Review: The Rocket Wireless Singing Machine and competition

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We were sent a Rocket Wireless Singing Machine to review:

The company are running a competition to find a Rocket Star, so if your child has got what it takes click on the image to find out how to enter:

The Rocket can act as both a microphone and a speaker as well as to Ask Siri:

Review: Wild! Science Lava Lamp and Glitter Tube Lab and Wild! Science Competition

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When my 13 year old spotted the box of the Lava Lamp Kit it vanished very rapidly up to her bedroom! She has had a lava lamp in the past and was excited to have another one. So I left her to it to make it on her own and she took photographs as she went.... All she needed was to get some vegetable oil as everything else was included. The instructions were really well laid out and she didn't ask for any help at all:

All the equipment she needed was included and she just had to follow the simple instructions to create her home science project:

Once she had prepared all her mixture then she just had to assemble the lamp which has a push light in the bottom:

Review: Original Spirograph

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When I was offered a chance to review am Original Spirograph set I jumped at the chance having loved our original one in the 1970s! Its a toy that has stood the test of time and I wanted my children to have a go like I did. The set we were sent was a deluxe set which looked a lot different from the old red box our old one came in:

What is great is that the set included everything you need to get designing:

The instruction book was very clear (my daughter eventually read it after a couple of fails!). The special putty helps to keep the wheels in place whilst you design to prevent slippage like we had on this page:

Competition: Tickets to see The Vamps at Forest Live 2015

I was really excited to hear about this year's Forest Live concerts and I was gutted to realise that we live too far away from any of them to go...  The range of acts appearing this year is amazing and I'm not surprised that some are already sold out:

• McBusted
• Spandau Ballet
• Sam Smith
• The Vamps
• Robert Plant
• James
• Paloma Faith
• Tom Odell
• Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott
• The Script

I have enjoyed music in beautiful locations before but these concerts sound and look amazing:

Now I may not be able to attend one but the lovely folks at the Forestry Commission have asked me to give away a pair of tickets to see The Vamps plus guests at one of these concerts:

Sunday 21 June - Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury, Glos

Saturday 27 June - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe, near Mansfield, Notts

The Vamps formed when the band members found one another via their respective YouTube channels. Subsequently they amassed a serious online following through social media with the upload of a series of punkish, acoustic-driven covers of chart-conquering pop hits. They’ve now had 230 million total YouTube and Vevo views as well as sold out arena tours. Last year their meteoric rise to fame was confirmed with sold out tour dates and the release of their debut album ‘Meet The Vamps’, a collection of pop-party anthems such as: ‘Can We Dance’, ‘Last Night’, ‘Wild Heart’, ‘Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)’ and ‘Somebody To You’. The Vamps are: Brad Simpson (lead vocals and guitar), James McVey (lead guitar and vocals), Connor Ball (bass guitar and vocals) and Tristan Evans (drums and vocals).

Opening band Hometown is the latest act managed by pop mogul Louis Walsh. The Second support is LA-based band, The Tide, newly signed to The Vamps EMI Universal label and predicted to be the next big US indie-pop band. Completing the line-up as very special guests will be pop sensations Union J who have already headlined their own arena shows.

If you would like to be one of the people enjoying this amazing line up then you will need to enter via the Gleam giveaway:

Forest Live The Vamps

You can also buy tickets for £32.50 (plus £3.25 booking fee) from Forestry Commission Box Office tel 03000 680400 or buy online: forestry.gov.uk/music 

Best of luck!

Book Review and Giveaway How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers

How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This special edition of the book was brought out to celebrate 10 years since it was first published. My children have grown up with Oliver Jeffers and have read most of his work so it was a delight to be sent this to review.

"Once there was a boy and the boy loved stars very much" so he sets off to catch one to keep with him as a friend. Jeffers quirky illustrations and simple texts tell the story in such a delightful way. As adults we know that everything he tries is bound to fail but from a child's point of view things might just work.

I read this to my 7 year old and then discovered that my 10 year old had been listening too and her reaction was that it was 'delightful' and she came out of her room to run off with the book!

This is a must for any young child's book shelf and story you will want to share over and over again.

View all my reviews

I have another copy to give away to one lucky reader! Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter (UK residents only I'm afraid):


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A Review and Give-away with Canvas Design

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I was offered a free canvas from Canvas Design in return for a review and a competition. I have also wanted one of my photos turned into a canvas so I jumped at the chance and sent off a photograph to them. They quickly told me that the one I had sent wasn't high enough resolution so sent them a further version that I was told was good enough for a 40" by 30" canvas - i.e. pretty big!

It didn't seem long before I got notification from the courier of the scheduled delivery date which I was able to adjust as I was going to be out. On the day I could track the delivery online (with an initial 1 hour estimated time slot) as it got closer and closer to my house:

Shortly after I took that screen shot the parcel arrived looking incredibly well wrapped up:

There were a couple of layers of corrugated paper and then bubble wrap:

By now we were getting pretty excited as we could see the photo coming through! I was very, very impressed with the print quality:

Can you see my daughter some where behind the jaguar? I just wish that I had noticed the woman walking behind it with the water bottle - I had cropped the photo to remove strangers faces! This size canvas costs less than £40 from the company which I think is excellent value for the quality of the canvas.

It comes with a wall hanging kit so I just have to decide where I want to put it up. We don't have too many large wall spaces so I think it's going to go opposite my bed so that I can see it when I wake up in the morning - hope it doesn't give me nightmares..

My children now want to have some of their own photographs turned into canvasses. With prices from £5.99 I will look at getting them one each. The company have given me a 15% discount code to share with my readers of BLOG15 which you can enter on their website. 

I am also able to give away one canvas to a UK based reader from a 6 x 6 to a massive 40 x 40! Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter:

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Workout Wednesday: Week 1 in 2014 plus Competition with Thinking Slimmer

It's been a while since I did a Workout post as Christmas plays havoc with everything as there are extra activities and then 2 weeks of no school... So here I am in 2014 with my goal of finishing off the job of getting myself fit and healthy. With a wedding to attend at the end of May I've set myself a goal of dropping another dress size by the big day.

By the time the fireworks had gone up on New Year's Eve my belt had got too tight (I blame a Chinese takeaway). So I started 2014 as I mean to go on by going out for a run (in the rain and sleet!). It may not have been the fastest run in the world but I at least tried...

Once I got back home I realised I had been failing to listen to my slimpods for a few weeks so I started listening to them again every night. I also drank the last glass of wine in the house on the 1st January and ditched the booze again for a month. So after a few days my belt once again does up on that last hole even by the end of the day!

One of the things on the slimpods is that you are encouraged to not distract yourself whilst eating i.e. be on laptop or watching TV. So as part of my house sorting I have reclaimed the kitchen table as an eating area and not as a craft, homework or everything else area it became in the run up to Christmas! We had slipped back into bad habits of eating our evening meals in front of the TV which is not good for any of us...

Another thing is to increase our quantity of vegetables and fruit that we consume. This is toughest when you have a small boy who only eats limited varieties but we will get there in the end. My daughter created a 5 a day chart and we aren't allowed a naughty treat unless we have had a minimum of 3. My children are hyper-competitive so hopefully this will spur them and me on for a while until it becomes a habit. It's led to finding creative ways to get veggies into our meals such as my daughter suggesting putting peppers and peas into couscous:

Couldn't get my son to eat it with the veggies in but at least he ate the plain version (minor victory).

I went out yesterday for a much better run but I still have to regain some of the fitness I've lost in 2 weeks. Just hope that doesn't take too long! With a few events signed up to in the spring and summer I need to get my legs going...

The slimpods have been such a help last year that I have signed up as an affiliate. This means that I can offer readers a 15% discount:

* Train your brain to lose weight without dieting

* Feel full quicker, eat less and choose healthier

* NHS consultant’s verdict: ‘It’s life-changing’

* Works on its own or as a diet plan booster

* Comes with 100% money-back guarantee (T&Cs apply*)

* Take the pain out of weight loss - no more diets

(*T&Cs apply. There's no tricks or catches to their T&Cs as you can see if you click here to read them >>).

Here is a wonderful success story:

I've also been given a chance to give away not 1 but 2 of their slimpods to help you lose weight. There are pods for women and men so its good for everyone that feels they need to get slimmer in 2014. So please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter (you have 2 weeks to enter:

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Barefoot Books Review and Give-away

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We love books in this house so when Barefoot Books asked us to review some and give away another we were very excited. The children were so keen to look at the new books that we had read all of them the same night we got them!

First up The Princess and the Pea which is a reworking of the classic story for 4-8 year olds:

It tells more of the Prince's travels in find of a princess who meets his expectations of being a real princess. Of course he fails and comes home and the Queen uses the pea test to discover a suitable bride. My daughter was very taken with the beautiful illustrations:

It is a lovely re-working of the story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it to her and having her read some of it to me. It would make a beautiful gift as its hardback and comes with a CD of the story teller Xanthe Gresham reading the story herself.

For my son we had The Little Red Hen which is another reworking of a well known story:

It's good to have a story about people not pulling their weight but wanting to share the rewards any way. It has really fun illustrations on every page:

The book was in paperback format and again came with a story CD narrated by Debra Messing. It also includes a recipe for making your own bread which my son is keen to try (watch this space!).

Our final book was A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea which is a singalong with cumulative lyrics:

The book is a great way for children to learn about how the food chain works under the sea:

After the song has finished there is a simple explanation of the marine food chain and blue holes that exist at the bottom of the sea. I wish my laptop had a CD drive so I could make full use of the enhanced CD with audio and video animations.

Any of these books would brighten up a child's Christmas and bring much enjoyment. 

Competition finished! There is also a chance to win your a book using the Rafflecopter widget, just browse the web site and comment as to which book you would like to win:

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Music Review and Giveaway: Zeamu Music

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Like many parents I love listening to music with my children but find that many songs have totally inappropriate lyrics for youngsters. Songs about sex may top the charts but I don't really want my children going around repeating the lines from them! So when I was offered a chance to review a new kind of music album aimed at primary children I was very keen to give it a whirl. Zeamu Music aims to provide music that the whole family can listen to and enjoy together. The band is a range of cartoon characters each with their own distinctive look:

I put the CD on in the car and after a very short whinge about something new my children quickly got into the music. In fact we now have the CD on in the car every time they are in it with me! Just as well I've been enjoying the music too. 

Each of the tracks is about issues or life events that children can relate too. Some are serious like bullying:

My children's favourites are the funny ones about embarrassing parents and annoying relatives. Here is my daughter singing along to Relatives (whilst her brother is doing Andy Murray impressions in the background!):

It's great to have songs that mean something to my children when it comes to friendships or being left out of things. There are good messages about not needing to be the same to have somethings in common. I think the line What's the point in growing up if grown ups won't grow up may be used against me at some point! Though I've sure I'm not the kind of embarrassing parent mentioned in Doing the Robot:

This album will be our soundtrack for the summer and I'm sure it will get plenty of plays on our long drive to France when we go on holiday! 

I have been given the chance to let one lucky reader win their own copy of the album so please use the Rafflecopter widget to get yourself some entries into the draw. Competition ends at midnight on 23rd July:

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Quick Reads Review and Giveaway

Quick Reads is a literacy charity whose aim over the past seven years has been to introduce millions of people to the joys of reading by providing short, gripping, exciting books by bestselling writers and celebrities. The bite-sized books use clear language making them easy to read with fast-paced, brilliant story lines and are ideal for those who might feel too busy to try a longer book or for reintroducing those who haven’t picked up a book in a while to reading for pleasure. 

These books are priced at only £1 and are designed to only take a couple of hours to read and are not off putting to people that don't read a lot of books. They have just launched a new set of six books for 2013:

I was sent 3 of them to have a look at and today I picked up and read the first one:

Now I am a voracious reader so it only took me 30 minutes to finish whilst I was having my lunch! Its a romantic story about a young woman down on her luck and a policeman trying to decide on his future. Even in such a short story the characters have plenty of detail and there is a decent plot line. A nice way to fill your lunch hour or to read on the train to work. 

I will be having a read of the other two books as the week goes on but meanwhile here is your chance to win your own complete set of books. Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter:

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Printerpix Photo Competition

This post is Lakes Single Mum's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition:

This is my 6 year old son enjoying some fun in the park in the snow. At his age he just loves being outside being active whatever the weather. On this day he was enjoying a rare bit of one to one time with me and really making the most of it. I was spinning him round on one of those combined climbing frame/roundabouts:

The sheer pleasure on his face makes this on of my favourite photographs him that I have ever taken.

Tots 100 Competition

Change4Life: Be Food Smart

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It's a while since I've written a post about Change4Life so I pleased to be asked to promote their Be Food Smart campaign. Apparently too many of us still don't know about the hidden sugar, salt and fat in our foods. The majority of respondents (including me!) scored 50% or less in the quiz... The Be Food Smart campaign wants to show parents where the hidden ingredients are so that we can make better choices when feeding the family.

Everyone signing up to Change4Life will get a free meal mixer:

This has ideas and recipes for healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners! You just flip over the cards to get a combination of meals for the day.

In order to promote the campaign I've been asked to run a competition to give one lucky reader a £50 voucher for the Co-Operative plus their very own Meal Mixer. What you need to do is pop over to the Be Food Smart IQ Quiz take the test then post your scores in the Rafflecopter widget. I also want you to give me your top healthy eating tip for families - be it a recipe or any other way you keep your family healthy. There are additional entries possible once you have left the comments.

Good luck and stay healthy!

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Natwests #PigsByKids

This is an advertising promotion for NatWest

The lovely people at NatWest sent us a crafting kit so that my children could design their own pigs for the NatWest PigsByKids competition. The idea is that children submit a pig design for the next official NatWest pig. I can remember the original NatWest piggy banks though I didn't have one myself...



This is the wondeful piggy backpack full of crafting goodies that we were sent:

My daughter was very keen to use as many of the contents as possible for her entry! She loves getting all creative so this was right up her street. This is what she finally created:

Certainly one of the most colourful pigs I've ever seen! I will be submitting it to the website and hope she is voted the winner.

Please note:

• The competition is open to children up to 13 years old
• The winning design will become the new NatWest pig
• Closing date for entries is 12 pm on 11th November 2012
• Terms & conditions apply - see website for details

Get crafty with your kids and good luck - may the best pig win!

Crazy Soap - Review and Giveaway

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I was sent two sets of Crazy Soap to review with my children and the chance to give away 5 sets to my readers. The sets contain three items:

• Crazy Soap Foam (RRP £2)
• Crazy Soap Paint (RRP £2.49)
• Crazy Soap Bath Goo (RRP £2.99)

My daughter was very keen on being the first of my children to try out the products! She decided which colours were hers and headed for the bathroom. The instructions on the goo say to scoop and put under water for bubbles. By the second bath I had got the hang of putting it under running water to get great bubbles:

Time4Sleep

I have been asked to do this post as part of a competition to get the most entries to the survey via this post. So please share the post and hopefully I will stand a good chance of winning.

As a parent of children who are currently driving me mental by not sleeping the Time4Sleep survey has come at a great moment. They are launching a nationwide sleep survey to understand children’s sleep habits and the effects they have on their daily lives.

Whether your child is a problem sleeper or not, they want to hear from you! Those who complete the survey can also choose to enter a free prize draw to win £300 worth of vouchers.

The vouchers can be spent on a range of Time4Sleep products including beds, mattresses and accessories. Are you looking for a kid's bunk bed or adult double bed frame? Then you know what to do!

To be in with a chance of winning, simply complete the short Time4Sleep survey. I am off to do it now...

Competition with ExperienceDays.co.uk

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The lovely people at Experience Days UK  have asked me to give away a £50 Gift Voucher to use against one of their Experience Days. In return I get entered into another draw to try and win one myself. So if you are feeling a bit flat after Christmas and New Year then why not enter the draw? 


I am trying out Rafflecopter for the first time to see if it works for me. The only compulsory part of the draw is to comment on what your ultimate experience day would be. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

• A chocolate workshop
• A Bungee jump
• A Spa day
• Scuba diving

Just use the options below to gain a maximum of 6 entries per day. Draw closes at midnight on 30th January.

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#FlashbackFriday: My favourite holiday

There is a competition over at Tots100 to win an Al Fresco holiday for sharing our favourite holiday on our blogs. So I would like to share mine with you today..


I am going to take you way back to the summer of 1979 (so not many photos to hand!). As a family we usually went camping, youth hostelling or stayed on farms in the UK and France for our holidays. However this time my mum had inherited some money so we were able to travel to the USA for the first time ever to see family and friends.


We started our 3 week adventure with a flight from Prestwick Airport on our first ever Jumbo Jet. This was the era of the Junior Jet Club and my brother and I got taken to explore the cockpit mid flight (this would never be allowed these days!). I remember seeing ice bergs from the plane and finding it amazing. Then we had to face the "joys" of US immigration which I was very intimidating. It was then a cab ride to another New York airport to catch a flight to San Francisco. After a full day travelling we landed in a very hot California. We were staying with friends of my parents and I was amazed at the outdoor pool! 


Driving down the twisted streets of San Francisco and riding on the tram was brilliant. Another highlight of this part of the stay was a visit to the giant Redwood trees, Then we drove down Highway One (I would love to repeat this) to Los Angeles. This has to be one the most amazing journeys you can do in the States. Fantastic scenery and stops at places like Monterrey to see the otters and ride on the carousel.


Our next stop was Los Angeles and probably the best bit of the holiday for children - Disneyland! At this time there was nothing even approaching Disneyland that we had been to before. The rides were incredible (and scary) with Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Small World sticking in my memory. We spent an amazing full day including the final parade and were very attached to our souvenirs: