I have a love hate relationship with school uniform. I love that the children all look the same, cutting out any decisions about what to wear in the morning. But I hate the palaver that comes with it; That being growing children, stains and school lost property. After 4 years I’ve worked out that certain things need more money spending on than others;

White polo shirts – come home covered in the nuclear school dinner sauce of the day and/or mud from lying on the floor during playtime (still not sure why lying on the floor is necessary). The appearance of ‘stain away’ polo shirts amused me a few years ago, absolute codswallop.  No protective barrier could see off the school spaghetti bolognese. So now I buy quantity over quality.

Cardigans and Jumpers – I prefer to spend a little more on knitwear. Due to my childrens’ scatterbrain nature they regularly come home without the cardigan or jumper they left the house in.  A little part of me dies as I realise that I’ll be spending half an hour with my head in the lost property wheelie bin of doom.  Usually they appear 3 weeks later in a school bag with no explanation.

Trousers and skirts – Skirts with a ridiculous amount of pleats are an no-no for me unless, of course, you like spending an inordinate amount of time swearing and ironing. Trousers need to be good quality, especially if you have a 5 year old who spends most of his breaks playing football and practicing some sort of sliding knee tackle.

I would definitely buy cardigans, jumpers and trousers from Trutex.  The fit and quality is second to none.  As for polo shirts, until my children stop using their t-shirts as a serviette and a goal stop I’ll be buying the cheapest that money can buy!

On another school uniform note … My Name Tags sent us some iron on name tags.  I could kiss the lady at Name Tags, they are so easy to apply, it takes seconds to do and they stay put.  The tags come in a variety of colours with a full range of pictures.  Along with iron on tags they also sent some stickers which are useful for bags, water bottles, packed lunch boxes and anything that leaves the house that you want to come back.

Then there’s the dogs.  We now have two dogs and have discovered some new dog walks, over the Christmas holidays, which would probably be useful to anyone wanting to take up mud wrestling.  It is fairly standard now for us all to troop into the kitchen, post walk, and strip to our underwear due to the amount of mud on our clothes.

That’s why I may have punched the sky and run a lap of the garden with joy when Samsung sent us the Samsung Ecobubble WF0702WKE. The Ecobubble has a 15 minute programme which just freshens up clothes, just in case you’re the type of family who wear something once and then hurl it in the wash basket cough. There are several cycles which make more sense to me than the usual settings ‘dark wash’, ‘bedding’ etc and I’m a big fan of the self cleaning programme.  It also gets rid of the dog walking/football mud on low temperatures.

The technical bit … “Samsung’s Ecobubble Technology uses a bubble generator to dissolve detergent into the water and then inject air, producing a rich soapy foam cushion. The detergent is so thoroughly dissolved into the water, it doesn’t need as much hot water to aid the cleaning and penetrates deeper into clothes up to four times faster than conventional washers. The Super Eco Wash programme washes at just 15°C, with the results of a 40°C wash, using 70% less energy as a result.”

Anything that saves us money, cleans our clothes, sits quietly in the corner and has instructions that I understand is a winner in this mud-filled house!

White Rabbit England sent us one of their nightlights. The minute I saw it I fell in love and realised that I would be unable to hide it away in a bedroom.  It now has pride of place on our living room shelves.  It’s stunning and everyone who has seen it has commented.  There is a fluffy white rabbit doll with a story book to compliment the lamp.  Co-founder, Charlotte says “The idea is to get little ones in to a bedtime routine, switch on our rabbit lamp, read the story and cuddle the rabbit!” Buy it for a child or buy it for yourself *cough*, one thing’s for sure, I love the passion which oozes from White Rabbit England and I think everyone should have a white rabbit watching over them, be they 5 or 33.

Great British food experts, Forman & Field,  decided to surprise me by sending me a luxurious hamper.  The contents didn’t disappoint. There was wild salmon, potted lobster, lemon curd, a selection of cheeses, a box of chocolates, a pork pie, a chocolate brownie cake, a banana loaf and some mince pies.  It’s the sort of food that screams out to be savoured, not shoved into one’s mouth and swallowed without further thought. They sent me a brochure which I lingered over longer than I probably should. I worked my way through the sections; fishmonger,  cheese monger, butcher, deli, hampers. By the time I got to the patisserie section I was salivating a little. I like the idea of giving the gift of food, whether it’s London Smoked salmon or Dorset Knob Biscuits *snigger*.

We were sent The Secrets of Mercy Hall by Garth Edwards. The 7 year old was VERY excited at receiving this book having already read the first book from The Thorngate Trilogy, Escape From Mercy Hall.  The books are full of intrigue, mild peril, strong characters  and perfectly suited for a 7 year old with an appetite for chapter books.  The book follows the exploits of eight year old Milly, and nine year old George and Samuel, as they escape from the grey world of a Victorian orphanage into a land of curious and unsettling modernity. The books remind me of a mixture of The Magic Faraway Tree, Narnia and Alice in Wonderland which I find exciting. Do you hear that?  That’s the 7 year old tapping her finger impatiently urging Garth Edwards to get on and publish the third book.

Garden Games sent us a Jumbo Connect 4 and a Giant Chess set.  For an old fashioned gamer like me these games are heaven. I love the competition, the frustration and the sense of achievement when we play non-electronic games together. We’re a big fan of these over-sized games from Garden Games, and have a Giant Jenga  which always gets an airing during parties. The Connect 4 has caused a few arguments between myself and the 5 year old, who seems to think it’s Connect 3.  Although it’s a ‘Garden Game’ it’s not so big that it can’t be used inside during the Winter month.  We’re saving the chess set until Spring when we can get it out in the garden. I’ve promised I’ll teach the 7 year old how to play and I can’t wait.

This year, though, I have found My List Is Here which lets me build lists from over 500,000 products across more than 300 high street and online stores (including Selfridges, Debenhams, Play.com, Gap and Vodafone).

I signed up (easy peasy) and started building my Christmas wish list. I can even add hilarious notes for people next to each item, for extra hinting purposes.  Here is my list. You’ll see I’m not asking for much, but what I am asking for is something that I DEFINITELY want and need.

If you’re buying a new home, planning a wedding or birthday the possibilities are endless. I’m planning on starting up a ‘dream home’ list … all the things I’d like to have when I win the lottery cough.

I love my list is here. I love that I can share it, easily, with family and friends and I’ll definitely be using it in the future for all manner of events.

If I was really bitter about The Husband’s lack of hint uptake I could do a Wedding List for when I marry the man who will get my gifts without prompting cough. But luckily, with the help of my list is here I won’t have to. Will I?!

At the weekend we visited Clarks who had offered to furnish the childrens’ feet with Winter boots. The 7 year old had seen an advert for Clarks and had her eye on a black pair of riding style boots.

The assistant measured the 7 year old on the magic measuring machine and we selected two pairs, the riding pair and another pair which were similar. The assistant went off to get them in her size. Sadly the shape of the riding boot at the front coupled with the 7 year old’s svelte foot and ankle (she doesn’t get that from me, sadly) meant that the boot flapped about when she walked. A short burst of sadness ensued.

Sensing the 7 year old’s disappointment, the assistant jumped into action and looked for some more styles. There was a pair on the shelf,  with a fur trim. Everytime the 7 year old said “What about these?” my inner “No, I don’t like those” demon kicked in. Five other pairs later and it seemed that the svelte ankled child would not be wearing a pair of Winter boots this year.

When I thought all was lost the assistant threw caution to the wind and brought out a pair I’d repeatedly said I disliked.

It turns out though that she was right. The boots looked totally different on to what I had imagined and fit really well.  More’s the point, for practical old me, I discovered they were made from Gore-Tex so they’re waterproof.

Thanks Clarks I have a happy 7 year old and whaddayaknow … the customer’s mother isn’t always right.

The boots are Zannia GTX Inf in brown leather. They are priced at £55.00 and available from Clarks stores or online.

http://www.clarks.co.uk/find/department-is-girls/producttype-is-boots/technologies-is-gore2dtex/product-is-20347713

The ingenious Tom at Morphy Richards knew that I needed inspiration. He sent me The Ultimate Slow Cooker Cookbook which has totally changed my view of the versatility of slooooow cooking.

The Flavour Savour slow cooker has 3 functions, which means you can seal, fast stew and slow cook.  Do you know you can cook a whole chicken in it?  A WHOLE chicken, with nothing else in there, for hours … for the most tender and juicy chicken.

I made a bolognese on Sunday for a family meal.  I am convinced it was one of my better bolognese sauces as were the family.   It was packed full of flavour and the meat just melted, it was so tender.  Delicious.

I am a lazy cook so the slow cooker is perfect.  Bung all the ingredients in, leave to cook and go out (for up to 8 hours!), return and dish up.

Next week we’ll be dining on szechuan braised belly of pork! You can get the 4.5 litre Flavour Savour here for £89.99 … for another £10.00 you can get the 6.5 litre version which is great for family meals and/or if you want to freeze batches.

“If you hit me again, I’ll hit you back”
“Quiiiiiiick, GET THE GOLD”
“That’s my power up”
“PUT ME DOWN”
“Let’s see if we can do this together?”

There has also been lots of cheesy hi-fiving.

If you’re wondering what I’m waffling about, the reason for all this madness is Disney Universe on the Wii.

Your character gets to run around various worlds in the Disney costume of their choice collecting stars, coins and special items whilst defeating the bad guys.  At first there are only a few costume choices but as the game goes on you can unlock loads of new ones – 45 in total, my favourite being Simba from The Lion King.

There are several worlds, to explore, based on the Disney classics … Alice in Wonderland, Wall-E, Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King and Monsters Inc. The children both love the Monsters Inc world and the characters from Wall-E.  Me?  I’m loving the graphics in the Alice in Wonderland world.

The appeal for me is that it is challenging enough to keep my interest as an adult and that we can all play together.  Although we argue during play, we are a competitive family, we also have to compromise to complete the levels.  It took us a couple of weeks to complete all the worlds, but that hasn’t stopped us playing.  We have many, many costumes still to unlock and each time we go back into a world we discover something new.

The children play it together or alone but they like it best when 3 or 4 of us play.  I like it best when we all play too.  It has a ’7′ rating, but the 5 year old (nearly 6) and his friends have had no problems getting to grip with Disney Universe.

We would definitely recommend this game.  Now, I must go, I have my eyes on a rather dapper Jack Sparrow costume and I need to get it before the 7 year old does.

The Fizzy Izzy Cheesecake is a luxury vanilla cheesecake covered in wiggling sour jelly worms and chocolate spiders on a crunchy chocolate biscuit base.

It looked impressive and the children found it difficult to stop themselves picking things off the top.

Of our panel of eight aged between 5 and 45 most liked it but they all had a comment to make and they scored it out of ten.

The Teenager gave it a 9 and said it was the nicest cheesecake EVER

The Husband loved it and gave it an 8.  He though the base was lovely and not too buttery like some other cheesecakes

Sister’s Chap (we call him Mahatma) gave it a 6, he wasn’t keen on the worms

5 year old gave it a 4, he hardly ate any of the cheesecake but managed to eat a fair few of the worms

My Sister gave it a 5.  She was in charge of slicing the cheesecake and came a cropper when the worms got in the way and she served everyone a rather squashed piece of cheesecake.  She did however say it had a nice consistency.

Heman (my nephew) gave it a 5 and a half – He loved the worms but said the cheesecake was too thick 

She-Ra (my niece) gave it a 7. She thought it was nice but thought the sweets were a bit sickly

Me?  I gave it an 8, really enjoyed it, but didn’t eat any worms

So … it just goes to show … you can’t please everybody. Judging by The Husband and The teenager’s reactions we’ll probably be buying from The English Cheesecake Company again … maybe as a birthday treat!

A current obsesion for the children, particularly the 5 year old is Superheroes.  We’ve done Batman, Spiderman and Sportacus.  After watching Superman 3 a few weeks ago the 5 year old started pestering for an outfit.  Which coincided with the rather superheroish Oliver from Mega Fancy Dress getting in touch and asking if we’d be interested in reviewing some outfits.

I give you Superman and Super Girl.  All shiny and ready to battle with … whatever you battle with when you are 5 and 7; Mainly toilet paper, eating anything more exotic than a tomato, putting your pyjamas on and hanging your coat up.

The site is amazing, just about any outfit you can think of for children and adults, great quality, well priced … and there’s still time to order for Halloween!

I am very impressed with the quality of the coats, the children are toasty. The coats fall just below the waist and the 600 pill power down keeps them warm but  are still lightweight.  We refer to them fondly as ‘the sleeping bag coats’.

My children seem to judge their coats by whether or not they have an inside pocket or not.  These coats don’t disappoint.  Not only do they have an MP3 pocket (keep dreaming) but it also has a ‘stowaway pocket’ which is big enough to put hat and gloves in!  Genius.

The snowguard wristcuffs are a welcome change to their normal coats.  It lets them slip their thumb through the cuff to keep the cold and …. eventually the snow too.

The only small negative is that the boy’s coat hood has press studs and can be taken off. The 5 year old is aware of this and keeps taking it off and putting it in his ‘stowaway pocket’.  Without this pocket I think I would already be dicing with death in the ‘lost property wheelie bin of doom’ at school.

I don’t have to worry about whether this coat will see them through the Winter, I know it will … so long as the 5 year old looks after his hood!

We reviewed the Little Boys’ Down Jacket in Steel Grey and the Little Girls’ Down Jacket in Bright Teal.