The Gallery - Sunshine

I took this photo last week and instantly fell in love with it.

You've probably seen it already because I showered every available outlet with it. Except my blog.

But then Tara's Gallery prompt came along and I was powerless to resist.

Beautiful Boy.

Union Jack Mini Micro Scooters - A Review

I do love it when I get asked to review a product that is a massive hit from the moment it arrives.

Such is the case with the fabulous Mini Micro Scooter.

I have to admit that all three of my kids have scooters already, but I've only ever bought the cheapo versions. Looking at the different scooters on the shop shelf I couldn't really see the difference, except for the price tag, so opted for the cheapest available. Which might be why a trip to the park on them carries the same decibel warning as a small aircraft taking off.

The Mini Micro Scooter is aimed at children aged 3-5 and is not cheap - but there's plenty of reasons for the extra pennies.

Firstly is the aforementioned sound, of which there is almost none. It glides along beautifully and silently like an expensive car when you've spent the past five years in an old banger.

Then there is turning, which just necessitates a little lean to one side. Stupid Mummy thought the steering was broken when she couldn't twist the handlebars but the 3 year old soon figured it out.

Look at him go!

So easy I can do it with my eyes closed...

The design is pretty much perfect and the scooters come in every colour combination imaginable. The Union Jack version is a limited addition to celebrate the jubilee and comes with a little bag that clips on to the front. Never underestimate the power of a bag in the world of the under 5's.

The accessories available are brilliant. Yes a money spinner for the company but also well designed, fun and they help hold the interest of children who, lets face it, move onto my-new-favourite-thing-in-the-whole-wide-world pretty quickly. I especially like the bells but there are bottle holders, helmets, ramps and much more.

You can even change the handles, brake and foot board to other colours if you want, as well as being able to replace wheels, washers and any other part that may get broke by over zealous scooter-ers. A great option if you want to 'hand me down' to a younger sibling in the future.

The only problem now of course is that the other two have realised that their scooters are the cheapo versions.

Somehow I don't think we'll be stuck for birthday ideas this year...

Further information:
The Limited Edition Union Jack Mini Micro Scooter retails at £64.95 and can be purchased at Micro Scooters online. Micro Scooters also have ranges of scooters available from 1+ to adult. Micro Scooters are also available in Ireland.

Disclosure:
The Mini Micro Scooter was supplied to us free of charge however all words and opinions are my own. 

Wales. Places to go, places to stay

Last month we had the pleasure of going on a weekend trip to Wales with Stena Line.

We spent three wonderful days in the foothills of Snowdonia and incredibly for most of the time the sun was shining.

Where we went:
Our first stop was Llanberis - an old mining town in Snowdonia National Park

The highlight was a short trip on a little blue steam train

Oh and the milkshakes.

We went to the wonderful Greenwood Park

Met some lovely local chaps in the pub (but failed to get their pics)

Visited the amazing Caernaforn Castle

And had a quick pit stop here

(Imagine trying to tell the taxi driver where you live after a night out...)

Where we stayed:
Stena Line has a selection of recommended hotels that you can book into when you are planning your trip. We were lucky enough to be put up in the gorgeous Seoint Manor one of the Handpicked Hotels group.

My mind boggles as to how this is only a 3 star hotel. From the moment our car pulled up outside the main door we were taken care of brilliantly.

Dominic - who looked after us during our stay - was a gift from the hotel Gods. Nothing was too much trouble and everything was done with a professionalism and friendliness that I am yet to experience in places that charge three times the amount of Seoint Manor. If you could bottle him and sell him to every hotel in the land the tourist industry would be a very happy place.

The hotel itself was beautiful - a mix of modern rooms and antique furniture, an amazing swimming pool, and beautiful country walks just outside the door - it was hard to fault.

We had celebratory beers (at having survived the jounrney)

Fabulous food

And generally enjoyed the opulence

There may also have been some jumping on beds, but don't tell Dominic

Our beautiful family room

And best of all we actually managed to tire them out. Yesssss!

Thanks to Penny and Gemma for the wonderful suggestions of places to visit and Stena Line for giving us the opportunity to visit them. Stena Line provided all travel and accomodation costs but all creative content and views are my own.

Picture Postcard

When I saw the theme for this weeks Gallery I knew I was spoiled for choice.

Having had the pleasure of numerous backpacking escapades pre-kids I have plenty of 'was I ever really there?' photos to choose from that are indeed 'Picture Postcard Perfect'.

So I decided to use the very first one that came to mind.

This picture was taken in La Paz, Mexico in 1995. Myself and a friend had stopped for a couple of nights in the town and over evening beers we were offered a trip out the next day to 'the best beach in Mexico' by a fat sweaty Mexican.

Naturally we agreed.

The next day with sore heads and parched mouths we climbed into his pick-up and as we bounced down unending dusty roads with not another soul on them we looked at each other and realised that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

But Jose was true to his word and the journey from hell ended in paradise.

La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. No filter.

The sand was so white it hurt your eyes to look at it. The sea sparkled with dancing sun beams and yellow butterflies fluttered by us as we lay in the shallows watching multi-coloured fish swim around our brown bodies. 

It was a perfect day in a perfect place and if I could I'd send myself a postcard everyday to remind myself that yes, I really was there once. 

Listography - Top 5 things I love about kids

Listography is back!

This month's theme* is: Top 5 things I love about kids. Not necessarily your own kids mind, just kids in general.
Because children really are a different breed aren't they? If men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, children must be from some far flung yet to be discovered galaxy where it's normal to walk around with a bucket on your head and a soup ladle in your hand singing Yankee Doodle Dandy in the style of Miley Cyrus.

I digress.

Here are my Top 5:

1.  Running.
Wouldn't it be great to be so excited about retrieving your notebook that you had to run into the living room to get it, before running back to the kitchen to write your shopping list? Or zooming up the stairs because you remembered that you had to brush your hair before legging it Joe 90s style to the front door so that you could unleash your enthusiasm onto the street? Ok so maybe not great so much as weird, but our kids do this all the time. Especially the boys, I think their 'walking' hard-wire malfunctioned when they were moving up the evolutionary chain.

2. Mispronunciations.
I gotta admit to being one of those mothers who don't correct their offspring when they continually mispronounce something. Indeed it's far more likely that instead of the child in question learning the correct word the entire family will adopt his \ her word instead.
Favourites to date are 'saw-wee' (sorry), I ludge you (I love you) and the wonderful Gine-awesome (a mixture of ginormous and awesome).

3. Pictures and Messages.
I know the pictures come a bit too hard and fast and you are left wrestling with a recycling bin that contains half the Amazon rainforest and a fridge that will soon collapse forward under exhaustion of carrying all the extra weight:

 However finding pictures and messages like this (and figuring out what they say) make it all worthwhile:

Happy Anniversary

I love you Mum. You are my favourite Mum.

4. Ability to remember.
The things that my children remember are frightening. 'Remember when we went to that place with the big waterfall and you had a chicken sandwich for lunch and I was wearing my red wellies?' WTF? First of all - no, I don't. And second of all - you were two goddamit!

5. Ability to forget.
I could be shouting at one of them whilst simultaneously pulling my hair out, punching the wall
and trying to catch them as they run away screaming and then 2 minutes later the same child will nonchalently walk into the kitchen and ask for a biscuit. This helps me sleep at night and I'm counting on there be being no lasting damage. *crosses fingers*

So do you have 5 things you love about kids? If you do then write your post up on your own blog and then come back here to link up with Mr. Linky below. Want to know more about Listgraphy - pop over to here.

*I mentioned in a previous post that Listography would moving from a weekly to a monthly slot from now on. Thanks to all of you who left such lovely comments and I REALLY hope you'll be around to join in still.

Book clubs and Brazilians - Is this how to be a woman?

About 4 months ago my friends and I jumped on the already over-crowded bandwagon and started a book club.

So far it has been most satisfactory.

I would estimate a 20% readership against a 100% drunkenness each month. Add in a few nibbles and a night off from the kids and it's a winner.

Last month our selected book was the ubiquitous 'How to be a woman' by Caitlin Moran. Two hated it, two loved it and the others didn't bother reading it.

Although we try hard at the book club not to actually discuss the book in question this time it was nigh on impossible. One of the topics that came up was waxing. Brazilians to be exact.

I had long prior to reading the book sided with Caitlin and her (semi) 'au naturale' approach.

Me: 'I just don't agree with it'
Friend A: 'But why not?'
Me: 'Well, because (a) I don't want to look like a prepubescent child, (b) it costs a fortune and (c) Caitlin says you end up looking like Desperate Dan's chin within a week'
Friend B: 'I had it done.'
Me: 'But why should we?'
Friend A: 'Well would you dye your hair if it was grey? What's the difference really?'
Me: 'The difference is that my hair is on show all the time'
Friend A nodding to Friend B: 'Well so is her wotsit'.

As you can see our book club is full of sardonic wit and thespian viewpoints. But I still don't get the whole thing. It's now the norm to have the full monty off which to my mind is insane. How can this be normal?

And what's the next step?

We already have the laughable 'Vajazzle' which only leads to things like this:

'Rate my Vajazzle.'

Seriously. That's a real website. The things I do for you guys.

And did you know there is now such a thing as a pajazzle? Oh how our grandfathers would have laughed.

So what's your view? 'Sparkly porn star' or 'let it all hang out'? Or maybe something in between?

Go on - please tell me I'm not the only one...

Pushy Mum

So what do you do when you can't think of anything to write?

Post another video of your poptastic 3 year old singing (with a little help from his brother and mother) an unnamed chart topping song.

So roll up everybody and 'Name that Tune':