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LolliBop 2013

June 14, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 8 Comments

LolliBop 2013

I'm over the moon to announce that we've been chosen as an official ambassador family for the LolliBop, the excellent children's festival held in London during the middle of the Summer holidays!

We went to LolliBop last year and had a fabulous time discovering the many different parts to the festival in the beautiful Regent's Park. This year however, LolliBop have relocated to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which is very exciting for me as we didn't go to the Olympics and it will be great to explore the area.

LolliBop 2013

LolliBop Live (central stage) is playing host to some of the biggest names in children's entertainment, with live music and performances from stars of stage and screen. This will be compered by Alex Winters and will see acts like:
- LolliBop favourites Dick and Dom return with their special mix of madcap games, songs, jokes and a foam pie or two;
- Sid Sloane and Andy Day will be hosting their very own Big Birthday Bash so expect lots of energetic songs and silliness and plenty of audience participation;
- two of The Boy's favourites Peppa Pig and Poppy Cat will be appearing for the first time;
- The Go! Go! Go! Show are bringing brand new pop songs, catchy, easy-to-learn dance moves and loads of laughs;
- Sing and dance along with the adorable Cloudbabies mini show;
- The Diary of a Wimpy Kid will also be there with its own brand of wacky humour and interview clips from the author.

Lollipalladiam is a live theatre tent showcasing performances from pioneering and internationally renowned companies and artists. Last year saw shows by 'The Gruffalo' and 'Mister Maker' amongst many others, this year it features Spooked, from the critically acclaimed Broken Rose Performing Arts. Spooked promises a hilarious and spectacular blend of dance, theatre and spoken word featuring skeletons Molly, Jinny and Charlie.
The LolliBop Kitchen where creative little cooks will have the chance to learn new skills from live demonstrations and interactive workshops.
Lolli Stops – Enjoy crafts from puppet making, and customised fashion workshops, to balloon modelling, and graffiti painting, there is a something to make and do around every corner.
Tween Town will host a number of activities including street dance, hula-hoop, and beat-box workshops.
Imagination Stations – A hub of creativity with lots of mess and mayhem thrown in! From clay modeling, puppet making, customised fashion workshops, balloon modeling, graffiti painting, face painting and much more.
Science Zone – Make a rocket, hold a dry ice cube, or get messy with gooey slime in the LolliBop lab – brimming with exploding experiments for pint sized guests to try! London's Science Museum will also be attending with live demonstrations and interactive activities.
Discovery Zone – will host a number of educational, interactive and hands on activities where kids can learn a new skill like beatboxing in one of the many workshops.
Run wild and have fun in the LolliSports area. With activities including retro favorites like swingball, hula-hoop and frisbee to football tournaments and sports day style races.
The Lolli Promenade will be situated on the River Lea! A real river running through the new home, so why not relax and enjoy an ice lolly at the Lolli Promenade which also features beach hut crafts and bandstands.
Fun Kids is a radio station for Tweens, pre-schoolers and their families and broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio across London and the South East and online/through mobiles at funkidslive.com.
Skylanders will also be appearing providing LolliBoppers with the opportunity to be among the first in the UK to play Skylanders SWAP Force, which introduces the new play pattern of dynamic swapability, before it hits the shops in October.
The pre-school 3ft and under is also making a comeback but this time is it within the brand new Itsy Bitsy Zone. Activities for babies and toddlers will include soft play, baby massage, storytelling, mini discos and much more along with the Enchanted Forest and The Village Green with live music, craft stalls and street theatre, making it an ideal spot for a picnic.
Not forgetting: the Mr Men and Little Miss Village Green Event; Shaun the Sheep's Championsheeps; the life-size Transformer Optimus Prime Truck, along with the Transformers Station Experience showcasing the new Beast Hunters toys, viewings of the cartoon series Transformers Prime and free green screen pictures; and the amazing wildlife showcase with National Geographic Kids Animal Man
Extensive covered buggy parks, baby changing and breast-feeding areas will be available.

For more information and tickets, see here.

LolliBop 2012

As a LolliBop Blogger I will receive free entry into the festival for my family, my endorsement of this festival is honest and unbiased and based on past experiences.

Interview With A Four Year Old

June 12, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 29 Comments

Last year, Emma from A Matter Of Choice had a fabulous idea to interview her three year old son Leo, then to repeat the interview every birthday and see how the answers changed with age.

We took part in this great idea and last year's interview was a real insight into the randomness of my three year old son's mind. This year… well… yes.

Let's just say that he gets distracted easily, shall we?

How To Make Pirate Bunting

June 10, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 12 Comments

How to make pirate bunting

We're fortunate enough to have a perfectly south-facing garden and a son born in the Summer. This tends to mean that we are able to utilise the garden for his parties and bedeck the trees and bushes with bunting and balloons.

(That's the theory anyway, but on his second birthday there was a near monsoon outside in south Wales, and his third was in a church hall because it had rained for the fortnight before and I wasn't taking any chances.)

However, one of the things that I adore in the Summer months is seeing brightly coloured bunting draped through trees, and although we have 50 metres of home-made Very Hungry Caterpillar bunting from his first birthday, I felt that we needed some new flags for his fourth birthday; a pirate-themed party.

I did some research and found a huge selection of red, white and black fabrics suitable for pirate bunting from a variety of online shops and Ikea.

How To Make Pirate Bunting

More specifically the fabrics I bought were:

red and white polka dots
red and black stripes
pirates skull and crossbones
blue nautical flags
plain red
red and white stripes, black and white stripes both from Ikea

Using this Pirate Bunting template, I traced out the triangles of fabric and cut them out using pinking shears (prevents the edges from fraying and saves time on stitching them too). For each 5 metre length of ribbon, I had nine different fabrics and used three of each. I laid them out in a pattern which meant there was a good contrast of red, white and black, along with alternating patterns and stripes.

Pirate Bunting flags

Next job was to pin them on to the ribbon. I used 5 metre lengths to make it more manageable with sewing and untaggling, and had a 15cm strip of ribbon free at either end for tying onto the tree or fence post. I left a 1cm gap in between the triangles and pinned three complete repetitions along the 5 metre length. After pinning the triangles into place, I used the sewing machine with red thread to stitch them into place.

How To Make Pirate Bunting

In total I made thirty metres of fabric to string around the garden for his pirate party, very jolly!

How To Make Pirate Bunting

AppCards: Card Games For Mobile Devices (Review)

June 10, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe Leave a Comment

We are a big fan of games in this house, both tangible board and card games, and those on the iPad. Therefore when I were offered a selection of 'appCards' to review, I jumped at the chance to try out something that crosses over from one to the other.

AppCards are a perfect game to take on journeys or holidays, as well as for use in the house, as they take up such little space. The pack of cards and the tablet or smartphone is all that's needed to play. We were sent 'Sound Bingo', 'Colour Slam' and 'PimPamPet' to test out and took them with us when we went on holiday to Dorset recently.

appCards

We had a go of 'Colour Slam' because I always take age guidelines on games like this with a pinch of salt, but I'd agree that it's best suited to children aged around the '8+' guideline; my 7 year old nephew and 10 year old niece love it. It's a very bright and funky game for the 'tween' generation, and fun to play with friends. It involved each player having four cards and trying to colour match the combination shown on the screen. Good fun for 8+ age bracket.

appCards Colour Slam

'PimPamPet' is one that foxed me I'm afraid, and that's more to do with my inability to understand games like this. In this word and general knowledge 'beat-the-clock' game which involves being provided with a topic by the app on the mobile device, and then using the seven cards from your pile to come up with an associated answer. However, there's an added level of 'robbing' from other players which led to this Leo the Lion becoming frustrated. Again this game is for 8+, and possibly not stroppy mummies who've not slept well!

appCards PimPamPet

The best one for us (as a family with a pre-schooler) was Sound Bingo. In this, there are four different coloured sets of cards, which makes it like a bingo board. Up to four people can play and each choose a colour which they select on the app, this lets the app know which colours to throw into the random generator of sounds. Players lay their cards out face up and the app plays an unknown sound. The player who has that sound declares it, and they swipe the screen on the mobile device to confirm. Once they have all their cards claimed, then the shout 'bingo'. This is a very simple and easy game, perfect for the 4+ age recommendation.

appCards Sound Bingo

AppCards are produced by Jumbo (the company behind the jigsaw puzzles and the iPieces games) and cost £9.99 each, available from a variety of retailers.

I was sent a copy of these products for the purpose of this review, my opinions are honest and unbiased.

365 #23

June 8, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe Leave a Comment

The 365 linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts via comments. I can't emphasise this enough, it's the whole point of the linky!

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!

Days 153-159 of Project 365

June 8, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 28 Comments

153-159 of 365

153. Peek-a-boo! (This is my favourite photo of the week. We went to Abbotsbury Swannery on the way home from holiday and The Boy was fascinated by the cygnets, some of which had hatched the day before. I could have included a photo of a cute and fluffy cygnet, instead it's this one of The Boy climbing in a tunnel of trees which I adore.)

154. Alien (I set up an invitation to play for him with playdough, feathers, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, matchsticks and lolly sticks and he created this fab alien.)

155. Spiderman! (We dropped my niece's present over for her birthday and The Boy was desperate to play in their 170 foot garden which has this fabulous spider's web climbing net.)

156. Mr. Bloom (Today we planted our seeds for the Britmums challenge: Kids Grow Wild with MoneySupermarket. The Boy hasn't quite got the concept of watering in moderation.)

157. Waterbaby? (I wish he was a waterbaby; his constant ear infections from November to March every year mean that he rarely goes swimming apart from in the Summer. This past Winter he had glue ear in both ears, with 5% reduction in hearing in his right ear and slightly more in his left. We were told by the doctor not to allow water into his ears and so he hasn't been since last September. Today we decided to give it a go, bought him some new armbands and a noodle-thing, and he absolutely loved it. He even managed to use both to try out backstroke legs, and was so confident in the water he went down the infants slide backwards. Think we'll be going weekly from now on.)

158. Fortress (After work, we decided to pop to Barry Island for some sandcastle building and I ended up building The Boy a small defense wall with a pit to sit in. I think we may have put the defenses on the wrong side though looking at the stormy skies behind?)

159. Squint (We popped over to Nana and Grandad's this afternoon, in between shopping and The Boy has great fun with his cousin and the playdough. Not exciting, just every day life!.)

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Pecorama: Train Heaven (Country Kids)

June 8, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 16 Comments

Our holiday to our beloved Lyme Bay in Dorset during half-term saw us return to many of our favourite places; West Bay, Bridport, Abbotsbury Swannery, Lyme Regis and a recent addition; Pecorama.

Pecorama is a beautiful place set high on the hillside above Beer, on the western side of Lyme Bay in Devon. Commanding wonderful views over the coastline that quite frankly could compete with the views from the Terrace of Infinity in Ravello, the cultivated gardens and play areas are also home to one of the best miniature steam railways we've been on.

We first went there two years ago when The Boy was just two years old and he loved it then, but various parts were of minimal interest then due to his age. This time around however he couldn't get enough of the different garden rooms (including the shell grotto in the moon room), the many play areas and of course the very detailed railway known as the Beer Heights Light Railway.

The key thing is that the railway is not just a track laid down around the gardens; there is a long and winding tunnel, there are stations with platforms and picket fences, bridges, sidings, signal and control boxes with amusing names, and all the employees really take on the roles well. It's a truly magical experience.

Pecorama isn't just about the railway for children though, there is a huge play area (with picnic benches nearby) which facilitates children from toddling to around eight years of age, then there is a pirate ship play area, and an older children play zone with monkey bars, climbing walls and a zip wire. The Boy refuses to ignore age guidelines though, especially if there is a zip wire involved!

Beer Heights Light Railway

And to finish off, no trip to Pecorama would be complete without examining and playing with the interactive exhibition of model railways!

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Cousins (Flashback Friday)

June 7, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 10 Comments

As The Boy nears his fourth birthday I've been reflecting on my little bundle and how he has grown. This was him in July 2009 meeting one of his cousins (my brother's daughter) for the first time; it was her first cuddle with him.

Fiery cousin & The Boy 1

It seems quite opportunistic to post this now, as my brother has just popped over for something and told me that she was mortified to discover that I had fuzzed out her face in the last batch of photos I'd put up of her. At the time I'd done it because I wanted to maintain her privacy and not assume I could post about her in an identifiable way. However, as she's now seven and a half years old (and has her own ideas about these things), I have permission to post away as she was proud to see herself mentioned.

So this post is for you, my little chick-a-dee!

Fiery cousin and The Boy 2

Here are the same cousins five weeks ago. This was the day she fiercely turned around to another child and declared that The Boy could stand where she told him to, "because he's my cousin!"

That's why I call her Fiery Cousin.

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The One Where I Pretend To Be A Barista!

June 4, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 11 Comments

In my twitter 'bio' is the phrase 'full-time coffee-worshipper', and some days this is more true than others. Like last Tuesday when I had a house full of mess from my mum's birthday party the day before, a table full of ironing in preparation for our holiday the next day, and two suitcases which were, quite frankly, taunting me with their emptiness. I knew from the moment I awoke that the day was going to be sponsored by caffeine.

Therefore when the doorbell rang at 8.55, at around about the time I was holding my head in one hand and reaching to turn the kettle on with another, the courier which handed me this parcel was almost enveloped in the biggest hug of gratitude ever.

Tassimo T20 coffee maker

Isn't it wonderful?

Now this is not the first Tassimo that we have owned, I'll be honest. We had one when they first came out but after about five years we had a child and needed the surface space for the steriliser and other baby paraphenalia. On its move up to the attic it suffered from a drop and refused to work again in protest. Receiving the e-mail from Tassimo inviting me to receive one of their newer models to review was like a gift from God, especially last Tuesday!

The model we received is the Tassimo T20 and it is a very funky looking machine indeed, vastly improved in design from the first one we had which was bulky and cumbersome. This takes up only two-thirds of the space of the previous model, is far quieter and heats up significantly faster. It also has a nifty on and off switch on the machine, a huge improvement!

In the package from Tassimo was a pack of Earl Grey tea and a pack of Kenco 100% Colombian coffee, along with some drizzles and chocolate pretty bits to embellish the drink. As it was definitely a coffee day, I set about experimenting to see what I could come up with.

Tassimo T20

Using the machine is so easy! Each T-Pod has a barcode on it which is individual to the type of drink it is, this informs the Tassimo machine how much hot water to put through the T-Pod and also whether to let the T-Pod infuse with a few drops of hot water first of all. Put the T-Pod in, press the cover down, give the button a jab and it does the rest itself.

I actually poured the milk in carefully half way through the cycle; experience has taught me that if you put it in at the beginning then the sugar (which should also be put in at the beginning) doesn't dissolve properly, and if you put it in at the end then the wonderful froth from the Tassimo is lost. I also put in a teaspoon of the chocolate drops at the beginning of the cycle which melted into the hot coffee as it came out of the machine. This added a lovely mocha flavour to the drink.

I then drizzled caramel and chocolate sauce over the top of the froth, before carefully (so as not to break the surface tension of the froth and drizzle) placing a few chocolate drops and some chocolate popping candy on the top.

Et voila!

I give you the caramel mochacino; TBaM style!

Tassimo T20