14/10/201226/03/2018 by jo

BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge – Week 4

Week Four. I fear I’m getting a bit evangelical about it all, as I slowly tot up points and work out what I can or can’t eat. It’s all feeling quite easy, although in my head there’s a touch of self-doubt – like, I’m succeeding so much right now and losing weight, so it’s all set to go wrong soon too. I guess I’m just not used to things going well quickly, and maybe a few listens of the SlimPod (which I can recommend, while it hasn’t helped me lose weight it’s helped me think differently) and I’ll get back on track.

Anyway, I had a sad day yesterday, an anniversary so I finished it off with wine, so things are a little more ‘down’ this week than previous ones. I stayed well within my limits though. So… here’s the weigh-in…. and… I’ve lost 1lb*. But I’m happy with that. However those sneaky WW gremlins have officially moved me down to 29 points on the app, so now I’ve got to work that bit harder.

I’m starting to think we are quite boring food-wise. I get in from work at 5.30 and we eat at 6.30, so generally I have 30 minutes to prepare, cook and serve food, which isn’t very long. We’ve never taken the ready meals route, and I’ll always serve fresh vegetables, plus we always sit and eat as a family together at that time. Taking a photo of every meal this week does show this too – the same vegetables, plenty of them with different sauces – and surprisingly the biggest points is the soup! (thankyou bread rolls)

I tried out the recipe calculator for our bread making (which is done in the bread maker) to get a proper points value, and was pretty shocked to find that it’s 3 points per slice – I’d thought it was 2 – so I’m trying to find ways of improving the recipe – though the points come with the flour and there doesn’t seem to be alternatives (and with our busy lives we need to just put stuff in the bread maker and have bread in the morning) – so if anyone has any good tips to share, please do!

I do a weekly shop with Ocado and have found their WeightWatchers selection of foods to be pretty good – and most importantly of all they have the chocolate digestives in! I’ve still not found the vegetarian pizza – every supermarket has the meaty option which isn’t an option.

Other than that, I tried some different options for my lunchtime when I’m at work – though while Waitrose do a wrap which has the same points as Sainsburys (and tastes loads better) it’s double the price – so I’ll be sticking with Sainsburys for now. Also, I was making myself do their meal deal, so rather than having juice and snack a jacks with a sandwich, I’m now just getting a sandwich for 99p which does me fine and saves a bit of money too.

So, this week I decided to take a photo of my evening meal each night and add the points total. What you’ll see is a mass of sludge when I cook, and a beautifully laid out plate when Shaun does! Hey ho…

Sunday – pasta and veg with quorn – a kind of spag bol (though it’s angel hair pasta) Sunday - pasta and veg kind of bolognese

Monday – butternut squash, veg and basmati rice curry Monday - Butternut squash, veg and rice with quorn

Tuesday – left over curry and cous cous Tuesday - left over curry and cous cous

Wednesday – Butternut squash soup with bread rolls Wednesday - Butternut squash soup with bread rolls

Thursday – veg and pasta with tofu Thursday - veg and pasta with quorn

Friday – curry with vegetables, sweet potato and butternut squash
Friday - curry with vegetables, sweet potato and butternut squash

Saturday – sweet potato and butternut squash with veg and pasta

Sunday - pasta and squashed butternut squash

Goodness, we’re boring, aren’t we? (apologies for awful resizing of photos too)

One thing I found this week – Iceland do WeightWatchers chips, coming in at 5 points per portion – one to remember when the need for chips starts. Actually, that’s what I like about WW – the options are there so you don’t have to get a bag of chips from the chip shop if you felt tempted. Having said that, I was sat next to a girl on the bus eating chips from a bag and oh GOD they smelt so good, I was like the Bisto kid taking in the aromas.

There’ll be no update next week as we’re away. The next update will be when I’ve more to share. Don’t forget you can try WeightWatchers for £1 for seven days – so you get to try out the app too.

I received six months of WeightWatchers membership for free, and a load of WW food goodies to try out. All opinions are my own.

* I have been reliably informed by Shaun that our scales may be being a bit odd right now, and need a new battery which I’ll be getting tomorrow. I’m sticking with 1lb though.

10/10/2012 by jo

We Love Books – Nick Butterworth – When There’s Work To Do & When We Play Together

I have to be honest and admit that I don’t read much to my 11 month old. Receiving these lovely little books was a fantastic opportunity to start our reading habit together! The books were small and durable, with thick cardboard pages to withstand a good amount of baby handling(!!). The stories were also nice and short with only about 10 words on each page, enough to hold my little one’s attention and give me a chance to talk about the lovely pictures.

What I really like is that this series of books have a regular set of soft toys that feature, with their names on the back of the book so that you get to know them. I think this is a really nice touch as one becomes familiar with the toys and this in turn gives an extra depth to the stories.

These books are £4.99 each, which I think is a reasonable price to pay, especially as places like Amazon do offers regularly. I would definitely recommend these books as I believe they make the perfect first book to share with your little one.

When We Play Together and When We Go Shopping are both available by Nick Butterworth now!

We received copies of these books for review – all opinions are our own – review by Karen

05/10/201224/06/2018 by jo

App Time – Around the Clock by Wombi

H is a bright little girl and wants to learn, which is great. We’ve been doing lots of learning how to tell the time but couldn’t find anything which could give it a context – she’ll look at the clock on the wall and work out the time, but doesn’t quite get it yet – mainly the time of day.

Then ‘Around the Clock’ came into our lives – a really charming app which has plenty of fun as well as learning in there – you’ve a clock which has a window next to it, so you know if it’s day or night – and a little activity once you hit the ‘play’ button which will also relate to the time of day. The app is an introduction to the clock and how a day can look, rather than teaching your child to tell the time (though it helps!)

The tasks are really simple, but clever enough to be fun so H was never bored – and given there’s 24 hours in the day, that’s 24 different parts of the game. Each game has a fairly simple straightforward task for the bear to do and once a challenge is completed you get a happy bear.

The Guardian listed Around the Clock in their Top 50 Best Apps for Kids too!

Here’s a YouTube video so you get a proper idea of how it works –

Around the Clock gets a thumbs up from us – anything which is educational and fun is a good thing – and this fits exactly where we are with learning right now – I’d highly recommend if your child is starting to learn to tell the time.

Around the Clock is available from the App Store and costs £1.99

We received a promo code to review this app, all opinions are our own.

02/10/2012 by jo

Justin’s Funny Faces Sticker Activity Book – A Review and Giveaway

Justin Fletcher never needs an introduction once you have children. He’s everywhere, especially in the world of Cbeebies. He made it into the Top Twenty this year with his ‘Hands Up’ album (which was on repeat when we went to North Wales and had a CD player in the car) and he had a Joke Book published. What on earth could he come up with next?

Oh, only a fabulous sticker book – complete with fifteen pages ready for some reusable stickers. The minute it arrived H was beyond excited, with squeals of “STICKERS!” “CLOWNS!” “PIRATES!!!!!” and of course “JUSTIN!!!!” as she looked through the pages. You get four pages of stickers which peel easily from the pictures once they’re stuck and plenty of variety with your sticker options too. My only complaint – no Cliff Tumble!!

We peeled a few stickers off, and H being just three demanded we recreate all the pictures on the front of the book. Once she’d done that she then demanded we stick the stickers wherever she wanted them, so we had a few interesting creations….

As she’s currently having to wear an eyepatch for two hours every day, this was a fantastic indoor activity, plus it’s helping improve her hand-eye co-ordination (not that it’s bad, but patched up she’s using her weaker eye) – and using the stickers wasn’t a problem at all – they’re huge sturdy stickers and easy to remove.

Justin's Sticker Book

There was one pair of glasses which didn’t make it though – so I’d say your child would need adult supervision initially, but once the stickers have been removed, let them go a bit crazy!

We’re really happy to be able to offer a copy of Justin’s Funny Faces Sticker Activity Book as a giveaway – all you have to do is answer the very easy Rafflecopter question correctly – good luck!

Justin’s Funny Faces Sticker Activity Book is published by Faber Kids and has a RRP of £3.99. It’s currently £2.99 on Amazon – and we think it’s a fab stocking filler!

We were sent a copy of the book for review, all opinions are our own.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

26/09/201226/03/2018 by jo

App Time – Magic Belles

Have you heard of Magic Belles? There’s six of them and they live in Bellevue. They’re colourful, have pleasant music accompanying them and there’s quite a lot to do – spotting things, colouring in, animated stories, crafts – oh and there’s also the Flutterbud Club (and we’re loving Rainbow Belle’s Rainbow ring)! They’re targeted at girls, particularly ones of H’s age; three and upwards. Here’s what their creators Luma Creative have to say:

Magic Belles is a brand with good values and special wishes:

To help little girls appreciate the many wonders of life.
To celebrate and encourage their talents.
To engage them in the magic of music.

We hope, with your help, that these wishes can come true!

We were given an opportunity to review the Magic Belles app, which has just been released. I sat with H and we went through each section so we could see what you had to do. I’m very much a fan of letting her work out games herself with minimal help from me, and happily she played immediately and with no help – a very good sign.

Magic Belles Homepage

So the app opens and you’re greeted with this page. If you’re familiar with the Magic Belles website, then clicking the blue bird in the middle will take you to a very familiar page

Magic Belles

Drag each Magic Belle onto the star and they’ll play their tune (which is quite lovely and hypnotic!). However, if you know about this already, chances are you’ll be exploring all the other parts of the game…

Here’s what you get:

So as you can see there’s more than just the games – little extras and what H and I love is how lovely it looks – bright and colourful and most of all fun! (and an additional huge bonus point from me – no Comic Sans to be seen ANYWHERE which is a good thing!)

Of all the games, H’s favourite by far is Cupcake Belle’s one – she always going back to that one first – though loves playing Star Belle’s dot to dots game (and has a real sense of pride every time she completes one). MY favourite is Love Belle’s guitar game when I can get a turn…

All the games are really straightforward to play – they’re not complicated at all. We also celebrate music in this house and I love how each game follows the same overall tune but is based around each Belle’s part. The extras in each game are fun too, and helps with H learning to explore beyond what is obvious.

We love Magic Belles – this gets a BIG thumbs up from H!

Magic Belles: Magic Music is available from the App Store for £1.49 now. There’s a free Lite version too which has the first game – try it out!

We received a code to review this app – all opinions are our own.

26/09/201218/02/2014 by jo

We Love Books – Brave Little Owl by Penny Little

H has fears – just regular fears that three year olds have, and plenty of night terrors, that kind of thing. We’ve just had a stretch of a month when she’d get up several times in the night having some kind of worry, but fortunately that seems to have gone. Now we can concentrate on things like jumping in the swimming pool, that kind of thing.

Brave Little Owl by Penny Little (and illustrated by Sean Julian) is about a little owl that can’t fly. Little owl is teased by her older siblings, and isn’t that confident.

She falls out of a tree and when on the ground meets some other animals who tell her about things they used to be scared of, encouraging her that she can do it if she tries. Eventually Little Owl tries one last time and starts to fly, with all her family cheering her on.

It’s all quite lovely, and a good message to get across. I’m hoping with the right encouragement that H will learn not to be scared of things, and will get the message in the book and apply it to herself (with help from us parents of course). I’m glad this book exists as she does take in a lot of stories and understand what they’re about.

Brave Little Owl by Penny Little and Sean Julian is published by Red Fox/Random House, ISBN 978-1-849-41511-8 RRP £5.99

I was sent this book for to review on The Baby Website – all opinions are my own.

24/09/201218/02/2014 by jo

We Love Books – A Back To School Edition…

I’ve said it many times, but I really do have the fear about next September. H will turn 4 at the end of August and a week later will be starting school. I know deep down she’ll be fine, but that doesn’t stop the worry. One way I’m trying to get her (and me) used to it is by reading the right kind of books – where people have school experiences, so she can learn.

Actually, I say all this but every morning when we drive past her potential school she asks if she can go there yet, so maybe this is all about reassuring me. ANYWAY.

These are all books we love – and they’re all based around school… first up, an old favourite which we won when H painted a lovely picture of Martha Bunny, ‘Martha and the Bunny Brothers – I Love School’ by Clara Vulliamy. I’ve reviewed this in the past on one of my other blogs, but in a nutshell Martha is set for her first day at school and wants to get her bag ready – while her brothers stay at home and have their Happy Bunny Club (which you can join over at Clara’s website). It’s a really nice story and beautifully illustrated, and with another book to come in the Martha Bunny series soon, it’s perfect for preschoolers to get them used to the idea of going.

For the second book, it’s an old classic. When I found out that the Topsy & Tim books were being re-done and updated I rushed out and bought whatever I could – Topsy & Tim have done everything you could possibly need to read to your child to help them understand (chicken pox, itchy heads, gone to school…), so we have ‘Topsy & Tim Start School’ by Jean and Gareth Adamson. Topsy and Tim are a little bit modern these days too, with the new illustrations by Belinda Worsley.

Topsy & Tim start school, are a little bit scared but see lots of familiar faces, have some regular everyday things happen to them (as that’s generally what happens in a Topsy & Tim book) and there’s a minor upset which gets put right by the end (Tim couldn’t find his coat peg). That’s what I love the most about the Topsy & Tim books – they’re normal and don’t have crazy things which happen – they’re just like everyone you know. Of course there’s the little puzzle at the back of the book too!

‘Foxy – A Magical Tail’ by Emma Dodd is a lovely little book – Emily is starting school and is tucked up in bed worried she hasn’t got everything she needs. Luckily Foxy comes along with his magical tail, mis-hears everything she says she needs – for example, Emily asks for a pencil, but gets a penguin – a school bag, but gets a pirate flag and so on, until she finally worries about not being clever enough or that nobody will like her. The story has a happy ending, with Foxy letting her know she’ll make lots of friends, and amused H with the mis-hearing of Emily’s requests a lot.

Finally, our last school book is a different kind of school story, but helpful again. ‘Come to School Too Blue Kangaroo!’ by Emma Chichester Clark is about a little girl called Lily who is going to a new school (as are her friends) and they’re all a bit nervous. This is actually the eighth book in the Blue Kangaroo series, and though we’ve not come across them before now it’s not difficult to pick up what’s going on.

She takes along Blue Kangaroo, but accidentally leaves him at school overnight – and has to leave him there as school is closed. I suspect this kind of thing may happen to H at some point, so this is good preparation – and knowing that your toy will be just fine when you go back the following day.

What I like the most about these four books is how traditional they feel – proper classic stories and the kind which H really enjoys. Do you have any school related books you’d recommend? Let us know over at the Mum Friendly Group!

Martha & the Bunny Brothers – I Love School by Clara Vulliamy is published by HarperCollins Children’s books. ISBN 978-0-00-741916-6 RRP £10.99

Topsy & Tim Start School by Jean and Gareth Adamson is published by Ladybird books ISBN 978-1-40931-068-6 RRP £4.99

Foxy – A Magical Tail by Emma Dodd is published by HarperCollins Children’s Books ISBN 978-0-00-745597-3 RRP £6.99

Come to School Too, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester Clark is published by HarperCollins Children’s books ISBN 978-0-00-725867-3 RRP £10.99

I received a copy of the last book for the purpose of review, all opinions are my own.

18/09/201207/02/2014 by jo

We Love Books – Superworm by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

The Book People come to Shaun’s work quite often, and stopped by today – so we picked up the latest Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler book ‘Superworm’ for a really good price – and hardback too!

‘Superworm is super-long, Superworm is super-strong, Watch him wiggle! See him squirm! Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!’

The basic Superworm story – he helps all the local insects and is a proper superhero (and a worm), until he’s captured by the wicked Wizard Lizard. All his insect friends have a plan to free him and get him back….

Superworm is more of the fabulous rhyming, but a little more complicated than the usual books (this is a good thing, by the way) – H asked lots of questions about what was going on and enjoyed it, while generally on the first read she’ll listen. Yet again there’s fabulous illustrations, the rhymes are fun (though I struggled with Uncle Ant and earwig aunt’ – getting a bit tongue twisted), and of course there’s a happy ending.

If The Book People are due at your work, keep an eye out for this, as it’s at a really good price (better than online) – and with a rrp of £10.99 you’ve got an excellent bargain.

Superworm is published by Alison Green Books, ISBN 978-1-407132-04-4

17/09/201226/03/2018 by jo

We Love Books – First-time Mum by Hollie Smith

I’ve reviewed one of Hollie Smith’s previous books (The Ultimate Baby & Toddler Q&A), and found the advice to be sensible and covering all angles – which to me is a very good thing. There’s a lot of books out there and so much information your head can explode at times – or you just end up bursting into tears with the fear of it all (thanks to the Dr Miriam Stoppard book, though that could have been hormones).

First-time Mum Hollie Smith First-time Mum is the follow-up to Pregnancy for Modern Girls

What I really like about First-time Mum is there’s never a right or wrong way to do something – you kind of muddle through it all, and this book is full of good suggestions and down to earth tips. It covers emotional advice as well as practical, and the thing which stood out to me (more to follow on this very soon), there’s a section on the pelvic floor – something that’s drummed into us all in our antenatal classes, but how many of us actually do it? We really should be you know – and there’s very helpful and important advice why in the book.

Tips included are:
• What to buy for your baby
• The early weeks
• Basic babycare
• Feeding
• Sleep
• Development
• Health and safety
• Your body after birth
• Emotional well-being
• Love and sex
• Going back to work

I love how Hollie writes – I felt like reading it I was sitting chatting with a friend having a cuppa in a cafe – it’s not preachy, it’s full of helpful advice and there’s enough it’ll help you make your own mind up. It’s also an easy read, as I remember those early days, and actually reading anything was a task in itself.

As Hollie says “I try not to lecture people but give them hints and tips that can really help – like what things you definitely don’t need to buy, where to get help with breastfeeding, how to sleep safely in bed with your baby, how to tackle the Mum-Tum. I remember my first year of motherhood in vivid technicolour.”

I wish this book had been available when I was pregnant. While it wouldn’t change anything we did, getting the reassurance you’re not doing it wrong is equally as important – and this book does exactly that. Highly recommended by us!

You can read excerpts from First-time Mum over at Amazon.
Hollie’s website is over here

We received a copy of First-time Mum for review – look out for a guest post from Hollie coming very soon

17/09/201218/02/2014 by jo

Review – A. Vogel – Echinaforce Herbal Remedy

It’s been quiet these last few days on here – I’ve had an annoying cold. You know the kind, bunged up and sniffly, and I’ve really fought it. However, I suspect it would have been a lot worse had I not been boosting my immune system with A. Vogel’s Echinaforce Echinacea Drops.

I always forget to take enough echinacea, especially at this time of year – and while I often forgot to take this three times a day, I did do several doses twice.

It’s nice and easy to take too – no tablets, just drops. Get your glass of water, add 15 drops (0.6ml) and drink.

(I should note here that children of 6-12 years can take this, but should only do 7 drops (0.3ml))

A Vogel Echinaforce

Echinaforce is a herbal remedy for the symptomatic relief of colds and flu – and similar upper respiratory tract infections. Given I’ve had this cold, I’m making sure I do at least two doses a day now – and I’d also say this cold has gone a lot quicker than previous ones.

A. Vogel’s Echinacea is produced using extracts of freshly harvested, organically grown Echinacea purpurea herb and root, picked fresh and used within 24 hours of harvest. The benefit of using freshly harvested herbs has been demonstrated in research – extracts produced from fresh plants contain almost 3 times more active substances compared with those obtained from equivalent amounts of dried herb. (Tobler M et al: Characteristics of whole fresh plant extracts. Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur GanzheitMedizin, 1994)

You can buy a Echinacea 50ml pack for under a tenner, and it’ll last a long time – in the month or so I’ve had this it has gone down by approximately 1cm – so you’ll be buying something which lasts all winter – plus it helps boost your immune system.

We were sent a 50ml Echinaforce bottle to try, all opinions are our own.

Mum Friendly

the things we do, the things we like

Category / Review