An Afternoon on Bournemouth Beach

This week we went to Rockley Park, Haven Holiday Camp in Poole. We got back today and we're positively exhausted. The kids loved every minute of it. More of the holiday camp itself to come in another post but here are a few snaps from a few hours spent on Bournemouth beach. It wasn't the best of weather but we still managed to have a good time and the kids loved the freedom of space that the beach afforded them (I'm sure on a hot summers (?!) day, space is hard to find on Bournemouth beach!). 

We started off with a walk down the pier and then this happened:

I don't know about you, I love and hate these rides. It's like the kids have a radar for them and once they've spotted one then they can't get them out of their heads. I love that the kids just have so much fun on them, what I don't love is the badgering to keep going on them, BUT we were on holiday so it's allowed.

Next we hit the beach. It was overcast and I was all for getting back in the car and going back to the indoor pool at Rockley Park (and a cuppa in the van), but we stuck it out and I'm glad we did. It's really us adults that spoil the fun sometimes and so I put thoughts of being in the warm aside and we left Grandma in the deckchair covered up with a towel and started to make 'something'. We don't really know what it is that we made but it was a family effort and it gave Isla a sense of pride once 'it' was finished! She was responsible for all the decoration - obviously - I mean that's what she loves doing. We collected shells and looked at them and had a good look at some seaweed too. Noah spent most of his time trying to knock down our good work!!

Here we are with our masterpiece!

Isla also practised writing her name, the sand is such a great place to do this as there is so much of it!

Finally there was just about time for a bounce on the most monstrous bouncy castle you've ever seen!

A massive sleep was had in the car after this, which we took advantage of with a quiet cuppa in the caravan!

Bezerkaz Circus - Amazing Entertainment for Any Event!

From village fetes, weddings, birthday parties & town Festivals to nationwide events such as Glastonbury Kid’s Field, WOMAD, the Girl Guide Association Centenary Camp & World Scout Jamboree - Bezerkaz Circus have performed jaw dropping tricks, made gigantic bubbles and taught exciting circus skills all over the UK and beyond.

We set out to amaze, inspire and facilitate a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Set up in 2001, we offer an incredible variety of tricks for children’s parties and are much more than just children’s entertainment. We can mix shows, walkabouts & workshop activities, for a unique experience of both amazement and meaningful learning. 

Photo Courtesy of David Weedon

Our circus skills workshops allow children to try challenging activities such as plate spinning, diabolo, juggling, twirling, balancing objects, bubble making, clown games and lots more, meaning that everyone will find something they enjoy and CAN achieve- So much more valuable than ONLY watching a show. We adapt and tailor workshops for all ages and abilities and are specialists in the field of special needs and disability schools and integrational workshops.

In addition, we can meet and greet on stilts, perform bubbles, make balloon models, juggle fire and offer a clown show all helping to make your event and unforgettable and educational experience.This year we will be working all over England - Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury (Kent) , Party in the Park - Woking (Surrey), Whitehaven Maritime Festival (Cumbria and Lake District), Lyne Family Fun Day (Surrey), Dursley Town Festival (Cotswolds), Bakewell Music Festival (Derbyshire), Burgess Hill Fun Day (Sussex) as well as countless schools, school fetes and children's birthday parties. 

Please do see our websites 

http://www.bezerkaz.co.uk

http://circus-workshop.net

or call 07866261346 for more information. 


This isn't a paid for post, this is a post for a good friend of mine. I can vouch that he is a born entertainer and would be brilliant for events, particularly for children. 

Disney Pixar Monsters University - Guest Review

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to a first screening of Monsters University in the UK. Unfortunately we couldn't make it!! So I emailed a good bloggie friend, Jo at Adequate Parent (don't be fooled - she is more than adequate!) and she said that H, her little girl would love it, so here is her round up of the screening of Monsters University:

 

If you've seen Monsters Inc then you'll know what happens - this prequel shows us how Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (aka Sulley) meet and end up working together as a team. Actually, doing this is refreshing - it's not Monsters Inc 2 which you get which generally Disney-Pixar get right (see Toy Story). Here's the trailer :

There were activities for kids before the movie started - and we were lucky, H got her face painted and got a Mike balloon made for her, from this chap who made a huge balloon Monster hat everyone got to try - but the main reason everyone was there was to see the film, and we were told by the directors that actually we were one of the first audiences to see it in the world. Blimey!

We were introduced to Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae as well as other key people who made the film before Mike and Sulley came and waved hello to us all. After that, the film - we were treated to a new Pixar animation 'The Blue Umbrella' which was charming, and will be shown alongside Monsters University (so make sure you get there in time - it's only six minutes long). 

So, Monsters University. What is there to say? The film focuses around Mike which surprised me as I felt like Monsters Inc is definitely more of a Sulley film, but actually it works - and you find out about his background, and getting into University. He's the hard working one who dreamed of becoming a Scarer, whereas Sully is the laid back (almost horizontal) student whose father works at Monsters Inc. Mike has the ambition, Sulley the skills. Add to that they both become fiercely competitive - and take an instant dislike to each other.

I don't want to give a lot of the plot away, but going to Monsters University and being thrown out of the course you really need to get to Scare School isn't great, so they need to find an alternative way to get in - and both of them work out that working together is something they actually do well. 

Don't expect it to fall into the obvious conclusion either - that's what makes the film. It's a hilarious, happy film, one we enjoyed watching as a family - and was also our first 3D experience. Was it scary? Not at all. Did H enjoy it? Absolutely! It's rated U here and ends up being a nostalgic trip to University which people of all ages will enjoy - there's enough humour for a three year old and a forty three year old to laugh at the same jokes; we loved it! 

Monsters University is released on July 12th 2013, Certified U.

Directed by Dan Scanlon, Produceed by Kori Rae. With voices from: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Charlie Day, Joel Murray, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Julia Sweeney, Peter Sohn

"Like" Disney Pixar on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DisneyPixarUKDisney's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/WaltDisneyStudiosUK 
Follow Disney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DisneyMoviesUK

We were sent free tickets to the screening of this film, all words and opinions are courtesy of Jo at Adequate Parent and they are honest and true! Thanks Jo for stepping in for us! 

Hungry to Happy Challenge - Tasty Moroccan Meatballs Recipe

We were sent some of of the new Richmond Mini Meatballs to try and used it as an excuse to try out new flavours on the kids. Here we have........

Tasty Moroccan Meatballs: Total cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 x packs of Richmond Meatballs
1 red pepper - diced
1 onion - diced
1 clove of garlic
1 tspn cumin
1 tspn ground coriander
1 tspn paprika
1 tin of tomatoes
Dessert spoon of runny honey
1 tbspn sundried tomato puree
200 ml water
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200C - once pre-heated pop Richmond mini meatballs in the oven for 8 minutes

While meatballs are cooking, prepare sauce:
Fry off the pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes gently until soft
Add the spices and fry for another minute
Add Tinned tomatoes, water sundried tomato paste and runny honey and bring to a fierce bubble! Then turn down to simmer for 10 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.

Next I blitzed the sauce with a hand blender so that it was smooth for the kids and took the meatballs from the oven and added them to the sauce. 

I served with Cous Cous. 

The kids actually loved it! They love meatballs anyway and these are perfect in size for their little mouths. They are so quick to prepare and versatile. I think I will just cook them with homemade chips and peas next time we use them rather than jazzing them up with a sauce.

This post is an entry for BritMums’ Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs. We were sent a voucher to use to buy the meatballs, but as is typical with me I forgot to bring the vouchers when I needed to buy them!

Moneysupermarket #KidsGrowWild - Gardening Challenge

Since the beginning of Spring we've been pottering about in the garden with the kids trying to get them interested in all things 'flowers' and 'nature'. This is the first year that we have attempted such a thing as the kids are still only 3 and 1 and quite simply we've been too knackered to do much more than tend to a small patch of grass - and even mowing that sometimes felt too much!! We were sent a cute little children's gardening kit (Thank you Moneysupermarket!) to help us get the kids all green fingered. Noah kept calling the watering can a teapot at first.....

I started off by showing the kids how runner beans grow and we did this by putting the beans in a glass jar with a nice damp roll of kitchen towel and making sure that it had a bit of water in the bottom of the jar. Every day we would look at the bean as it began to sprout roots and shoots. It was fascinating. I always remember doing this as a child so I loved doing it with Isla and Noah. We also recycled some food containers (the bigger cardboard Twiglet tubes work well!) to use to grow our runner beans in before we planted them out.

There aren't many of them but they are now planted in the garden and they are entwining themselves around the canes that we put in the earth. We find it so fascinating the way the tendrils wrap themselves around the cane, the kids love that we have our very own beanstalks, just need to hope there are no giants....

Isla and I paid a visit to the garden centre and we bought a few plants to put in pots and also some sweet pea seeds as I have long had a desire to have sweet peas growing in my garden - they smell so lovely and the flowers are so delicately beautiful. Isla and I planted them and we took care to make sure the little seeds grew into seedlings. 

Yes the kids were using dessert spoons before we got a gardening kit!

We invested in a very small makeshift greenhouse - we don't have a massive garden so it was only a £20 one that could house our seedlings to protect them from the unusually long winter! 

I also have to point out that the life of a seedling is perilous in our garden. On two occasions our pots got knocked off the shelves in the little greenhouse and I found myself one morning (6.45am) scrabbling around in my dressing gown in the pouring rain re-potting all our much loved little green shoots!! I was desperate for us to be successful at growing things from scratch! 

We also found that we had some flowers in our garden that we never knew we had! Foxgloves have popped up in the last week. We also have Granny's Bonnet (Aquilegia vulgaris - oooh get me with my latin names!) - from my Dad's garden which has self seeded in a few other places. And that's another thing that I love about gardening, you can pinch little bits and bobs from other people's gardens (well strictly speaking, only people you know!). What excellent freebies!

We came across a couple of little friends while we were gardening too, which was a nice. surprise! Gardening is actually really helping with Isla's irrational fears of bugs and creepy crawlies.

All in all we're really enjoying spending time as a family in our little garden. Apart from flowers and a few runner beans we've also planted to some herbs so I'm hoping that we will also get to sample the fruits of our labours at dinner time as well. There are so many valuable lessons to be learnt from gardening. 

This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge, sponsored by Moneysupermarket.com 

I'm Going To Britmums Live Courtesy of Look Again!

Back in 2011 I went to a brilliant Parent blogging conference called Cybermummy. I was 39 weeks pregnant and I waddled around the entire day, chatting to other bloggers I'd only ever tweeted or met for a few hours at an event. People thought I was slightly mad, with my mahousive bump, and there was talk of potentially popping out the sproglet at the conference! I was so glad that Noah decided to save his appearance for another day (although 12 days late did get me down slightly!) as it meant that I had a fabulous time and I learnt a lot. I missed Britmums (as it is now called) last year, and I was gutted to miss out, so this year I'm so happy to say that I'm going and that Look Again are sponsoring me to be there! I am looking forward to meeting bloggers new and old, trying to learn more about blogging and improving my social media skills, and obviously taking part in the social aspect that comes with it - particularly having a few alcoholic drinks that I couldn't partake in the last time hahahahaha!

Here's a little bit about me:

Name: Sharon

Blog: I Heart Motherhood

Twitter ID: @iheartmuthahood

Height: 5ft 11 - yeah, I'm tall!

Hair: Bobbed brown

Eyes: Green and Hazel

Is this your first blogging conference? No it's my 3rd

Are you attending both days? Hell yeah!

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013?

Catching up with all my favourite bloggers, attending some great sessions and feeling inspired!

What are you wearing? Is it a cardinal sin to admit that I don't have a bloody clue! I know that this is extremely disorganised of me!

What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2013? I hope to build on my blogging skillz!

Tell us one thing about you that not everyone knows

I used to have some weird crushes as a youngster - Stephen Hendry anyone?
Here's a little bit about my sponsors:

Look Again, packed with inspiration for a fashionable wardrobe and home, Lookagain.co.uk is a fresh, new ultra-stylish and easy to navigate online store. Brimming with gorgeous clothing, footwear and interior looks, plus a host of fabulous features and new interactive tools, it’s all been designed to make shopping a dream. 

There’s always something new to inspire & surprise! 

We’re dedicated to helping you keep your wardrobe on-trend with the very latest looks - so 100 brand new styles are launched every week. And because they all have 10% off for the first seven days only, you can get the newest styles first for less. Our whole collection is priced to compete with the high street, too, so you can shop effortlessly from home with the confidence that you haven’t paid a penny more than you need. Looking for ideas? We’ll show you how to wear the must-have looks, your way. And our regular trend reports will show you what’s hot this season. If it’s snappy style advice you’re after, our celebrity stylist ’60 second fashion fix’ videos are just the thing. And we’ll help you find the perfect item easily with our innovative online shopping tools. With both exclusive new brands and those you love at your fingertips, a wide range of 17 shops for all occasions and specially selected ranges for you, your family and home, make Look Again your first port of call every time you shop. Not only that, with fantastic treats up for grabs in our weekly prize draw plus a whole host of exciting new features coming soon to the site.

I'd just like to say THANK YOU Look Again for sponsoring me to go to the Parent Blogging Community's event of the year. I'm looking forward to every minute! 


Look Again have paid for my Britmums ticket, travel and overnight stay

Annabel Karmel Quick and Easy Toddler Meals - Book Review

In a move to make mealtimes more manageable for busy mums and dads, the UK’s number one parenting author and expert on baby and child nutrition Annabel Karmel MBE launches the first in her ‘Quick and Easy’ series: Quick and Easy Toddler Recipes.

With mealtime meltdown a daily occurrence across thousands of busy UK households, Annabel has cooked up a 144 page full colour recipe book to help hard-working families feed their children a healthy, balanced diet – in quick time!

With recent research deeming British toddlers to be the fussiest in Europe and with 42% of parents admitting to a repertoire of just seven meals they cook for their children, it’s no surprise that parents regularly become locked in a battle of wills.

But mealtimes are about to get tastier for tiny tums – and easier for mums – with over 100 delicious and nutritious time-saving recipes packed full of natural flavour. And it’s not just little ones who will love them; combining everyday kitchen ingredients with simple-to-follow instructions, Annabel’s recipes can be whipped up for the whole family too.

What did we think?

We have road-tested the book and the kids have enjoyed what we've made so far. We have two very fussy and headstrong kids and they have a very small repertoire of meals that they will eat without considerable badgering from us. First up I made Meatballs in Goulash Sauce. We served these with pasta, not rice. I know I should have gone with the rice but I wanted to avoid any aggro that night and I felt that rice would make the kids not eat any of it. They loved the meatballs and so did me and the OH - proof that although the book is aimed at cooking for toddlers it works for the entire family. Next time I make it I will man-up and serve with rice, after all the more times kids are served a food, they will become familiar with it, and become more likely to try it. 

Next up we tried Quick Chicken Nuggets. These were delicious. The coating was crushed up cornflakes and it was Isla's job to smash them all up - she enjoyed doing that! I much prefer chicken nuggets that are freshly made but it is easy to fall into that trap thinking it's more convenient to buy them but these are so easy to make and you know what chicken you're eating. Look at them, they look so golden and crispy. Yum.

And our final road test was a bit of a disaster (at first) as while I was trying to concentrate on the recipe (Isla was helping me again) I had Noah having the most EPIC tantrum in the kitchen, demanding to be picked up. I started off making Tomato and Basil Risotto but I ended up with a bit of a cross breed of that and the recipe on the opposite page! I got so distracted that I put Creme Fraiche in the Risotto, which wasn't part of the plan, but actually ended up being a fortunate accident as it was really tasty. Again, Isla helped me to make dinner and I think it gave her a sense of pride and I also believe prompted her to eat more of it than she would have otherwise. 

So there you have it, 3 very successful dishes and a desire to make more from this lovely little book. We give this book a big thumbs up and would recommend it to any time poor, frazzled mum of fussy eaters. 

Quick and Easy Toddler Recipes (RRP £9.99) is published by Ebury Press on 20^th June and will be available from all good book shops and Amazon.

We were sent the book free of charge but all opinions in the review are honest and my own.