Friday 31 October 2014

We're excited....

This has been a good week so my Word of the Week has to be....


We have had a lot to be excited about this week....The best day was by far Tuesday though.....

I got an email from Tesco....Telling me my Club card vouchers were ready! The one's I've been saving up all year.....I thought they weren't due until the end of November!! I got so excited about this.....Way over the top but it's £70 I have got for nothing apart from doing my usual shopping.....hehehe 

I of course went onto the Tesco website and to the Clubcard Boost page to see what I could get for the girls for Christmas....Every £5 worth of Clubcard vouchers gets you £10 to spend....I bought £45 worth of stuff used £22.50 worth of my vouchers and ended up only paying £3 real money for delivery.....Fantastic!!!

I'm excited about M&S stuffing!! lol I joined in with the Tots100 #ThriftyXmas twitter party and only went and won a £50 M&S voucher....Hooray! It means Stu I will be taking a trip to Newcastle in the run up to Christmas.....Last year we didn't get to Newcastle in the run up to Christmas and I had to miss out on their stuffing and was a right grump about it....This year we have to go to spend the voucher which means I will get my stuffing and hopefully an outfit each for the girls for Christmas day!

On Tuesday we also went shopping for new school shoes for Ellie in Asda.....It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in there.....All the sparkly dresses, cosy pj's and more toys than usual.....I had a look around and it got me very excited not just for Christmas but for my birthday too....22 days and counting....hehehe

And of course today is Halloween....The girls are beyond excited..... We decorated and Stu and the girls carved the pumpkins....


Tonight there are a few of us going to my friends house to go out Trick or Treating.....Where she lives the people are very generous when it comes to trick or treating.....Round by me they'll decorate their houses but won't answer the door....Spoil sports! Then tomorrow I have promised the kids a party tea with lots of yummy treats....I do love party food!

The Reading Residence

Thursday 30 October 2014

Stay Safe While Trick or Treating....

 For young children, Halloween night is one of the best of the year.....Some people don't agree with children going out trick or treating but my girls do and a lot of children do where I live....

Just remember to stay safe!!

Plan a route in advance. Trick-or-treating could take you several streets away from your house, which can cause sore legs and a bit of frustration. Stick to paths that are well lit and you and your child are familiar with...

Wear comfy shoes. Make sure you and your children are in comfortable, well-fitting shoes. Girls in dresses should avoid heels, and all shoelaces should be double-tied to avoid tripping in the dark....

Stay well-lit. Apply reflective tape to your child’s costume to ensure they are seen by drivers on the road. Also, carry a flashlight with you to keep your child’s path lit at all times....

Avoid any sweets that has loose wrappings or is unwrapped. Small children should have their sweets inspected by an adult before they eat it...

Stop. Look and listen! as simple as this sounds, it can be easy to forget – especially when munching through a bag of Halloween treats! Remember road safety!....

Respect other people and their property. Don't trample through flower beds and gardens. Be polite and say "thank you"

Wednesday 29 October 2014

I wouldn't let my kids do that....

I survived and had a fantastic childhood but given that I wouldn't let my kids do half the things I was allowed to do!! Thinking back....If my parents parented me now how they did in the 80's I would have been removed from their care....lol

I was allowed to eat sugar sandwiches, had warm tea in a bottle and later when I was about 5 I drank milky coffee...

I remember going in a long trip....My dad would put down the backseats in the car and so it laid flat and then put down pillows and duvets and my brother and I slept.....Not a seat belt in sight!!

I would get raw rhubarb from a neighbours garden and dip it into a bag of sugar....

Sweetie cigarettes....

 
We were allowed to drink Babycham or Advocaat and lemonade at Christmas....

Playing in the park with not an adult in sight....Mega high slides and climbing frames on hard surfaces.....

We used to pinch the orange juice the milk man used to leave on peoples doorsteps...

No crash helmets or knee pads for skateboards or bikes....

Standing outside the staff room at primary school and whenever the door opened seeing all the teachers smoking....

I was able to rent any age video from the newsagents....

 Suntan lotion was not important....

People smoking on buses....

My dad had a skip hire business and my brother and I would root about in the full skips for goodies.....We found so many great toys....Also when the skips were empty and being loaded on the back of the wagon we would get into them and go along for the ride....hehehe

The fizzy pop man used to visit.....Then we used to hunt around the streets for empty bottles and get 20 pence I think it was for them....

I had a jumper with a Gollywog on it :/


Terry nappies with real pins and nappy buckets, with nappies sitting steeping in the bathroom before they went into the washing machine....

Tuck shops at school selling cans of shandy and a lot of sweet treats....My favourite was Rainbow drops...

Jumping of the shed roof onto a trampoline....

My dad sitting me on his lap when he was driving and letting me steer the car....

My friends and I knocked on peoples doors and offered to do odd jobs and wash cars for money...

Standing up on the back seat of the car with our heads through the sunroof...

Being smacked meant you learnt right from wrong pretty fast....

Sitting in the back of my dads Landrover (no seat belts again) waving to cars behind us....If they waved back they would get a smile and the thumbs up.....If not we would pull some awful faces...

Paddling/swimming in the river with no adult supervision....My brother may or may not have walked into a deep part once and went under.....He could hardly swim...All ended well though and I don't think my parents ever found out....

Riding on motorbikes with no helmets...

The warning videos we had showed at school used to terrify me.....Don't play on train tracks, road safety and stranger danger....

Butter was smeared on bruises and burns...

Only going in the bath on a Sunday night before school on Monday.... 

Sitting in the car while my mam and dad smoked...

Cereal with toys in....

Being kicked out of the house in the morning during school holidays with money to buy chips for lunch, and my Mum saying she didn't want to see us until tea time...

What a great childhood I had....

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Tuesday 28 October 2014

Halloween Goodies from Poundland...

We have gone a bit Halloween crazy this year...I think it's because it's during the school holidays and on a weekend too....


Halloween Spider Web Garland Party Decoration 2.4m
Glow In The Dark Hanging Skeleton Decoration 4ft
Halloween Tinsel
Halloween Spider Web (We got it in orange)
Halloween Printed Balloons - 18 Pack
Halloween Paper Lantern x2

I'm not usually a fan of orange but isn't it looking fab.....The kids are even more excited now.....

 
And for the party we'll be having on Saturday....


Halloween Party Paper Plates 20 Pack
Halloween Party Paper Bowls 20 Pack
Halloween Party Paper Napkins 30 Pack 2 Ply
Wipe Clean Halloween Table Cloth
Halloween Cupcake Stand
Halloween Trick Or Treat Bowl (We got it in Green, we already have the black one) 

I also bought some sweets and Halloween cakes.....My total bill in Poundland was £18!! You can't really not get in the the Halloween mood for that price.....

These decorations are going to be something we can put away in the cupboard along side the Christmas decorations and we can use them again next year.....


Monday 27 October 2014

Our Weekly Meal Plan!! - #mealplanningmonday


Yay! Half term.....I think we need this break from school and we have a few things planned.....Crafts, baking cakes, carving the pumpkins, maybe a day out somewhere and of course Halloween which I have themed our meal plan around.....It's a bit of fun and certainly makes a change from our normal meals.....

This week on the menu we have:

Monday - Chicken and stuffing sandwiches...
Tuesday -
Maggoty dustbin pasta....
Wednesday - Spaghetti Hot Dogs with leftover bolognese out of the freezer.... 

Thursday - Pumpkin Ghoulash Soup....I've totally cheated and bought it from Tesco!
Friday - Burgers in
in buns....
Saturday - A party tea....Pizza, crisps, sausage rolls, sandwiches and lots of Halloween cakes.... 
Sunday - Toad in the hole....
 
 As always I've joined in with the wonderful Mrs M's #mealplanningmonday linky....

Saturday 25 October 2014

Science 4 You - Soap Factory - Review!!

Today I am reviewing another fantastic kit from the wonderful people at Science 4 You.

This time we had some fun with Soap Factory....This kit has everything you need to make your own soap....

 
- Protective goggles, Gloves, Pink food colouring, Yellow food colouring, Blue food colouring, Pipettes, Wooden spatulas, Plastic molds for soap, Glitter, Test tubes with lids, Soap base, Tangerine scent, Apple scent, Satin ribbons and Plastic film....

Also included is a 36 page coloured book providing detailed instructions and scientific information....The difference between a substance and a mixture, what are the physical states of matter, what is the origin of soaps and how to produce fantastic scented soaps.....A very interesting book indeed....I learned a lot of things.

Both my girls made their own scented, glittery soap......It was so easy to make and a lot of fun.



 The only thing you really need to be careful about is melting the soap base as it does not take long at all in a microwave and it would be easy to burn it or yourself....The soaps take a couple of hours to set and the end result was brilliant...


This kit is for children aged 8 and over but Ellie is only 7 and absolutely loved it....I think it was because glitter was included....lol I think with things like this as long as they are supervised age does not really matter....

I think I am going to have to have a look for more of the soap base mix so we can make lots more....Included in the kit is plastic wrap and ribbons so you can make gifts....The girls have already said they would love to make some soap for my Aunty Jean and their Aunty Louise for Christmas....Such a lovely idea.

This kit costs £19.99 which I think is fantastic price for something like this....You can buy this kit via the Science 4 You website or their Amazon Shop.....

I was sent the Soap Factory kit free of charge to try....This is my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own...

Friday 24 October 2014

Things have got better and better......

I have struggled to pick just one word to sum up this week......It's had it's lows and it's highs but as the week has gone on it's got better and better.....So I'm going with....


 It started out pretty rubbish with my Twitter problems but the support I had from lots of lovely bloggers has been amazing Thank you to everyone who tried to help, send virtual hugs and has followed me since I started my new account up! I really do appreciate it...

A lot of good has come of my new account....As I was setting it up I made it more connected to my blog by choosing the name NorthumMam (NorthumberlandMam was too long) and putting a version of my banner on it.....It has made me realise I followed some really random accounts that I had no need to....lol Some which hadn't been used in months....I have also come across lots of new people who were kind enough to follow me.....New friends are always good....

I used to enter a lot of competitions on Twitter.....Sometimes a couple of hundred a day but this week I haven't entered many at all....It has improved my Twitter feed as I'm seeing more tweets from real people instead of having my twitter feed full of companies saying retweet this to win......I thought I would miss it but I'm not...I've gone back to using Prize Finder to enter competitions....Of course I will still enter a few and the one's on blogs which use rafflecopter but nothing compared to what I used to do.....

Monday evening was parents evening for Ellie.....Oh joy I thought....I haven't had the best start to the school year with Ellie's teacher so was expecting the worst....I was very surprised when she said Ellie is fantastic....She is so helpful and is really coming out of her shell.....At the start of term she was quite shy.....Now she is putting her hand up for everything and is growing in confidence every day...She is top of the class in reading which is absolutely brilliant as some of her class are nearly a year older then her (she's was born on August 29th) The only problem which isn't a problem was that she needs to spend less time perfecting her handwriting....She likes to put curls on everything....lol 

Becky has had a bit of bother since the start of term at school with a couple of boys.....There's been a bit of name calling but she has handled it well and now it has improved so much that she is best friends with them.....All thanks to Minecraft....lol They've been playing it at lunchtime on the school computers and it is Becky's new obsession.....It baffles me....lol 

So what turned out at the start a pretty rubbish week has greatly improved as it has gone on.....At 3pm it will be even better....The kids break up for half term.....I'm so looking forward to a break from the routine.....We have nothing planned at the moment but I'm sure it will be fun....

The Reading Residence

Thursday 23 October 2014

The Pros and Cons of Big Boobs....


The Pros

 Women wish they have half of what you’ve got...

Even a big belly doesn’t look big because the breasts stick out more.... 


 Some dresses are just made to be filled out at the top....

They are attention grabbers. 

No need for push-up bras or inserts!!

Boobs can act like a makeshift shelf. You can rest an assortment of different things on them from a bowl of cereal to your remote control...


 You can use your boobs to make space for yourself in a crowd.

Everyone can read what is written on your T-shirt.

Effortless cleavage!!

 But on the flip side....

The Cons

Hugging becomes pretty awkward because your boobs reach the person before your arms do....

Having to hold your boobs as you walk down the stairs or run!

Your towel can never be securely wrapped around your chest! 

 
You can pretty much never go without a bra!!

Trying to squeeze by people at a crowded place without rubbing your chest against them. (It’s impossible.)

People ask what size bra you are. Rude!

Seatbelts and cross body bags are the enemy!!

Boob sweat is a thing!!


 The phrase, “Anything more than a handful is a waste. Shut Up!

No one has made eye contact upon meeting you since puberty!!

Your friends tell you how they wish they had your problem....

Strapless tops are just impossible! 

I have bigish boobs and even with all the cons I wouldn't change them for all the tea in China....hehehe
 

Wednesday 22 October 2014

What's On My Phone Tag!

I saw this tag over on The Brunette Says...
I love my phone and can't believe I managed so long without a smart phone....


Type of Phone:  
Samsung Galaxy S5

  Last call made: 
Was to Stu....He was upstairs....I was checking he was recording something....It's a good job we get free phone calls to each other.

 Last call received:
My dad....He was asking what his home phone number was....In his defense he has just moved house and got a new phone number but he is a plonker at times he never added it to his mobile phone....lol

Last text message sent:


Last text message received:


It was from Becky's school....(I blanked out the school name) An error had been made with the homework....No wonder Becky didn't have a clue....lol

 Last notification: 

I'm not actually sure....Most probably a Facebook notification for Candy Crush, Pet Rescue Saga or Papa Pear Saga....My favourite games....hehehe

Most used app:

Apart from the Social media one's it's probably the Tesco Grocery or Sky App.....

 
The kids always move the remote so I use the Sky App to change the TV over.....I also change it over to control the Sky box upstairs and I can keep an eye on what they're watching and switch it off if they mess about....hehehe

 The Tesco App is very useful....Very handy to be able to add things to the list for the weekly shop when I'm not on the computer....

Last app used:
 
Candy Crush Saga....I love that game!

   
Last app downloaded:
 
The last app I downloaded was probably Timehop....

 Home Screen:

 
I just use one of the Samsung one's....Nothing fancy and yes I've just noticed my weather hasn't updated for nearly a month....I never even noticed....Where I live it seems like it's grey and cloudy most of the time.....lol

I am tagging you all to join in with this!!
Post Comment Love

Tuesday 21 October 2014

First steps in Biology - Shrimps - Review!!

We have been trying out another fantastic kit from the lovely people at Science 4 You


 This time it was the First steps in Biology - Shrimps set...

This kit contains everything you need to grow your own shrimps......

- Aquarium (with a lid)
- Plastic cup
- Decorative sand
- Tinfoil bag with shrimp\'s eggs
- Pipette
- Food (powdered milk and fruit juice)

- A  28 page booklet which explains what shrimps are...why are their eggs so resistant...All about the shrimps life cycle and how to grow your own shrimps.....


 This was so simple to set up....The instruction booklet is easy to understand....So much so that Becky set this up herself and talked me through it.....
 

You add the sand fill it with water, add a little air to the water using the pipette and then add the packet of eggs....That is it!!

After 3 days you mix the food provided which is just powdered milk and fruit juice with some water to feed the shrimps....

You then add 5ml of food to the tank until day 8 where it changes to 10ml.....

After about 6 days we noticed our little shrimps had hatched....There was much excitement about this.... Obviously we had to look closely to see them but they were definitely there....

We have continued feeding them and every day we can see more and more of them and they are definitely growing....

Ellie's take on this kit was "this kit is just like growing something...like plants but growing plants is boring these are REAL live creatures....She thinks she has got one up on me too...I have always said we are not getting any pets but to her these are pets! lol I'm actually quite surprised she hasn't tried to name them all yet....



 This is a great kit.....You are not going to see things happening straight away it's all about being patient which is a good thing for children to learn as well as all the scientific aspects of this activity....

It is such a weird concept that you add water to the dried eggs and they come alive but it works and I found it fascinating....

I'm very interested to see how big they grow and how long they last.....

This kit costs £12.99 which I think is great price for something like this....If I wasn't sent this to review it would have been very tempted to buy Becky this for Christmas!

You can buy this kit via the Science 4 You website or their Amazon Shop.....


I was sent this Science Kit free of charge to try....This is my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own... 

Monday 20 October 2014

Our Weekly Meal Plan!! - #mealplanningmonday

http://www.athomewithmrsm.com/

Monday again....The start of a new week and the last one at school before half term.....I'm so glad! We need a break from the routine I think...

Last weeks meal plan went fine until we got to the weekend.....Saturday was just a wasted day.....I had Twitter problems which ended up with me making a new account....I ended up not eating all day (I just can't eat when I'm stressed) By about 6pm I felt rotten from not eating and craved takeaway.... So that's what we had....

So this week I have a few parcels coming which I'll have to wait in for.....All Christmas presents I've ordered.....I must take stock of what I have already and work out who else I need to buy for....We have Ellie's parents evening after school today which should be interesting and on Friday I'm helping at the school with the PTA....The kids are having a disco so that should be a lot of fun....

This week on the menu we have:

Monday - Tomato soup with sausage rolls to dip in...
Tuesday - Corned Beef hash & Baked beans....
Wednesday - Chinese pork ribs and rice....I found this gorgeous Chinese Marinade Seasoning in Tesco that is just so tasty.... 

Thursday - Chicken casserole, mash and veg....
Friday - Fish finger sandwiches.... 
Saturday - Hopefully this Saturday will be less stressful so we'll try again to make the Paella and Stu is going to try to make Churros too.... 
Sunday - Roast chicken dinner....

 

 As always I've joined in with the wonderful Mrs M's #mealplanningmonday linky....

Saturday 18 October 2014

I have a new Twitter account! Here's why! Please follow.

I don't usually ask people to follow me on Twitter but this time I am.....It's not all about numbers I have a genuine reason.....

What a day.....After a rubbish nights sleep I woke up to find my twitter account @kimmer2111 had been hacked somehow in someway....A spammy thing has taken over!!....


I haven't signed up to get fake followers......I had over 1800 of my own who followed me willingly.....

This morning I had gained about 30 followers and somehow when I was asleep followed about 40!! 

My twitter feed was and still is sending out a this tweet pictured above....If you notice my followers they are not going up....I'm not gaining anything from this annoyance! 

I was deleting them but I've given up now.....

 My account had been Frozen.....I changed my password and it took a while to become un-frozen.....Then I couldn't tweet as it was saying.... 

"To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now. Please try again later!"

Every time my account tweets the spam.....I get the message and I can't tweet for anything from 5 to 30 minutes....

I checked the twitter apps.....There was nothing suspicious there.....I removed them all eventually just to be sure.....

I changed my email address associated with the account.....Scanned my computer with 3 different things but the spammy tweets kept coming.....Very randomly....As I write this one came through an hour ago then one 20 minutes ago.....

I changed my password on Stu's computer.....Cleared my history, cookies, cache and everything I could.....I even did a system restore on my laptop.....

Nothing has helped....I've sent messages to Twitter and heard nothing back....

I haven't stopped shaking all day! I've been angry, cried and I give up....

I've made a new Twitter account......

I am now @NorthumMam 

I would majorly appreciate it if you could follow me on my new account.....

What a rubbish day and I just know I'm going to get told off from Twitter for aggressive following by following all the wonderful people I did on my other Twitter account.....

Four years of Twitter gone.....Just because of scammy spammers!! No more tears!! I'm pulling my big girl panties up and getting on with it....

Thank you for ready this x

Lapland Mailroom Personalised Letter - Review!!

I'm probably not the only mother out there who does everything possible to make Christmas time extra special for our children....Last year I wrote how Christmas was losing a bit of it's magic now that Becky doesn't believe in Santa but do you know what?! I don't care that she doesn't 100% believe in Santa she is still going to get a letter from the big fella.....hehehe Both my girls are....

I was recently asked if I wanted to review a personalised letter from Santa Claus.....Yes of course I do! 


 Lapland Mailroom offer personalised letters from Santa to children of all ages all over the world....

Each letter can be personalised to include the child's name, age, address where Santa/Father Christmas will be visiting on Christmas Eve, mentions the child's best friend and even highlights the gift the child would most like to receive on Christmas morning....


 There is a choice of 4 different letters which are all written slightly differently so siblings do not receive exactly the same letter! 

That is a fantastic touch as my girls are not stupid and would realise that something was going on if they did get the same letter....We've been there and done that....lol

The website is very straight forward to use it is just a case of putting in your details and they do the work for you.....

The only fault I found when using the Lapland Mailroom site was when you tried to read the letters the text was so small.....You could however look through a looking glass type thing which made the text larger.....I found it really hard to check my personalisation and make sure all the details were correct....It was do-able though...Just a bit of a hassle!

Prices start from £6.95 and every letter from Santa Claus is individually addressed and comes with these fantastic festive extras:

FREE 'Nice Child' Certificate
Elf Yourself! Activity sheet
Christmas Eve door hanger
Cut out and keep
Christmas decoration
Colouring in Christmas card
Colouring in 'Santa
Stop Here! poster'


I think these are a fantastic addition.....Something to really get you into a Christmassy mood and will no doubt keep the kids amused for a while....

 
Delivery is included in the price too!

Santa will be popping his letters into the Lapland Mailroom from the 5th December 2014. After this the Royal Mail takes over and your friendly postman will make sure your letter from Santa arrives well in time for Christmas.

The last ordering date for all International orders will be Tuesday 10th December 2014
The last ordering date for Europe will be Saturday 14th December 2014
The last ordering date for all UK order will be Friday 20th December 2014


After you have paid (via PayPal) the letters are sent separately to each child individually.....You will then receive an automatic email from their system confirming your order....

So onto the letters themselves......I love them!! They are both individual as promised and are just magic!


They look like they have come from Lapland from Santa himself......


I cannot wait to give my girls these.....Hopefully I will be able to catch the postman (he's a lovely man) one weekend when they girls are sure to be in and he can pop them through the letter box with the rest of the post for me.....

Come back in December....I will be posting about what the girls thought of these too!!

I was sent these letters from Santa free of charge....This is my honest review of the service....All thoughts and opinions are my own...