Sometimes I get offered tickets to an event that isn't for me, or I'm not able to attend. It's lovely to see those tickets go to someone else, especially someone who will really will get the most out of the opportunity.

On Tuesday 26th September from 4pm until 5.30pm (times may be subject to slight alteration) Disney On Ice presents Passport To Adventure will be holding a Fit To Dance workshop in the centre of Manchester. This isn't just any workshop, it's very special.

The workshop will be led by the Disney On Ice Skaters and hosted by leader of dance troupe Diversity, winners of the third series of Britain's Got Talent, Ashley Banjo himself!

Our latest review is a very familiar name in the game world - The Settlers Of Catan is rightly a classic, and Catan is simply a name change. A beautiful game which gets trickier as you become more experienced, yet a complete novice can start to play it in 15 minutes.


The aim of Catan is to build settlements and roads, then farm, mine and trade resources and expand your settlements into a network of cities. Each settlement has a value of 1, each city 2 and development cards can also have value. The winner is the first person to have a total score of 10.

The box is gorgeous, with a textured matt illustration, and that does reflect the muted classic colours of the game itself. It is beautifully presented. The hexagonal cards which form the board are thick and excellent quality and the playing pieces are painted wood.

The kids are back to school and you'll have to wash all of those 'white' polo shirts covered in whiteboard marker, paint and an unidentifiable selection of foods. Hurrah! But hang on, it's not just the kids who manage to stain their clothes...


With children life is all about stains and it starts long before they can even walk, but it doesn't stop when you become an adult. As a child you can get away with it, my son doesn't care at all, but when you are grown up having a stain can be incredibly embarrassing.

Pickles And Ice Cream by Vicky Jacob-Ebbinghaus and Juarez Rodriguez is a cookbook with a difference - all of the recipes are cravings that real pregnant women have had, and they've been lovingly recreated to share with you, alongside a short story from the inventor.


I'm not pregnant just now thankfully, but I have been 5 times and I had some pretty interesting cravings. Mainly I just wanted beetroot and boiled brussels sprouts, but with my 3rd child (and only daughter) I dreamt of eating coloured glass. Whenever I saw coloured glass I felt I could taste it and it was so delicious. I did manage to beat that craving by eating boiled sweets, but I would wake up having dreamt I'd eaten the glass and in a panic about it. NEVER eat glass.

This is a review I'm very excited about. I'm actually usually dire at controlling small flying vehicles, but I love having a go. Billed as being incredibly stable and easy to control using a console style Parrot Flypad Controller, that has been my experience, as you'll see from the video further down the post.


Even before you open the box you can tell it's going to be good quality. The design inside backs that up. It's not only gorgeous, but practical and will protect your minidrone when not in use.

I joined in with a special Ben 10 Twitter party on Thursday afternoon to promote the new range of Ben 10 toys. We were sent a selection of the toys ahead of the party to take a look and get my 7 and 8 year old boys opinions, as well as the thoughts from their guests!


The children opened most of the toys during the party, but before they arrived we'd had a good look at 3 of them - The Ben 10 Omnitrix, The Ben 10 Deluxe Omnitrix and the Diamondhead Transform N Battle set. Everything is suitable for age 4+.

Our latest review for Hasbro is the Beyblade Burst Epic Rivals 2-Player Starter Set with Beystadium. It's the first time my young boys have played properly with their older brother's Beyblades and now they understand entirely what it's about.


Beyblades were very popular in our house when they first arrived in the UK in 2002. They've taken a back seat for a while and now they're back - stronger and faster than before.


Inside the box you have the Beystadium, 2 Beyblade Burst Tops and 2 Beyblade Burst Launchers. There really is minimal packaging here, just some sealed plastic bags, and it's opened and ready to play in seconds - Christmas morning-friendly.

Just before the Summer holidays we took a trip to Blackpool as part of the Blackpool Has It All campaign with Visit Blackpool, Merlin Entertainments and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We rode on the trams and reviewed 3 of the seafront attractions. Although we really enjoyed both Sandcastle Waterpark and Sealife Blackpool, the highlight of our day was probably Madame Tussauds.


We've been to Madame Tussauds before, so we thought we knew what to expect, but it was so different from our visit 4 years ago that it really was a completely different day out and we saw so much that was new - and got nostalgic about old favourites too..

Having been home from France a mere 76 hours, just about enough time to wash everything, we set off again for the Just So Festival. This is our 3rd year as visitors and it was probably my favourite of them all. We were already pretty relaxed and settled into the pace as soon as we collected our wristbands and went in through the Just So archway...


Just So Festival takes everything that we remember from childhood and gives it back to us, usually large scale and over-the-top. Fairies in the woods and pirates on the high seas are real here, as are pillow fights, woodland dens and midnight feasts. Sit at a campfire and sing your heart out, or dance the night away to live music or disco. Make a building from jelly beans, picnic anytime and roll down a great big hill. You can even run away to train with the circus...


The staff and volunteers are what really make Just So Festival special. Everyone has a smile and can't do enough to help you. It's no wonder that they recently received another award for accessibility. The entire time you are there, you feel like a valued guest amongst new friends.


One of the first areas you reach when you enter is the huge green, this year half dedicated to the Peekaboo area, for children aged 0-4. This area is sponsored by one of my favourite companies, Weleda, and includes massage, baby baths, yoga, musical and messy play - as well as samples and advice. Our camping neighbours included the gorgeous StyleBySquidge instagrammer - he especially enjoyed the painting.


The site is spread over several areas, but they're all close by each other and each has plenty to do when you get there, so you can have a sit down and are never worn out from walking.


The woods are very special at Just So, and you are never quite sure what or who you'll bump into. The 'Barefoot Walk' was not something my boys wanted to take part in - despite me spending half the weekend asking them to put something on their feet! We had a lot of fun with the solar-powered instruments by the High Seas though.


And we discovered what the cast of Tales Of Animalia do when it rains between shows! It's amazing how many people you can fit under one gazebo. It actually barely rained and we had some gorgeous weather on Sunday to make up for it.


The Actual Reality Arcade was a huge highlight and we could have spent hours in there. Giant versions of arcade games with humans in every role. We laughed until we cried - and so did several bystanders...





There was awesome food! The vendors are chosen for quality and everything we ate was utterly delicious. It was pricey though on average. Single person pizzas at £8-£10 each is out of our league, although they would give you a free pizza if you had a cheesy joke they hadn't heard. I scored a real bargain on Sunday with the gorgeous Amrutha vegetable pakoras - they didn't have any small trays left so gave me a huge portion for £4 - cheers guys!


If you had the stomach for it, you could of course tempt your palate with the Insect Eating in the Social Barn. Once again, thankful I'm vegetarian...


There was no coffee down by the Silver Screen and High Seas areas this year - boo! There was however a bar at the campfire and it did work exceedingly well for a nice evening tipple before stories, singsong and bed. Lovely beers, cider or lager for under a fiver a pint. Better than in Manchester.


You can't mention the campfire and stories without mentioning long-standing North West Storyteller Ian Douglas, who married his wife Jo on the Friday. The woodland was decked out and it was especially beautiful. We were lucky enough to witness his proposal at Just So Festival last year, so we wouldn't have ever missed it. I've never seen so many people around the campfire as there were that evening and the atmosphere was awesome. Congratulations to them both.


The campfire was only beaten for us by one activity, and that was the Pillow Fight. You'd never believe it if you didn't witness it. This is the first time it's been dry weather and everyone was out to celebrate - it was epic.


Even those who didn't want to fight with the pack got plenty of opportunity to join in... Thanks to Jane Hodgepodgedays for the beautiful photos of my 7 year old...


A highlight for everyone is the results of the Tribal Tournament. This goes on all weekend and as you take part in activities, smile at strangers or 'walk to the car the most times', you can collect golden pebbles for your chosen team. It was very exciting watching the Baghdaddies do sound check for their set and knowing the entire field would be full of around 2000 people in 10 minutes time as the parades of teams arrived...


We've always been a bit disorganised regarding teams and this year was no different, with two of us supporting Stags, me Bees and my youngest Foxes. We all collected pebbles and did very well. Foxes won, Bees were second overall and Stags retained a regal air of dignity throughout.


The Just So Festival is awesome. We spent 2 1/2 days there and it was like having a whole extra holiday. There is no better way of letting kids be kids and adults be kids too...

Special thanks to all of the staff - including the lovely and incredibly helpful lady who directed us in, and the security who found and returned Lancashire Lass and our missing 7 year olds within 5 minutes (they didn't know they were lost).

The first Christmas I was with my.partner, I bought him a PSP. He bought me a coffee machine. That's the only time he's ever bought me kitchen equipment for Christmas. I tried to be very polite, but it was probably quite obvious I was a teensy bit disappointed. I simply didn't enjoy playing with my coffee maker as much as he enjoyed playing with his PSP.


Truth is my partner hadn't even considered to buy me toys for Christmas and to me that was very strange. It didn't occur to me that you bought people sensible presents at Christmas. Rightly or wrongly, he was happy to agree my way was best and we've never looked back. I've had a LEGO Creator House for Christmas each year since, and the Christmas Village LEGO set for my birthday in November.