Homemade Christmas Cards (A Cheat's Guide)

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This morning I decided that The Boy and I would get creative and make the Christmas cards that I'd been intending to make with him for the past month. With Christmas being only a week and a half away I decided that it was time to get a move on!

A while ago I bought two tubs of foam stickers from Hobbycraft. They were £4.99 each and contained glittery foam letters, Father Christmas heads, reindeers, Christmas trees, gingerbread figures, stockings etc. So using these, some white card, blue paper, snowflake sequins, gold stars and glue we set to work.

First I cut the white card to A5 size, folded it in half and then cut a piece of blue paper to the same size. Then I cut a wavy line down the centre of this to make two skylines for two cards. Sticking these to the top half of the card I had an instant Winter snowscene. The Boy then created his cards really quickly and easily using the foam shapes. We decided on Christmas trees and he peeled the backing off and stuck them down. A gold star on the top of each tree, some dots of glue and then snowflake shapes and the card was finished!

Following this The Boy decided he wanted to try and use the gingerbread figures, one of which is a mummy and one a daddy. He was very annoyed that there wasn't a baby figure so he dumped the idea of it being a daddy and decided it was mummy and baby! (Ha!)

In total we made eight cards, just for immediate family members and I think they look rather fab personally. And in total it took an hour with minimal mess (something I'm not adverse to) and maximum enjoyment.

If you've got a quick and easy craft activity with minimal effort and maximum glitz factor then please link up to the pretty linky thingy below and let's share our ideas!

A Weekend Full of Tots: Both Big and Small

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I intended to write just one post about the TOTS100 Christmas Party but I got carried away talking about the Butlins resort at Bognor Regis so decided to split them into two posts.

When I heard about the event, I immediately checked with a couple of others to see if they were going and signed up. I was nervous as hell about going to the event because I felt like I was surrendering my anonymity, however at the same time I was desperate to meet some other bloggers (I rarely get invited to events) and meet up with Jenny and Helen who I'd previously met. The three of us were pretty much desperate for a break away from it all and we willingly jumped in the car on Friday evening to drive the three and half hours down to the South coast.

We were quite lazy on Saturday morning but eventually got ready to leave our cocoon of a hotel room and venture over to find out what Butlins had in store for us. In the foyer I noticed a couple of other mummies and deduced that they were Mummy and The Beastie and Mummy, Daddy and Me Makes Three. We chatted briefly to them, admired the decorations and Christmas tree and played jumping while waiting for Mummy Mishaps to come and rescue my poor, neglected son (I'd forgotten to bring a coat for him, that's what comes of leaving the house with him in his pyjamas and sleeping bag!). Thanks Burton for lending him a coat for the weekend!

We headed over to the Skyline Pavillion for lunch, had a mooch around and had a good run around on the chaotic soft-play. We enjoyed a puppet show which had some fabulous puppetry and dancing courtesy of the Red Coats, those ladies earn their bobby-socks and blazers!

In the afternoon, while The Boy had his sleep and Mr. TheBoyandMe rested his eyelids, I met up with the other 34 bloggers for the afternoon reception that Sally had arranged for us. Having already seen a tweet from her a few days before about boxes from Hallmark, I suspected that something was on the cards for us and she didn't disappoint. We were split into four groups for the purpose of socialisation and given an hour to decorate an empty Christmas tree using the contents of the middle table.

A few of our team raced for a tree, while a couple of others grabbed baubles. Unfortunately, one of the other groups doubled up on the lights, sellotape and scissors leaving us without any and we managed to wrap a large selection of objects without either sellotape or scissors. What Mellow Mummy, All About The Boys and I can't do with ribbons isn't worth mentioning!

Ably assisted by one of the lovely twins from Here Come The Girls 'helping' with the baubles, and Bloggomy doing her twirly things with ribbons (and a kind Butlins staff member who found us some lights), we managed to get a very sophisticated tree done with time to spare. Just enough time to steal borrow some additional decor from the Butlins reception to boost the silver and red theme before judging. Unfortunately we didn't win the hampers from Aldi but it was the perfect activity to get everyone chatting and mixing together.

After this, I popped back to the hotel and picked up Mr. TheBoyandMe and The Boy so that we could go and get them something to eat before our evening meal. We nipped into Papa Johns for the pizza buffet and managed to join the table already occupied by fifteen other people: Multiple Mummy, The Crazy Kitchen and MummyMummyMum and their gorgeous children. After we had our fill, we went back to prepare for our big night out. All the lovely, glamorous ladies met in the foyer of the hotel and we all froze our arses bottoms off as we nipped over to Bar Rosso for complimentary cocktails: cranberry and vodka = fruity and strong and yummy!

Turner's is a very nice restaurant that was designed by Brian Turner and the chef there used to be the head-chef of The Ivy. That's the closest I'm going to get to posh London dining, and to be honest if that's the best they can do for a vegetarian at Christmas time, then I'll stick to Pizza Express in Cardiff Bay! Wild mushroom risotto is great for a Summer evening meal, not for a warming Winter and Christmas meal when the meat alternative was a full Christmas dinner.

I didn't take a photo of the pudding: figs and apricots do not inspire me, although the cinnamon ice-cream and poached pear was nice. No replacement for a sumptuous cheesecake or the traditional Christmas pudding though.

However, a meal like this is all about the company and the presence of Mummy, Daddy and Me, Multiple Mummy, Dear Beautiful Boy made the evening fly by! I forgot to take a photo of them but did manage one of Jenny and Helen!

We dutifully meandered over to the resort's club afterwards, but decided we just wanted a quite chat in the hotel bar instead, leaving the more hardcore MammaSaurus and TiredMummy of Two to party with NewMumOnline and the glamorous Actually Mummy.

After a tipple or two and having the lights turned out on us in the bar, we retired to bed!

To cut a long story short (too late I hear you cry!), the Sunday saw us have lunch with Mummy Mishaps and her lovely family (in Papa John's), playing with some more rides in the Skyline Pavillion, all of us falling asleep for an afternoon nap, seeing Bjorn's snowstorm and then having an evening meal with Mummy Mishaps again (this time in the Sun and Moon pub). The Boy and Burton started to have a good old natter about this and that, until Burton fell asleep following his mammoth two hours in the swimming pool! Just before we had to do, The Crazy Kitchen turned up to join us, and the littlies set about making a bus to drive us home.

Unfortunately we had to leave on the Sunday night as The Boy had developed croup and I wanted to get him to a doctor, but I shall leave you with some images of the Sunday.

I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend there and found that Multiple Mummy is just as funny and friendly as I suspected and I wish we lived closer because we got on well! It was brilliant to meet up with the others and find that they are just as lovely (and glamorous) as I'd imagined. I wish I'd had more time to speak to others including Kate from I Am Wit Woo and Jen from Mum In The Madhouse, amongst others.

Never mind, there's always next time!

Chuggington Wooden Over & Under Starter Set (A TRU Review)

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Recently The Boy has become obsessed with train sets. He knows all the characters in Thomas the Tank Engine, has a vast selection of wooden train track and makes me set them out in a variety of different styles. He honestly makes me. Ok, you've forced it out of me, I enjoy seeing if I can get as many different combinations down as possible. He stands there looking at me bemused.

However, when we opened our last box from Toys R Us to discover that there was a Chuggington train set inside, I'm not sure who was more excited! He adores Wilson and Koko, and Chuggington is his 'poison' of choice at the moment, watching it religiously every morning. I was ecstatic because there was a funky tunnel and hill set included in the 22-piece set.

The set is designed to be put together in a figure of eight-ish layout with a bridge section which also creates a tunnel for the track to go back through. The bridge is actually a clocktower and the top of this can be taken off and placed elsewhere to become another tunnel (this is best because it falls off anyway). Each of the wooden track pieces is made of good quality wood, finished well with no rough edges and are also embossed with joins and bolts to make them look more authentic. A rarity with these sets, but in the Chuggington set even the straight pieces have the grooves for the trains to travel along. The clocktower is made of tough plastic and is good quality. Sensibly the piece of track that uses this bridge is glued firmly into position.

In the set comes two carriages (Wilson and Koko) and Vee, the tannoy system. While Vee is cute, it really is just for decoration and doesn't have a function. Wilson and Koko are very good quality carriages and of a standard size: a bit longer than a crayon. They also have their names printed on the bottom of their quality wooden carriage, the finish is excellent.

This is a brilliant set, but I have one issue with it: the carriages fall off the track when they come down the bridge.

Trust me, we did extensive scientific research into this:

Our conclusion was that based on the size and weight of the carriages they're too big and top-heavy to stay on the track to be able to go around the curve on the suggested layout. In addition the angle of the incline is steeper than in the standard Brio set which means that the carriages are travelling slightly faster. It's a minor thing, but this basic flaw in the engineering has really irritated me. For the price, it should be perfect.

This is a good starter set which is made of high quality materials with an excellent finish. The carriages are chunky and robust, the track pieces realistic. The fact that it is branded with Chuggington has inflated the price to £39.99 and in all honesty I'm not sure I'd pay that much.

Chuggington Wooden Over and Under Starter Set is available for £39.99 from Toys R Us.

For more reviews click on the banner below

We received this set for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

'Ho-De-Ho' Not 'Hi-De-Hi'!

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If you've been hiding under a rock for the past month then you'll be excused for not knowing that this weekend was the Tots100 Christmas Party at Butlins, Bognor Regis resort. Anyone else has no excuse and should hang their heads in shame now!

As this was my first proper blogging event, I was so excited but incredibly nervous. Obviously anyone is nervous about these, but I have been particularly nervous as this was the big reveal: I was no longer going to be a green bug with yellow antennae and a permanently happy smile.  However, with Mr. TheBoyandMe and The Boy in tow for the family weekend in Bognor Regis, and my lovely friends @JennyPaulin and @Jessies_Online to support me I felt a lot more comfortable at meeting the other bloggers.

Having decided to stay an extra night, we drove down on Friday night (right decision, roads were empty) and with The Boy settled into his pyjamas and travel Gro-bag the three and a half hours passed quickly.

We were soon settled into the incredibly plush Ocean Hotel in the Butlins resort. I didn't get the chance to see the Shoreline hotel over the weekend and I understand this to be more orientated towards younger children, but the Ocean is more my cup of tea: a nice boutique-style hotel with additional facilities making it easy enough for those with younger children.

We stayed in an Atlantis room which is more of a mini-suite with a king-size bed in the main bedroom area and small seating area, good-sized bathroom (with a fixed overhead rain shower) and a twin bedroom area. There are flat-screen televisions (with in-built DVD players and freeview) in both sleeping areas, a plethora of towels and a complimentary toiletries set, a small fridge in the main room, a balcony with table and chairs, a safe (big enough to fit a laptop, DSLR camera, video camera, etc), a kettle (with four mugs, tea bags, sugar, long-life milk and coffee sachets), an iron and ironing board, a hairdryer and 'disco' lights throughout! That's not something that I'd normally consider a selling point, but the slow colour-changing ambient lighting was strangely calming and The Boy and me (ha!) loved it.

The room was excellent and I can't recommend it highly enough. I have only three tiny niggles: the first was that the carpet didn't appear to have been hoovered and so on Saturday morning I asked at reception if they could send house-keeping in to give it a quick going over. Reception were most apologetic and by the time we got back two hours later, every fibre of the carpet was standing to attention having been vacuumed to within an inch of its life. Secondly, it was incredibly hot in the room! The other thing that irked me was that they didn't empty our bins on either day, and as we had eaten breakfast in our rooms we had food waste, plus with a child who is still in nappies at night, there was a fair amount in the bins overflowing onto the beautifully clean carpet!

I was amazed at the amount of entertainment available throughout the weekend, definitely something for everyone in the family. The staff are genuinely helpful and caring, being a redcoat really does matter to them! I'd downloaded the brilliant (and free) app for the iPod Touch which can add entertainment events straight to your calendar, this made it really easy to keep track of where everything is taking place and at what time. With free wi-fi (strict firewall settings making it safe) available in both hotels and the Skyline Pavillion it makes it easy to check against the app. Oh and to tweet!

There's a fair amount of places to eat: pizza, pub food, snacks, bar food, Burger King, Turner's (where we had our meal) and in the hotels themselves. However, having spent £90 on just four meals (lunch for the three of us on Saturday and dinner for Mr. TBAM & TB, lunch and dinner for all three on Sunday) the prices are a little on the steep side, which makes the Spar shop a good addition to the site. We had a very good meal with some healthier options available (there's quite a fast-food vibe to some of the 'easteries') in the Sun and Moon pub. The Boy had three fishfingers, five smiley faces and a pot of peas for £3.50 and it was served on the most sensible plate I've seen given yet:

Unfortunately we had to leave last night rather than this afternoon (as I wanted to get The Boy to the doctor this morning) and therefore we missed out on seeing Father Christmas in our designated slot, but were provided with a small gift of a selection box as a consolation.

Would we go again? Yes!

Would I go in the depths of Winter again? No! The site is right on the coast and it was bitterly cold in the open air.

Was the Christmas vibe present during that Christmas Festival weekend? Yes, in abundance!

Overall: service – excellent, hotel – excellent, entertainment – excellent, food – good but pricey.

This is neither a sponsored or a review post. We had a reduced hotel-rate as part of the deal that Tots100 organised with Butlins, but this has no bearing on the outcome of this post which I wasn't asked to write. I just wanted to share the love!

ShowOff ShowCase: The One That Should Have Done Better

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This weekend (while I am hobnobbing with the lovely folk at the Tots 100 Christmas Party) is your opportunity to link-up a post that you wrote that filled you with a sense of satisfaction. You typed that last full stop, pressed 'publish' and thought "yes, this will be a good one!" and waited.

But no bugger actually bothered to read it, or if they did they certainly didn't comment on it!

Why? I can still hear you shouting it at the stats counter/comments log.

Heaven only know why. They didn't deserve it, they were good posts. It's not their fault that they were published on a Bank Holiday or when people were experiencing blog-apathy. Or at the Tots 100 Christmas Party (did I mention I'm going already?)! They don't deserve to feel inadequate, not when they've done nothing wrong.

This weekend, I'd like you to help that post to hold its head up high! Brush them off, stick my badge at the bottom of the post and show them off for everyone to see. Don't be ashamed of them, help them shout at everyone:

I SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER!

ShowOff ShowCase

I've added two; one was a competition post but I love the video and I wanted to share it again. Comments on it are closed so if you want to comment on the Oreo video, please can you do so below? Thanks!