App Review: Room on the Broom

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We were lucky enough to be allowed a free download of the Room on the Broom game. As a family we love the book and the TV show so the app is perfect for us.

There are a total of 8 games for your child to play all of which feature the characters from the book and the music from the TV show:

If you know the story well then lots of things will look very familiar:

Children earn medals on each game for increasing levels of difficulty:

 

 

Can you guess which image is represented by the stars in this one:

Altogether a delightful app to add to your family's collection, especially with it being halloween!

 

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Teksta the Space Jumping Robot Puppy

This has to be the most innovative way to launch a new robot toy dog:

·         Teksta went up to an altitude of 97,000ft before returning to earth by Parachute

·         He endured tempretures as low as -61 Celsius

·         The Air pressure was 0.406lbs/sq ft

#SilentSunday

 

Saturday fun with #TinyPlanet

Not played around with the Tiny Planet for a whole so thought I'd try:

 

 

Flowery Friday

Found a rose hiding behind shed!

 

Reasons to be Cheerful week 43 #R2BC

Doesn't this linky come round fast! Not fast enough to get us to half term though.. Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Proud of myself

I can't believe that I actually managed to get round Go Ape at the weekend! I am a) scared of heights and b) not physically strong so very cheerful about it all:

2) Proud of my son

Compliments about my son's footballing skills from his after school coach. All the Little Kickers lessons must be paying off:

3) Proud of my daughter

She did even better on Go Ape than me! Nothing seemed to phase her and she even did one bit I failed to do. Here she is showing me how to cross a cargo net:

4) Sunshine at last

Its been so wet this week it was great to finally have a sunny day to have a run in:

Why are you cheerful?

Getting ready for Bonfire Night with Princes Hot Dogs

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In advance of Bonfire Night we were sent plenty of hot dogs by Princes and some recipe ideas to try out:

Now I am afraid to say that as interesting as the recipes looked my children are of simple tastes so we haven't yet tried any of them. I must see if I can find some grown ups to be more inventive with.. So here are the variations we have managed to enjoy so far:

Daughter's choice simple jumbo hot dogs with corn on the cob

Son's option of hot dogs and baked beans

Mummy option hot dogs, baked beans and corn on the cob!

Of course for standing watching the fireworks you need something much more portable and my children both like theirs just with tomato ketchup (has to go on top of the hot dogs and not underneath):

Simply jumbo hot dogs and tomato ketchup

As I was in a hurry I didn't fancy rustling up hot onions to go on mine. So whilst looking in the fridge I spotted the onion relish. Bingo: 

I have to say it was a very tasty combination.

Now we still have 2 cans of hot dogs to experiment with in time for November 5th. If you have any great recipes then please let me know!

Go Sober in October and #Shredtober end week 3 with help from Zeo

Completed my third full week of being tee total and doing the 30 day shred. So how has it gone?

Still making use of my Cut Down on Alcohol slimpod to help my Go Sober campaign and not missing it! There have been times this week when my kids have pushed me to breaking point and I haven't cracked and opened a bottle of wine (I have one sitting on side in kitchen). I am looking forward to November the first though... Very pleased to have been part of a campaign that has raised over a million for Macmillan.

The nice people at Zeo drinks sent me 3 of their soft drinks to try out to help me stick to my sobriety. The parcel they were sent in was pretty amazing:

You can probably guess from the packaging that the drinks are made in Russia. Apparently the drinks are 100% natural and only contain the following ingredients:

Carbonated water: Naturally sourced, straight from the spring!

Sugar: ZEO contains low levels of sugar extracted from sugar beets.

Natural flavourings: All natural flavouring substances obtained from raw plant materials.

Natural colourings: Extracted, isolated and concentrated from natural sources (e.g. strawberry).

Citric acid: This is what makes lemons lemony. A natural preservative that is also used to add a sour taste to foods and drinks (lemon juice contains 3% citric acid).

Pectin: A natural thickening/gelling agent extracted from citrus peel.

Stevia: Made from the stevia leaf and used for over 500 years to sweeten food and drinks, this provides a sweet hit comparable with sugar but without the calorie count or leaving you with a sugar craving.

They come in 3 flavours:

• Crush - blood orange, lime, lemon and orange
• Zest - lime
• Burst - peaches and grapefruit

The drinks range from 45-59 calories per bottle which is a lot lower than most alcohol. I liked the gentle carbonation which gave you a tingle without too much fizz:

All the drinks were very refreshing and thirst quenching though the peach was a little too sweet to my taste. My daughter and I both decided that the Zest one was our favourite. Just a shame that I can't find a local stockist. They are available from WH Smith and Ocado at around £4 for a 4 pack which is a fair price.

Shredtober has now passed the third week of the 30 day shred! All 21 workouts done even though I missed a day due to Go Ape. Instead I did one level 2 and one level 3 workout on the same day - eek! My progress photos are looking good: 

Week 1

Loving the disappearing waistline but the sideways shots is good too:

Abs are much tighter and have to say my upper body coped better with Go Ape than it would have done! The scales have gone up this week - that could be disheartening if I couldn't see the changes

Only 8 workouts left for Shredtober and 9 more days to stay Sober the end is in sight!

Back2School Review: Stabilo Pens and Pencils

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Like most parents I want my children to do well at school and I'm keen on them having the right tools to do so. Therefore when Stabilo asked me to review some of their products I was happy to do so. 

First up the Stabilo EASYgraph perfect for my 6 year son who is working on perfecting his pencil grip whilst learning to write properly:

The fact that it has notches on it to force the correct grip means that he only has to think about what he is writing. This is his list of things we need for our new guinea pigs:

Believe me his handwriting is a lot worse when he uses a normal pencil! In fact he is so impressed with it he likes to take it to school as he teacher wants him to improve his writing.

For my daughter we were sent a Stabilo EASYoriginal:

We have come across these before to help a family member who has dyspraxia so we know how useful they can be. My daughter gets told off at school for not using the correct pencil grip so this is ideal for her. She has enjoyed using it and I just need to photograph some of resulting writing. 

She has also been having fun with some Stabilo Point 88 fine liners for creating a comic strip in honour of Kendal Comic Fest:

As you can see they are good for both writing and drawing. Let's just hope both of them now get better marks for their handwriting at school!

#SilentSunday

#CountryKids Go Ape at Whinlatter #WeLoveForests

Sometimes you have to fulfil those promises you hope your child will forget. In my case today it was the when you are 10 we will do Go Ape together. The fact I hate heights and am totally useless at rope ladders and scramble nets didn't get me out of this one!

Just glad my son is 3 years too young even if he is already tall enough at not quite 7:

Having signed mine and my daughter's lives away on the safety form we had our briefing and checked out how to use the course. At this point I thought we would manage to miss the extreme routes:

You really shouldn't look too closely at the course before you tackle it as it looks pretty daunting:

The first section combines a practice and a test of whether we have listened to the instructor. It lets you in gently:

Then it was time for our first little zip wire which we both managed before you get to the point of no return as once you pass through the next gate you are committed and can't get a refund! I have to say the subsequent sections are a lot higher than the first one:

Football Friday

My son had been playing football for just over 3 years now at Little Kickers in Kendal. It is amazing to see how he has come on and what he can now do. In a month he will be too old for the club any more so I thought I had better capture him in action this week! 

Shoot!

Lining up to shoot

Racing towards the goal

Dribbling

Protecting ball from tackler

Feet and ball

Close to the action

Round the defender

Now we just need to find a local club for him to carry on playing in...