Funky Accessories and Clothes from Very

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Over at A Mothers Ramblings, I have been talking about Shoes for Top Ender from www.Very.co.uk. Top Ender is all about the accessories and being as fashionable as she can and Baby Boy tries to copy her. I have been looking at the Very website and have found a lot of little bits and pieces which I have fallen in love with, which I think will help Baby Boy be a funky two year old!

Wordless Wednesday - Fark Chocolate?

Two things;

1) Top Ender is obviously Psychic as she was the one that said Fark the other day in the Top Ender Giggles - Growing up Post

2) Makers of Weetabix Chocolate flavour this is also not an acceptable new flavour. I don't want Dark Chocolate, I don't want Fark Chocolate I want Milk Chocolate okay?!

Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends "Hero of the Rails" for the Wii - a Review

Baby Boy is two years old and loves to play on the Wii, unfortunately for him, most of the games are just a little too complicated for him to play with any great success. When Ubisoft asked if I would be interested in reviewing a new Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends Game titled "Hero of the Rails" I knew that Thomas mad Baby Boy would adore the game.

The first screen gives you two options, you can either go to a "Story" section or a "Game" section. On our first play Daddy went to the Game section and we chose a random game which was a race between two engines, one of which is controlled by your hand movements on the Wii controller. The game started before explaining how you were to use the controller to make your engine move and Daddy found himself working very hard to catch up (and then overtake) the engine he was racing.

Baby Boy, Top Ender and I played the other games taking turns as they are all one player games and I was thinking that this might not be a good game as it was rather boring and didn't seem to be as great as I was expecting for something associated with Thomas the Tank Engine brand.

After doing all the games, we decided to listen to the story. I was sitting on the floor when suddenly I realised that the story needs input in order to progress. All the games that we had just been playing in the Games Section are in the story! This put a new spin on things and even Top Ender (who says that she doesn't like Thomas the Tank Engine) was enjoying helping Thomas and friends help save a long forgotten steam engine called Hiro (Yes like in Heroes) get fixed up all whilst keeping it secret from Spencer.

Baby Boy found the game easier for him to complete than other games that we have and it took thirty minutes to listen to the story and do the games within the story. Daddy was a bit worried that Baby Boy would get bored after he had completed the game, but he has asked to play it again on a couple of occasions and has played along with little or no help from me.

The game has an RRP of £19.99 and is rated PEGI 3 and I think that this is a great game to get for younger Wii users, as they will get to grips with what they need to do quite quickly and it uses characters that they are familiar with, as I don't think I know any children who don't know of Thomas the Tank Engine!

Wordless Wednesday - Another Year Passed

An update to my Wordless Wednesday post one year ago One Year Changes Everything.

Mixed Spice Biscuits Recipe

As requested this is the recipe that was seen in my Ladybird Books - A Gurgle Girls Review. This was a recipe that I "borrowed" from a family member, and it works well with Gluten/wheat free flour so I use it to make biscuits or Gingerbread a lot. I tend to find that my mixture is always sticky and so I have to add extra flour to keep it from looking like a batter and more like a biscuit mixture!

Ingredients
12oz plain flour (plus extra in case the mixture is too sticky)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2½ teaspoons Mixed Spice (or ground ginger if you are making Gingerbread!)
4 oz butter
stir in
6oz brown sugar
mix together
1 egg
4 tablespoons golden syrup

Method
Preheat the over to gas mark Five or 190oC. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice (or ground ginger if you want to make Gingerbread) together into a bowl, then rub-in the butter. Stir in the Sugar and then mix together the egg and the golden syrup. Knead all the ingredients together, adding more flour by eye if it is too sticky.

Roll out and cut out biscuits, (or pull off a lump and roll in your hands in to a ball before flattening the balls in to biscuit shapes) before placing on a lightly greased baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cool the biscuits on a wire rack (or eat whilst warm!) and store in a tin for up to a week or as I find five minutes before the family eat them all.

Ladybird Books - A Gurgle Girls Review

Gurgle and Ladybird sent me and my fellow Gurgle Girls a customised bag of books. Top Ender and Baby Boy were delighted as books in our house are a big part of our life (and living room) as we love to read. There wasn't just books inside the bag however (which was really useful when we went Sweet shopping the other day), there was also a little camera, a ladybird cuddly toy, a DVD, a cookie cutter and a sticker. I think that is all that was in there, but when the wrapping was ripped off Top Ender and Baby Boy divided the goodies amongst themselves and ran off to read before I was aware of what was going on so I am not too sure!

Ladybird had customised the bag by sending out books that were suitable for Top Ender and Baby Boy by age range. Top Ender is a confident reader thanks to her school and home efforts and sat down with the two Read it Yourself books and was well, reading away to herself. I got her to read them to me at Bedtime on Sunday and I really enjoyed the stories! "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "Sly Fox and Red Hen" are classic stories, but are written in a more simple way that allows young readers more ease with reading them.

The third book that Top Ender got was from "Puddle the naughtiest puppy" series and was the book "Magic Carpet Ride". Top Ender has a couple from this series already, as they were popular in Party bags in the last school year. They are large print, easy to read stories about a puppy (called Puddle!) and his adventures and they make great practice for reading and even better bedtime stories. Top Ender isn't actually keen on dogs, so I am hoping that by reading a few stories about a naughty, but lovable puppy she might get over this aversion.

Baby Boy got two books one which was a "Ladybird Big Noisy Book" and is called "Emergency!". As you can guess this book makes noises and is loved by Baby Boy. He loved it so much that he hid it in a special place and I couldn't find it for a couple of days even though he was reading it during the day. It was hidden under the cushions on the sofa! Baby Boy loves pretending to read the book and pressing the right buttons as indicated in the text to get the noise that enhances the story. Daddy and Baby Boy read this book on Sunday night at bed time and they really loved it judging from the giggles!

The other book that Baby Boy got was "Peek-a-Zoo!" a rhyming flap book and it is really sweet, he has been reading this book with me and making the noises that the hidden animals make and the obligatory "Peek-a-Zoo" phrase when ever he lifts the flap! Both books are quite sturdy, although Baby Boy has ripped the back cover of the "Emergency!" book as he could see a gap between the spine and the back page. A bit of sticky tape sorted this right out though!

The last part of the bag was a Spot DVD and Spot shaped cookie cutter! I don't really remember having any Spot the dog books when I was younger (I am a whole year older than Spot), but I do remember children that I babysat having them and loving the stories. I remember when it was turned into a cartoon as I think someone brought my sister and I a video to share of Spots adventures.

Baby Boy and I waited until we had Top Ender at school before we sat down to watch the DVD with new episodes of Spot and I baked some quick mixed spice biscuits (they were going to be gingerbread but I didn't have any ginger!). Baby Boy loved the DVD and the biscuits and we had an enjoyable afternoon snuggling on the sofa!

Take a look at the other Gurgle Girls and what they got in their bags and if you are really lucky I might even share my gingerbread mixed spice biscuits recipe with you!

Bob The Builder - A Toys R Us Toyologist Review

Do you remember I told you that Top Ender and Baby Boy had been asked to be Toyologists by Toys R Us? Well we have tested all the toys to the best of our extent from our first parcel and the first review we are posting is a Bob The Builder Dancing Bob toy which retails at £19.99.

The Dancing Bob sings and dances to a song which is turned on and off by pushing Bob's hand and for the first week, we only ever got the intro to the song as Baby Boy loved that he was able to control it by squishing Bob's hand! As soon as we got Baby Boy to realise that there is a dance associated with Bob's song then we managed to get Baby Boy to dance along.

So I present to you Bob The Builder, with backing dancers (who are actually in the foreground) Top Ender and Baby Boy and a guest appearance from Geoffrey the Toys R Us Giraffe!

If we get enough requests, we might even post the video of Daddy and I dancing along...