While we were on holiday a few weeks ago, we visited Merrivale Model Village in Great Yarmouth. I thought that it looked somewhere fun and that Monkey would love, with all of the trains running around and the miniature houses and people. And, well, I was right! He very much enjoyed himself.
Last week we had a very lovely holiday in Corton, near Lowestoft. We were so happy with the self-catering accommodation we booked that I thought I would write a little review to share with you all.
We found the villa through a company called Sykes Cottages, although you can also book direct at Corton Villas.
Corton Villas are a block of 6 privately owned 3 bedroom holiday homes located on the Waterside Park resort, in Corton on the outskirts of Lowestoft. The resort itself has properties owned by a whole variety of different companies and private owners, but I can only really speak about the ones we stayed in, which were of a really high standard.
Rubbish picture, didn’t think of taking one of the outside so this is the only one I have, cheesy grins and all!
We have been sent a lovely book to review by Harper Collins. It’s the 10th Anniversary of ‘How to Catch a Star’ so we received the book in a lovely presentation box and it came with some lovely extras. The book itself (and a spare copy to giveaway, see below!), a poster, some lovely activity sheets, some glow in the dark stars and a very lovely star shaped USB stick, which has the activity sheets on it.
The book itself tells an enchanting story of a young boy who loves stars so much that he wants to catch one and have lots of adventures with it. Monkey loves stars too so it went down very well in our house.
Our favourite quote from the story is
“He thought he could fly up in his spaceship and just grab the star.
But his spaceship had run out of petrol last Tuesday when he flew to the moon”
Monkey very much enjoyed reading the book and looking at the pictures with his daddy!
And he loved the glow in the dark stars and the star shaped USB stick.
We also had great fun with the activity sheets, though some of them were a little advanced for Monkey he loved colouring all of them in 🙂
We then did a little star themed painting with a star cutter and a sponge cut in the shape of a star (well, I tried to cut it in the shape of a star! hehe It went a bit wonky! hehe
To my surprise Monkey did manage to stamp a few stars with the sponges, but then smeared them all over with his fingers hehe. Ah well, at least he had fun!
Overall it is a lovely lovely story that I am sure will be a family favourite for many years.
Out on the 27 March, the 10th Anniversary edition of How to Catch a Star is now available from Amazon for £12.99. (At the time of writing it actually looks as though the price is currently reduced to £9.09!)
Alternatively you can win a copy of this lovely book by entering the below competition!
I was sent the book for the purposes of this review but all views and opinions are my own. Winners will be contacted within 48 hours of the end of the competition. Competition is open to UK residents only and the book will be posted within a week from the end of the competition. I accept no liability for items lost in the post.
The lovely people at Mobile Madhouse have sent me a gorgeous phone case to review.
My phone comes everywhere with me, it is my camera as much as my phone these days and it lives in my pocket. My last phone seemed to be almost indestructible and survived many many drops and bangs. My newer phone, the Nokia 925, is a much better phone, and camera, but within weeks of getting it, it was scratched and chipped, so a phone case is definitely a good idea!
My poor chipped phone!
I chose a lovely purple case. The Purple, Hard, Hybrid case to be precise! They sell lots of different types of cases, ones that double as wallets, but because my phone lives in my pocket I wanted one that added the least bulk to the phone.
It is a bit bulkier than before but it still fits in my jeans pockets nicely, which is great! It comes with a screen protector but I didn’t use this as hubby bought a nifty gel screen protector for my phone at Christmas which is invisible but has been working brilliantly!
I love the colour though and it is very easy to fit, it just snaps onto the phone and looks great 🙂
I’ve waited a few weeks to write this review as I wanted to give it a good test run, and ooh it has had a good test run! It is looking a bit worse for wear now, with lots of scratches and chips and, after a particularly nasty drop a corner broke off the case! 🙁
The GOOD thing about this, is that it’s the case that broke, not the phone. The phone is not looking any worse off which means that the case did it’s job perfectly, well worth the £3.90 it costs to buy one!
So this phone case, even though it now looks a bit battered and worn, gets a big thumbs up from me and I will definitely buy a replacement for it!
Mobile Madhouse has phone cases for all sorts of phones so it’s worth a look as they are great value 🙂
I was recently sent these lovely toys to review from Bella Kidz. The toys are made by a company called Jellycat, who I have to admit I had not heard of before.
The toys
Walter Whale Clicketty, Bashful Beige Bunny Medium & Octavia Octopus Jitter Toy
As soon as the post came, Monkey was intrigued to know what was in the lovely big package! In the package each toy was individually wrapped inside a lovely tote bag with the Jellycat logo on. Monkey had a lot of fun just with the bag to start with but he was soon eager to find out what was inside!
My initial impression was that they were all gorgeous, and my immediate favourite was Bashful Bunny. Monkey felt the same and immediately had lots of cuddles with her! She has the softest fur imaginable and you just want to cuddle her. Daddy and Nanny both fell in love with her too so she will be very well loved in this house! Monkey has been enjoying dancing with her, giving her kisses, and feeding her, which is very lovely to see!
Octavia Octopus is a very lovely too toy, though Monkey is a bit older than the intended age he still very much enjoyed the jitter as you pull back and then let go! From a parent’s perspective, hubby was impressed with the length of the jitter pull. It may sound daft but we had some other jitter toys when Monkey was little and they were so short that they barely jittered. We found that because it was so quick, Monkey would almost miss the movement, whereas with this toy I can imagine that it would have held his attention a lot better.
Walter Whale Clickety is also a very well designed toy in our opinion. With the jangley rings around the whales tail I imagine it would make a great teether toy, and with the added crinkle in his tail I think it would keep a younger baby fascinated for at least a few minutes. Monkey himself was pretty fascinated, though was mainly trying to work out if he could take the rings off (he couldn’t). Of the three I think this was the least suitable for his age, but that’s not to say that it wouldn’t be a lovely toy for a younger baby.
Bashful Bunny is now a part of the family, and though Hubby pondered giving the baby toys as a gift to someone with a baby (as he feels they are so lovely) I have decided they will wait for number 2 if/when he/she arrives as I think they are gorgeous and don’t want to give them away!
All in all I am very impressed, I hadn’t heard of Jellycat before and so didn’t know what to expect but the toys are all gorgeous designs and very high quality. I will look out for this brand in future.
You can find the whole range of Jellycat toys available on their website.
I also found that John Lewis currently sell a wide range of Jellycat toys, including Walter Whale for £11.00 and a cream version of Bashful Bunny for £16.00 which is good value for such high quality toys.
We were sent these products free for the purpose of this review, however all opinions are 100% honest and our own.
This is officially my first ever proper review and Giveaway!
I was contacted by the lovely people at Ruta Ett DVD AB and offered to review the following Heroes of the City package (you have the chance of winning this package at the end of this post!).
Heroes of the City is an animated series aimed at pre-school children, which follows the rescue vehicles in a small town and shows how problems can be solved by helping each other.
I literally just took a picture of the set when Monkey appeared out of nowhere, and grabbed the cars in a flash. He loves cars and I had thought these may be a bit small for him (they are recommended for age 3-6 while Monkey is not even 2 yet) but, nope, he LOVES them. He has spent ages whizzing them around the floor making his doo doo doo noise (I think he means brum brum) and had a good inspect of them. But they didn’t leave his hands for ages.
We then got the book out and he has been having a good look at it (he liked rolling the cars down it). It may be a slightly long book for his age, but he really loves books at the moment so we’ll have a go at reading it to him, and I’m sure he’ll love it more as he grows. I did notice one little type, but that’s just an old proof-reader habit, I spot them everywhere (…except in my own writing!)
I popped in the DVD too and we had a watch, and I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely it was. Monkey can be a bit picky about what he watches on TV (he often ignores the TV if it doesn’t grab him, so we don’t have it on much) but he seemed to really enjoy the series and had a good chuckle at Calamity Crow which was very cute. Overall it has a really nice feel to it, positive messages and good lessons to learn through the programme, which is important to me, I’m quite picky about what Monkey watches too at this young age!
Please excuse the pile on the chair in the background! really should have tidied before taking these pics!
They have a couple of apps for the series too, unfortunately hubby and I are both Windows Phone lovers and there’s no app for it yet so we haven’t been able to give it a try. The links for Apple or Android are here for you though:
AppStore: https://itunes.apple.com/app/heroes-of-the-city-movie-app/id602592310
GooglePlay: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rutaett.HeroesMovie&hl=en
Time for the Giveaway! Enter below to win this set, courtesy of Ruta Ett DVD AB.
I received the above items free for the purpose of the review, however all opinions are entirely my own and 100% honest.
Giveaway is open Internationally. Must be of legal age to enter. The winner will be contacted within 48 hours from the end of the giveaway. I am not responsible for prize fulfillment or mishaps that happen with shipping. Giveaway ends March 16th, Midnight GMT. Prize comes direct from Heroes of the City.