17/12/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 50

Sunday 6th December. Father Christmas at Chessington today – with a handful of rides open and their Zoo Days in full swing, we headed there a couple of hours beforehand, had enough to do and had fun at Santa. It was quick but not rushed.

Santa Chessington

Monday 7th December. Christmas Radio Times!! H is super excited as there are FOUR David Walliams programmes on based on his books which makes her really happy.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 7, 2015 at 6:50am PST

Tuesday 8th December. I cannot remember anything about today nor find a photo.

Wednesday 9th December. One of H’s Christmas presents. See, I grew up with Peanuts and she isn’t. So now she can. Properly. She did say to me that she wanted my 1970s Snoopy, which I refuse to let her have. “oh well, I’ll get it when you die anyway, so it’ll be mine one day!” she sweetly replied.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 9, 2015 at 12:24am PST

Thursday 10th December. We took the day off work, visited H’s new school (very impressed) and went to her Year 2 Christmas show. She was a shepherd which should be easy, but I’m so bogged down with everything at the moment that my only option was buying a costume, which I did thanks to a local buy and sell page. Phew. Here she is.

H school Christmas

Friday 11th December. Catching up with my Lindt Chocolate Advent Calendar.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 11, 2015 at 12:27pm PST

Saturday 12th December. We were sent some goodies by Disney for The Good Dinosaur – a blog post is coming very soon!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 12, 2015 at 1:01am PST

15/12/2015 by jo

The Book of Everyone – A Personalised Book

We were given the opportunity to create our own book from The Book of Everyone – a unique book personalised to suit the recipient. In our case, it had to be H – so what does the book hold for a six year old, and how easy is it to create?

The Book Of Everyone - Book of H

The Book of Everyone is a unique personalised book which you create using the recipient’s name and date of birth, gender and name. Because I don’t use H’s name on here I’ve edited it out on the pictures, but rest assured her full name is used! You have an option to produce a book based on current age or the one coming up as well.

How easy is it to create? Very! Because the book is facts-based rather than the kind you would add photos to, it knows important stuff like star signs (we’ve never really known as she’s on the cusp, though I’m happy I’m right and she is a Virgo) and the number one record when you’re born (which I wish I could edit as at the moment she sees the word ‘bitch’ as a swear word, it’d be nice to censor it with an asterisk in the book – but that’s not a fault of the book, it’s a fault of the potty mouthed David Guetta ft Akon).

The Book of Everyone - tv and number 1

We were given a code to order a hardback book, which arrived a week later (not bad, as we’re in Christmas post times). I also opted for the Christmas book which includes a Rodeo Santa dedication page (Here’s a treat that’s special, unique the whole book through, and although Christmas shouldn’t be, this is all about you!), a festive cover and various Christmas bits throughout.

You get to choose your colour scheme, so knowing H loves blue I opted for this. The book has ‘The Book of H’ on the cover and spine, and my name (as I created it) on the spine as well.

The Book of Everyone - Ant stamps

The Book of Everyone is bright and colourful with loads of facts and things which relate to H’s life so far. It’s funny having the Ant Farm page, where you can follow H the ant – although the camera isn’t working at the moment. I know that’s something she’ll find funny! There are pages you can edit which helps customise it – you get this icon when you’re previewing it.

The Book of Everyone edit page

The Book of Everyone has things I know H will be able to relate to. The personalisation aspect is something which makes her feel like it’s for HER, than a general book. For that alone it gets a thumbs up!

The Book of Everyone Quotes

Now, the important stuff. How eco-friendly are the books? From their website – We picked our printers because of their exemplary approach to minimising the environmental impacts of printing. Our UK print partners Pureprint were the first CarbonNeutral® printer in the world. Also, do you need to be in when the book is delivered? Our book fitted through the letterbox fine, so you don’t need to worry about that either!

The Book of Everyone Christmas version costs £29.50 – though there are other options available. You can create a digital version for £7.50, and a softcover for £19.50. You can view your book online once it is created too, and once you’ve bought a physical edition you have access to a free download version by using a unique code. Their website is here

The Book of Everyone personalised snowflake

It’s also worth mentioning, you can create your own personalised snowflake on their website for free – I’ve enjoyed playing around with it. You can find that here. You can order a print of your snowflake which goes towards helping conserve polar bears at http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/

We received a code to review this book, all opinions are our own!

08/12/2015 by jo

4000 Stickers Christmas Book

As Parragon Book Buddies, we’re sent a new book every month to review. This month is the very apt 4000 Stickers Christmas Book – guaranteed to keep H busy (which is a good thing).

The 4000 Stickers Christmas Book from Parragon isn’t just a sticker book, mind. There are loads of activities – and when I say loads I mean LOADS. From puzzles to mazes, to spot the difference to just adding stickers to scenes to make them your own. There’s a lot of choice.

Right now H is loving Spot the Difference puzzles, and indeed appears to find the one pictured “easy peasy lemon squeezy” – in fact, my main problem is reminding her not to mark the puzzles so she can go back to them in a week or two from doing them, forgetting what the solutions are!

The 4000 Stickers Christmas Book has a fine selection of stickers – everything you would expect is in there, and oh my, there’s so many. Add to that all the puzzles and activities inside and you’ve got a great addition to any stocking for a child – this is the kind of book that would keep them busy for a while!

The stickers aren’t big, but then with 4000 of them you wouldn’t expect it to be. There are just lots of them – but that means there’s plenty of places you need to find to stick them!

At £10.00 it isn’t cheap, but there are so many pages full of activities, with bright fun illustrations, I would say it’s worth getting. This isn’t a book which will be used once or twice – it’s one your child would keep going back to. Also, I’ve spotted The Book People are selling it for £2.99 at the moment – so worth considering.

We received this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

06/12/201509/12/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 49

Sunday 29th November. We went to the Cinema to see The Good Dinosaur (it was sweet! Fun, not too scary for H) and bought some bits afterwards in Sutton, including H’s first dressing gown, as modelled here.

dressing gown

Monday 30th November. Rainbows. I have just completed a second row of badges on H’s Rainbows shirt. Considering she still has two terms left there, it’s going to be one seriously full shirt by the time she leaves!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 30, 2015 at 12:45pm PST

Tuesday 1st December. And so we’re off again – the elves are up to no good. As usual I’ve forgotten to plan anything, so we’re making it up as we go along – a bit like life!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 30, 2015 at 2:44pm PST

Wednesday 2nd December. I made this! My first proper crochet attempt at following a pattern. Did okay. Have probably forgotten most of it though.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 2, 2015 at 2:28pm PST

Thursday 3rd December. Sneaky Advent Calendar chocolate binge eating so you don’t have to share with anyone alert. Well it is a Lindt one.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 3, 2015 at 12:00pm PST

Friday 4th December. I appear not to have taken a photo today. Not sure why…

Saturday 5th December. Spotted there were previews of the Snoopy & Charlie Brown movie happening at all the cinemas locally, so took H – we loved it. A proper family kind of movie with nothing scary and many many nods to the Peanuts gang I grew up with. I approve big time!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Dec 5, 2015 at 8:45am PST

03/12/201504/12/2015 by jo

Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 Shortlist

Woah. Can you believe it has been a year since the last Blue Peter Book Awards – and now on tonight’s CBBC show, the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 shortlist will be announced!

The Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 Shortlist is full of fun and interesting books – and I love it as a new way of discovering authors we might not know about. Since last year H has become a huge fan of Pamela Butchart and we’ve got her new book preordered in time for its release next year.

Here’s the press release:

The latest hilarious, heartbreaking book from Frank Cottrell-Boyce – the beloved writer of the London Olympics opening ceremony and award-winning author – is among six children’s books shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016.

His book, The Astounding Broccoli Boy, which is illustrated by Steven Lenton, is competing for the Best Story Award along with The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair by Lara Williamson and The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie.

All three books are humorous but also tackle powerful issues, including bullying, being different, dealing with a parent’s death and living in a children’s home.

Shortlisted in the Best Book with Facts category is Penny Arlon’s FactFeed, a book of lists reinvented for the YouTube and BuzzFeed generation with its publisher, Scholastic, describing it as ‘great for reading on the loo’.

It is up against The Epic Book of Epicness, written and illustrated by Adam Frost, and The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words written by Andy Seed and illustrated by Scott Garrett.

Andy and Scott won the Best Book with Facts category in 2015 with their book The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff.

The shortlist was announced today (Thursday 3 December) live on Blue Peter.

The four judges – Angellica Bell, Pamela Butchart, Jim Sells and non-voting chair Ewan Vinnicombe – cited the challenging topics in the books vying for Best Story and said many of the books made them cry with laughter but also with sadness.

TV presenter, Angellica Bell, described the judging experience as, ‘no mean feat reading 40 books cover to cover’ but claims it’s ignited a passion for reading.

She said: “When I was young, I didn’t read all that much and felt I had missed out on a fun imaginative part of the growing up process. Reading from a young age allows people to escape and be whoever they want to be and being part of this judging process has allowed me to experience those feelings now. As a mother, I want my children to love books and feel that they can be transported to different worlds and experiences anytime, anywhere!”

Also taking part in the judging was National Literacy Trust programme manager, Jim Sells, who said: “Choosing the shortlist was great fun but pretty tough. I’m particularly happy because these books have huge potential to engage children who don’t think that there is anything out there that they would like to read. The story books explore powerful themes but are written in a way which is easy to understand, while the fact books are really interesting.”

The winners will be decided by more than 200 schoolchildren from ten schools across the UK, who will read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites in each category. The two winning books will be announced on the Blue Peter programme scheduled for World Book Day on 3 March 2016 and will be announced by Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell.

The celebrated Blue Peter Book Awards, which are managed by children’s reading charity BookTrust, celebrate the best authors, most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children.

The shortlist:

Best Story

The Astounding Broccoli Boy written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and illustrated by Steven Lenton (Pan Macmillan)

The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair written by Lara Williamson (Usborne)

The Nowhere Emporium written by Ross MacKenzie(Kelpies)

Best Book with Facts

The Epic Book of Epicness written and illustrated by Adam Frost (Bloomsbury)

The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words written by Andy Seed and illustrated by Scott Garrett (Bloomsbury)

FactFeed written by Penny Arlon (Scholastic)

The judges for this year’s Awards are:

Angellica Bell – TV presenter, mum and blogger

Ewan Vinnicombe – (non-voting chair) Editor, Blue Peter

Jim Sells – National Literacy Trust Programme Manager

Pamela Butchart – winner of the Blue Peter Best Story 2015

01/12/2015 by jo

Annie the Musical UK Tour

I’ve always loved musicals, and I’m more than delighted that H has inherited my love of people randomly bursting into song for no apparent reason too. While The Sound of Music might not be her favourite (yet), there’s several musicals we love, and recently we bought tickets for Annie the Musical when it arrived at the New Wimbledon Theatre on its UK tour.

Annie the Musical was born in 1977 and was one which fell onto my radar properly with the 1982 film. I was hooked, the songs were catchy and I seem to remember us renting a video copy of the film many times – I knew all the songs off by heart (and I didn’t own the soundtrack until recently).

So what’s to say about Annie? You probably know the story, so I won’t go into it in detail, other than to say this production follows the original stageplay. Songs like ‘We’d Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover’ make a welcome reappearance, a sarcastic song to the former US President from the residents of Hooverville (a shantytown built during the Great Depression where homeless people live – the US had hundreds of these Hoovervilles in the 1930s) “you made us what we are today….“.

‘NYC’ is the centrepiece of the musical, lots of bright colourful trips as Annie, Grace and Daddy Warbucks decide to walk to the movies through NYC, and done so well.

For our performance the role of Miss Hannigan was played by Lesley Joseph and she was great – although I did wonder where her NY accent was – it was definitely more her own voice (which is fine, I’m not complaining) – she was excellent! It made no difference to H, mind.

The children playing the orphans were brilliant – the character of Annie is in pretty much every scene, that’s a lot of work such young children, and ours was fantastic. The orphans made a great team alongside her too.

The sets were simple but you knew where you were – H found it really exciting that the orphans all were “asleep” in their beds with the main curtains up, so we saw them there on stage before the play started, with an old thirties style radio playing music in the background.

As with most musicals, the songs keep coming, and what I like the most about Annie the Musical is how clearly it tells the story of New York in poverty and how President Roosevelt was set to do something about it. With the context of the rich and poor alongside Annie’s positivity “the sun’ll come out, tomorrow…” you’re given a more complete story of New York at the end of the Great Depression and how things were set to change for the better. Which of course went way over H’s head, she just likes the songs!

Annie the Musical is on tour now, and throughout 2016 – I’d highly recommend going – and they have a well-stocked merch table too with plenty of things to choose (H went for a photo book taken from the stage show, pictures of which accompany this review – it costs £7 so not too bad at all!). Tickets can be booked here.

29/11/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 48

Sunday 22nd November. A trip to Igtham Mote, a National Trust place in Kent that we haven’t visited, which was really charming and all set up for Christmas. Oh god, it’s Christmas soon. Good job I’m vaguely organised. Where is this year going? H took her class bear and we got a few photo opportunities.

Monday 23rd November. Morning! A pink and blue kind of morning to wake up to, heading on my commute to work. Getting colder.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 22, 2015 at 11:35pm PST

Tuesday 24th November. So Shaun and I went through everything under the stairs, recycled loads and gave away some toys that H has forgotten about. Relief! Space! Which will be filled soon with more things I’m sure. I found my lovely Snoopy which I had back in the 1970s – H wants to adopt him. I’m having none of it. She cackled “hahaaha one day this will be mine anyway. WHEN YOU DIE!!!!” which was a bit weird.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 23, 2015 at 1:46pm PST

Wednesday 25th November. I don’t remember Wednesday this week. Although H’s friend came to play after school, but I won’t be posting the pic as I don’t have his mum’s permission to do so – just take my word for it.

Thursday 26th November. I really resent having to buy costumes for H for school because I don’t have the time to make them. Fortunately a local selling group on Facebook had this wonderful costume for sale, so she will go to her year’s Christmas event dressed respectably (otherwise she’d have been relying on my needlework skills – I got a CSE4 in it…)

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 26, 2015 at 9:28am PST

Friday November 27th. H wrote this poem about fireworks for her home learning from school a few weeks ago. She worked on it well, after writing loads of words which reminded her of the fireworks, sounds, smells, feelings, we looked for ones that rhymed and she wrote this poem.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 27, 2015 at 3:30pm PST

Saturday November 28th. I woke up feeling weird, my ear making a banging noise – not good. So I did the sensible thing and we took H to football. Mid-way through Shaun went home to get the car, it was THAT cold. Sensible move. H stood in goal, and was sweaty hot – she did get some running around. Someone needs to make clothes suitable for football mums like me…

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 28, 2015 at 3:44am PST

26/11/201530/11/2015 by jo

Chocologic Chocolate

“Would you like to try chocolate with no calories” said the email. HELL YES! I replied, possibly a bit more politely, and a week or two later a package arrived for me from Chocologic.

Chocologic are launching in the UK at the end of November 2015. I was sent three varieties of the chocolate to try – Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut, Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.

I was interested as my history of having diabetes (when I was pregnant) means I’m at risk of it developing in later life – so I do need to look out for signs. But how diabetes-friendly is Chocologic?

Chocologic say their chocolate has “no influence on the glycemic level” – this is marvellous news!!

In addition, there are those times of the month when you need to eat chocolate. Would Chocologic help in those times of need?

It definitely helped. A lot. Include that it has been stressful at work and I haven’t wanted to share my bars and I’ve eaten a couple of chunks and made them last (rather than scoffing the lot), and it gets a thumbs up from me.

One interesting side affect for me, every time I had some Chocologic chocolate, I got the hiccups. Very funny!

So, why is Chocologic so fantastic? Because it is sweetened with Stevia, a natural plant-based sweetener. It can be up to 300 times sweeter than ordinary sugar. Also, Stevia doesn’t contain calories. At Blogfest this weekend just gone I was given a Stevia plant, so I’m going to be doing a bit more exploring with it soon…

But the main question, how does it taste?

I was sent all three varieties – and of the three, I finished the Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut first which isn’t like me as that would usually be the one I’d leave till last. The Milk Chocolate variety was the next to go, and I have a few chunks left of the Dark Chocolate version in my drawers at work. The two milk chocolate varieties were as good as a regular milk chocolate – say Cadbury’s when they made creamier chocolate. I would definitely buy these again. The Dark Chocolate is one I would buy Shaun – with his dairy allergies, and how quickly he’ll scoff a bar of chocolate, having a low calorie low sugar alternative is a good thing, especially with the chances of him developing diabetes too.

The best thing about the bars is how affordable they are – they retail in Tesco for £1.29 for the Milk Chocolate version and £1.49 for the other two. That’s my kind of price, and my kind of product! Keep an eye out for some promotions coming soon too!

Chocologic looks like it’s available from all good supermarkets – I’m definitely going to be buying some more. We were sent the three bars for the purpose of review – all opinions are my own. You can follow Chocologic on Twitter here

24/11/201519/11/2015 by jo

BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar!

BookTrust, Britain’s largest reading charity has launched the BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar featuring the very best children’s books that families might want to share this Christmas.

The BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar is launching very soon, and visitors will also get the chance to win all 24 books featured, and have them delivered in time for Christmas!

The BookTrust team chose the books that they feel children would most love to find under their Christmas tree or in their stocking. The selection, which is aimed at children up to the age of 12, features both classics and new stories and picture books from the very best authors and illustrators.

Each day leading up to Christmas Day, a picture of a specially selected book will appear behind a calendar window, along with the reasons it was chosen.

BookTrust Chief Executive, Diana Gerald, said: “This is good festive fun with a serious edge to it, we know that developing a love of reading brings enormous benefits and is linked to children doing very well at school and living balanced lives.

“Exposing children to fantastic authors and illustrators at a young age will encourage them to enjoy reading so we want to help parents by pointing them in the direction of books their kids will love.”

Included is Matt Haig’s fantastic new story, A Boy Called Christmas, [Canongate] illustrated by Chris Mould. Matt brings his signature wit and warmth to this seasonal chapter-book, which is sure to delight young readers.

Another title, this time for younger readers, is Judith Kerr’s picture book, Mog’s Christmas [HarperCollins]. This classic picture book celebrates the joys of preparing for Christmas, although it all seems rather strange from a cat’s point of view!

Also hiding behind one of the windows is a beautiful non-fiction title, Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill [Flying Eye Books]. This marks the 100th anniversary of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, with informative text and a wealth of beautifully detailed coloured pencil drawings.

The calendar also features the nation’s favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo, with his new book, An Eagle in the Snow [HarperCollins]. Michael, who is also the BookTrust President, teams up with illustrator Michael Foreman for this short but immersive novel. Based on a true story of a highly decorated World War I soldier, children will love this thought-provoking tale. Another inclusion is the The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton [Walker Books] about Princess Pinecone who wants a warrior horse for her birthday but gets a short, fat, farting pony instead. This is a hilarious book with a feminist message that shows girls can be strong and creative.

The calendar goes live on December 1st, and will be found here:

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/advent-calendar or on Twitter #BookTrustAdvent

23/11/201523/11/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 47

Sunday 15th November. West Run London day – and it’s probably a good job I couldn’t take my camera with me. A photographer positioned himself in front of H and I and took a picture, never to be shown. Well firstly, we didn’t get the free Fun Run t-shirt everyone had (we got a number, mind) – though I’m hoping that will arrive in the post soon. It was a well-run event with changing rooms (I’ve never seen that before!) and goodies from Wholefoods afterwards too. Our sponsorship total is almost at 100% as well – and H and I ran the whole ONE mile which is quite an achievement for me, and H has never done anything like that before. Next stop Race for Life! Oh, and I’d recommend West Run London – but just make sure you get your t-shirt at the event.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 15, 2015 at 12:00am PST

Monday 16th November. Achey. Busy work. The District line has trains like on the Overground – you can get on at the furthest carriage and walk all the way up to the front!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 15, 2015 at 11:01am PST

Tuesday 17th November. The latest Okido arrived!

Wednesday 18th November. A Lovely album. Played a lot in the office, and I weakened and bought it. I don’t buy albums very often, so they have to be special.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 18, 2015 at 6:55am PST

Thursday 19th November – The Elves are in stock at Tiger Stores! Just £1 and much prettier than the ones on a shelf!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 19, 2015 at 5:53am PST

Friday 20th November. H got the class bear. We need to make our lives interesting for the next week. Super proud she is Star of the Week (she did well in her maths, she said other kids did more than her, but I pointed out it’s not about comparing herself to others, it’s about doing what her teacher wants her to do and getting it done accurately). So I’m happy with that!

Saturday 21st November. Blogfest 2015! So much to do, so little time. Brilliant content, yummy food, skipped the awards bit (as I didn’t really care) and hung out at the bookshop instead. My phone takes terrible photos, although this one at King’s Cross came out well. Not sure why. I attended the photography session and I’m going to get the DSLR out again and have a proper play, as it has taken a back seat this last year or so.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Nov 21, 2015 at 12:58am PST

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