One of the most popular sensory activities of any family has to be cooking, and my lot love it. I was really delighted yesterday to spot a link posted on Google+ for Ice Cream Bread.  This is the most simple and awesome recipe ever, and it's seemingly foolproof, I knew my lot would love it...


1. Put two cups of ice cream (any flavour) into a mixing bowl ~ we used 1 cup of vanilla and 1 of Chocolate.

With my partners birthday only 3 weeks away I've had multiple requests this week from our teenagers for me to make online purchases for them.

I don't mind being the intermediary, but it is a dramatic change from what we had 3 or 4 years ago, when I would take them all into town, send them off with a fiver and they'd come back 40 minutes later with something entirely inappropriate and over-priced. I liked that, it was exciting, and often pretty random....



We all buy more online, so it is I suppose just modernisation and we should expect our children to want to buy online because that's what they see us doing.

I was asked this week to try out Virtual Piggy - an online pocket money tool for children. The idea behind it is that you put pocket money into your child's 'fund' and then they designate savings and make online wishlists from stores which have been okayed by the adult.

It is in the early stages in the UK, and it was awkward to get initially set up, but once it's working it was clear and easy to use for all of my teenagers. It clearly has drawbacks in that it wouldn't really work if your child spends most of their pocket money on comics and sweeties, but I can see that it's potentially a very useful tool, especially at Christmas and birthdays if you are blessed with lots of generous relatives (who can be given their own access to see the wishlists for the children). It works on the same principal as Pinterest - your child simply 'pins' things they like, in the same way that I used to cut out things from the Argos catalogue and stick them onto a big sheet of paper!

Alas we don't have many relatives, and our children do usually waste all their money on small bits of plastic that break in 15 minutes, or family bags of Skittles....but maybe one day they'll decide they want to save for something a bit more special...


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We've been discussing Sensory Play a lot over on Izziwizzi Kids the last few weeks, and this last week one of the main questions we were asked to consider by guests Play to Z was 'do we grow out of sensory play?'.

Having 5 teenagers in the house and especially watching their reactions to the younger ones toys and activities my opinion is an emphatic 'no'. They all join in often with my little children playing and sensory activities are always popular. Crazy soap or Gelli Baff and smelly pencils are all something few of us can resist resist having a sneaky play with.

I actually don't think anyone ever grows out of enjoying and learning from sensory play, I think it just becomes less obvious to us that it's happening. We aren't playing with specially coloured rice or play dough that's been made with coffee, we're running our fingers through sand or lying in a bath of bubbles, cooking or messing with engines, or walking barefoot through grass.


With that in mind I've a crafty and tactile giveaway for older children (and adults). The MyStyle Crafts Designer Jewellery Set has got loads of bits and pieces for you to create your own earrings or bracelets, buttons and beads or whatever you wish using the colourful oven-bake polymer clay included. There are 8 different colours of clay and various attachments, clasps and even a storage box included in the set. Our 3 girls had loads of these sets over the years, and they were always very popular.

Entry is by rafflecopter below ~

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open only to UK entrants, the prize is one new Mystyle Crafts Designer Jewellery Set supplied by myself, the winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter when the competition ends and the timer runs out. I'll make every effort to contact the winner, but if I've not heard back within 48 hours then I reserve the right to ask Rafflecopter to choose another winner.

Cheeky Harry Loves....is the first release in a series of products planned for Cheeky Harry and Friends. 


It is a really sturdy 10 page board book which is beautifully made and very robust - it'll survive a good amount of use (and misuse) by a toddler.

Harry himself is a very attractive and friendly lion, and the story is of him and his favourite things, which of course includes his friends. The story is in rhyme and is simple enough for a very young child to grasp, but introduces some more tricky words. The pictures are full and interesting. 


My boys are 3 and 4, and they enjoyed the story and have asked for it at bedtime at least 3 nights in a row, but I do think for them the appeal may be limited as it is very simplistic. This is a nice book for a child of 12-24 months as it is colourful and introduces some basic words and concepts including animal names, dancing and swimming and 'night and day'. I think if the proposed range of products are released then this could become a very popular character with youngsters as it translates very well into a soft toy or a range of other products.

We give this book a 4/5

With 7 children and no relatives within 80 miles, plus neither of us are 'from round here' we don't get babysitters very often. In fact never.

We've left the biggest one in charge only once for more than 1/2 an hour - it was for 90 minutes, at 5pm on a weekday and we were testing out the pub at the end of our road. Maybe we're a bit overly cautious, but the thought of a huge scrap breaking out or boy no.4 feeding the fish while we're gone is enough to make me break out in a sweat.

In order that we get some 'couple time' to ourselves, every once in a while I feed the children and then cook something a bit special for 2. We pack them off into the living room with a DVD and a big bowl of popcorn, I lower the blinds in the kitchen, light some candles and open a bottle of wine and we sit at the kitchen table, just the two of us, and have a nice romantic meal.

I buy a meal deal or otherwise try and cook something that doesn't take me hours and cause loads of stress - especially as I'll have already cooked once for everyone else. Scratch meals I thought would be absolutely ideal because they are still home-cooked and have beautiful fresh ingredients, but it's all there in front of you and cooks really easily, so my meat-eating partner and I can choose something completely different and I'm not wasting half the ingredients or spending hours preparing something I'm unfamiliar with.



Unfortunately despite searching all the stockists anywhere in North and Central Manchester we were completely unable to get me the vegetarian meal Tagliatelle Pistachio Pesto (which I was really looking forward to), so I had to give in. The only meals we were able to find were Chicken Thai Green Curry and Singaporean Crayfish Noodle Laksa (my partner is not a fan of seafood).


The meals look really good, the packaging allows you to see how fresh the ingredients are and how plentiful.





My partners opinion was that it was very nice but not very special. It was very fruity but didn't have as much spice as he'd like. It looked gorgeous on the plate and the ingredients, especially the sugarsnap peas, were incredibly fresh.

My step-daughter, who ate the second portion, said it was nice and strangely sweet.

They both really enjoyed it, the ingredients were lovely and fresh and good quality and it didn't taste or look anything like a ready meal. At around £3.95  it offers good value for money for a nice meal that has no waste and minimal preparation and cooking.


Just a shame we couldn't have eaten together.....

This is our entry for The Toadstool and Wonderworld DKL's competition to win a Wonderworld Toy Kitchen and 2 runners up will receive a Wonderworld Penguin Rescuer Game or a Wonderworld Recycling Truck.

I had a lot of help (at least that's what they call shredding polystyrene onto the floor) from 3 of mine. Boys no3 and 4 got in the way, and boy no.1 made the penguins. Afterwards they all played icebergs for a very long time - my floor covered in tiny balls is testament to that!

It's my first ever video all by myself, so don't be too harsh (my other half hates it, so don't be as harsh as him).


The competition is open until Friday 1st May, so you still have time to enter any project or model or anything else on the theme of recycling, planting trees or helping to save the penguins! 

UPDATE - We won! How cool is that?! Another 25 or so years practice, and I'll be giving Nick Park a challenge...maybe....

My little boys watching the terrifying horror  'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked'

We all love a bit of 'mild peril' and last night was movie night - snacks, little kids off to bed and then three of the teenagers, my partner and I watched a horror movie....

We spent most of the time shouting and tutting at the stupidity of the characters on screen. It got us talking about what you clearly should NOT do if you want to live long enough for the sequel.

In the film Scream the smarty pants bloke (who very deservedly doesn't make it to the sequel) announces the rules of surviving the movie ~

• 1. You will not survive if you have sex
• 2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs
• 3. You will not survive if you say "I'll be right back"
• 4. Everyone is a suspect

The killer adds two extra rules ~

• 5. You will not survive if you ask "Who's there?"
• 6. You will not survive if you go out to investigate a strange noise.

While they do seem to be totally true, we think we've come up with some more ~

• 1. Don't wear a matching bra and knickers - if you do, make absolutely certain you don't take your clothes off. In fact, just don't take your clothes off, especially if you are a nubile young bird, but granny pants and a greying old bra might just save you.
• 2. Shut the ruddy door! And the blinking curtains! Murderers rarely simply appear, usually they have to slide past the window or walk in the house behind you while you step much too far out onto the porch just to see where they are. Just put Eastenders on and kick back.

Don't worry Ma'am, I'm a policeman. You'll be safe now.

• 3. If you have a copper sat outside your house 'protecting you', bring him in. If you leave him out there he'll just end up a bloody mess, shout him in and he can watch Britain's Got Talent in the warm.
• 4. Don't drive at 40mph through the woods. No-one can run that fast! Even if Usain Bolt is after you, he can only manage 27mph for 10 seconds, after that you can happily slow down to about 16mph and Roger Bannister can only just keep up. Setting off in 2nd at top belt will just wrap you around a tree, and then you'll have to limp back to the building you just came from with one shoe and a ripped jumper - which could put you in danger of breaking rule no.1. 

• 5. Split up.....erm...no, how about don't. Stay together. Why on Earth would you spend all day  with your mates laughing and drinking beer from plastic cups, and then when the crazed killer arrives all run away in different directions, or suddenly decide you have to go somewhere alone. Even if I needed a huge poo I'd take someone with me, in fact everyone, I'd take everyone with me. They can stare at the wall and whistle.
• 6. Remember you have an opposable thumb. When you pick up your chosen weapon from the huge knife rack in the incredibly tidy kitchen, or steal it from the guy in the mask, don't leave it on the side the first chance you get. Just hold on to it. It's not hard, even babies can grasp, and point it the right way. The bad guy is unlikely to spawn from your belly unless you're in space or an antarctic research station, so point it away from you. And don't assume you can use a gun just cos you've watched a heap of Angelina Jolie movies, if you start shooting you'll miss anything you try to hit. Either aim directly at your best mate or put down the gun and pick up a pencil, it'll give you a better chance, especially against vampires.
 


No-one panic. I've got a gun!



• 7. If you hit them then you have to make it count. Batting at them with a wet hand is the equivalent of flapping at a wasps nest. You know that they'll fall down, the intended victim will do a bit of heavy breathing and then sigh a bit, get up and slowly walk off with their back to the baddie. 3 seconds later and Mr Angry with the grazed knee will no longer be lying on the floor, he'll either have jumped up and  leapt at our hero from behind, or completely disappeared. If it's the former then game over, the latter means you have to do a sequel....
  
  
  What would you add?

When another blogger who you've never met before asks if you want to take a drive up Saddleworth Moor at night and take your top off, how can you refuse? And I didn't....

Pippa from the RedRoseMummy blog needed a lift to a focus group organised by Optifit and, after 5 pregnancies and 8 years of breastfeeding my boobs are not quite so perky as they once were (I can practically tuck them into my socks). Bras are something that cost me a fortune and still rarely seem to look or feel right, so I was really intrigued.

Firstly we were given a full explanation by the 2 ladies who run Optifit, and who have come up with the sizing system and designed the bras themselves.

They explained that Optifit make an entirely different type of bra, which doesn't measure you in the conventional way at all. You can forget you 38D or 32C completely. They take the measurement around your diaphragm, the measurement of just how big your boobs are and the height from your shoulder to the bottom of your boobs, and then make you a bra to match.

In their own words -
Optifit is the result of 20 years experience working as a bra-fitting specialist at hospitals in and around Manchester, where major inconsistencies were uncovered between the conventional measuring formula and fitting guides, and the garment itself.
The problems become more obvious for the larger busted woman for whom the correct cup size simply does not exist within the current industry standards. Which is one of the reasons why 80% of women wear the wrong size bra.
This unacceptable situation led on to 2 years post- graduate research into the origins of bra design, exposing the flaws in the blueprint on which the conventional bra is based.
Optifit was designed to eliminate the original flaws and introduces a new PATENTED grading and fitting system, which is based on a woman’s body instead of fashion standards.

Until now Optifit could only supply if you went to their shop in UpperMill, but now they have developed a measuring tape for home use, so that ladies who live further away can measure themselves at home and order a bra to be delivered via the mail. The aim of the focus group was to explain about the differences between conventional bras and Optifit, and then let us try the measuring tapes to see how easy it was and if we could really get an accurate measurement ourselves.


I admit I was very nervous, and I got the measurement wrong, but the lovely Optifit ladies took one look at what written measurements I gave them and presented me with the bra that fit first time and is the same bra I'm still wearing today. It does have a specific fitting method, which was something that took a bit of getting used to, but is second nature now, and really does make the best of the bra.


The bra was very comfortable. There is no dragging pressure from the shoulder straps, in fact it is the cup that just holds you up in the right position really well. The back strap is a lot lower and supports you from around your ribcage, which encouraged me to stand up straighter and pull my tummy in. I felt like I had hands supporting my back, it was a really nice, comforting feeling to be honest, and not one I'd ever associated with a bra before!



It was explained to us that because Optifit is entirely different and encourages correct posture, your body takes time to adapt, so it can take a couple of weeks to get used to wearing. Your shoulders will even out, your  back straighten. Optifit can even help with digestive problems, breast pain and skin problems. Although it only took me a few days of neck ache to feel more comfortable, I decided to wait before writing this review, in order that I had time to really get used to the Optifit bra.

I can honestly say I'm delighted with it. I look slimmer, my boobs are standing nicely to attention, I have no backache and less neckache than I had previously. It has no wires and can be machine washed, and dries very quickly. It looks as good as new after 2 months and it's really cool when it's warm.  This is the first bra I've worn in 25 years that I don't want to take off as soon as possible every evening.

I'm hooked, and when I next buy a bra, I will be getting it from them. They are not cheap, but when I consider the fact even without the reduction in my aches and pains I'd have happily bought a couple of £30 bra's that aren't exactly comfortable and start to fray and lose their elasticity after a couple of months, it makes it seem very reasonable indeed.

The only things that make this bra just less than perfect are that the cut is very high so although v-necks are fine, some round necked t-shirts and tops can't be worn over this bra, and although the styles are pretty and look nice, they are perhaps a bit off-putting for younger people.

Optifit bras are available in a range of styles and colours and prices currently start at £49.99.

Optifit also specialise in feeding and maternity bras, and can convert any bra to a nursing bra, so they can fit you and then convert your bra for you, so that you don't need to buy another.

You know when someone suggests something, and you think it might be okay and agree, and then you start to think maybe you've had an idea above your station? When the doubts creep in and you start to wonder if everyone is pointing and giggling?

Well I thought like that about our #HealthySnackChat Twitter discussion...

There we were, the 4 of us, Anna In The Playroom, Eileen ET Speaks From Home, Pippa Red Rose Mummy and I, waiting for 10.30am. I say waiting, actually I had to rush about like a squirrel locked in a car in order to be ready.

At 10.25 I got a retweet, we had a punter, it was all good. We wouldn't have to give all the prizes to ourselves, someone would be walking away with the picnic rucksack from SA Fruits at least. We just needed 4 more people to win the Change For Life and other goodies.


!0.29 and I've never felt so nervous......(well, except when I had my driving test, my children, got engaged, job interviews, first day at school, kids first days at school and some other stuff )....

10.30 arrived, Pippa went for it, and stunningly, people replied! We had people! Actual people had turned up and were ready to talk to us and join in. Real live people. Ten minutes in and we were trending. I cannot begin to tell you how many cool points this gains me with the teenagers. In fact, half an hour in not only was #HealthySnackChat trending, it was up there at the top! It was in first place above Suarez the Zombie Footballer, as at least one very vigilant and witty young man noticed....


By the time I had to get my questions ready it was a bit manic, there were conversations going off at tangents everywhere, people were posting photo's, we had fishmongers and fruit snack companies adding their suggestions. I could barely spot anyone actually replying to me.


The last 15 minutes was all a bit of a blur, trying to catch up with what people had said and answered and I hadn't spotted. And then I had to go do nursery pick up and leave everyone to it, and they were all still talking. Win.

There were some amazing answers and brilliant ideas. It was fascinating finding what everyone feeds their children for snacks and Capture By Lucy joining in with her beautiful Bento boxes was an absolute pleasure.

The Gorgeous Seaside themed Bento from Capture By Lucy

The winners were -

Winners for the mini prizes are
@charliechinuk
@AttachmentMumma
@lifewithasd
@mymummysworld

Winners for the rucksack are
@cherylp59 (during the event)
@thesoupdragon44 (retweets before the event)

Huge THANK YOU to everyone who took part, I hope you all learned something, we certainly did.

I'll leave you with a photo that was posted later on by the self-confessed tyrant BlueBearWood, whose clearly angelic daughters have possibly invented next years healthy feeding trend - #ChildLedSnacking

Frozen peas and sweetcorn - delicious!

I fell in lust with the Eco House from Wonderworld the very first time I saw it. I loved the solar panels and windmill, and the sheer gorgeousness of it. Unfortunately that was at the end of last year and our Christmas budget was spent in September.


I've continued to spot it everywhere, it's been taunting me and showing off it's little recycling bins and water butt. During the Christmas period we had already bought boy no.4 a selection of smaller items for his birthday this March and didn't think we could justify getting him something big to go with it, but then a wondrous thing happened - he got birthday money!


Without consultation we spent his money, fortunately we know him quite well and he adores small world play and has a great imagination, he spends most of his time playing with 'figures', so we knew we'd be safe.


The open plan layout means this is ideal for more than one child to play at the same time, or just for one younger child who isn't so precise with their play, and the size is a good fit for Playmobil and lots of other little character ranges and vehicles. 


It is a brilliant tool for teaching children to think about the world around them and why we do certain things? Where does electricity come from? Why would you collect water in a water butt? It encourages them to think about materials - which things are glass, plastic, paper? What can we recycle?


Next Monday is Earth Day 2013 and a day when we are encouraged to think about greener and more sustainable alternatives. I fully believe that education should start when our children are very young, and consideration of everyone and everything within our environment should be something that is second nature to them.



This is a really accurate depiction of an ideal eco-house. Our teenagers have spent months doing projects designing eco-houses and the open plan, glass walled, fireplace in the centre of the house layout is spot on. The scooter is electric, the house creates it's own energy, water is collected and waste recycled, they shower - no baths and they grow their own veg. 




The Eco-House is currently on special offer at The Toadstool for £98, which is I feel is a very fair price. It is fairly traded, made in Thailand from sustainably forested Rubberwood and painted with water based non-toxic paints. It should easily outlast your child, it is really robust and has huge scope for play. It is totally appropriate for either girls or boys and has so many fantastic little details which are just not available or thought of usually. We love it!