school uniform and hey presto one Harry Potter.
We had a go at some "potions" in it. And a stick can make a pretty good wand.



The only problem with the outfit is that if you have an imaginative child like my son, they will actually think they are a wizard. Here he is making daisies appear in the garden!



Joker's Masquerade have a whole host of fancy dress costumes for both adults and children.

For several years we have taken the boys lambing at Rushall Farm. Last year I freaked out at holding a cute little lamb. This year however, I cuddled my fear. Big man was keen that Mummy overcame her irrational fear of holding a baby lamb and promised he would be by my side to help me if I needed it. And you know what? I did it! I was pretty terrified. One had already pooped on middle man's finger which was rather off putting to say the least. However, I took a deep breath, smiled for the camera and held on to the soft four legged animal. I would like to add that it's not just lambs that freak me out, it's pretty much any animal. I think I can only cope with human babies, because they can't move.

The boys had a great afternoon stroking lambs and helping move them too. We even saw a lamb being born. Big man got the idea that labour might hurt a bit, and I looked at the grumpy looking sheep remembering what a moody and irritable pregnant person I was. If I get broody again, I'll just have to go cuddle a lamb instead.

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

Regular readers will know that I have sometimes created a web of lies, in order to keep my biggest boy little for just a little bit longer. This week on a random conversation in the car, it wasn't so much as a web of lies but more a general rambling about the housing and schooling issues where we live.

It all started 2 years ago. A record of our lives for us to look back on. Little man has now taken the pickle status away from middle man as he is firmly established in the terrible two's. Big man continues to keep me on my toes with his endless questions and my desire to let him stay a child for a little bit longer results in an ever growing web of lies. Unfortunately they are teaching him far too well at school and his reading is coming on leaps and bounds. I had better keep him from reading this for a while longer. We have had some amazing opportunities and can't tell you enough how proud we are to be Butlin's Ambassadors. Blogging has pretty much taken over my life. I even have real life friends from it. Every now and then I wonder why I carry on. Is there anyone out there reading it? Why am I taking photos of my dinner? But my blog is my company when my husband works away and it doesn't really matter if there is anyone reading it or not. After taking the cook with kids promise I thought I had better let big man help bake our blog a cake. He was initially worried about the cake being too small but after we had decorated it with lots of yummy cake angels decorations he was just eager to eat it!


So thank you for reading and here's to many more years of blogging.


Happy Second Blogoversary!

I have never been to a Baby and Toddler show before, but I have a few friends that have been and got some good deals on products for their little ones. The Baby and Toddler Show Bluewater is being held on 25-27th April and claims to be the ultimate location for new and expectant parents in the South East, bringing together under one roof everything that you need to give your baby the best start. Tickets cost from £9.00 per adult plus booking fee. However, my readers are able to get a 33% discount by using the code BWB31 when ordering.

When F&F clothing offered for me to spend £50 on clothes for me and the boys for Mother's Day, I immediately looked at dresses for me and shirts for the boys. Then I thought for a second. I rarely wear dresses and they rarely wear shirts! The sun was out and in a hope that it continues to shine I got to ordering us some comfortable clothing that we could wear when we were out and about at the park.

When it arrived I was extremely pleased. Firstly I couldn't believe the amount of clothes you could buy for £50 and I really liked my top and shoes. So much so, I started taking selfies! (I hardly ever do this) First it was of my ballerina pumps. Little man likes these a lot as the bows on them remind him of Minnie Mouse.



Then it was me in my new stripey top that I love. My husband even said how nice it looked.


Next it was selfies with the boys in their clothes too!

One advantage of having three boys is that when ordering online, there is usually one of the boys that the clothes fit. They have different shaped bodies and cuts on clothes vary. I did a swop on the shorts I had ordered for big and middle man ie middle man had big man's shorts and vice versa and everyone was happy. So what did I but them?



Little man got a "Have a nice Day" t-shirt and combat trousers. I find these great with the unpredictable British weather.

Middle man had some navy jersey shorts and an outback t-shirt.

And last but not least big man got some bright blue sweat shorts and a route 66 t-shirt.

I am really happy with my choices and having some clothes for me as well as the boys definitely gave me  an early Mother's Day present. Thank you Tescos!

Not sure what to get for Mother's Day? Well I know that I would be more than happy with a fantastic canvas of my boys. Picanova are currently offering a  60 x 40cm canvas for Mother's Day at a massive 72% discount. That is only £14.99 and delivery is free! ( Just to give you an idea, other retailers currently have the same sized canvas ranging from just under £30 to Over £60) You need to be quick though as Mother's Day is only just over a week away and the offer is open for another 5 days with the Mother's Day delivery guarentee being extended until 23rd March due to demand.. I love the fact that the canvas market has become competitive meaning that you can easily afford to update the pictures in your house.

I hope this offer is of use to some of my readers. Mums leave this page open on the laptop so Dads can see. I haven't used this company myself before, but for that price I would give them a go. What are you hoping for, for Mother's Day this year?




Picanova have offered to gift me a canvas for promoting their offer.

I love that small people are really rubbish at keeping secrets. They are even worse than me. Big man proudly announced to Daddy exactly what we had got him for his birthday. It wasn't that exciting anyway but even the vague element of surprise was extinguished.

Today however, it is middle man that was trying to keep a secret. As I picked him up from preschool I gave him a big hug and asked him if he had had a good day.

"Yes, I have made you a teacup card Mummy!"

Just as he said it you could see the penny drop. It was meant to be a secret. I knew exactly what he meant as I had received a teacup card 2 years ago from big man for Mother's Day.

"Oh no I haven't..... I have made a Valentines Card today!" he lied badly.

I smiled and told him that he was super organised. Talking of which, I must sort out a Mother's Day uummmm Valentine's card too!

This week Moshi Monsters are at The London SEA LIFE Aquarium before heading off on tour to other SEA LIFE locations. As Moshi Monsters Ambassadors we were invited to London SEA LIFE Aquarium to see what it was all about.

There are a number of character appearances throughout the day. Middle man was extremely excited to have his photo taken with Katsuma and Poppet who were wearing their diving gear.



On entry the children were given activity books and a pencil so that they could fill in where they saw moshlings in some of the fish tanks.

Big man particularly liked talking about the shark eggs and stroking a starfish. The shark eggs were just like a piece of seaweed.


The good thing about the SEALIFE centre was that lots of the bigger tanks were easy for little man to look in without needing to be carried. There were holes to look through and tunnels to walk through. At the beginning there was even a glass floor to walk on over the sharks!


Moshling spotting really kept the boys interested walking through the centre.


At the end there was a chance to swop your moshlings. Middle man hasn't got any doubles yet and when I mentioned it to him before we left he started welling up at the thought of it, so we didn't participate in that one. We then showed our completed booklet to get our stickers put in and receive a certificate.



If you are Merlin pass holders and have Moshi Monster fans then this is one for you. Alternatively there are "Kids go free" SEA LIFE promotion in the April issue of Moshi Monsters Magazine.

Here is a video of taken of the day featuring none other than me and big man, and lots of fish.

 


We received entry to the aquarium and goody bags for the children.

Regular readers will know that I enjoy cake decorating. From pirates, to minions to star wars, my boys like to keep me on my toes with their cake requests. Recently I received some goodies from cake angels that has made cake decorating so easy and I am really pleased with these cupcakes made in minutes.

The cakes themselves are just a standard cupcake recipe : 4oz self raising flour, 4oz caster sugar, 4oz butter and 2 eggs. Mix altogether and cook at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 10-15 minutes. I made a mixture of normal cupcakes and smaller ones in petit fours cases (these cook much quicker)

For the sheep I used a smaller cake and covered with cake angels vanilla frosting. I then placed white cake angels marshmallows all over and then added the cake angels icing sheep head with an extra blob of frosting.



For the ducks I mixed some blue colouring into the frosting. I then added an icing duck and some white chocolate swirls from the cake angels chocoholics delight decoration pack.



I then used some of the other decorations to make some more spring time cakes. They were quick and easy and taste good too. A great idea for getting the children involved in baking too with results they will be pleased with.




You can head over to the Cake Angels website to see more ideas and some great recipes.

You may remember that I recently told you about the Butlins "Just for Tots" breaks. Three year old Sophia Jade Carr of Milehouse, from Plymouth has been chosen from over 600 applicants to sit on the Butlins board of directors as she is named the official Butlins (High)Chairman.

Miss Carr will be road testing the "Just for Tots" Butlins holidays and will be accountable for working up a number of recommendations for the breaks based on her experience, which will be implemented across all breaks moving forward to ensure they are curated by tots, for tots.

From our experience of Butlins, I think she will enjoy her job!

As Parragon book buddies we were excited to receive two titles from the Dino Supersaurus range. Four dinosaurs with super powers are on a mission to defeat T-Rex and the evil sinistaurs and save New Dino City. We recieved the 2000 Stickers and Doodlesauraus books. Both are very good for any little dinosaur fan or a bigger one! The sticker book has like it says it the title a whopping 2000 stickers. Some small stamp like ones (big man loves these when he writes letters) and some that can be used on the scenes throughout the book. It adopts a comic style and is also packed with puzzles and colouring.

Dinosaurus 2000 Stickers

Out of the two books we enjoyed the Doodlesaurus book the most. It comes with two rubbers that have moving legs. Middle man immediately wanted these. The rest of the book is filled with half drawn pictures and scenes to complete as well as 4 pages of stickers. This is great at it helps get their imaginations going. Here is big mans completed picture of science lab.


Other titles in the series are Stickersaurus and Superpower Colouring. The series is aimed at children aged 6-12. I think they would make a great gift and are perfect to take away with you if you are going on holiday as the activities within the books will keep your little ones entertained on a long journey. Parragon have kindly offered for me to run a giveaway of these two books to celebrate my blog turning 2! Just complete the rafflecopter below. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

Last weekend I headed up to London with big man to let him get messy cooking some food. Persil organised the event to promote their cook with the kids promise. According to a survey carried out, 88% of parents avoid cooking with their children because of the mess they might make. Persil Washing Up Liquid has launched the promise, aimed at getting 100,000 parents to sign up to spend time baking and making a mess with their kids. Persil also has a new and improved formula meaning each bottle will clean 12 per cent (that’s 1,400) more dirty plates than before, delivering sparkling results everytime, so maybe the cleaning up wont be too bad!

The children were first shown how to make pizza dough before having a go themselves.



As you can see big man was very proud of his creation.



Whilst these were cooking they decorated some cupcakes with sweets and icing. It was one of the few times that I have seen big man eat (and enjoy) a pizza so I was really happy.

They ended the session with a somewhat messy and slippery food fight! Not something I will ever do at home!


I have signed up to the Persil promise as I believe it is important for children to learn to cook (even if there is double the washing up!) It promotes independence and seeing them proud of their efforts is what being a Mum is about. When you sign up to the promise you are able to download some recipe ideas and activity sheets to give you some simple ideas. Next week we will have to give these a try.

Do you cook with your kids? Will you take the promise?





We attended the event and were provided with a goody bag in order to learn more about the Persil Cook With Kids Promise.

You can read our reviews on the January Degustabox and February Degustabox. They are a subscription service, where you receive a box of tasty treats to try each month at less than half the retail value.

They have kindly offered one of my readers the chance to experience Degustabox themeselves. All you need to do is complete the rafflecopter below for your chance to win.

This Tomato Tart with pesto creme fraiche is a fantastic starter to a dinner party. It is easy to make and I love the look of the while cherry tomatoes.