A couple of weeks ago we were invited to the National Football Museum at Urbis in Manchester by Mu Cheese. I'd never been before, and my little boys can't really fail to be interested in football living where we do, so I knew it was going to be a good day. My oldest son wasn't working until later in the day and so he came with us on a very rare day out!

A couple of months ago we went on an amazing picnic with Roberts Bakery, where we were introduced to 50 Days Of Summer, and some fantastic sandwiches including Strawberries & Cream, Nutty Nana and the Sunshine Sandwich

It almost seems cheating to review Quorn because actually we eat it a lot. I've been a vegetarian for the last 29 years, and to start with it was really tricky to find foods that fit in with modern busy life, everything required hours of preparation and cooking. Quorn is one of the best vegetarian convenience foods around. High in protein, low in fat and calories, quick to cook and incredibly versatile, we tend to eat Quorn as a family around twice a week.

There are loads of recipes on the Quorn website, I chose to test the Quorn Lasagne recipe.

Tatton Park Volkswagen Show is an annual event organised by Volkswagen Northwest. It is a 1-day show which takes place in August, and is generally really blessed with good sunshine. There's no overnight camping except for traders, but our friends Dave and Kate trade there with their business Campertronic - and it's this time of year that Dave's parents go on holiday, so we take their place setting up and packing away, occasionally selling things and helping with childcare.

I've been going to Tatton Park VW show for the last 12 years. It's the only show that I haven't missed, whatever else has happened in my life. Last year it was our first trip out when my partner was still very much recovering from Meningitis, this year it was our first overnight camp of the year - mainly because our teenagers haven't stood still long enough for us to do anything....

A little while ago I helped LEGO DUPLO with their How Do You Play? Competition. As a thank you they've sent me some Batcave Adventure sets to give away to my readers. The Batcave Adventure comes complete with Batman and Catwoman, and a great Batwing with a cannon that really fires!

We review LEGO sets quite regularly, but this is something very different - a DUPLO review! My 2 youngest boys are at the upper age limit for DUPLO now, as they're 4 1/2 and almost 6, and when DUPLO asked if they could send me the Batcave Adventure set 10545 I wasn't going to say 'no'. They love Batman, and I knew we'd get a lot of play out of this set.

It's here - the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LEGO sets are out. Darker and more moody, they're completely different to those which came before. Based on the new movie due out in October this year, there's nothing 'cartoon' about these minifigures.

We all remember Rio - the lovely animated story about Blu, the Macaw who is captured by smugglers and taken to America. He's lucky and ends up in the hands of Linda, who loves him and cares for him, and eventually he meets Jewel, another rare Macaw, and his soulmate.


Rio 2 is out on DVD from next Monday August 4th. Rio 2 sees Blu happily living with Jewel and their 3 children - Carla, Bia and Tiago - when they discover the possibility of more rare Macaws in need of help, and set out to find them.

Dirty Bertie is a really different style of book for my 5 year old. It is on rough paper and has no colour images inside. When he saw it, he was instantly dismissive, which led to a discussion about why you need colour photo's in a book, and 'judging a book by it's cover'.

Blogging can give you some great experiences, and we've been really lucky - and busy - over the last couple of weeks having a look at some of the events running over Summer in the North West. One of the things we've really enjoyed is meeting the Moshi Monsters who have taken up residence at Manchester Trafford Centre Sea Life this Summer.