Love Where I Live Linky #6 13th August 2015

#LoveWhereILive

It's that time of the week again when I invite you all to link up your posts about your local area - I want to know why you love it!

Maybe you have some stunning photography you want to share, or maybe you want to tell the world about a fun local attraction you recently visited. Maybe you've got a favourite cafe, or a favourite shop you want to blog about. Anything goes really, as long as it's about where you live!

It was really nice to be back online and back in the swing of things last week, and I really enjoyed reading all your posts. My favourite post last week was from Dom at Playing Parent and she told us all about her local Lido in Cheltenham. We have nothing like this round here as far as I know and the pictures just looked so cool and retro!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.entertainingelliot.com" rel="nofollow" title="Entertaining Elliot"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/ElaineBetteridge/badge.jpg" alt="Entertaining Elliot" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Rules

There's just a few rules to abide by: 

• You can link up however many posts you like (old or new) but please make sure it is relevant and about your area
• Please display my badge on your post
• Make sure you comment on at least 2 other blogs, more if you have time! 
• Don't forget to comment using the hashtag #lovewhereIlive so people know where you found them

The linky will run from Thursday 12.01am until Sunday 11.59pm.

Feel free to tweet me @eelliotblog using the hashtag #LoveWhereILive and I will retweet your posts. I will also comment on each one.

Each week I will pick my favourite post .

I look forward to reading your posts!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to School - Preschool Essentials

It doesn't seem possible but Elliot is starting pre-school in September. He will be going two mornings a week and he is very very excited. Although for me, the thought of him growing up and getting close to actual school age makes me want to blub!!

Here's my list of our essentials for pre-school -

(You may notice a theme amongst these items but Elliot is dinosaur crazy at the moment and I don't see the obsession ending anytime soon!)

Stomp Dinosaur shoes - Clarks £34 /  Navy Dinosaur Applique Jeans - Debenhams £14 / Dinosaur Backpack - Kidorable £18.98

Navy Dinosaur Fleecy Raincoat - Debenhams £18 / Dino Wellies - The Elements £9.95

Dinosaur Height Chart Tshirt - JoJo Maman Bebe £15 / StickEasy Clothing Labels - Easy2Name £4.95 (from) / Navy Dinosaur Print Tshirt - George £3

1. I guess shoes are a must for a new school year! It won't be long before Autumn arrives so he won't be able to wear his plimsolls for much longer so these are perfect. Clarks may be a little pricy but the quality is great and I love the dinosaur print on the soles of the shoe

2. Goodbye to summer and hello to long trousers - love these jeans and the dinosaur applique

3. Elliot will need to take a little rucksack with him to store the very important change of clothes! This one reminds me of the one Andy uses on his Dinosaur Adventures which is sure to prove popular with Elliot :)

4. A raincoat is always an essential but this one is fleecy lined so will be perfect for when the weather starts to turn colder and Elliot is playing outside

5. Elliot's pre-school do lots of playing outside and go on various walks/trips so wellies are definitely an essential for the ever changing weather! 

6. Good to have some new clothes for the start of a new season and this long sleeved t-shirt goes great with the dinosaur jeans

7. Everything needs to be labeled of course and I don't fancy sewing much so these easy stick ones look perfect!

8. Another dinosaur t-shirt to add to the collection, this one a short sleeved incase we get a late Summer heatwave! 

What are your back to school essentials?

Linking up with...

My Week in Pictures

We haven't had the busiest of weeks but we've been spending lots of time at home trying to get things sorted after our move. There are still boxes to unpack but I finally finished hanging our clothes up today - that was a thrilling job!!

So here's our week in pictures..

Top Row
- On Monday we finally got Elliot's playroom sorted and whilst he had his nap I managed to get all his toys in there and it was immaculate. Fast forward 10 minutes after he woke up and it's like this :)
- Just a snap of our new house, I cannot tell you how much I love having more room!
- Last night we let Elliot stay up late and we had our first bbq in the new pad. It was lovely sitting outside listening to the swallows fly above our heads. My husband hid a kinder egg in Elliot's playhouse, hence his excited face!


Middle Row
- Last Sunday was a scorcher of a day and we went along to the Great Dorset Chilli Festival - my husband bought Elliot a giant sombrero and Elliot was making us laugh by doing funny dances!
- My choir performed at a company's Summer party on Friday night in the New Forest and we saw a beautiful sunset on the way home


Bottom Row
- We don't normally buy ice-cream (I like it too much!!) but we picked this up as a little treat on Saturday night. OMG, possibly the nicest ice cream I have ever tasted!!!
- I tried to take a nice selfie of me and Elliot but the dinosaur got in the way!
- This pic made me laugh, fast asleep in the car but still holding his Longleat book! He's obsessed with Longleat Safari Park  and loves looking at the map in the book, he's forever asking when we're going back

So that's our week, mostly spent at home. Hoping to get out and about a bit more now we're getting settled in our new place!

Linking up with:

Feeling Hot Hot Hot at the Great Dorset Chilli Festival!

One of our favourite things to do in the Summer is visit a food festival and fortunately in Dorset, we have lots to choose from! Last weekend we went along to The Great Dorset Chilli Festival - now in it's 5th year, it's a mecca for chilli enthusiasts and great day out for the family. It was a beautiful day and perfect weather for a festival!

The festival was on all weekend but we decided to go along on the Sunday morning. The gates opened at 10am so we arrived shortly after and managed to park relatively close to the entrance. (The later you arrive, the further away you have to park!). Tickets cost us £7.50 per adult with kids under 10 going free which is very reasonable. We were given a map/guide as we arrived but we just decided to have a wander round as it was still pretty quiet. 

My husband had skipped breakfast so the smells of the food stalls enticed him into buying a wild boar hot dog to stop his tummy rumbling! It may be the Chilli Festival but there were lots of other food options available that weren't quite so spicy. His hotdog tasted delicious and I was half tempted to buy one for myself even though I'd already had breakfast!

The festival has certainly grown lots since our last visit in 2013 and there were lots and lots of stalls to look round. There were chilli oils, chilli sauces, chilli beer, chilli chocolate, deep fried chillies, dried chillies, chilli ice-cream.....basically any chilli product you could ever wish to buy! I bought some cheese, red onion and garlic bread which looked and smelt amazing whilst my husband was loitering at the chilli beer tent. Aside from all the lovely things to buy and eat, there was a jam packed itinerary for the day featuring cooking demonstrations, a chilli sauce competition, chilli talks, live music, falconry displays and a chilli eating competition. Not for the faint hearted that one!

Elliot could see a Minions bouncy castle in the distance so we were dragged off to the kids area which had lots of things to entertain the small people. Unfortunately he was too young for the bouncy castle (it was MASSIVE!) but there was a toddler friendly bouncy thing that he enjoyed going on. One of the stalls was Alfredo the Magic Man who was dressed as pirate and making parrots and pirate swords out of balloons and then making the kids walk the plank! When it was Elliot's turn he went very mute and he didn't really know what to make of Alfredo - but he was well impressed with his pirate accessories!! It was free too which is always a bonus. Especially as the parrot popped 10 minutes later ;)

The festival was starting to get really busy towards lunchtime so we decided to grab an early lunch and meet up with our friends who were there too. Paul was still full from his big hot dog but he did manage to eat some deep friend chillies! Elliot and I shared a big bowl of freshly made paella which was really really nice, much better than my paella attempts at home.

After lunch we finished looking round the stalls and my husband bought some chilli oils and some chilli pork scratchings. (He ate these last night and they blew his head off!). He also bought Elliot a giant sombrero - just what every toddler needs! Elliot was making us laugh by dancing to the mariachi band, his sombrero was bigger than him!

After a quick ice-cream stop and a catch up with some more friends we decided to call it a day. Elliot was starting to flag a bit and we didn't want to be tempted into spending anymore money on stuff we didn't need ;)

A great day out for all the family!

Linking up with the following...

Love Where I Live Linky #5 6th August 2015

#LoveWhereILive

It's that time of the week again when I invite you all to link up your posts about your local area - I want to know why you love it!

Maybe you have some stunning photography you want to share, or maybe you want to tell the world about a fun local attraction you recently visited. Maybe you've got a favourite cafe, or a favourite shop you want to blog about. Anything goes really, as long as it's about where you live!

I took a bit of a break from blogging last week due to having moved house and having no broadband - bit of a nightmare, I really missed having internet and I really missed being able to host this linky! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies who linked up in last time's #LoveWhereILive. It was great to read all your posts, especially the one about Tintagel Castle by Stevie at A Cornish Mum. I love visiting Cornwall and seeing all her beautiful pics made me want to go back! 

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.entertainingelliot.com" rel="nofollow" title="Entertaining Elliot"><img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/ElaineBetteridge/badge.jpg" alt="Entertaining Elliot" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Rules

There's just a few rules to abide by: 

• You can link up however many posts you like (old or new) but please make sure it is relevant and about your area
• Please display my badge on your post
• Make sure you comment on at least 2 other blogs, more if you have time! 
• Don't forget to comment using the hashtag #lovewhereIlive so people know where you found them

The linky will run from Thursday 12.01am until Sunday 11.59pm.

Feel free to tweet me @eelliotblog using the hashtag #LoveWhereILive and I will retweet your posts. I will also comment on each one.

Each week I will pick my favourite post .

I look forward to reading your posts!

An InLinkz Link-up

Andy Day and the Angels Welly Beat Dance Challenge #giveitsomewelly

If you're a regular reader you'll know that Andy Day features quite frequently on here! Elliot is his number one fan and so it's my mum duty to keep an eye on his Twitter to see what he's up to ;)

Angels Welly Beat Dance Challenge

Recently Andy became a Goodwill Ambassador for the Angels charity. Angels create pop-up schools and feeding kitchens within impoverished communities with the aim of re-engaging street children with learning. Andy initially got involved by co-writing and performing the Welly Beat song for their dance challenge but after a trip to South Africa to see the Angels work firsthand, he took on the role of Goodwill Ambassador.

Angels have created the Welly Beat dance challenge and would like you to get your wellies on and dance! All money raised from this campaign will help fund their project in South Africa and many more like it.  Just £3 keeps a street child at a pop up school for 2 months where they will have access to food and a basic education.

Photo Credit - Angels Charity 

How do I get involved?

- Firstly you need to download the Welly Beat song for free here
- Record your dance on your phone/tablet/camera
- Donate £3 by texting BOOT33 £3 to 70070
- Nominate the next 3 dancers
- Post your clip to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter using the hashtag #giveitsomewelly
- Post the following ‘I'm giving it some welly and donating £3 to Angels Charity. I nominate X, X and X to do the same. Text Boot33 £3 to 70070 and Give It Some Welly! Get your FREE download of the welly beat song and see more dances at: www.angels-charity.org #giveitsomewelly'

#Giveitsomewelly

So, not being one to turn down a bit of dancing in his wellies, Elliot had a go at doing the welly beat dance last night. Elliot being Elliot wanted to do it in his nappy and wellies....!

We have donated and will be nominating via our social media :)

For more information, visit the Angels website - please donate or take part in the challenge, or just share on your social media to spread the word!  

*This is not a sponsored post, we have not been paid to write about the Angels Charity but we are happy to promote something like this as it's such a good cause!

Linking up with...

Magformers Review

We were recently contacted by Magformers who asked if we'd like to try out one of their toy sets. I wasn't familiar with the brand but after a quick look at their website I saw that it would be perfect for Elliot so we jumped at the chance!

What are Magformers?

Magformers are super powerful magnetic construction sets that can be made into a variety of different shapes and objects. The magnetic shapes give children a natural understanding of the geometry of 2D shapes and 3D figures. 

Although Magformers have just launched in the UK this year, their toys have been popular around the world for many years. The biggest markets are the US and South Korea and they hope to replicate this success here in the UK. Magformers can already be found in many independent toy shops but from this summer, Hamleys will be also stocking them. 

What did we think?

We were sent the 'WOW' set which featured 16 pieces of the Magformers magnetics. The box was colourful and bright and we were really excited to see how it all worked. 

Upon opening the set, the pieces felt really sturdy and were very colourful - very appealing to childen I'm sure. 

Elliot wasted no time in constructing his first shape and he was really intrigued to see how the pieces stuck together. The set comes with picture cards so you can make up to 20 different mini cars so we set about having a go at this and it was really fun. Elliot needed some help following the picture but he was so excited once the car had been built and he could whizz it around! 

We were so into building the cars that it took a while for us to spot the other cards in the box! There are instructions for 8 kinds of planar figures - these were brilliant because Elliot could lay the shapes down on the instruction card (the pictures were actual size) and then we could show him where to pick up the shapes to create the 3D creation. These were absolutely brilliant and I could tell Elliot was learning a lot from creating these shapes. 

Lastly the set also included 11 play patterns which were quite fun for Elliot to play around with and figure out what shape went where. 

I can really see the benefits of this toy for a child, especially a child around Elliot's age. As well as teaching hand-eye co-ordination, it develops and enhances creativity and problem solving skills. 

The recommended age for Magformers is 3+ but I would say this is an all ages toy - my husband had just as much fun playing with it!! 

Would we recommend Magformers?

Of course, this is a great toy for curious little (and big!) minds and one that I'm sure Elliot will come back to time and time again. 

Disclaimer: We received this product for the purpose of this honest review. All views are my own

Linking up with...