Boots Mini Club Clothing (Review)

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I was recently asked if I'd like to be sent an outfit for The Boy from the new season at Mini Club clothing from Boots. As it's one of the clothes shops of choice for The Boy, I readily agreed and waited for the outfit eager to see the colours and styles available.

I'm quite a fussy mum when it comes to dressing The Boy. When he was a baby it was easy because most boys clothes were the soft blues and coffee browns that really suited his colouring, yet the minute he turned two everything became garish and brash. Bright, lurid colours don't suit The Boy, he always needs a muted tone of each colour as he's so pale. This is one of the reasons why I like Mini Club; the colours are understated and suit The Boy perfectly. It's also one of the few places that gets the sizing right; he's a tall boy with a long, skinny body and broad shoulders yet everything always fits perfectly.

boots mini-mode

The Boy was sent:

  • a fleece-lined green hooded gilet (£14.00) – the gilet seemed a little short in the body but I suspect that was the style, it also didn't completely cover his large head (bless him!)
  • lightwash jeans (£10.00) with an adjustable waist – far more appropriate for a pre-school boy than elasticated waist jeans as they fall down on him
  • two pack long-sleeve striped tops (£9.00) – really nicely designed with contrasting stripes on each arm to the body, and an excellent length in the body and sleeve.

I think he looks really trendy in this outfit and it's definitely one that I would have chosen for him (we love stripey tops). The colours are perfect for him (especially as his favourite colour is green) and the prices are extremely reasonable.

We were sent these items for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

A Young Harry Potter (Costume Review)

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harry potter dressing up

How cute does he look?

A few months ago we were sent the Wonderbook: Book of Spells to review and ever since The Boy has been obsessed with spell-casting. We bought him a magician's wand for Christmas and he brandishes this in our direction at various points during the day, but it's one of those black and white jobbies that is used by a magician with black hat and tails. His preference is for incantations rather than conjuring.

I know! Three and a half, who'd have thought he'd be so fussy when it comes to magic?!

"Expelliarmus!" "Wingardium Nevinosa!" (he can't say it properly) and "Accio daddy!" are just a few of his favourite spells, along with "ComeToMeus" (thank you Grandad!). He has no idea who Harry Potter is but he adores wizarding.

Therefore when I was offered the chance to review a costume from Fancy Dress Ball I had no hesitation in choosing this Gryffindor cloak, wand and set of glasses for The Boy. While he may not have much of a clue at the moment as to the wizarding significance, he thinks he's marvellous and a proper wizard now; the wand is much better and he likes looking like daddy with the glasses. This Harry Potter get-up is perfect and it's one of many costumes available under the Fancy Dress Ball’s world book day costume section. Don’t forget to mark your calendar as World Book Day is on the 7th March 2013.

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Small World: Beach Play

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Whistling against the double-glazed doors, the wind howled around the garden searching for an outlet. It found its victim in the lone toy lying on the patio; the Step 2 water table, abandoned since the last warm day of Summer, rolling around the concrete slabs.

Irritating the hell out of me!

Which was the point that I summoned my husband to, "just do something with it, will you?!"

And then I glanced down at the Pinterest board that I had open displaying a plethora of play ideas. Many of them use exactly the same water table that was in danger of being outcast at that very moment. Mr. TBaM was informed to bring it in and clean it off and an idea started taking shape in my mind.

The Boy loves playing with his water table, and he loves playing at the beach. It's slightly Arctic at the moment and as much as I'm happy to chant the mantra, 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!', after a while it turns into a lie; it's really cold at Barry Island at this time of year!

The Boy and I (see I'm capable of the correct grammar when necessary) nipped to a pound shop earlier and picked up a bunch of fake flowers, glass pebbles, stone polished pebbles and Blu-Tack. While he was napping this afternoon, I got busy creating him his own indoor lagoon to play with.

imaginative play

I filled the top section of the water table with sand and the lower level with water, to which I added a few drops of blue food colouring. The glass pebbles in the base help to give the 'sea' more of a ripply effect and are more colourful. They're also lovely to play with in the water.

The fake flower heads were removed, as were a variety of the leaves, and I pushed the plastic stalk into a ball of Blu-Tack which adheres well to the tub and manages to withstand water splashed quite well. I covered up the base of the Blu-Tack with smaller leaves of small pebbles. The polished stones were laid around the edges of the sand to resemble rockpools, and I created a sunlounger haven in the area where the water-wheel normally stands. Finally I added his Playmobil figures in different poses.

He was over the moon when he came downstairs to play with it, and got stuck straight in making sandcastles and diving the figures into the sea.

imaginative play

This table has proven to be a great resource for the play and I've got a whole range of other ideas to try out with it. Small World play is brilliant for pre-schoolers as it allows them to make sense of the world in which they live by acting out known situations, and exploring others with safety and guidance from the supervising adult.

It helps to develop oracy, fine motor skills and the imagination. What better excuse for playing?

A Digital Postcard From Ghana

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Nope, I've not been on holiday. Looking out the window at the dreary and monotone world, it would be nice but unfortunately not. I'm also not convinced that Ghana would be a place that people would have at the top of their holiday list, but this weekend three intrepid bloggers (#TeamHonk) set off with the Comic Relief team (including Davina McCall and Jonathan Ross) for a trip to see the good work that has been done  as a result of the past twenty five years worth of donations to Red Nose Day.

#TeamHonk have been visiting four projects in Ghana on 4th and 5th February to see for themselves the difference Red Nose Day money has been making. Those projects are: Virtuous Women and Children International, African Outreach, Vaccination Clinic, and Basic Needs UK Trust.

To help raise awareness of the chosen projects, #TeamHonk have been sending 'digital postcards' out to show how the money has been sent. This is my postcard, fittingly of a school, sent from Penny at Alexander Residence.

Davina McCall

Here is Davina filming in the school in Agbogbloshie the largest slum community in Accra, Ghana, with 700,000 people. 200 children can now attend school thanks to money from Comic relief which extended a small shack for 20 students set up by an amazing women called Paulina. Wonder if this clip will be on Red Nose Day coverage, 15th March?

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (Mammasaurus, Alexander Residence, and Mummy Barrow) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com.

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org
GoodWork

TheCoffeeandMe: EightPointNine.Com Designer Coffee

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In my twitter profile it says (amongst other nonsense):

"Mum, wife, part-time teacher, full-time coffee-worshipper."

…and so I suppose it was always going to be a matter of time before I was asked to review coffee.

coffee

Eightpointnine are a coffee company who use FairTrade beans and create gourmet coffee, designed by and for you.

You'll notice the title of this post, as above in the left photograph, is called 'TheCoffeeandMe'? That's because they provide the option of naming the customised coffee; I didn't choose the name, in fact I forgot to name it so they did it for me. Nice touch hey?

Using a sliding scale to choose between fresh or spicy, light or rich, provides the perfect choice of coffee; mine contained 87g of Sumatran and 63g of Brazilian to reflect the mellow and spicy blend I requested. Following this selection, there's the option to configure the order with the grind (espresso, filter, cafetiere or beans), delivery day, and as a repeat or one-off order.

eightpointnine

For those less decisive coffee drinkers, there is a weekly subscription service where EightPointNine select and hand-blend a top class roast from their range of FairTrade beans showcasing the best coffees from around the world.

At £5.89 a bag it is more expensive than we'd usually buy however, the quality is superb and for a special occasion, or even as a present, it's a decadent treat.

I was sent this product for the purpose of this post, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

365 #5

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Hands up who's beginning to struggle?

This is the grey month, the month where 365 participants begin to flag. The excitement of the project has settled, the Christmas rush has finished, the snow has melted and the skies are grey. But don't give up! Pick yourself a theme for a week and stick to that. At various points throughout last year I'd do a week of 'From Where I Stand' following in the 'footsteps' (ahem) of A Kilt and A Camera. Other themes could be 'hands', 'action', 'outside', 'books', 'food', etc. Pick a theme and play with it, take interesting photos on that theme and enjoy! DON'T GIVE UP!

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

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).

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
365



Days 27-33 of Project 365

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27-33 of 365

27. 'One Giant Leap' (Off to Porthkerry Park on Sunday to play in the sunshine and check out how high the water was in the brooks.)

28. 'Hello, Down There' (a trip to the local Victorian park on the way back from the supermarket. This is part of our bid to spend 15 minutes outside in the fresh air every day, inspired by Jenny from Mummy Mishaps and Cerys from Nature and Play. Some days are really easy, other days – like a work day – are harder. Today was also the day of the epic play-dough making session; three colours and still he wanted more?!)

29. 'Do You Like My New Hat?' (Big activity day today, Tuesdays often are as I try to cram as much quality and quantity time in as possible before having to go back to work the next day. We made a wintery hat which ended up looking more like a space hat, did a science experiment involving moving water, went to gymnastics and also went scooting in the pouring rain in Cardiff Bay. Thanks for that Jenny and Cerys!)

30. 'New Jigsaw' (A work day but when I came home The Boy was able to play with his brand new jigsaw from Orchard Toys. Watch this space for a review!)

31. 'The Gruffalo' (Thanks to a 'heart-pressing' session when The Boy saw one of his friend's wearing a Gruffalo hat, he decided he wanted to dress up in his costume. I got the mirror down so he could see what he looked like. The irony was that five minutes later, the nanosecond I'd finished taking photographs, he insisted the costume came off. I think he scared himself!)

32. 'Slumber' (Absolutely exhausted, I let him have a longer nap today. I certainly paid for it as we had a ridiculous wake-up time of 5.20 this morning. Now where's that Gro-clock I was sent for review?!)

33. 'Rebel!' (We nipped down to Cardiff Bay Barrage for a cycle and a scoot in glorious sunshine, but dear God it was Arctic! The road across the barrage isn't used by vehicles and is a safe route for cyclists of all ages. The Boy has a minimal awareness of the highway code and road signs, clearly!)

My favourite photo of the week is The Gruffalo photo.

—

TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

MWTWbadge

Country Kids: Exploring

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Sunday dawned bright and sunny; time for the wellies and to don the thermals to venture out to the park.

First off, showing us his moves in the playground there.

Country Kids Porthkerry 1

When it was first built, a little over a year ago, he was too young to be able to enjoy any of the facilities. However, he's now at a prime age for exploring them and being challenged by what's available. Scampering up the cargo net like Spiderman, throwing himself down the slide (normally headfirst) and standing up on the swinging rope, seem to pose no concern to him anymore. It's like he's a different child now when it comes to his physical confidence.

Charging off into the distance, he'd clearly had enough of the confines of the playground and needed a run with Mr. TBaM. It's just as well; there's a ditch running alongside the path which is usually little more than a trickle with 3ft high banks. Due to the recent snow and rain fall, it's now level with the grassy banks and the path.

In fact…

Country Kids Porthkerry 2

The Boy is actually stood on one of the bridges crossing the stream. Mr. TBaM is very nervously out of shot ready to jump forward if necessary as we were pretty sure that the edge of the bridge was two foot to The Boy's left, but it wasn't visible!

Country Kids Porthkerry 3

He wanted to do some 'plopping' on the beach, but the tide was out and walking on stones down to the shoreline takes a long time with a three year old. We gathered up pebbles and 'plopped' them in a different part of the stream instead. Then we tried pooh sticks, but the sticks kept getting stuck under the bridge.

Finally, The Boy tried jumping around the fairy ring but his legs weren't quiet long enough.

country kids porthkerry 4

—

coombe mill

Learning for Life

Barratt's Children's Shoes (Review)

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We were recently invited to choose a pair of shoes for The Boy from the range of infants shoes available at Barratt's.

Barratt's is not actually the first place I'd have thought of going to for pre-schoolers' shoes, and I guess that's the point of the review. I can't be the only one with the misconception that they only sell ladies' fashion shoes or men's trainers, and browsing the site, I was pleasantly surprised to see the brands sold.

In the end, I opted for a pair of Hush Puppies for The Boy.

Hush Puppies for children

These leather shoes are excellent quality with the all-important (for me) notch cut out the back meaning the hard leather doesn't dig into their Achilles' tendon causing damage. They also have two very easily adjustable velcro straps meaning that The Boy can put them on by himself and they don't tend to slip as he's wearing them. The soles aren't that rigid and allow him to bend his feet properly while walking, even more important for The Boy as he does have a tendency to 'flap' (something that would see my mother raising her eyebrow firmly in my direction, and I of course wouldn't know what she'd be trying to insinuate).

My only criticism is also a positive. Inside the box were three sets of insoles, carefully wrapped up but with no explanation whatsoever. It's only from Googling the text on the bottom of the insoles that I've since found out that they are a 3D Fitting System which allows for different width insoles to be placed. Red = E fitting, yellow = F, blue = G. Unfortunately, I had The Boy using a yellow insole not a blue one for a short while until I managed to find the relevant information. This concept is genius because many children require a different fitting on each foot; these insoles accommodate that need. It would have been good to have some paraphenalia on it though, or something obvious on the website explaining it.

These Hush Puppies leather casual shoes (Whale) retail at £32.00 a pair, which I've always found to be an average cost for quality shoes for The Boy; it's certainly comparable with Clark's and the brand is just as good meaning that I won't be automatically heading there in the future to buy his shoes.

I was given credit to purchase these shoes for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

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