Making paper snowflakes and Vileda review

Wow, life has been utterly hectic lately!

I always find this time of year manic, not just from the usual Christmas lead up with school performances and extra activities, but from it being 4 out of 5 of our birthdays within 3 weeks. We gave the boys a party each, which for me means more cake making because I never just make things easy for myself. But if all that wasn't enough this year we also had a nasty sickness bug which wiped out at least one of us for over a week (James was the only one to escape!) and also a friend's wedding too!

The snow day just about tipped me over the edge when I thought either Sam's party would have to be cancelled or no one would turn up...thankfully though we carried on and enough could make it!

So after all those very busy weeks, I was quite glad when the Monday came around and the boys school although not fully shut (they'd said if it was too dangerous to come in not to worry...I didn't fancy a 50min round trip with the buggy in the snow) we took advantage of a possible lazy day in the warmth.

We were all shattered, especially Sam who was still getting over the lurgy and his birthday. By mid morning I'd actually had enough of them and thought we should at least try and do something festive...I'd been in full on birthday mode up until then!

I decided it had to be something very quick and easy. So we made good old fashioned snowflakes from white paper.

It's something I used to love doing as a kid, and still fun to do now as you never quite know how it will turn out.

Simply get a square piece of paper, fold into a triangle, and fold again to a smaller triangle, and then for a third time.

Open up the third fold.

Bring both side of the triangle to the middle fold and cut off the excess paper.

Now the fun part, cut your design.

Alex had free reign and did his own thing, Sam was more frustrated (due to tiredness) and needed more help so I drew some simple triangle shapes for him to cut. With his snowflake I made less folds too, for ease of him being able to cut it.

Look online if you want a more challenging design too.

Once they'd finished we layered them in so much glue they went soggy lightly put some PVA glue on them and sprinkled with some glitter. We couldn't find silver glitter so made do with some bronze coloured one.

Most people would cringe doing this sort of thing at home with the glitter, but it's super easy to tidy with the right tools.

We had a Vileda 3 Action Broom to try out, now normally I'm not a great lover of brooms as I find they don't pick up the small bits of leave a bit of a trail behind them.

Once the boys had finished and there was the mess of the paper, glitter, and their snack all over our kitchen floor (which is a horrible vinyl...) I was thinking that the broom wouldn't be great if I'm honest as I never have much luck with brooms.

But this one was different, because of the 3 different brushes within the broom head it picked up everything really well and with ease. Even most of the glitter moved with it, and we all know how hard it is to get rid of glitter!

So if you're in need of a cleaning aid this Christmas this broom is brilliant for the quick jobs after crafting, baking, or when you get that call from an unexpected visitor saying they will be round in 5!

This is especially handy for us at the moment with Zachary crawling, I don't always have time to grab the hoover so can do a quick clean of our kitchen and hallway if need be (which quite frankly with 3 boys and a husband in the trade it's always needed)!




The broom was given to us to review but all thoughts and opinions are true and our own words

Easter crafting: shaving foam marbled paper and Easter hats with Marigold.

We've been busy crafting this past week ready for Easter.

Spring is a great time of year to craft, the sun is out and it's time for lots of bright colours too!

On a day where Alex had gone to a friend's house to play after school I took it as a good opportunity to do some crafting with Sam one-to-one. Which I will admit I've not done enough of over the years!

We collected some cards and papers, chose the colours we wanted and bought some shaving foam. (Please read the bottle when buying...we bought the gel one first time and had to head back to be able to make this project)!

How to make shaving foam marbled paper:

Things you need

• Shaving foam
• Paint (at least 3 colours)
• Thick paper or card
• Cocktail sticks/kebab skewers/fork
• Tray with foil (saves on lots of washing)
• Ruler or something else to use as a scraper

How to make it:

• Make sure you clear a space, thanks to Marigold we had plenty of sponges and cloths to wipe down the table and kitchen worktops. 
• Wear gloves if you want to...this would be advisable if you wanted to use food colouring instead of paints.

• Set up the trays, and squirt a generous amount of the shaving foam all over. 
• Choose which colours you want to marble together and dab small blobs all over. 
• Using the skewers etc, make patterns with the paint. Tip: start off with bigger gaps, when you reuse the same shaving foam over a few times you will get a 'tighter' marble affect anyway. 
• Once happy with pattern made place a piece of paper on top. Don't press too hard, but enough for the paint to take. 
• Gently peel off the paper, place on the table.
• Using the ruler scrape the excess shaving foam off, press firmly when doing this.
• Leave to dry
• Put the excess shaving foam back in the tray and mix with the skewer again, repeat until you want to stop. 

I will admit this is quite a messy make! But it is fun, and I will also admit that we aren't too precious about our table as it's on it's last legs. Again having Marigold to help with the clean up was great-as you can see our table needed it!

We actually used these papers this weekend, the boys used templates and cookie cutters to cut out spring shapes for their Easter hats. 

These were really simple to make as it was simply a piece of card for each hat, cut into 3, 2 stapled to fit their heads, and then the extra piece bridged over the top. The 'grass and box of carrots' were from Asda at a £1/e I thought these were pretty reasonable! Using my glue gun I got them to tell me where they wanted their shapes placed.  

Hope you enjoyed this, let us know if you will be crafting this Easter!

This is a collaborative post with Marigold

Walkers Hoops & Crosses Review

It's no lie, I do love crisps...I know they aren't the healthiest but if I don't have a packet at lunch I feel I have missed out, and end up craving them throughout the day.

For years I tried to not pass this habit onto Alex, but as you all probably know it's a bit difficult to eat a packet of crisps hiding behind the fridge door with a preschooler lurking about! So now he does often have some crisps on his plate at lunch time despite my best efforts not to.

So I was very pleased to be able to review a new packet of crisps from Walkers (and so was Alex).
Each packet contains:
-85 calories
-Are made from wholegrains
-No artificial colours or preservatives
They are baked too and are a healthier option compared to a normal packet of crisps, so I would be much happier giving these to Alex instead of other alternatives.

They come in 3 different flavours which are all suitable for vegetarians, roast beef, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar. We were sent the roast beef flavour which tasted great, texture wise they are very comparable to Monster Munch, I thought they tasted much nicer though.

Alex demolished them off and kept shouting "no" when I tried to pinch another one so they definitely got the thumbs up from him (which is good as other crisps he has tired that are similar in texture he hasn't liked at all). It's another way to get wholegrains into their system too, which 27% of children don't get any at all in their diets.

All in all I would be much happier giving these to Alex in his lunch, I still wouldn't give him the whole packet at once as I believe a packet of that size is too much for a young child, but as long as they are eaten with a balanced diet a small amount won't do any harm. However if I think they are quite expensive when doing the weekly shop I might have to go back to our usual savoury snacks due to being on a tight budget.

Thanks Walkers for the crisps and the monkey toy which even the baby is eyeing up and plays with when his brother isn't looking!

Disclosure: we were sent a packet of crisps to review along with a Monkey toy and are getting paid for the review. However all opinion and words are our own.

Review: MaterniCare Pre and Post Natal Nourishing Cream

As many Mum's and Mum's to be know looking after you skin during pregnancy is essential-especially as your skin has to stretch (on average) two extra feet and return back to normal in a few months after the birth!

MaterniCare Pre and Post Natal Nourishing Cream is a unique blend of rich plant oils and essential vitamins, and you can certainly tell. I used this during the final weeks of my pregnancy when my skin had become really itchy and tight, especially at the top of the bump-shortly after using the cream I felt much more comfortable and the itching eased-making me slightly easier to be be around for the rest of the family! It really helped me in the last few weeks.

The cream is a gentle hypoallergenic formula packed with pro-vitamin B5, the benefits of vitamin B5 are:

• Reducing the amount of water lost through the skin
• Improving the softness and elasticity of the skin
• Acting as a natural skin healer and protectant
• Relieving itchiness and reducing stress
• Enhancing the repair of the skin barrier 

This is why the cream is also great if you are one the 3/4's of women who suffered/ is suffering with stretch marks as it fights against the appearance of them. I personally have been quite lucky in both of my pregnancies and not had too many stretch marks (please don't hate me for it!), but the few that I did have are definitely more faded than they were a few months ago after regular use of the cream.

Other things I personally like about the cream are the fact it doesn't have an overpowering scent, my nose was much more sensitive during pregnancy so this was a big plus, it also doesn't leave you feeling 'sticky' for ages after using it like some some creams can, a little seems to go a long way too so it will last a while. I can definitely recommend this product, especially during pregnancy, I can only wish it melted away some of the post pregnancy flabby tummy too ;)

MaterniCare Pre and Post Natal Nourishing cream is £14.99 for 200ml and is available to buy at http://www.forum-health.co.uk/, more information can also be found at http://www.maternicare.com/

Disclosure: I received this product to review but all opinions are true and my own. 

A pregnant Mum's guide/review to Euro Disney!

So towards the end of August we had a lovely family holiday to Disneyland Paris with all of James' family (12 of us at some points)! As we were a large and slightly late booking going over a weekend we were lucky enough to have our meals thrown into the price (I'm sure you pay some way or another though).

James has a large family with 4 brothers and one sister, the youngest of his siblings being 4 and the eldest 24, plus his sister and brother had their partners with them! So both the Disney and Studio parks had something for the small and big kids alike. With it being August we knew it would be busy but with the kids having school and James' eldest brother returning from America with his new partner for a couple of weeks it was the only time we could all go.

We booked two lodges at the Camp Davy Crockett Ranch, we had two of the older style lodges-the beds weren't the most comfortable but for a place to get some shut eye they were perfectly fine (just ignore the fact we took the mattress off the sofa bed frame as it didn't fold flat)! From reviews I have read on trip advisor the new premium lodges are much better-I haven't seen one myself so can only go by what I have read. We only had one slight problem with the lodge, the floor was quite dirty on our first night, but once we mentioned it to the office they bought a cleaner around the next morning, apart from that the lodges were sparkling clean. A couple of downsides to the ranch was that we were in one of the furthest lodges from the pool area, and had to drive to it, and also the fab pool was absolutely freezing which was such a shame! I happily watched the others have fun from the sidelines, the boys all enjoyed the water slide!

With the meal vouchers we could collect our breakfast from a hut close to our lodge, every person got a bread roll, brioche and croissant, along with orange juice, milk and a selection of butter, jams, chocolate spread and sachets of hot chocolate/coffee/teas. For lunches and dinner we had ticket vouchers, these had a face value (I think lunch meals were about 11 euros, and dinner about 25 euros) as we were a large family we booked all of our dinner meals about a month or two before the holiday, this was very beneficial as we could just walk straight into our reserved table. The vouchers are only usable in certain restaurants, but you can also use them at their face value in other restaurants and pay the extra, which is what we did on a few nights. The lunch meal vouchers can only be used at selected fast food outlets, everything comes with chips (I even had salad one day which came with them)! So the lunch menu does get a bit tedious if you use them every day.

We were very lucky with the weather, the week before we went it was about 30C, and the week after they had a bit more rain, we had mid twenties with a breeze which was just right for me (if not a little too hot in the sun). It was just really nice to have 5 days of sun apart from one little shower whilst we ate our meal one night. Certainly made up for the lack of sun in Cornwall a couple of weeks earlier.

A large group obviously made it hard to stick together all the time so we went off and did our own things some days and stayed together some mornings, James was allowed a few goes on the big boy rides whilst me and his Mum looked after the little ones-the two boys spent ages jumping over a massive toy story Rex! Obviously I couldn't go on too much, so I did spend a fair amount of time sat on the paving waiting to wave to my boys!

One thing I did find a bit annoying-especially being pregnant was that smoking was allowed in the park and it seemed to be everyone, I guess the French still haven't caught onto that one then! And also the loos also weren't the nicest so think they could do with a few more cleaners especially on the busy days. Also whilst we were there a few of the bigger rides seemed to have a lot of problems with temporarily breaking down...

The kids (and big kids alike) had a lovely time, I was a bit sceptical as I do prefer more relaxing, less 'fake' holidays but I just loved watching our little boys face light up seeing the characters and enjoying himself on the rides. He hasn't stopped talking about it and keeps asking to go back, even when he plays with his cars, he makes up stories of them going to Disney and parking there etc. We found out that he is a very big Toy Story fan, and as we had a lot of Euros left (and James being James) he did come home with a big Buzz and Woody, Alex was very cute on the Buzz Lightyear ride, where instead of shooting the targets at the end of the ride he sat in awe and waved at Buzz saying "Hi Buzz"! Both toys have been taken to bed every night since!

My tips:
-Take lots of snacks and water/drinks in a rucksack, and take the rucksack into the queues with you. (the drinks and snacks aren't cheap)!
-Take a stroller for kids under 5-there is a lot of walking involved even from the car park to the park gates is a long walk. You can hire them out if need be and there are plenty of places to leave them around the park.
-Make good use of fastpass tickets, get to the ride you want to go to first and work around the allocated time you are given.
-If you can afford it/if it's included in your price go for the meal vouchers, the meals would have been extremely costly otherwise. We saved so much money this way, and actually didn't need to take as many Euros with us as we did.
-If you don't have meal vouchers-take  lunch in with you.
-Going in a large group makes queues go much quicker/more entertainment for the younger ones.
-Bring a strong man with you for holding tired toddlers in queues-luckily James fits that description!
-If you aren't staying at at Disney resort bare in mind you have to pay daily for the parking (15 euros).
-If extended family want to look after the little ones for a bit never say no ;)
-Wear comfy shoes (you wouldn't believe some of the heels I saw on some women)!
-Go to the toilets that are slightly out of the hustle and bustle, they are generally much quieter and cleaner!
-If you have young children go to one of the restaurants that have the characters come to the table-I have never seen Alex look so excited!
-Enjoy the look on your kids faces and film/take many photos to capture it.
-If you are buying toys, leave it until the last day-otherwise the kids will expect something everyday!

We have lots of lovely photos, but I know James doesn't like me putting too many on here. Also a lot of them have his family in too and don't think his parents would like the photos to go on here.

Retail Therapy to Cheer Me Up!

Last month I was lucky enough to win the Dalani competition over at the great The Crazy Kitchen. I was very excited as it was a £50 voucher-loads more than I would be able to spend personally at the moment!

But as always when you are looking everyday and you want to spend it on something you actually want or need when you actually have a voucher/money I couldn't find anything grabbing me too much/some things were very lovely indeed but WAY out of my budget! I also didn't want to spend it too early on in the valid days encase anything came up that I wish I'd have bought instead!

This morning I am glad I waited though as Rob Ryan a very talented paper cutter's works were on today's offers. I have had my eye on his beautiful things for a couple of years now so it was a perfect excuse. So I treated myself to this set of 4 plates (even though I had told myself as soon as I won the voucher not to get anything for the kitchen...whoops)!

Via

Because I was unsure of how long items can stay in your basket I thought I'd better add something else to it and buy today. They have some great storage from Cinas today and I thought you can never have too much storage-certainly not in this house anyway. So I went for this storage pouffe which will be handy.

Via

Anyway, if you like home and garden items that are usually different from the normal things you see in everyday shops I really recommend Dalani, everyday they have 3 or 4 new deals that run for a few days or more, some things are very designer with a designer price tag still and other things are a very reasonable price. The things I have seen on there since I have been signed up ranges from furniture, artwork, accessories, food, cutlery, utensils, glassware, rugs etc. Great for presents or to treat yourself!

This gave me a nice distraction from still feeling rubbish this week with morning sickness and the doctors surgery being a pain! Can't wait for my items to come next month!

I've not been asked to write a review, just a happy customer.