I've bought my children clothes from Tesco since they first started producing them. The clothes have always been excellent quality, great fun and really well priced. My little boys now still have some F&F clothes that were bought for their older brothers 15 years ago that haven't gone out of fashion or worn out at all.


I was given the opportunity choose an outfit from their Autumn and Winter collection, and I let my 5 year old choose for himself because he's very particular about what he wears. I think he made a good choice!










F&F have a huge range of clothes and accessories including shoes, underwear and school wear, and online most things are available year round, so you don't have to wait until June to buy a swimming costume or August to buy school uniform. This year they also have a great collection of Christmas jumpers to suit everyone - so we can all have a reindeer jumper!

Warburtons are a very local company to me, and pretty much the only bread anyone round here will eat. Thankfully that's not in any way an issue, as their breads, crumpets, teacakes and the rest of their range are delicious.

For our Bloggers Night In last weekend the Northerners among us had hoped to be able to introduce the Southerners to Warburtons, but events were against us and although they sent a gorgeous hamper, it spent the weekend locked in a warehouse....boohoo...


It arrived on Monday, so Eileen from ET Speaks From Home and her family had a couple of days feast, and they went around all of their neighbours giving out what they wouldn't be able to eat or freeze so that not a single slice was wasted.

Warburtons are really getting into the spirit of things this Christmas with specially designed festive wrapping and a competition hosted on their Facebook page.

To launch the competition they built the UK's first baked Christmas Tree on London's South Bank. Standing over 12 feet tall it took 50 hours to build and comprises 2500 pieces of bread, pancakes, crumpets and wraps.


Between now and Christmas they will show several photographs of the tree with a gift beneath it, and their Facebook fans can guess what the gift is for a chance to win it. Simple!

Personally, I'd be happy enough to win the tree - it'd do the sandwiches for my lot for the next couple of weeks at least...

When I was a child I remember saying to my parents that I was really lucky to have been born where I was and not in Africa. I don't think they really understood, they thought I was just saying one of those things children say that doesn't make sense to adults, but I've never forgotten it.

I was referring to famine and starvation at the time, and as I've grown and had my own 5 children I am even more grateful for them that we haven't ever had to struggle to eat.

Sub-Saharan Africa has another problem affecting young children, and that's paediatric HIV. In the global North transmission from mother to child is virtually unheard of because it's entirely preventable, but in Sub-Saharan Africa HIV positive Mothers are stigmatised and ostracised and left to try and cope alone. The result is that 600 babies every day are needlessly infected with HIV.  A little education and support is what makes all the difference...


The maternal health charity mothers2mothers have already reached out to over 1 million pregnant women and their babies are HIV negative. Birth should be about life, it's something most of us can take for granted, it'd be so much better if they could too.

Find out more about the work of mothers2mothers on their website and join in the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #PreventBabyHIV

Just over a year ago I became part of a group of reviewers for Izziwizzi Kids and Playfest. Sadly Playfest is no longer with us, but some of the group ended up in an offshoot group of 13, which we called 'Cotton On' for some obscure and lengthy reasons.

Several of us were very new to public blogging, and certainly had no understanding of statistics, analytics and communities we could join, so the more experienced bloggers taught us tons and saved us having to spend 3 days a week on Google or make any major terrible faux pas (I hope). We've all checked Rafflecopters and informed one another when we've misspelt our blog post titles or referred to completely the wrong person.

We've become really close and the group has supported each other through all kinds of disasters and life events. We've helped restore blogs and unlock dashboards, move people to self-hosted and give second opinions on things our kids have said or done. They were the people who were there for me at 2am and 6am when my my partner was seriously ill with Meningitis and I was scared and alone.

We decided we wanted to meet up. We're from all over the UK, so normally it would never happen. We made it happen.

Sadly we couldn't all make it, but 10 of us could...and on Saturday we all descended on Eileen...


Left to right....
Fiona from Mummy's Little Stars
Eileen from ET Speaks From Home
Mary from Over 40 And A Mum To One
Anna from In The Playroom
Pippa from RedRoseMummy
Me!
Zoe from My Mummy's World
Tina from The Soup Dragon Says
Angela from Life Of Spicers
Tami from Mummy Of Two


It was amazing to meet so many people who I've known so well for so long and we had an absolutely fantastic time. We played games and handed out Secret Santa gifts and talked until the small hours. 




It was the first time I've ever left my lot overnight - the littlest one was born at home so I didn't even go into hospital then - I have to admit it was a real break from being full on Mummy and I really did relax and enjoy myself.


We took the opportunity while we were all there as a group having our party to look at a few new things, so with a lot of hard work and effort - and hardly any of it was me - we had snacks and drinks and entertainment for all, and fantastic goodie bags to take home...

Thank you ladies for travelling all those miles, and thank you Eileen, for letting us all into your immaculate home! And hopefully if we ever do it again - we'll be joined by the 3 who couldn't make it this time - Kel from Writings, Ramblings And Reviews, Laura from Yummy Mummy Flabby Tummy and Anthea from Blue Bear Wood.

We were sent The Magic Tooth Fairy Game to review a little while ago and it's become an instant hit. It has magic and excitement and my little boys love it. Neither of them have lost any baby teeth yet - but they'll certainly know what to do when it happens!


You each have a mouth with 4 'removable' teeth and a little character playing piece. Your playing piece travels around the board using a spinner to decide how many squares you move each turn, and you follow the instructions on the squares that you land on. First you need to get a wobbly tooth, then you need to see if it is ready to come out or not using the Fairy Dice. If it is then you pop it in your backpack and wait until you land on 'go to bed'.



When you go to bed you have to spin the spinner again to see if you remembered to put the tooth under your pillow. If you did then that's exactly what you do! Put the tooth under your pillow and the tooth fairy visits while you sleep, replacing your tooth with a shiny gold coin.


The game has a fantastic little bed at it's centre, which is where the magic occurs. My boys think this is brilliant. They can't work out why the tooth turns into a coin, even though they've inspected the bed at length.



The game is quick and fun. You need to lose all 4 teeth and replace them with coins to win, but everyone feels like a winner, because everyone has gold coins and the use of 3D objects and the magic bed make it really attractive to children.

 

It's excellent for teaching very young children about turn taking, counting and reading numbers to 4, and recognising the 3 different instructions written on the squares on the board.


The Magic Tooth Fairy Game is by Drumond Park and has a recommended retail price of £19.99. It is suitable for 2-4 players and recommended for children aged 5+, although my 3 3/4 year old is very capable of joining in - he does sometimes stop play so that he can inspect the bed again though!

Drumond Park kindly gave away a copy of the game to one of my readers. The competition closed at midnight on Saturday 14th December 2013

Fudge is something that's really expensive to buy and incredibly popular, but actually not too hard to make yourself, and if you do, then you can flavour it with whatever you choose.

I had to provide a Secret Santa present at the weekend for the gorgeous and very lovely Tami from Mummy Of Two. Our budget was a fiver, and I decided I wanted to make her something nice. I've not made fudge since last Christmas, but it instantly came to mind.

I'd seen a very simple recipe using condensed milk on the Carnation website, so I used that.

Ingredients

When I posted my 4 Ingredient, 5 Minute Ice Cream recipe post the other day, I actually wanted to show you my Bread and Butter Pudding, but it hadn't gone entirely to plan....

I watched the video, got my ingredients, and had 2 willing assistants....

We cut the Brioche into lovely triangles and arranged it nicely in the pan...


 We made the custard - the boys stirred the cold ingredients, I took over when it was hot...


Cooked it, shared it out, added some ice cream and started to eat it....


And then my partner said "You can't taste the marmalade"....."Ah, yeah".

This is a post for Duerr's - the Manchester based, 132 year old, family-owned  preserves makers....It kind of needs to feature the marmalade....


So yesterday, I did it all over again, and there were no complaints. In fact it's a lovely pudding and it doesn't take long to make, and it was unanimously agreed that with the marmalade was definitely better....

Writing about my Lego memories and our European holiday to Legoland in Denmark really has made me pine to go away. Thankfully we went to my partner's parent's house for a few days over Easter (in the fantastic snow!), and towards the end of the Summer holidays (when I broke my leg) or else we'd not have left the house this year as our Summer holiday plans were all scuppered when my partner developed Meningitis in July.

Easter Snow!

Our European Trip took loads of organising and was quite stressful. We split up the trip as it was almost exactly 24 hours drive to get to Legoland, which meant taking our huge tent up and down a couple of times, so it was a lovely treat to stay in the Family Hostel in Legoland and relax!

We're really keen to take the children away again before they all leave for Uni, it could be the last big family holiday, so it would be a lovely thing to do.

Groningen, The Netherlands

We all loved The Netherlands and want to go back. Our campsite in Groningen was lovely, but we were restricted with location because we were 'on the way', so we were a long way from the nearest large towns - and there wasn't much there for the children to do. There wasn't even a cafe in our local village, so we had to drive to have a bite to eat without cooking in the tent - and it's my holiday too! This time we'd be able to choose where we went without restriction, and I'd love to take the children to Amsterdam.

5 of our lot at the campsite in Groningen 2011, while Dad hogs the swing!

I went to Amsterdam when I was pregnant with my no.3 and had an amazing time. The Netherlands is so flat that you can walk all day without tiring, and Amsterdam is absolutely laden with loads of amazing places to go and things to see. My highlight of the trip was the Anne Frank House, which was just stunning. I read her diary as a child several times and actually being inside the house took your breath away. I think it's an important education for my children, and even the younger 2 are perfectly able to understand her story now.

There's a lovely Al Fresco Holidays family camping parc only 18 miles from Amsterdam in Wassenaar. It's handy for Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the Efteling Theme Park, which is one of the most popular in Holland. Even the camping parc has it's own rides and attractions and loads to entertain all of the kids, plus food and theatre, and we could cheat and get a mobile home for us all for only a few Euros more and save the effort of taking and erecting our tents!

One of the things we've really missed this year is the seaside. If we stayed in Wassenaar then it's only 3 miles from the beach, and the climate is incredibly similar to back home, so we should be able to get some proper sandcastle time in - wearing jumpers and wellies naturally!

I think it's got to be done. I need to start looking at booking ferries....

I was delighted when I was contacted by Furniture Plus and asked if I was interested in reviewing something from their range, especially when they offered to send me a mirror.

When our eldest went to University last month we had a big reshuffle of bedrooms. Previously I had a preeners bedroom between me and the bathroom, and just inside the door was a huge mirror. They've moved downstairs now and selfishly taken their mirror with them, so I've had to peer at myself in a tiny round bathroom mirror.








Children do love mirrors.... I think we'd get good value out of it as a toy, but after 20 minutes of laughing, trying to hide and pulling faces at himself I took it away and it's now in my room!

Furniture Plus are a  family-run business in the Wirral with over 40 years experience. They sell solid Oak and Pine furniture and pride themselves on Customer Service and Satisfaction. I believe this to be true because the gentleman I dealt with couldn't have been more lovely and helpful, and kept me very well-informed about when my mirror was due to arrive, and should have arrived.

My mirror has an RRP of £159 and is currently on offer at only £59. I'm really pleased with it and I'd definitely buy at that price - even on a whim, which is unusual for me! It's proper furniture, not 'flat pack' and it'll last forever. My son will still be looking at himself in this mirror when he's a man.

Whoever said young people don't have that political spark any more hasn't met mine, and nor have they met a young lady who emailed me last week and has persistently emailed me since.

I get emails from strangers all of the time, but last week I got one that was a bit different. I was emailed by a young lady from Bury who asked me to help her raise awareness of Bury Council's plans regarding their library.

Bury Library first opened it's doors in 1901, and is housed in a magnificent old building right in the centre of town. This is a great location and that's probably why the Council have decided to alter the use of around two thirds of the library to house sculptures.

5 of our children in 2009 on the 'Mousetrap' at Burrs Park, Bury ~ Part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail

The brilliant Irwell Sculpture Trail starts in Bacup, passes through Bury and ends in Salford Quays and features over 70 different sculptures from some amazing artists. Bury Council want to try and bring more tourism into Bury Town Centre by creating a Sculpture Gallery which will be part of the trail. The place they've chosen to create the Sculpture Gallery is within the library. In order to do this they need to squeeze the current library into around one third of the space, strengthen the floor and move in the sculptures.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that this will have a detrimental effect on individuals and groups who use the library. You simply can't store the same amount of books and other materials in one third of the space, Children's story time is going to be a far more cramped affair and all of the library users will lose a lot of the somewhat limited space that they already have. People will also lose their jobs.

I'm a big fan of libraries, I don't take my children anything like as often as I should, but that's because I'm able to use the internet and computers at home. We use the school library to borrow story books and do our research online. That puts me in a fortunate position, I don't need the library at the moment, but plenty of people do.

Libraries don't only offer books, they have CD's, DVD's, maps and all manner of documents. They have local council and tourist information. They have free access to computers and the internet. They're really important if we want to ensure that every member of our community has equal chance to achieve their potential. They're about inclusion for some of the most deprived members of our society.

I have 1 child at University and 2 about to go to College. They need libraries, and if they choose a college some distance away then it'll be far easier to go and collect books at a local library. Parents with children who don't have a school library need the town library. Any adult who wants to read books benefits from a library. Lets be honest, a lot of older people rely heavily on libraries not only for the actual books, but also for the reason to go out and the company and interaction it offers. There is a very successful Knit And Natter group who meet once a week at the library, without available space they'll have to meet elsewhere. Libraries are for everyone.
 
Sculpture is great, but rather than spending £100,000 installing it into the library and placing tourism over local people, can't they just put it in the library garden or the existing Art Museum?

A lot of people feel very strongly about this -

The young woman who spoke to me has started a website with updates and information - Save Bury Library
There is a Facebook community
There is a Petition to Mike Connolly of Bury Council - If they get 300 signatures then it has to be debated.