My Journey Out on a School Night :)

Well I was out on Wednesday night for a cheeky school night drink with the girlies.   For some reason I decided to film my journey, be warned this is serious abuse of an iphone!

Sorry for wasting those precious seconds of your life haha!
Annie x

Pram Running St Albans Style

This morning @mediocre_mum and I were at a local park with our little ones when we spotted a (insert collective noun) of mummys running with their designer prams.  We howled with laughter and unfortunately I found myself videoing it! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpOjzB8lZxs

After that they started with elastic bands round trees and the bandstand!

Good on them really, just each to their own and all that :)

Annie x

Paper Jamz Guitar : Never Stop Rocking :)

Well it appears I may have a little rock chick on my hands.  We were sent a Paper Jamz guitar to play with, and whilst it is recommended suitable from 8+ my 3 year old won't put it down.  I have no idea where she has learnt some of the moves from either?

They were actually launched last year and became one of the best-selling toys of 2010.  I myself am also enjoying playing with it, as a left hander I always dreamt of being taught guitar, but unfortunately Sir Paul McCartney was always rather busy.


Suffice to say we are using it as a sophisticated toy, including the minded children, though it does in fact come with guidance on how to play, and a lot more technical stuff that would lend itself to being nearer to a real guitar.  Oh and I did discover it has a built-in headphone jack which may prove invaluable in the future.


We've had it some weeks now, and it is still being brought out on a daily basis, so at RRP £24.99 I thinks it's worth it.


To see it properly in action, take a look here! http://www.paperjamz.com/en


Thanks!
Annie x

Electronic Test Tube Aliens

We were given the opportunity to play with a test tube alien.  I'll admit to being somewhat bemused by their description, but should have known that WowWee understand what amuses my 7yo son better than I! (Ages: 6+).

The idea is that you hatch your alien, and then have to keep them alive to discover their evil plans, with online interaction to discover their secrets, to stop the invasion of earth.

The whole family were there at the hatching, and it was difficult to keep both children's noses out of the way, whilst we waited to discover which alien we had.  The starting of its heart beating left them open mouthed, and Jasper made sure it was fed enough sloog to keep it ticking ;)

There are six different aliens to collect, and at a RRP of £12.99 thought it was excellent value.  As you can see we had the attractive blue fellow Sorum, and without spoiling your fun will say that it kept the children amused for weeks.   Unfortunately our trip away led to its demise - I couldn't bring myself to ask the cat and chicken feeder to mind the alien too, but I am under strict orders to get another one!


See them in all their glory here :)  http://testtubealiens.com/
Happy hatching :) 
Annie x

McDonalds and Recycling who are they kidding?`

Yes my kids have McDonalds occasionally, so call me a bad mother.  What grates me though is the lack of recycling facilities there are in McDonalds, with a Happy Meal you have cardboard, paper, plastic etc., but for an organisation this large no recycling bins.   


Friends are often embarrassed that I refuse to tip all of this into their bins, and have been known to take the bits home and recycle myself!  Who am I kidding that I can made a difference versus the damage this company can possibly be doing!


Recently however I was delighted to see a recycling hope for the plastic bottles, next to the normal bin.  Hoorah I thought, until I opened it up to see that it went into exactly the same place as the rubbish!!!!!

I am hoping that maybe they sell their rubbish to a company to recycle for them, like I am lead to believe some airlines do?  Otherwise I feel completely let down.


I have heard the argument about the cardboard being too greasy to recycle by the way, but knowing the supplier of their cardboard I know this is not true!


Will leave that with you whilst I go fume a little more!
Thanks for listening!
Annie x

Bonusprint Photobook for Fathers Day

I was recently offered the opportunity to review the Bonusprint Photobook  by @nickie72 - with Fathers Day around the corner I gratefully jumped at the chance.

I'm a bit nervous when it comes to uploading photos and designing etc. but am pleased to say that it was incredibly easy to follow and quick to upload the photos.  In fact the bit that took time was to find 24 pictures to put together from my various CD's, cameras, phones etc. (Not very organised)!  I chose to put a border around the pics, as the photobook is square, and there are other editing bits you could use, but for me this was all I wanted.


I can't vouch for how long delivery actually took as I went on holiday the next day, but I received tracking emails whilst I was away, and it was there when I returned home.

I was dead chuffed with the end result, as were the kids - just hoping they keep it quiet before Fathers Day itself!  I would also add that as they are fairly small in size, you can order them periodically but won't take up much space to store.

To sumarise I would say that it was incredibly easy to provide an incredibly thoughtful present.  At a starting price of just £12.99, affordable too.  Will definitely be using it again!  For more reviews you can visit Nicky's wonderful blog at www.iamtypecast.com


Thanks for reading!
Annie x

#mumsonthree event hosted by Three.co.uk

I was chuffed to be invited to a Mums On Three event recently, hosted by Three.co.uk  I had no idea what to expect so was glad to bump into some familiar faces, though unfortunately also spilt hot tea on some unfamilar ones oops!

Unfortunately some of us were unable to pick up Wi-Fi, so was kindly lent a mobile WiFi (Mi-Fi) unit, which I'd never heard of but blew me away.   This little gadget lets you connect up to five wi-fi enabled devises at the same time, and could well do away with my Wi-Fi unit at home.  No idea on costings as yet but will certainly be looking into!

We were then introduced to the panel of mums who were going to give us an informal chat about how smart phones have made them make better use of their time on the go.  Amongst them were the lovely Denise Van Outen and Lowri Turner.  Lowri gave a lady some useful advice about expressing milk, she advised that you note the time the milk is taken, as nighttime milk has special hormones in it to help the baby sleep!  I never knew that.

We then attended various informal seminars allowing us to discuss useful apps for mums on the go, and also shown the different smartphones available.  I am never far from my iphone but there were mums there who didn't have smart phones who found it useful.  They discussed the fact that a lot of mums don't get onto the computer until late at night, but with a smartphone they could be getting on with jobs during the day, from ordering the shopping, to checking activities for the kids to shopping for themselves even, things that aways take up time that they often don't have available!  The lady from Three who spoke to us had a beautiful dress on, and she told me she ordered it whilst sitting in the car on the school run :)

They have now got a handy facebook page with tips and competitions etc. which I will certainly be keeping in touch with.   Two apps I learnt about that are amazing are Jamies Recipes (free on iphone), which has a shopping list feature, and Ocado (also free) where you can take pictures of what you need to replace and they drop into your shopping basket!  Wow doesn't cover it.


I don't have enough apps on my phone to do the 32gb justice, so am off to have a play!


Thanks for reading.
Annie x