The Gallery - Nature

I did think about re-posting The Three Trees in my Garden photos I took the other week from my back garden, or even the photos from the blog post about the First Strawberries of the Season. If I was being really smart then I could of put the photos from my post about The Magical Menagerie but I decided to do something else.

This is a local fishing lake. I held my camera through the wire fence in order to get the shot. Baby Boy and I were entranced by this view, it was amazing. We both could see the still lake, feel the slight breeze and it was so calm and peaceful.

It was so quiet.

Baby Boy and I watched this lake for a few minutes, watching the fish occasionally come to the surface to sun themselves or catch a bug before diving back down into the depths of the lake. Even now nearly a month later Baby Boy still asks if we can go and see the lake again.

Nature at its finest.

Baby Boy and Daddy Giggles - Pick it, lick it, roll it, flick it

After coming back from the Magical Menagerie on Wednesday night we were all in high spirits and were all having a giggle. I had turned around in my seat in order to see what Baby Boy was doing, and he was sat in car seat with his finger up his nose; And when I say finger, I mean his whole finger.

 

"What you doing Baby? Digging for Gold?" I asked
"Gold!" shouted Baby Boy, finger still firmly shoved in his nostril
"Take your finger out" I giggled at him

A second later and Baby Boy withdrew his finger with a flourish

"Look Mum a Bee*!" He gleefully exclaimed waving around a finger with nothing on it
"Eugh!" I answered "What you going to do with it?" I continued whilst starting to search for a tissue

Baby Boy looked at his finger and looked at me. His mouth started to open.

"Your not going to eat it are you Baby Boy?" Daddy asked
"Yup!" answered Baby Boy about to stick his finger in his mouth
"Noses are not for storing food!" exclaimed Daddy
"Noses not for food. NOSES NOT FOR FOOD DADDAD!" screeched Baby Boy

Top Ender and I at this point had collapsed into giggles, but it is a very worthwhile point. Noses are not for storing food.

*Bee's are what inhabit Baby Boys nose and ears not bogeys or earwax.

The Magical Menagerie (Le Manege Carre Senart)

At the moment in Milton Keynes there is a fantastical carousel, which is quite unlike any carousel I have ever seen before. For a start the carousel is square and instead of horses to ride on, there are mechanical creatures such as buffalo, fish and insects that are operated by the people riding on them!

When Daddy first heard about the Manege Carre Senart coming to Milton Keynes as part of the Milton Keynes International Festival, he sent me the link so that I could see the carousel as he knew that I would have to see it to believe it. Since it opened for business on the 16th July, we have been up to see the Carousel a couple of times and finally we got our chance to go last night and to have a ride.

The carousel is huge, it is said in the information that it is as tall as a house and it is just as impressive. The whole structure is decorated, with the metal work on the roof in the shapes of Snails and Frogs and other creatures.

The outer ring of the Carousel are one seater creatures and they travel in a clockwise direction and as you can see are fairly large in size!

  

The inner ring are larger multiple rider creatures which travel in a anticlockwise direction. If you have a child under seven who wants to ride, then this is where you should head as children under seven have to be accompanied by an adult.

We were really lucky that we got to ride the entire Carousel by ourselves and Top Ender chose for us to go on a Buffalo in the centre. We climbed up wooden steps to sit upon the top of the mechanical creature, where five separate seats with seat belts were waiting for us.

We seated Top Ender and Baby Boy in the front and Daddy and I took two of the rear seats and started to look round at the various levers and handles that were around us (and between our legs!). Top Ender was in heaven and Baby Boy were in heaven with the noise and the movement and loved every second.

  

As soon as Top Ender got off the ride she asked if we could go back on, we explained that the Carousel will be in Milton Keynes (just outside The Point) until the 8th August and so we would have plenty of time to go back and have another ride and time to save up!

The Carousel is open from 12 noon until 8pm (but not at all on the 2nd August). If you book in advance Weekday tickets cost £10 for a family of four (£12 if you just turn up) and at weekends booked in advanced tickets cost £14 (or £16 if you just turn up). The ride itself lasts for around five minutes, but the happy feeling you get from riding will last for a lot longer!

Wordless Wednesday - Baby Boy after Millets Farm

Not a picture, but a video of Baby Boy after our trip to Millets Farm at the weekend.

See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkzwUFXVXNs

As you can see, he was just a little tired.

Horace Walpole's Little Gothic Castle in Strawberry Hill

A couple of weekends back Daddy and I took Top Ender and Baby Boy to Strawberry Hill in Richmond to visit the Gothic Castle that Horace Walpole built, and to take part in the festivities to raise money for the restoration of the truly beautiful building. The house means a lot to me, because I am a Simmarian; I went to University in the shadow of this House.

When we got to Strawberry Hill I took Top Ender down the road a little to show her this house and in particular the three windows close together on the second floor on the side of the house. This Victorian house was my home whilst I was at St Marys. That's right, for a while I lived on a road where the average price for a house was £1.1million.

Daddy had joked with me that we wouldn't go for the day unless I could promise that I wouldn't cry. In the past every time we have driven near the University I have started crying because of all the memories wrapped up in the area. Its been ten years since I had been in the grounds and so I really thought I was ready to face the emotions! I was able to show Top Ender and Baby Boy the bandstand in the grounds where I spent many afternoons and warm evenings writing notes for essays, letters home, some really bad poetry and reading books that were on my very long reading lists.

I got to show them where I had lectures, where the library was (If I wasn't in the bandstand, I was in the Library), the Church that made me want to go to St Mary's in the first place (Yes, I chose my university not because of the course but because of this building) and a story about how after arranging to meet a 2nd year student to buy her old Theology course materials at a discounted price I recognised her as someone I had gone to school with.

Top Ender and Baby Boy had a much better time riding round on the fairground rides that were in the grounds than listening to my stories and they seemed pretty pleased that they couldn't hear me over the music that we all had a dance to, but I am sure they were just enjoying the music and not the break from my ramblings about life ten years earlier.

It was a really lovely day that made me wish I had a lot of money that I could donate to the Friends of Strawberry Hill for the restoration. They are taking bookings for tours later this year though, so if you have had your interest piqued then make sure you book to go!

Millets Farm Centre And the Maize Maze

On Saturday Top Ender, Baby Boy, Daddy and I were invited along with a few other bloggers to visit Millets Farm Centre in Oxfordshire to try out the new Maize Maze and to enjoy the other attractions on offer as well. As going in a Maize Maze was one of our 100 things we decided that we would be foolish not to accept, especially as they were providing lunch and free food will always get me out of bed in the morning.

As we made our way to the entrance tent to the Maize Maze area and the Courtyard activities we walked past a Victorian Steam Carousel which took both Top Ender and Baby Boy's eye, and at a cost of £1.50 per person was something we were quite happy to let them have a ride on, but agreed it should be at the end of the day, as it was next to our car!

Entrance to the Maize Maze and the courtyard activities is £5.95 per Adult and £4.95 per child (3-16 years), but there are discounts for family tickets and groups and I felt it accurately priced for the amount of activities in the courtyard area.

Within the Courtyard there are several garden games such as noughts and crosses (I won), draughts/checkers (Top Ender won), a football aim game (Baby Boy enjoyed this), connect four (Baby Boy declared himself to have won despite not playing) some mini tractors for those under ten to pedal round a small course (Daddy *enjoyed* pushing Baby Boy round) and there are trampolines, a bouncy castle and Straw bales to climb on and under. If you look closely at Top Enders video you might spot one of those other bloggers...

There were two further mazes one of which is a lost sheep trail and the other is a fort maze and both were great fun for Baby Boy and Top Ender to run around looking for the various signs they were to look out for. The courtyard activities were well aimed, with older children enjoying the activities as much as the younger children and the huge sandpit, which I think Baby Boy was trying to smuggle home in his shoes, even kept a few adults amused!

There are three Maize Mazes, the Giant Maize Maze which takes around an hour and a half to complete (but we decided that we really weren't cut out for that), a middle sized maze which takes around a half hour to complete (unless you forget to take the map in with you) and the Mini Maze which takes around fifteen minutes to complete (Unless you let Top Ender navigate).

Each Maze has a quiz element but the most fun is the one in the mini maze, where as you go round you have to look for small stands that have finger pastels in five different colours. When you find them you can choose which finger you colour and when you come out of the maize there is a giant board with all 120 possible different colour combinations which results in you having to do a dare. It did cause a lot of laughter with us all and Top Ender has new found respect for my pig impressions.

Millets Farm has 100 Acres of land where it grows fresh produce, a restaurant, a farm shop, a Garden Centre (part of the Frosts chain), a wood, a farm animal Zoo and plenty of areas to picnic in. The restaurant uses produce grown on site or ingredients sourced locally and the lunch we were treated to was put together by them and was fantastic. I have a feeling that the food is expensive, but I do think that it would be worth it.

The Farm has a large pick your own section and we had been given a voucher for a punnet of Strawberries so we made our way across the complex to the strawberry polytunnels. We started picking and our punnet was soon full and only a handful didn't make it to the punnet but were sneakily eaten by Top Ender and Baby Boy. They told me that they tasted as good as their first strawberries of the season, and the few that I have eaten so far would make me agree with that!

The whole day was lots of fun and Daddy and I agreed that we will be returning in the next few weeks with Top Ender and Baby Boy and we all agreed that it will become an annual tradition for a day out.

Things to do in the Summer Holidays

Today is the first day of the Summer Holidays for us here at A Mothers Ramblings and we have a list of things to do in them that should give us something to do no matter the weather! We thought we would share it with you because you might be stuck for something to do one day.

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if it Rains

Play in the rain!
Jump in puddles
Make a Rain measure
Go to an indoor shopping centre
Go Swimming
Go Swimming in an out door pool (your going to be wet anyway!)
Make an indoor fort
Go to the Cinema
Play a Board game
Make your own board game
Read stories to each other
Do a Drawing

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if is Snows

Collect your winnings from the local bookie (!)
Make a snowman
Have a Snowball fight
Make Snow Angels
Clear a Neighbours driveway
Clear the paths in the street
Make a Snow Fort
Marvel at S'winter (or should that be W'ummer?)

Things to do in the Summer Holidays if it is Sunny

Wear Sun screen and drink plenty of water
Go for a walk
Go for a bike ride
Play in the garden
Play in the park
Do Chalk Drawings
Have a picnic
Make home made ice lollies or Ice Cream
Go to the Zoo
Have a water fight
Go and pick fruit

Things to do in the Summer Holidays that have to be done

Buy new school uniform
Buy new school shoes
Buy a new bag
Buy new School Supplies
Label all new school things
Arrange hair cuts

Tell us what things you are really looking forward to!

Wordless Wednesday - Tacos for Tea!

Just Dance for the Wii

On Sunday I wrote a review about Dance on Broadway for the Wii. We had been playing the game as a family and had enjoyed it so much that I felt the need to share with everyone about this fab game! I haven't stopped tweeting about the game (or the blog post) since and it has meant that a few people asked me how I compared it to Just Dance for the Wii. This of course meant that I had to go out and buy Just Dance for the Wii so I could make a comparison (quick someone ask me to compare it to another game!).

So last night Daddy and I played Just Dance for the first time. It was fairly late at night and I was very tired so for the first song I was on the sofa. Daddy flicked through the songs until he got to Cotton-Eye Joe, I could see the gleam in his eye and knew that I was about to witness something truly great. I wish that I had been sitting nearer a camera, this was the funniest thing I had seen ever and I have no doubt that this video would have been able to stop wars.

Seeing how much fun it was I joined in for the second dance and used one of the features that this game has that Dance on Broadway doesn't, a quick play option and we danced to "That's the way I like it" by KC and the Sunshine band but it was over all too quickly. We played again and this time we went for the full version, I found it hard following the neon character and found them ever so slightly disturbing and I would have to say the backgrounds on Dance on Broadway are much Prettier than the plain backgrounds in Just Dance.

Again as soon as Daddy had a score higher than mine he retired from competitive dancing, claiming himself to be Family Champion. Revenge will be mine.

I am not disappointed with either of my purchases, but would suggest if you were only buying one to think about what sort of music you prefer. If you like Pop Music or want to buy a game for use at a party go for Just dance, if you like Musicals then go with Dance on Broadway. If you were forcing me to make a choice then it would be Dance on Broadway that wins because it looks prettier.

Overall I would say that Ubisoft made improvements on the original Just Dance when they released Dance on Broadway and I hope they are making more improvements when they release Just Dance 2 later this year. And here is the trailer for Just Dance 2!

The recommended retail price is £24.99, but you can buy it for less in a lot of places. I was not paid to review this and only went and brought it because of the questions about it on Twitter as a comparison to Dance on Broadway.

Water Bombs and some Family Fun

In Leighton Buzzard there is a 99p Store. Every so often I go there and spend a fortune on things that I wouldn't of brought normally, but as it is only 99p find it to be really good value and can't resist a bargin. A couple of weeks back I brought Water Bombs because everyone loves a good water bomb fight.

I told Daddy that I was going to fill up two of each colour from the very large pack (300 in the pack) and that we could have fun chasing Top Ender and Baby Boy with them, and took to the bathroom to fill them up as the Bathroom sink has the only tap that the tap adaptor would fit. Twenty minutes later I was very wet and had really mastered filling up Water Bombs.

I think that what happened can only best be explained, by this short video...

Wordless Wednesday - Peppa Pig The Cannibal

Cupcakes and a bake off!

Daddy, Top Ender and Baby Boy stole my idea last weekend and made a batch of cupcakes. I was planning on making some myself as I wanted to enter English Mum's Bake Off, but I was busy hiding in the living room playing Farmville or something and so they did this all without me.

Baby Boy found it odd that Daddy's whisk was bigger than his. I found it odd that they didn't use Ken (my Kenwood food mixer) but opted for the hand method.

Top Ender helped measure out all the ingredients whilst sporting a country casual look.

Both Top Ender and Baby Boy had a good mix.

Top Ender was even allowed to make sure that all the lumpy bits were out of the mixture

Baby Boy was too worried that his juice was going to be stolen and added into the mix and so kept a firm grip on it.

Baby Boy also decided that baking was easy and could be done with his eyes closed.

Top Ender preferred to keep hers wide open.

The cakes were allowed to cool, but Daddy had to distract Baby Boy as he just wanted to eat them fresh from the oven.

Top Ender opted for a sneaky sprinkle fix.

Finally it was time to decorate and this was Top Enders idea of heaven!

Whilst Baby Boy had a little bit of help from Daddy this design was all his and eaten before Daddy even had the camera pointing at him.

And the verdict from Top Ender on the wheat free cupcakes?

I believe that's a thumbs up!

Chocolate Weetabix and I am not proving a point!

This is a sponsored post, but it is funny and true so don't wander away!



As of today you can go to Sainsburys and buy Chocolate Weetabix, (£2.59 for a pack of 24) but because Weetabix know that I love Chocolate and Weetabix they sent me a box last week (along with some toys for Top Ender and Baby Boy and some vouchers and a really cool canvas bag that I can add to the ones I take shopping) to try. They did also send me a chocolate spoon and a Chocolate Weetabix bowl, but if Top Ender or Baby Boy asks, the chocolate spoon was quite poisonous and not safe for children okay?!

Weetabix are one of my most favourite cereals and now that Daddy can't eat them (with being Coeliac and all) it means all the more for me. I have in the past eaten the normal ones with chocolate milk instead of normal milk (we ran out of the normal stuff!) and even hot water (you should try that one) but these were something different.

So what did we think of them? Top Ender won't touch the normal ones (despite as a smaller child eating them everyday for breakfast and refusing all else) yet she ate most of my bowl the first morning that I had them. Baby Boy took one look at my bowl, sniffed it a bit and refused to eat even one spoonful. It was only after I had taken a few moments to pay attention to what I had been eating that I realised its plain chocolate in the Weetabix.



I don't do plain chocolate. I actually hate plain chocolate. Plain chocolate is evil.



So Top Ender has been happily munching on the Chocolate Weetabix in the Chocolate Weetabix bowl and she thinks they taste delicious, but she is on her own with that one.



And with regards to proving a point.



Daddy said that I never write any negative reviews. I pointed out that I had said something negative in the review of the Brio Wooden Pull Along Helicopter, but that in general all the things that I have reviewed had been great and if something came to me to be reviewed and I didn't like it I would say so.



So just before Daddy starts saying I did not like these Chocolate Weetabix just to prove a point, I really, really, really don't like plain chocolate; but I will continue to eat normal Weetabix with chocolate milk on.

Dance on Broadway for the Wii

I love our Wii and I love Musicals so when I saw the game Dance On Broadway for the Wii I knew that I had to have it. Luckily I must have done something that meant that Daddy was thinking I also needed a treat and he bought it for me!

We decided that today after lunch would be a good time to play it and as I was taking my time to get back into the living room Daddy and Top Ender started without me. They were going through the songs deciding which ones would be best for them to dance to and decided upon "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins.

I arrived in the living room just in time to see them exhausting themselves dancing along with the Wii, by dancing badly. Top Ender got the highest score and declared herself to have won and that it was now my turn to join in. As all you need to dance is a Wii remote for each player, I was soon clicking on the character I wanted to dance as, and before I knew it we were dancing to "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show.

Top Ender won again and I came a close second but it was at a price as both Daddy and I were exhausted!

We went through a few more songs and each time Top Ender won. Although I did redeem myself on "Bend & Snap" from Legally Blonde with a very high score and the sweat dripping off me as a prize.* 

Daddy however wasn't going to give up without a fight and kept repeating;

"Just once more!"

Eventually he got his victory with a score higher than both Top Ender and I had reached, immediately declared himself the family champion and retired from competitive dancing. Yes, he's a cheat.

There are a lot of songs on the game (all of which I recognised and was able to sing along with) and they range in effort needed and difficulty. I did work up a good sweat and my first thoughts that this game wasn't any good because both Top Ender and Daddy didn't seem to be doing well, were wrong and I love this game. I am going to add this to my exercise routine and hopefully dance my way to skinny!

The recommended retail price is £29.99, but you can buy it for less in a lot of places! I was not paid or asked to review this, but we had so much fun that I just wanted to share it with you all!

*If anyone wants to see my rendition of "Bend & Snap" let me know and if enough of you speak up it shall be a vlog!

This time last week

This time last week I wasn't here.



I missed the School fete, where Top Ender and Baby Boy decorated biscuits,

I missed seeing what goodies were won on the children's Tombola,

I missed going to the park, (Yes Top Ender had an outfit change)

But I did have a really great time at CyberMummy so I think that it all balances out in the end.