Sun sun sunny sun… Slip Slap Slop Wrap
Lookie look! The SUN is OUT!
Naturally, sitting out for some much needed brightness with my lunch I managed to scald my cheeks an attractive lobster shade… Which is a bit sore, but did remind me that we were going to run a series for ‘Sun Awareness Week’ a little while ago – which we didn’t. Because it was raining. Would’ve been stoopid.
But now the sun is shining (and yes, my nose is smarting) so here – from our resident experts at The Beach Factory; a quick reminder on keeping the family safe in the sunshine, whilst still managing to enjoy it.
- Slip on a shirt
- Slop on sunscreen
- Slap on a hat
- Wrap on sunglasses.
The SunSmart message is really simple to implement for all ages and if you follow the “Slip-Slap-Slop-Wrap” code there is no reason for sore shoulders, burnt faces, fractious kids and permanent sun damage.
1. Nothing can spoil a family holiday quicker than sunburn! Sun protection UV swim shirts and UV sunsuits, tested to the maximum standard of UPF 50+, are ideal products to wear as sunscreen only has to be applied on exposed areas (Laura says – we fell in love with these in 2008, and have never looked back)
LOVE this Lion in the Sun sunsuit which is on sale at under £20, age 2-8yrs.
2. Carry a pocket size Sunsense roll on sun cream in your bag, useful for days out when it starts off cloudy and then the sun comes out. Perfect size to pack in school bags too so older kids can apply their own cream when at school.
FAB idea - roll on sunscreen in your bag. No more leaky tubes!
3. Don’t forget sun hats whether you are at home or abroad. Wide brimmed sun hats and legionnaire style hats are ideal to wear to school and in the water.
LOVE these reversible Tuga hats (£15) which are good for in the pool too.
4. Eyes are so vulnerable; make sure you use sun glasses tested to UV 400. Kids Banz glasses with adjustable straps stay on younger children, J Banz and Squids suit older children.
I know my boys would totally wear these £13 JBanz. Cool, no?
5. Try to stay out of the sun at least between 11-3pm by either hiring or buying a big parasol or investing in a UV tent which will shield the family from harmful UV rays.
There's no point in having the children nicely in the shade while you sizzle, is there?
Green Giant and Colin Jackson at the Trafford Centre, Manchester!
On 29th and 30th October 2011 the Green Giant and his mate Colin Jackson visited the Trafford Centre in Manchester to encourage families to get their 5-a-day veggies every day.
A fantastic time was had by all with top tips for 5-a-day, meeting Colin Jackson and 193 families gave the Green Giant a High Five!
Fantastic!
So, if you want to want some top tips from the Green Giant on getting your family their 5-a-day every day, like their Facebook page here!
*sponsored post*
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Just in case you had a spare two minutes…
*flutters eyelashes in charmingly wooing manner*
Read MoreA plea from us.
I intended to sit here this morning, and craft a strong, heartfelt, impassioned message, explaining why you really MUST go and sign the petition for Save The Children HERE.
But just sometimes, I sit here, and the words won’t come.
I have something important to say – and yet can’t find the words to say it the way I want to.
So while I dithered, I did what any normal person does, and hit Google Reader. The first post I read?
Serious Sunday from Kate Takes Five.
And there it was. The post I wanted to write. Only written more simply, more perfectly than I would ever have managed it.
If you read nothing else today – including the rest of this, you must go and read it.
Please.
Go read her post. Go sign the petition. Go tell all your family and friends to sign the petition. Go help make a difference. Because it really can.
Meet the Review God(dess) – Ben
In the interests of balance (and because he not only makes us laugh but has a fine taste in wallpaper) our next Goddess is actually an honorary God(dess)… You can find Ben more frequently over at his Mutterings Of A Fool blog, but here’s a quick introduction:
No, I’m not that guy who’s actually a girl and had a baby; I’m just your regular (almost 30) modern man. I’m a technology addict, tweeter, blogger, lover of all things edible, owner to the craziest springer spaniel and husband to a wife who is hell bent on spending money as fast as I earn it. I own the worlds most expensive curtains, but would rather have spent the money on a Mac Book Air or a 50″ LED TV. I’m about to be a dad for the first time and as a result have recently arranged for my salary to be paid directly to Mothercare.
I neeeeeed – exercising at least 4 times a week, otherwise I turn into a grump
TV highlight of the week – Grand Designs, Kirsty’s homemade homes, Location Location Location… you get the picture
What do you miss? – my hair
Favourite day of the year? – Sunday
Favourite quote – red sky at night, barn on fire
Introducing… US!
It has been shouted at us brought to our attention that there may be a person or three who don’t actually really know who we are, or what we do.
I know, hard to believe, but tis sadly true.
So, we have decided to take the peace and tranquility that half term brings (aka operating Wii bribes and hiding in the office) to introduce us; LittleStuff AND the people behind it.
So: Part One – How We Were Born…
It all started with me (Laura) being very pregnant with boy-number-3. I had a 3 yr old, a 1 yr old, a mahoosive bump, and I was NOT going to tackle the High Street for the last few baby bits I wanted. Unfortunately, this was eight years ago (EIGHT! I know!), and the internet was a very different place back then. I could of course go to the brands I knew, and shop for the things I needed. But what if I wanted things that weren’t found in every other nursery up and down the country? Where did I go then?
Surely there was somewhere on this amazing interweb that had collected them all together for me, yes?
Well… no.
There wasn’t.
So I thought B*$%s to that, and did it myself (like you do).
LittleStuff started off as a plain old shopping directory for parents of 0-5′s – a place where people who wanted the beautiful baby things could find them, with no fuss and no wasting of precious time.
But, as sometimes happens, it grew.
People started asking for advice. Suggestions. Ideas. Opinions.
Never one to turn down the opportunity to talk, I welcomed the changes.
Then Katy joined in.
(here’s a little-known fact. Despite meeting on a web forum nine years ago, Katy and I have only ever met ONCE in real life. Totally True. And as for talking on the phone… Well, I think I did ring her the one time we did meet, to let her know we were stuck in traffic… We may well be solely responsible for maintaining the iChat system however…)
And suddenly, LittleStuff grew legs. And what had begun as a small internet shopping directory took on a whole life and personality of its own, and found its voice – and gracious me, does it talk. As our children grew (now four for me and two for Katy), we realised the enormous gap in the market for the 5-11 age range – so we upped our own age range to include them. Then Blogging ‘happened’. And Facebook. And Twitter… We Embraced Them All.
We Had Found LittleStuff’s True Home – simply chatting to a squillion Mums like us.
The directory is still there, of course (take a peek at the Shopping List up there on the right), and it has become an invaluable Little Black Book of fabulous web sites selling fabulous things. We’ll tell you about the sweee-e-e-e-test little newborn hats. And the Gorgeousest smocked pinafores for your 8 yr old. We’ll show you our favourite hand-crafted notebooks, and mugs to give you a smile of happy whenever you use them. We’ll give you real honest-opinion unbiased reviews, brilliant competitions, and above all else; regular little “oooh!” moments when we see something pretty.
So – subscribe to our feed. Join us on Facebook, come chat to us on Twitter. Tea’s at 11, and we’re VERY partial to posh biscuits.
Read MoreCarless Whispers – In Which Keris Finally Feels A Little Bit Smug.
Years ago, I looked after four children – aged 2, 5, 8 and 11 – while their parents were on holiday (I was young, I needed the money…). I had use of the mother’s car, but it had some sort of weird system where, when you stopped the car it had to kind of settle down and because it hadn’t settled before I’d turned the engine off… it broke. (I asked on Twitter what this wonder of technology would have been and the answer is Citroën’s hydropneumatic suspension. You know, if you care.) This meant we had to use the bus.
The children of the (pretty wealthy) family had never used the bus before. Ever. They weren’t keen. They couldn’t believe they had to walk to the bus stop. In fact, they couldn’t believe they had to walk full stop.
So one of the thing that’s really surprised me since we became car-free is how easily Harry’s adapted to it. He’s happy to get the bus and equally happy to walk. He’s also keen to be involved in the purchase of a new car. Walking to school one day last week Harry said, “There’s a car for sale there!” We were in a hurry to get to school so we couldn’t stop, but Harry said, “I didn’t see how much it was. But it was black, I think…” An important detail.
On the way home we stopped to have a look at it (it was blue) and I read the advert out to Harry and explained all about road tax, insurance, MOTs and the expression “two careful lady owners” (I know. But he’s actually quite interested in that kind of thing). We talked about it all the way home. Whether it would be big enough, what car he’d prefer (another Daewoo Matiz) (no chance), what car I’d prefer (a Fiat 500), what car Daddy might like (Who cares? We won’t be getting it). It was his main topic of conversation for quite a few days.
One rainy morning, he said, “I know you like walking… but when we get a car, could we walk when it’s dry and sunny and maybe drive on yucky days like this?” I had to stop and squeeze him.
It’s been so interesting (and a bit trying) managing without a car, but one of the best things about it has been how grown-up Harry’s been about it.
–
Keris Stainton
(you can read more in the Carless Whispers series by clickety clicking on the image above)
Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake
http://www.twitter.com/keris
http://www.keris-stainton.com
Read MoreSchool Dinners Recipes – Pink Custard
What was it with pink custard? Lusciously gorgeous in colour and texture and comfort factor – and universally adored. Pink custard just made any school dinners pudding a real treat, no? Remember the sponge squares with a thin layer of jam and coconut on top? Or fudge tart squares (produced further to mucho requests from cornflake tart eaters)? Or my husbands personal favourite chocolate concrete? All made slightly-more-perfect with that creamy pouring of pink goo.
Now, I always thought that pink custard was simply yellow custard with some food colouring in. Not So! Recently I have discovered why whenever I make some, it simply never looks or tastes the same as memory tells me it did in the 70′s.
A recent tip-off has alerted me that it is actually a little more devious… I tried it. It works. It so, SO works.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… School Dinners Pink Custard.
What you Need:
1 pint milk
1 packet pink blancmange mix
(strawberry and raspberry both work, but for me raspberry is where to put your money)
2 or 3 tbs sugar to taste
What You Do:
- In a heat-proof bowl empty the contents of the blancmange packet.
- Add the sugar and two or three tbs from the pint of milk and mix to a paste.
- Warm the remaining milk in a pan – do not boil.
- Pour a little of this milk on to the paste and give it a really good mix.
- Pour this bright pink goo into the warmed milk and then bring to the boil.
- Keep stirring (it has a tendency to catch and burn if you decide this would be a good time to empty the dishwasher/make a cup of tea).
- Simmer for about a minute (if the custard is very thick add a little more milk to thin it down – remember you are supposed to be pouring it smoothly, not ladling it out in gloops!).
- Serve with your school dinners pudding of choice… Nom nom nom…
Coming Next Week – School Dinners Fudge Tart.
Read MoreJust for Bloggers! – A Little Loveliness, Just For You.
We’re looking for a little Blog Love ourselves. So. Anyone who mentions our Bestest Christmas Gift Guide on their blog (and leaves a comment here to tell us about it!) will be entered 
into a prize drawer to win 
this rather gorgeous Cheese selection… or maybe the Choclate and Proseccio set over there (or, if you prefer, you can take £50 John Lewis vouchers and go buy yourself something pretty… *rolls eyes*)
It’s honestly that easy – mention us on your blog before the 20th December, come back here and tell us and our Bestest Christmas Gift Guide, and we’ll pop your name in a hat to win your choice of prize.
The prize is sponsored by those really rather clever and lovely people at Appliances Online – they’ll also be contacting someone who comments to offer a freebie themselves, so you have two shots at swagging some loot!
Read MoreI. Love. Lego. (and that goes for the magazine too)
If you’re a parent, I find you’re in one of three camps. Loved lego as a child but a) your children aren’t old enough yet b) you can’t bear the thought of all those BITS c) you’ve been ‘got’, and can wince in sympathetic agony if someone whipers “lego knee” at you.
But I have never met anyone who doesn’t like Lego. I mean really – what’s not to like? It’s universally adored for all sorts of reasons (except maybe the price of the new sets… but that’s what Grandparents are for, and 2nd hand lego is JUST as good, yes?).
But did you know that your child can be a member of the Lego club, and receive the magazine – totally for free? It’s brilliant – not just packed with adverts to help your child build an unattainable wish list. It’s full of stories, quizzes, Building tips, pictures from other modellers, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes news – it’s honestly a fab read (I have been known to sneak a read myself – I love the interviews with ‘real’ lego Masters, I somehow imagine them all to be secret squirrels in funny hats…)
Andthere’s even two versions, the usual one (click the green banner on the right) and the Junior version for under sixes (image on the left). It says for under sixes, but actually my tender-natured practically-8-yr-old is far happier with the Junior version still.
And no, Lego doesn’t pay us for advertising. We just love these, and know you will too. Or more importantly, you’ll gain yourself a free 15 minutes with a hot mug of tea and Google Reader whilst your child loves the magazine for you.
Read MoreBlog Love – Mahoosive Buckets Of It.
There are some weeks when the blogosphere doesn’t hand me a single ‘whoompf’ moment. I read a lot of blogs, but I need a post that makes me react emotionally or intellectually for me to mark it down in the Blog Love list.
But then there are weeks like this week – when by the time Friday comes round I have a few contenders I feel deserve shouting about. So I’ve decided on a Wild West Round up, and show you them all…
First was Readily A Parent, with her thought=provoking essay in what Genuine Activism really is – her blog is always an interesting read, but this post led to a great discussion between myself and some friends.
Next came Mummy Mania – who happened to be my first ever Blog Love. I adore her writing – but what a heart-stopping, fist clenching read her last few posts have been. A new baby, and then within a couple of days her mother suffering a major stroke. Please start reading back in September, and send your thoughts and love to her and her family right now. She needs them.
Lastly, was the always-lovely Chez Spud, on the coming of Autumn. She gave me a little oooh! moment over her conkers. She made me snort at her brilliant Seasonal narkiness… And then I read her glum anticipation of Christmas. Then I read it again. Then I read it out to The Husband (who reacted exactly as I expected with a very loud cheer).
So – a collective ‘Hooyah!’, all – we’re taking Christmas in hand this year. And we’re bloody well going to enjoy it. AND January too.
(don’t forget to leave a comment and some blog love of your own, all three of these ladies deserve it this week – and an extra big gentle one for Mummy Mania).
You can see more of our Blog Love choices here…
Read MoreCarless Whispers – In which Keris loses a car. Or two.
In a new series from the little-bit-brilliant Keris Stainton (she of the weaning diary ‘Slopsville‘ fame… and rather less importantly a small amount of minor stardom as a much-touted fabulous YA author of course), Carless Whispers is a record of her family’s experience of Life Minus Car…
Once upon a time, we had two cars. Well, I say once upon a time – it was about a month ago. The MOT was due on my car (a titchy Daewoo Matiz) and my husband David said it would certainly fail. With petrol prices as they are and my insurance being pretty high since I only passed my test a few years ago, running two cars was expensive and, we decided, unnecessary. We could manage with one, we said. We’d managed with one up until a year ago when my dad found he could no longer drive for health reasons and gave us his Rover. It would mean doing the school run on foot, but I could do with the exercise. It’d be fine.
So we scrapped my car. I was surprised at how emotional it was. I felt guilty, thinking I should have tried the MOT – maybe the car wasn’t as bad as we thought. Maybe it would have passed. I should at least have given it a chance! As it was put on the back of the scrap merchant’s truck, I actually cried. It had taken me a LONG time to learn to drive and it was my first car. I was going to miss it.
I started doing the school run on foot – me, my 6-year-old son Harry and 20-month-old Joe in his buggy. It’s about a half hour walk each way, but it was good. We had fun. A few times when I picked Harry up, it was raining heavily so I phoned David, who works just 20 minutes drive away and finishes at 4, and we waited in the library for him to pick us up. We were saving money on insurance and petrol, had got £60 back on the Road Tax and £80 scrap for the car. It was all working out very well. (Did you just hear the “sod’s law” alarm going off?)
After a couple of weeks, we were driving up to David’s parents to drop the boys off for the night. David was going out with work colleagues and I’d planned an indulgent evening of Friends repeats and a Chinese takeaway. As we headed up quite a steep hill to their house, the car started making a strange rattling sound.
“That’s not a happy sound,” I said.
“Nope,” David agreed. He seemed to be having trouble changing gear.
“Has it been doing that for a while?” I asked.
“Just started,” David said.
We made it up the hill, but the rattling continued on the flat. We turned a corner and headed up another, smaller hill. We got to the top, stopped at the junction and… the car died.
“Great,” David said.
“Is that smoke?” I asked, pointing at the front of the car.
David rolled the car back to the kerb and parked it. I hauled the boys and their bags out of the back. We walked the last five minutes to the in-laws’ house.
“Maybe it’s nothing,” I said.
But we knew.
We all knew.
Even Harry said, “What are we going to do about a car NOW?”
Good question.
–
Keris Stainton
Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake
http://www.twitter.com/keris
http://www.keris-stainton.com
http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk
Read MoreBlog Love Extra Special – Rosie Scribble
I know we usually do a Blog Love on a Friday, but this is an extra; Rosie Scribble’s is a blog deserving a very special mention right now.
A few weeks ago, Rosie travelled with the Pampers and UNICEF teams to witness the progress of their “1 pack = 1 life-saving vaccine” campaign which is helping to eliminate maternal and newborn tetanus (MNT).
Clicking on the daisy will take you to the start of her story – if you haven’t already been following, then please do take ten minutes to go and read, and please make sure you have added your own Big Kiss to the campaign.
Massage in baggy undies.
A couple of weeks ago, I went for a massage. I haven’t had one for a while. I’ve never been much of a massage person, but after I had my first child (6 years ago), I was desperate for one. It was (apart from the baby) pretty much all I could think about. I felt beaten up and out of touch with my body (having mostly seen it as a receptacle for someone else’s body 
for nine months). When Harry was about two weeks old, I found a masseur – he was in his 50s, a former fireman. He had a handlebar moustache, tattooed arms like hams and he gave me a completely brilliant massage. But I haven’t had one as good since.
So when Wahanda offered me one, I jumped at the chance. Okay, maybe I didn’t exactly jump, but I perked right up in my seat and went “Ooh!”
On the way to my appointment (I went to Essential Spa, Manchester, but Wahanda are country wide), I started to worry about saggy knickers and unshaven legs, etc. (and by “etc.” I mean unshaven everything), but once I got there and had a chat with Caroline the masseur, I relaxed. She left me alone to get undressed and once I was down to the aforementioned baggy drawers, I found that she hadn’t lowered the massage table. I had to clamber up, legs and boobs akimbo. It wasn’t pretty. Or dignified.
But once the massage started, I was able to forget about the prospect of CCTV and security guards clutching their sides with mirth (I know there’s unlikely to be CCTV in a treatment room, but when you’ve just had to clamber onto a table in your pants, you feel paranoid) and relax.
In the past, I’ve had massages in which the masseur has concentrated on, say, my shoulders and I’ve been lying there thinking “Do my neck. Do my neck. DO MY NECK!” Or they’ve been pummelling away on my legs, while all I could think about was how stiff my heels were (my heels are often stiff because in reflexology they correlate to the coccyx and I spend all day sitting on my behind), but with Caroline, I didn’t feel like anything was left out. At the end of the massage – which lasted about an hour – I was utterly relaxed and as floppy as a rag. Once she’d given me a glass of water and left me alone to get dressed, I slid right off the table like an omelette out of a pan. (Yeah, okay, not like any omelette I’ve ever made. Shut up.)
Afterwards, Caroline told me that I was “wound up like a clockwork duck”, particularly my lower back and my shoulders – which seems completely reasonable since I almost never relax and spend all day either sitting in front of a computer or pushing a pram – and recommended I return for a hot stone massage. I don’t know whether that’s something I genuinely need or whether Caroline was just trying to squeeze another booking out of me, but she didn’t give me the hard sell and I can’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed, so I’ll certainly be going back. But next time I’ll put on nicer undies. And maybe take a little step-stool.
*
Wahanda MobDeals are rather brilliant. When you sign up, you get £5 off your first purchase http://www.wahanda.com/mobdeal/uk/ and the offers are great too. For example, A Pamper Day worth £47 for £15 or an Osteopathy session worth £60 for £25. And they’re all over the country.
Keris Stainton
Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake
http://www.twitter.com/keris
http://www.keris-stainton.com
http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk
QUINNY are calling all you new parent bloggers and tweeters…
Popular pushchair brand Quinny is calling out to all mums and dads who are active on the internet to become one of their 25 official QuinnyCasters in the UK.
If you’re a mum or dad and blogging, twitter, facebook, myspace or YouTube is your thing, then why not become one of 25 official QuinnyCasters in the UK? It’s an excellent and fun opportunity to test the latest Quinny products completely free of charge and share your opinion and ‘voice of parental experience’ to family, friends, mums and dads all over the world.
As an official QuinnyCaster, you will be given the latest Quinny product to try out, which you will be able to keep after a period of six months. All you have to do is just go out there and have fun with your child and Quinny! A special QuinnyCaster profile page is set up on a dedicated website that you have total control over. Other sites and channels through which you wish to share details of your exciting life as a parent and what you report on, is entirely up to you.
QuinnyCasters will kick off by trying out the new Quinny Zapp Xtra, a compact buggy with great functionality and usability. The lightweight seat reclines and has a lie-flat position which makes it comfortably suitable from birth and can be used forward- or rearward-facing. An added bonus if you already own a Maxi-Cosi infant car seat is that both the Pebble and CabrioFix car seats fit the new Quinny Zapp Xtra perfectly.
So sign up before September 10, 2010 on www.quinnycasters.com to become an official QuinnyCaster. Quinny has every confidence in its products, so join QuinnyCasters and test drive the fun way and share your honest views with the world any way, your way. The world and Quinny wants to hear from you!
Read MoreGet yer bra’s out!
Research carried out earlier this year by OnePoll.com found that the typical female owns 13 bras but only wears eight of them regularly. With the average 
bra costing £28.00, that’s £3.47 billion worth of bras doing nothing! bras4mums are offering women the chance to get these ‘old’ bras doing good elsewhere.
Tracey-Jane Hughes, who also runs the mastectomy specialist company bras4all, explained: ”We’ve been collecting unwanted bras and new cotton knickers for our “Knickers for Africa” appeal for 18 months now. We’ve sent boxes and boxes of bras & knickers on to the charities we support. Now we’d like to thank our loyal customers on our second birthday, and encourage more women to clean out their draws to help others”
All customers who send their clean unwanted bras during September will receive a £5 voucher as a thank you for their commitment to recycling and helping others. This voucher can be used with either bras4mums or bras4all online stores, or at the Lancashire shop.
T-J added, “All the recycled bras are split between the Knickers4Africa appeal, and raising money for the Breast Cancer Campaign Charity. We have a pink box inside our shop for clean but useable bras to be put in, and another for new cotton knickers. We’ve had North West companies collect in their work places, including the National Museum in Liverpool who collected 380 pairs of new knickers for the Knickers4Africa Appeal which has been a great boost to the campaign”.
So come on – own up. How many do you have loitering in the back of your drawer? I can think if two I’m waiting to shrink back in to, one which is pretty but just not comfortable, and a couple of feeding bras lurking at the back…
Unwanted bras and new cotton knickers can be sent to the office at White Bear Marina, Park Road, Adlington. PR7 4HZ.
Read MoreWhat’s your earliest memory? Help the Science Museum
The Science museum in London are currently asking people to answer specific questions around the topic “Who Am I” and have asked us to ask you for some asnwers… So help them out please!
Here’s your question -
What is your earliest memory?
I’ll start off – mine is being weighed. Seriously. I remember being in a large hall – probably a church hall – which was kind of echoey and noisy. I clearly remember being plopped into some scales which were shiny, cold, hard – and too small for me, making me feel precarious and unsafe.
Clearly I wasn’t a baby when this happened, I’m guessing I must have been taken to a baby clinic as a toddler and had my weight checked. I’ve been told I can’t possibly remember this, but it is so very clear in my mind, just a tiny snippet of a moment, and remembering the feel of the metal and just knowing it was too small and I might fall.
I also remember sitting on the kitchen work surface, watching my Mum tidy up, and proudly announcing ‘Now I’m three, I’m a big girl and I can help you do jobs in the kitchen now.” She smiled, and I didn’t understand why what I had said was amusing…
So – what’s yours? Answers in the comments box will be passed on to the Science Museum. Thanks!
Read MoreBid to Win Port Eliot Festival Family Pass
We recently ran a competition to win two family passes to the Port Eliot family festival (worth over £360). The oh-so-lovely Claire from www.beingamummy.co.uk was the winner of the Twitter comp, but sadly she can’t make the festival. Now, being oh-so-lovely as she is, she had a brainwave, and decided to donate the family pass to the Joseph Salmon Trust (everyone in blogosphere has heard that name, yes?).
Well, they gladly accepted the offer, and so the tickets are now there, sitting, waiting for your bid, on ebay. Right now. This minute.
Oh yes they are.
But – no one’s bidding. Really? NO one wants to go to one of the UK’s top family festivals in Cornwall later this month, two adults, two children (under 8′s are free) and a full five days camping pass?
Bidding ends at 12.50 Tuesday lunchtime.
So Go! Bid! Make some money for a wonderful charity – and maybe win yourself a great time too…
Please do use the links and share this post on Twitter, even if you don’t bid yourself.
Read MoreBlog Love: Mums Rock on Drowning
There we were, splooshing in the pool, like you do when you’re on holidays and have absolutely nothing better to do. We had ventured into the area the boys nicknamed ‘the hot tub’ – a round circular pool, chest height on me, with a wide bench running around its edge which was perfect for Pink to stand and walk round (making the water just under chest high for her).
I heard a plopping splash behind me and turned to smile at the small boy who had landed with some force a few feet away, having obviously taken a flying leap from the edge. It took a second or two to register he wasn’t actually grinning back at me, and his vague blank surprised look coupled with the fact he wasn’t happily splashing didn’t feel right… I pushed forward the few paces and hauled him up just as his panic-stricken mother appeared at the edge, white and shaken and gabbling her thanks. Her son – 3, maybe 4 – had just laughingly run off (she’d been attempting to apply suncream, and her hands were too slippery to grab him!) and leaped straight in, just not thinking he may be in an area too deep for him.
There were lots of people around, but I was the only one who, by pure chance, happened to see his face and twig he wasn’t just another of the many children leaping in and having fun. He was absolutely fine – and in fact I saw him do the same thing a few more times, but never again without his mother a few feet from him watching him like a hawk!
When I read this post on Mums Rock this morning it rang big bells with me. 
Even my husband, a few feet away himself, hadn’t spotted the little boy was in trouble. And a few years ago, my son fell into a freezing river in the middle of winter. At the time, I was amazed at how calm he was in the water (I was right beside him and pulled him straight out), but having read this article I now understand exactly why he didn’t splash and yell. So – please. Read and digest the article. And not just for the sake of your own family’s safety – it takes just a few minutes, and if we all know what to look for, who knows when a life may be saved.
Read Morewe do a lot of competitions…
… and give away a lot of prizes. Some big, some small, but all carefully sourced by us to be interesting and appealing.
But we get very few lovely mails like this one…
Just to let you know prize arrived today and my 6 year old daughter is having a whale of a time with it.
Sorry I cannot send you a photo as my daughter is autistic and doesn’t like photos – but my little girl loves it so a Big Thank You.
Shelly.
We don’t bite, and we do so love to get nice letters form nice people… It’s really very okay to drop us a mail and say thanks.
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