When Garden Games contacted me way back in October to ask me to review their ‘Giant Jenga‘ game, I laughed and laughed and laughed before replying, “You know I live in Scotland where it rains 364 days of the year, right?” by way of a response. I mean seriously, who in their right mind would buy a garden game when you live in a country with permanent rainy season?!

Luckily, the folks at Garden Games were happy with an indoor review. Phew!

I must admit that when the bag arrived I had a, “Is that it?!” moment as the bag looked significantly smaller than it appeared in the product listing

Caution: Objects on the internet may appear larger than in real life.

but once unpacked, it was clear that this would be a sufficient amount of solid wooden weapons at a perfect size for my little savages to clutch in a single fist.

We tried – repeatedly – to get the kids to settle nicely and play a FUN FAMILY GAME together without the TV or laptop on. They quickly realised that the fun was to make the pieces collapse as quickly as possible for maximum carnage and injury to siblings/parents/pets and so made a point of pulling out pieces from three or four rows from the bottom. The first time they did this I thought someone had driven a truck through my living room wall, the noise of the wooden blocks hitting my hardwood floor made me soil myself. Two black eyes, a possibly broken nose and an entire family relationship severed later we decided that perhaps this might be better as an adult game. Of course, having the giant pieces of wood lying attractively in a bag within reach of the kids meant that a variable slew of imaginative games was created utilising the blocks as props. My personal favourite was ‘Cowboys and Indians’ where #2 son (as the Indian) threw a succession of blocks at #1 daughter (as the Cowboy) in lieu of axes. Luckily we think it was only concussion, at least the dent in her head seems to be filling back out and she was only unconscious for about 15 minutes.

After removing the bag to somewhere far from the reach of little thugs, we decided that perhaps we should indulge in a game of strip jenga. Removing one item of clothing every time you made the tower collapsed was indeed a time-consuming method of titillation and by the time I was down to my bra, I just wanted to go to sleep. Also, my neighbours complained about us stripping in the garden too so all-round bad times on that front. We settled for naked twister instead which was a far more fun event for all the family. (Note: Not ALL the family. Just Bob & I.)

At £50 for the ‘Mega hi-tower in a bag’ it’s a pricey bit of kit and I think if your children were the Waltons or the Von Trapps, if you frequently have BBQs with friends – or God forbid, neighbours – where everyone wears checked shirts and sandy-coloured slacks with creases down the front then this is absolutely the game for you.

If – like me – your children are wild, your climate is wet, your floors are not carpeted and £50 is a bit of a stretch then I’d steer clear.

I was not paid for this review. Garden Games provided a free-of-charge Mega Hi-Tower in its bag in exchange for a review and a link to the product page.

Posted under reviews

It’s the lack of eggs that give it away. The leaves turning my garden orange, yellow and brown. Being unable to do the school run without a coat. How on earth is it almost October already? My children are all windswept hair and ruddy cheeks, bottomless pits. Little fridges. I barely have time to unpack the food shopping before they’ve consumed it like little bacteria.

So, what’s new with me? The Life Craft is on hiatus for now and I have enjoyed over a month away from work. A much needed break, I’m still finding myself so bone-crushingly exhausted that I struggle to get out of bed in the morning. The new incarnation will help with this. Shorter hours, less pressure. That kind of thing. I’ve been trying to fill my life with colour and cheer instead of my usual brown and black, hoping that the colour will increase my joy.

I’ve become a Blipper. Yes, me! I know my photography leaves a lot to be desired but I’m reliably assured that the best way to get better at something is to keep doing it. I’ve been doing some voluntary art workshops with the kids’ new school, I’m hoping it’ll help me make new friends in the community I’ve dropped into. How sad am I?

I’ve made new connections with family I didn’t know I had, ditched some toxic friend & family relationships which were causing me pain, celebrated my gorgeous and funny children and thanked God every day for blessing me with Bob. Many people say to me, “I don’t know how he puts up with you” and genuinely, I don’t either. I must have hidden talents or something.

Anyway. Speaking of colour and things that bring me joy, I was emailed recently by the DotComGiftShop and asked if I’d review a lunchbox on my blog. A lunchbox?! I mean, how do you review a lunchbox? “Yes, this magnificent specimen of plasticity is unique amongst sandwich carriers” – not really likely to capture the imagination now, is it. But I had a little look at the range and actually, the design really tickled me (One, Two, Three, Four). I picked number one:-

It’s really brightening my day! With four children all at school & nursery, a significant portion of my day is spent lovingly creating scrumptious and healthy boxes of nutrition for my little darlings. I try not to give them sandwiches every day, and I’ve discovered that this box is the perfect size for two wraps, an apple, a banana, a bag of cheese cubes and a frube. It’s not a standard huge lunchbox that holds the entirety of your larder but for primary school kids it’s perfect. And for big kids like me, it holds enough pasta salad to share at the park with the one you’re blessed with. Ask me how I know

Anyway, as usual I have a lunchbox to give away for one of you lucky lot. To enter, simply leave a comment with your favourite Autumn activity. Make sure you have an email address for me to contact – I’ll close this on the 29th September at 12noon.

I was not paid for this entry, but I was provided with a lunchbox to review and keep.

Posted under family, reviews

This is a review post.

When I had Erica, a good friend of the family made her a cross-stitched sampler which I thought was a beautiful and considerate gift.

and it made me feel envious of her patience and skill! I’ve always liked the idea of cross-stitching but let’s be honest here most of the patterns available just now are hideously dated and cutesy. Where are the modern, funky and interesting designs which complement my dream home interior? Being that my dream home interior would be floor-to-ceiling Cath Kidston, wouldn’t it be supercool if she also designed say, cross-stitch patterns..?

Stitch! by Cath Kidston fulfills all my wants and desires in this regard, with both cross-stitch and needlepoint projects. Best of all, the first 30 pages introduce even beginners to the art of working with both tapestry wool and embroidery thread so once you start looking at the projects you feel slightly more prepared for it!

The book contains some really cute projects AND a free kit to make a supercute purse letting you practice without prior investment in materials. There’s not a single project that I wouldn’t like to try out, with my personal favourite being the embellished dungarees for little girls. My brother is already nagging me to make him the little dog motif badge! I am halfway through the purse and I’m surprised at how easy the instructions are to follow and how much I am liking the finished article. Kudos to Cath Kidston!

The lovely folk at Quadrille Publishing have offered a copy of Stitch! to one of my lucky readers and to be in with a shout, all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me why you should win it. I’ll close the comments on Thursday 23rd December at 6pm. Closed! Thanks for entering! The lucky winner is commenter #13 – Connie!

Posted under reviews

This is a sponsored post

So a few weeks ago, the folks over at Johnson’s approached me and asked if I’d participate in the Johnson’s baby bedtime challenge with Greer.

One of the most magical moments of motherhood is watching your baby sleeping … but we all know that getting to that moment is not always an easy process. Fraught bath times, overly-tired little ones and an irregular routine can all contribute to a stressful sleeping experience for both mother and baby. And parents know that better sleep for baby, means better sleep for the whole family!

That’s why the makers of JOHNSON’S® Baby want to help by encouraging mums to take the JOHNSON’S® Baby Sleep Challenge and see how much difference bathing with JOHNSON’S® Baby Bedtime products for seven nights, used as part of a clinically proven routine*, makes to your baby’s bedtime.

And I hummed and hawwed over it before agreeing, albeit with minor concerns. Why did I have concerns? Because this is what Greer does every time we put her in the bath.

I was intrigued by the sleep challenge though, as I am one of these terrible parents who *gasp* doesn’t have a set routine – mostly in part due to me spending so much time at work lately – but a routine is something I thought would possibly help little Miss Gingernut here who is frequently to be found doing this to her bedroom at 9pm.

So for the challenge week, this was my brief:

1. Bath
Bath time is a key first step in the bedtime routine. Follow the online guidance and use a product like JOHNSON’S® Baby Bedtime Bath®, which contains NaturalCalm™, a patented blend of relaxing aromas proven to relax better than lavender.

2. Massage
Massaging with a product like JOHNSON’S® Baby Bedtime Lotion can help you recognise and respond to Greer’s body language and is a wonderful way to make Greer feel safe, secure and relaxed. There’s no one way to massage your baby – provided you know how to do it safely, but guidance, hints and tips to get you started are available at www.sleepchallenge.info to make the most of massage time with Greer.

3. Off to sleep
After giving Greer a warm bath and massage enjoy quiet time together and help her wind-down further by reading, singing softly, or feeding her. Avoid active play at this time so that Greer goes to bed sleepy, but still awake.

LOL at going to bed sleepy. Hm. So, every night Greer was to have a nice warm bath using the Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Bath (which smells amazing!), have a little massage using Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Lotion then off to bed with a story. Sounds easy as pie really. Erm…

At the start of the week, I got in the bath with her in the vague hope that she’d settle down and not scream for the entire duration of the bath. What you can’t see in this photo is that her left hand was firmly clamped on my right nipple and she was horrified at the prospect of being dunked in water. Ho hum. Struggling to wash her quickly, in a very small bath and lots of dunking meant that by the time she came out the bath she was furious with me and wouldn’t talk to me. Bob took over at this point, wrapping her up and taking her away for the massage and book element. By the time I got out the bath all I could hear was peals of laughter and Greer yelling, “DING DONG!” as she pressed her belly button. Not quite the relaxed massage we’d been encouraged to perform. One story, a nappy change and a hot water bottle later she was out for the count less than 20 minutes after bathtime.

WHAT?!!

On top of that, it was past 7am – a solid hour later than her usual wake-up time – before we could hear her stomping about, terrorising the cats and destroying her bedroom again. Of course the entire week wasn’t like that, we did have one 9pm+ bedtime on day 3 but in fairness she’d slept for 3 hours at nursery and was probably over this whole bed thing anyway.

So, three days in and so far so good. I will be back tomorrow with an overview of the last 4 days and some hilarious photographs for you but in the MEANTIME!

Johnson’s have very kindly offered up not one, not two but FIVE Baby Bedtime hampers for my lovely readerbase. To be in with a chance of winning one of these kits, you can do each of the following for ONE entry (so, do all of these and you’ll have 4 entries into the competition.)

1. Leave a comment below
2. In your comment, tell me a challenge you’ve faced as a parent and how you overcame it.
2. Retweet this (and leave a comment telling me you’ve retweeted)
3. Be a fan on Facebook (and leave a comment telling me you’re a fan)

This competition will be open until Sunday 14th November at 9pm.

Posted under for the kids, reviews

This is a review post.

A few weeks ago, the wonderful people at Eurocamp kindly sent us on a much-needed holiday to their Château Lez Eaux campsite in Normandy. Having done a Eurocamp holiday in 2008 – staying here, in a tent – we thought we knew what was coming. We really didn’t.

I had made the executive decision for us to sail from Portsmouth to Caen rather than Dover to Calais. For us, the driving distance on the UK side was the same but it was going to save me roughly 5 hours driving at the other side whilst also giving me 6 hours on the ferry to recuperate. As our children are so young (Findlay is 9, Nairn is 4, Erica is 3 and Greer is only 1) when we drive down South we tend to leave late evening and drive through the night so that the kids aren’t bored the whole trip home. Generally speaking it’s a win-win situation as doing it this way means we miss any heavy traffic normally encountered around Manchester, Birmingham and London and the total driving time is vastly reduced and indeed we did our 440 mile trip in 7.5 hours.

I have to admit that with four young children who had slept almost all night, Bob and I were dreading the ferry trip. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that not only was there a small soft-play area, playroom with colouring-in station & kids DVDs playing but there was also a full entertainment programme for older children including a very energetic quiz and a magician. As I had work to do, I paid for WiFi and got on with that whilst the children played. All in all, a surprisingly relaxing way to travel.

We docked in Caen in the early afternoon and set off towards Saint Pair-Sur-Mer, getting hopelessly lost circumnavigating Granville but still arriving on the site an hour after we got off the ferry which I was extremely relieved about. Now, in the space of 10 days we had been offered the trip, put an emergency passport application in for Greer, arranged for someone to stay at our home to watch over the menagerie and got permission to take Findlay out of school for the week so I must have missed the section of the email that explained that rather than staying in a tent, we’d be hanging out in one of these for the next week:

I have to admit to feeling a little ambivalent about staying in the static caravan rather than the tent but when the heavens opened not half an hour after we arrived, I realised immediately the one difference which became massively important – the kids didn’t end up traipsing mud everywhere. Anyone who has ever been camping will relate to that feeling as if your entire body is filthy no matter how good the ablution facilities are and thankfully, in our 3 bedroom superior we never had that. Having such an expanse of space was excellent too since the boys had a room to themselves where they could escape to play games, the girls had a room to themselves and we still had a comfortably sized living & dining room space too.

We were so exhausted after our trip down that we stayed on the parc for the first few days which is unlike us -we’re the kind of family who goes out and sees things rather than the heading-to-the-beach type – but with beautifully clean swimming pools and excellent facilities on site we wanted for nothing. There was plenty for the kids to do, a shop on-site where we could get the essentials and a bar too where internet access was available.

The kids absolutely loved the swimming pool and I have to admit I was terrified at the prospect of taking four of them to the pool with only two adults but it turned out to be completely manageable. What mainly worried me was that there was no lifeguard supervision (a common occurrence in France) around the pools but the boys took good care of Erica leaving Bob and I to take turns with Greer. Although, we did see a fairly horrific accident involving a teenager, a backflip dive and a certain broken nose. Ouch.

The site had a kids club available but our brood, being quite anti-social wary weren’t too keen on being left there which was fine. Instead they chose to spend a fair amount of time in a well-designed playground. I remember thinking, “Health and safety would never allow a playground like this back home” when watching Nairn clambering up a climbing wall – it was exactly the type of place that kids should always have access to and they absolutely loved it. Look at the smiles!

The Eurocamp staff who had briefed us prior to our departure had mentioned that this parc in particular was beautiful but that didn’t quite do it justice. The site was just stunning, plenty of greenery and a little fishing lake where guests were welcome to sit and indulge themselves. One thing that really impressed me – and which I felt reflected the consideration given to the site’s clientele – was that the entry to the parc was controlled via a security barrier which opened after a PIN number was entered into it. The PIN station was available on both sides of the road meaning that both UK and continental drivers could access it. Clever, eh?

We did do a couple of day trips – to Le Mont-Saint-Michel and to Saint Malo where we visited the Great Aquarium which were both within an hour’s drive of our site – and I shall blog about these later.

All in all, this trip just reinforced how good a holiday a family of our size can have on a budget. A seven-night break in this site, staying in accommodation exactly like ours would cost £987 accommodation only and – as we did – you can book your ferry crossing through Eurocamp who manage to get it significantly cheaper than I ever found quotes for. I’ve been told that Eurocamp can also help organise fly-drives and rail travel too.

For me, the difference between this kind of holiday and a package holiday is simple – you do everything on your own time. Having our car with us meant we could leave when we wanted, go where we wanted and not have to worry about schedules and going off-plan. The Eurocamp couriers spoke English – which was an embarrassing relief as my French has never exceeded schoolgirl level – and were available at the drop of a hat to assist. As an example – on our trip two years ago I came down with a stomach bug and had to go to a Doctor. Our courier found a Doctor and came with me to translate. I get the impression that the sites are picked by people who understand what a family abroad needs, such is the level of detail like ensuring we had a travel cot available for Greer to sleep in and providing loo roll and washing up liquid in the welcome pack.We’ve done two Eurocamp holidays now and I know that we’ll be back. Thanks ever so much for a great time!

Posted under reviews

The lovely folk over at Quadrille publishing got in touch with me recently, offering to send me Erika Knight’s latest knitting book called ‘Simple Knitting‘ and asked me if I’d review it here. I’ve had this book for weeks now, desperate to do it justice so here we go.

Firstly I should own up and say that I was aware of Erika Knight as a knitting author already as my friend Midwife Katie had used one of her patterns from ‘Simple Knits for Cherished Babies‘ to knit a sweater for Nairn. I’ve been a knitter for a long time and as someone who spends a lot of time on the internet, I’m used to the easy availability of free patterns but I still ordered that book based on the one sweater I’d seen designed by this author.

Erika Knight’s style is very distinctive – it’s perhaps obvious to state that she goes for simple designs – so it wasn’t a surprise to me at all to discover that she has consulted with high street brands with instantly recognisable clothing ranges like Gap and M&S. This new book builds on her ‘simple’ look with 20 projects that really appeal to a broad spectrum of abilities and tastes all set out in a workshop fashion.

It’s slightly difficult for me to review this book as it is very much aimed at complete novices but suffice to say if I was learning to knit right now, this is the book I’d pick to teach myself. Beautifully photographed and illustrated instructions combined with Knight’s clean and simple style make this book easy-to-follow. Particularly appealing for me is that the author does not assume that her learners will be ‘afraid’ of their new hobby so alongside the usual explanations of different yarn types and weights there is also indepth instruction in understanding pattern construction, knitting in the round and reading charts – three elements of knitting that I didn’t understand until fairly recently and I’ve been knitting for over 20 years now.

Better yet, despite this book’s clear focus on instructing newbies each workshop ends with a completed project that is actually both desirable and useful whilst the learner has unwittingly developed new skills and techniques. The very first project provides the new knitter with a fashionable muffler and the others are just as creative – my personal favourite being the notebooks made as project #4 – between socks, a hot water bottle cover and a sweater I was truly spoiled for what to choose to work on first. I strongly suspect this is going to be the book I buy for any of my friends who express an interest in knitting from now on and I highly recommend it!

Simple Knitting by Erika Knight – RRP £16.99 – is published by Quadrille publishing

Posted under reviews