Party Bags and Supplies - Review

Recently I had the chance to review a party pack from Party Bags and Supplies and although Elliot had a birthday coming up, I decided to look for a party pack suitable for a little Halloween party we were planning for Elliot and a few of his friends.

Firstly, I was so impressed with the website - there is so much choice! Literally every single theme you could think of is there whether thats Gruffalo, superheroes, princesses, Disney, pirates and lots lots more. There were even two options for spooky party packs so I chose the 'Premium Boneyard Boogie Halloween Party Pack'. This pack contained the following:

- 8 cups
- 8 plates
- 16 napkins
- 1 tablecloth
- 8 pre-filled party bags containing a spooky sticker, skeleton noisemaker, evil eye jet ball, a spin top, a halloween tattoo and a chocolate ghost.

Photo Credit - Party Bags and Supplies

When the pack arrived it was well packaged and I immediately noticed that the quality of the items was really good. I've bought party bits from the pound shop before and whilst it's cheap, you really do get what you pay for! The tablecloth was huge and really thick and I loved the spooky spiderweb pattern.

The party bags were great and I think it's such a good idea to be able to buy them ready made. I always find it a bit of a faff sorting out party bags and it can work out really expensive having to go and buy all the toys/sweets separately. So to have them ready made is a big bonus! The party bags were a big hit with our guests :)

The party packs cost £28 which I think is a fair price for what you get. You'd definitely spend more if you were to go out and buy all the bits separately and it's so convenient being able to buy it all in one go! I love the fact that there is so much choice and I will definitely consider buying from Party Bags and Supplies in the future.

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

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE FOR MUMS

With Christmas only a month away (eeek, I'm so not organised!), you may be struggling with ideas for the important ladies in your life. I've put together a few things which I think any Mum would love...

1. Yankee Candle - Christmas Cookie (£11.99) - I LOVE Yankee Candles and there's nothing better than a home smelling of your favourite scents. The Christmas editions are all lovely but my current favourite is the Christmas Cookie one - husband if you're reading this, this is a hint!
2. AM/PM Yoga for Beginners; Roxy Shahidi (£12.99)* - You may recognise Roxy from Emmerdale but you may not know that she is a certified yoga instructor too! Beat the post-Christmas rush of fitness DVDs and pop one of these in your mum's stocking, she may thank you after over-indulging in mince pies ;)
3. 3D Polar Bear Mug - John Lewis (£5) - John Lewis always have a great selection of Christmas gifts and this cute little polar bear caught my eye. Just imagine him filled with steaming hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows ...mmmm!
4 & 5. Avon Body Butter and Lani Necklace (£5 & £15) * - Avon have some brilliant gifts this Christmas and you will be spoilt for choice for ideas for your Mum. I love this body butter, it feels really luxurious but you know with Avon that you are getting great value!
6. BIC® Conte Colouring Pencils (£5.99) *- Adult colouring seems to have taken the world by storm - apparently it can help destress you after a busy day! These colouring pencils from BIC® can help you colour your worries away. For more info, check out @mybicpen on Twitter
7. Accessorize Snowflake Scarf (£35) - You can't go wrong with a snuggly scarf as a gift and this one from Accessorize is perfect for the festive season!
8. Olverum Bath Oil (From £23.50) * - Olverum Bath Oil is a unique blend of 10 essential oils and has been described as "bath nirvana".  Not only does it sooth tired muscles, it relieves stress and helps you achieve a great night's sleep. I'm usually one for showers but I will definitely be making time for more baths after trying out the oil for myself - I went to bed feeling thorough de-stressed and relaxed!
9. Photobox Personalised Calender (From £22) * - A personalised calender makes such a great gift and it's something I've given to my Mum for the past few Christmas'. Photobox have some brilliant gift ideas and the photobooks would also make a great Christmas present for Mum. The mobile version of the website and the apps are really handy for creating personalised gifts, I'm guessing most of us have lots of photos on our phones! (App available from App Store, Google Play and Amazon)
10. Bakedin Baking Club (From £4.99) * - For something a bit different, Bakedin have launched the Baking Club which is a monthly subscription service supplying everything you need to bake delicious cakes from scratch at home. I love eating cake but my baking skills aren't amazing so this kit is perfect for someone like me! The Baking Club costs £4.99 for the first month and £9.99 per month thereafter but gift packages are available starting at £29.99 which makes it an idea Christmas present.

I hope that's given you some good ideas. 

Are you organised with your Christmas shopping this year?!

*Disclaimer - some of the items were provided to me for the purpose of this gift guide

My Week in Pictures - 21st November 2015

Well after a crazy couple of weeks of birthdays and moving house again (that's a tale for another day), things are finally settling down and getting back to normal.

Here's what we've been getting up to this week:

Top Row:
- I've been nagging my husband for months about getting a bookcase for Elliot's room and we finally got one, woo! It was only a cheap one from Argos but it has made such a difference in his room. He has so many lovely books and it's nice to be able to display them properly now. Whether this will stay this tidy is another matter!!
- Birthday party season has started for Elliot and last Sunday he had a great time at his little mate Finleys' party. They look so cute here with their faces painted!
- Pre-school really took it out of Elliot last Monday, he went all quiet as I was making lunch and I realised he'd dozed off! He never ever does this!

Middle Row:
- We have a Costa just a few minutes walk from our house so we often pop in. Elliot is a big fan of the chocolate babychino's - although after he'd slurped this one, his face was covered in chocolate!!
- Having some quiet time on the iPad whilst I got ready!

Bottom Row:
- He loves bathtime! The family bathroom in our new house has a posh shower with a handy glass door so it means he can splash about in the bath and I don't get wet...providing he keeps it at the right end!
- We braved the cold today and had a quick walk along the cliffs by Bournemouth Beach. It was absolutely freezing but I wanted to stop at this bench which is in memory of a good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. I might pick a warmer day to visit next time ;)
- We were invited along to an opening of a new baby clothing shop in Bournemouth today, Baby Moos. I will be writing about this very soon!

Have you been up to anything exciting this week? 

Elliot's 3rd Birthday Celebrations

It seems only 5 minutes ago that I was writing about Elliot's 2nd birthday and his amazing Gruffalo Party but in the blink of an eye 12 months have passed and he is now 3 years old. 3 years old?! How did that happen!!

We decided to hire our local village hall for Elliot's birthday celebrations and he told me he wanted a "spooky" party. Fortunately his birthday is a few weeks after Halloween so I was able to get lots and lots of decorations and party bits when the Halloween stock hit the shops in September. I even managed to pick up some party bits whilst we were on holiday in Florida - the shops were full of amazing Halloween displays so I was spoilt for choice really! 

My family were on hand to help "spookify" the hall and they did a great job helping me set things up. We had a bouncy castle to entertain the kids and we laid out tables and chairs for the parents. All the tables had a spooky centrepiece such as skeleton bones or pumpkins and combined with fairy lights and curtains drawn, it gave a really spooky effect. Totally rubbish lighting for decent photos though!

My mum helped me with the party food and as usual we went abit overboard - I always worry we won't have enough so I tend to go in the opposite direction and we end up with way too much! All the food was renamed for spooky purposes, e.g dead man's fingers (cocktail sausages!) and witches wands (chocolate fingers). We also had an amazing birthday cake made by a great local company (Creative Cakes by Nicki) and this of course was fitting for the spooky theme!

It was a very manic day with around 30 kids plus parents coming along the party but Elliot had such a great time and he was absolutely knackered at the end of it. He had a 2.5 hour nap afterwards which is unheard of these days! 

For Elliot's actual birthday we didn't have too much planned because he had pre-school in the morning but he was up bright and early to unwrap his presents. Two of his presents came all the way from Walt Disney World and I'd managed to sneakily buy them on our last day at the parks when he wasn't with me. He couldn't wait to get the figures out of the box and was very excited to see them!

After school we went to my parents house for lunch and Elliot was absolutely spoilt with more presents. Mum and Dad bought him an easel which he loved! Another birthday cake (the third of the week!) and another chance to blow out the candles :)

In the afternoon my husband finished work early and we went to our local Smyths Toy Store - a new one has recently opened near to us so we were interested to see how they differed from Toys R Us. I was really impressed, lots of good value items and I even started my Christmas Shopping! We bought Elliot a Scooby Doo Haunted House as part of his birthday present - he's had his eye on one for ages so he was really happy :)

We ended the birthday celebrations with a meal at Frankie & Benny's which is one of our favourite restaurants to take Elliot to as it's very family friendly.

I think it's safe to say that Elliot enjoyed his birthday celebrations and he got so many lovely presents. I still can't believe he's 3!! 

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - Disney's Magic Kingdom Florida

On our recent holiday to Florida we were able to attend a very special Halloween party at Disney's Magic Kingdom - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party is a ticketed event which means it happens outside of park hours and it's additional cost to your actual park ticket. I'll do a proper blog post about Magic Kingdom later on in the week but I just wanted to talk specifically about the Halloween Party here!

The Halloween Party is held on select nights in September, October and November and is suitable for all ages. Guests are encouraged to dress up in their fancy dress finest and to enjoy the spooky entertainment and party atmosphere!

Although we have visited Orlando several times before, this was to be our first visit with a child so I did a lot of research and reading of other blogs before we went. One of my go-to blogs for Disney info was the Life of Spicers and one evening when chatting to Angela about Disney, she mentioned Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was the first time I'd heard of it but that was it, as soon as I started googling, I knew we had to go!!

The tickets cost me an additional $144 on top of our park tickets (around £90) but this was for three of us (Elliot was free as he was under 3) - unfortunately going to Disney World isn't a cheap holiday so I just had to bite the bullet and book tickets!

We spent the day at Magic Kingdom and had such a great time - it was day 3 of our holiday, our first Disney park and the sun was shining! The park was decorated in lots of Autumn colours and I couldn't wait to see it come alive after dark for the Halloween celebrations.  The park closed to the general public at 7pm but MNSSHP guests are allowed in from 4pm so as the crowds started to thin out at late afternoon, we started to see people in costumes of all descriptions! Elliot couldn't wait to get changed into his zombie costume but his mask didn't stay on for long because it was so hot!

One of the first things we noticed about the event was how much quieter the rides were. These events are generally really popular and the park seemed really busy but nothing like the crowds of the daytime. We found the bigger rides that had a 50mins+ queue in the afternoon, had zero queues in the evening so you could ride again and again if you wanted. And of course, once it gets dark the rides are a whole new experience! We didn't do many rides in the evening as we'd already been on all the big ones earlier in the day but we did take Elliot on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride. It was his first proper rollercoaster and we loved it!

MNSSHP is also great for character spotting - the queue to meet the seven dwarves was massive!

One of the most fun things about Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party was the treats! Scattered around the park are treat stations where staff hand out sweets (or candy!) and we had great fun looking for the Mickey balloons which signaled where the treat stations were. We were all given a trick or treat bag and there was no limit to how many times you could visit the treat stations so it didn't take long for the bags to fill up! Elliot was in his element ;)

New for 2015 is the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular featuring the Sanderson Sisters from the Hocus Pocus film. This happens on the Castle Stage but we only got to see a bit of this as it was just too busy where we were stood to get a decent view - it sounded great though!

I love the parades at Disney and I was really excited to watch the Boo-to-You Halloween parade. It runs twice on event nights and we decided to catch the earlier 8.35pm parade because we weren't sure how late Elliot would manage to stay up. He was beginning to flag at this point but it was good opportunity sit down in the buggy for a bit and rest his tired little legs. The Headless Horseman galloped down Main Street signalling the start of the parade and it was just as good as I imagined. All the usual Disney characters were there including Mickey and Minnie but we also got to see more obscure characters like the hyenas from the Lion King!

Another highlight from the evening was the fireworks show. Disney certainly know how to put on a fireworks display and the Happy Hallowishes Fireworks display is said to be the most impressive you'll see at Disney. We weren't stood too near the Castle so we probably missed out on a good portion of the light display but the fireworks we did see above us were fantastic. The finale was just jaw dropping - 360 degree fireworks that surrounded us. We managed to capture a bit of it on camera but the video just doesn't do it justice - the atmosphere and the noise was incredible!

On event nights, the park stays open until way past midnight but we were dead on our feet (excuse the Halloween pun!) and by 11pm we were more than ready to head home. We had been at the park since 9am so that is one hell of a long day! Elliot was such a good boy despite the long day and he really enjoyed the Halloween Party. He loves spooky things anyway so this was the perfect event to take him to.

He was asleep before we'd even left the park and he certainly slept well that night....and the next morning he couldn't wait to sort out his giant bag of candy!

We had a great time at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and wouldn't hesitate to book again on our next Florida holiday! 

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Andy & The Odd Socks Album Review and Q&A's

You probably read the title of this review and thought, who are Andy and the Odd Socks?! Well if you have children of a pre-school then you will definitely know Andy - Andy Day of CBeebies fame!

Regular readers of this blog will know that we love Andy, he is Elliot's favourite person on CBeebies and I couldn't possibly begin to tell you how many dinosaur adventures we have sat through! When I saw that he had made an album I knew the likelyhood of us getting it was quite high...!

Andy's album is called "Who Invited This Lot" and was released last month however we were able to pick up a copy when we met Andy at the Festival of Nature, Bristol back in June.

The tracklisting is as follows:

- Aliens
- Unique
- Groovy Hoover
- Battle Robot Rapper
- Odd Sock
- Dinosaur Football Legend Megamatch
- Cheeky Friends
- Wizard of Sound
- No One's Feeling Sorry for Me
- Ninja Pig
- Pirates

As you can see from the song names, there's no nursery rhymes here and every song is an original! For me this was a massive massive plus - I get sick and tired of hearing Incy Wincy Spider or The Wheels on the Bus, there are loads of children's CD's like that and it's good to have something a bit different!

All the songs are cleverly written and funny. Take Cheeky Friends for example - it's about bums! And you know what little boys are like with toilet humour - for Elliot, this was an instant hit because Andy sings about the "cheeky bum" song!

I asked Elliot what his favourite song on the album was and he said he liked the Dinosaur Football Legend Mega Match because it was about dinosaurs. And football. Two of his favourite things! Actually, this is one of my favourites too - the chorus is so catchy, you'll be humming it all day :)

I think it's rare to get an album that both pre-schoolers and adults would enjoy and I think Andy's done really well here to appeal to all ages. It's become one of our most listened to CD's and gets a big thumbs up from me and Elliot!

Q&A's

We were able to send a few questions over to Andy so here's what he had to say....

What inspired you to make an album?

I've wanted to make a children's album for a long time – one that can be listened to and enjoyed by all ages. I remember loving the Simpson’s album when I was younger – I still know the words to the songs! I then met music producers, Bunkersonix, aka Rob David and Dan Delor, and loved their music and their writing, we became good friends and decided to make the album.. it took 2 years to put together as we are all so busy! We wanted to create an album that was a bit like a mini Mighty Boosh mixed with a mini Flight of the Conchords … I hope we have achieved that!

 Who are your musical heroes?

i love soul music/rock and dance, basically anything to get you up and dancing.... so James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Freddie Mercury, Muse…..

 If you could duet with anybody, who would it be?

Jason Mraz... i love his music, or it would have been Freddie Mercury in another life

 Will you be doing any live shows to tie in with the album?

We are working on some fun musical shows based on the song characters and hope to take it live next year (Woohoo, we look forward to this!)

You can find out more here: http://andyandtheoddsocks.co.uk/

Autumn Walks in Wareham Forest Dorset

We've had a bit of a quiet week and have felt a bit cooped up as Elliot has been poorly. We were definitely in need of some fresh air so we decided to go for a walk at one of our local forests.

Wareham Forest is just a few miles down the road from us but we haven't visited for years, one of those places we always say we need to visit but never get round to it!

We didn't really know where the best places to walk would be so we just stopped at one of the first carparks and discovered that there was a 2 mile circular trail which was perfect. Not too far for little legs!

It was great to be out in the fresh air and there wasn't another soul in sight so it was really peaceful. We followed the trail and ended up climbing a big hill, which turned out to be an Iron Age settlement. The views from the top were amazing and the Autumnal colours of the heathland and woodland were in full flourish.

It's great now Elliot isn't using the buggy as much because we can be a bit more adventurous with our walks. I would never have got the buggy up the woodland paths, let alone the hill so it gives us that much more freedom!

I say it time and time again but I'm so lucky to live in this part of the world - Dorset is such a beautiful place with so much to offer and I can't see us moving away anytime soon!

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