Show off your cooking skills and win Jamie Oliver’s best-selling cookbook 8
Show off your cooking skills and win Jamie Oliver’s best-selling cookbook
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Pain free school shoe shopping with Clarks – an oxymoron? 4
I hate shopping for school shoes with the boys. This is made much worse by the fact that Mini has very wide feet with a high instep. We have tried every shoe shop going and I have never been over the moon at any shoe shop until now.
Today we went to Clarks in a neirbouring market town, which doesn’t actually have many shops at all, so much so that MadDad didn’t even know that it had a Clarks.
So what made this shop pain free (apart from in the pocket)?
We booked our appointment online. No getting a ticket and waiting inline. Not for us, we jumped any queue with our pre-booked appointment – Whoop.
We had an experienced fitting lady (she was the manager) and all the other staff were more mature and handled the boys perfectly.
The plimsolls Mini needed were out of stock, but will be delivered FREE to my home address on Friday.
Plimsolls in a range of width fittings and in half sizes, which is perfect for us as both boys are half sizes.
We have found in the past that the larger and more trendy Clarks often employ people who have not got children of their own, so although they are qualified fitters, we have had to return on a number of times, especially with Mini and his wide, high feet.
Both boys have come away with different style shoes, but with a protective rubber bumper at the front.
My only gripe would be please stop making Jack Nano shoes. I do not want to purchase these for my children and I do not want to have to experience pester power over them. Thankfully the Manager understood this and they were not the best fit for my children, so they were not in the running.
Tots 100 Garden Challenge – The reveil 7
My Tots100 Home Club garden challenge was always going to be a tough one. What with it being used as a football pitch for my boys, the grass had given up and left town, just look at the sorry state of it before. So I asked the experts at Homebase how to deal with my bare patches of lawn on their Facebook App and they came back and said that the only way to get it looking tip top again was to either patch it with turf or reseed it and try and keep the boys off it. We decided to reseed it, as September is the ideal time for this and purchased […]
Hunting for Wenlock and Mandeville in London 4
We love London and sightseeing is so much fun in London, but even more so at the moment with the Olympics and Paralypmics on as there is a number of trails where you can look for decorated Wenlocks and Madevilles, the London 2012 Mascots.
Back to school with Tesco 1
We have been part of Tesco’s back to school blogger program for the last three years and we were delighted to be involved again this year. Both of my boys have put Tesco’s unform to the test over these last three years and we please to see an improvement year on year on both the quality and value of Tesco’s back to school offering.
Home made spa treatments 4
I was invited to London this week by Smart Shoppers to a workshop all about making your own spa treatments. Not only are these treatments free of all nasty’s, they are much less expensive that buying them. Plus it is so much fun to make them and they are perfect to gift.
Back to school – value for money, uniform 1
My boys put there school clothes though the wringer! They are not gental with anything they wear and their uniform is no exception. I was delighted when Matalan offered me £100 to spend on their uniform, espeically as I have purchased it from them previously and it has stood up to the boys day to day use.
Summer Holidays so far in Instagram 5
We are busy making the most of the summer holidays, so I thought I would do a collage in Instagram showing what we have been filling our days with:
Emotions 12
here has also been firsts too. Our first visit to the Skate park with Frugal Family and the boys first visit to the high street on their own. It has been a veritable feast of emotions for all of us. I love my time with them. I love that they are fun to be with and that they enjoy spending time with me as much as I do with them. Long may it continue.
Tots 100 Home Club: Garden Challenge 3
I am back this month after a break on the bedroom challenge with the Tots 100 Home Club a garden challenge.
My garden was a mud pit 6 years ago. What do I mean by that, well we live in a new build, so it has been a hard slog to get the garden in to any shape to be actually called a garden rather than just mud. However, our needs have changed over the last year or so and we have had to get rid of the play house after the boys started using it as an obsticle course. I was the words “jump of the roof and try to get on the middle of the whirlygigg” that finished it for me. I had visions of my boys hanging themselves and they were actually using the house to climb on top of the six foot fence and try to walk across the top of it!
Sport, the Olympics and a giveaway 8
I also have a set of three books to give away to a reader of Mum in the Mad House.
To enter this fantastic competition and continue that Olympic magic with your children, please complete the Rafflecopter form below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Win a HP Deskjet Printer to Celebrate the Release of The Lorax 27
“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”
A Universal Picture © 2012 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
To celebrate the release of The Lorax, in cinemas now, Mum in the Madhouse is giving one lucky person the chance to win a HP Deskjet printer!
HP has partnered up with Universal to celebrate the launch of the feature film Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. HP encourages eco-conscious choices when printing, such as choosing ENERGY-star qualified printers, using responsibly-sourced paper and recycling HP print cartridges through the Planet Partners programme. Every Inkling makes a difference.
The 3D-CGI feature Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope. The animated adventure follows the journey of a boy as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet
Chester Zoo – #Dinosbiteback 4
We are great lovers of Dinosaurs and this year Chester Zoo have a new exhibition featuring 19 amazing life-like robotic replicas of the creatures that roamed the earth 200 million years ago, including the giant Brachiosaurus, the iconic Stegosaurus and the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex.
You get to roam round the fantastic exhibition at your own pace and there are superb Presenter-saurus (staff) who make the experience even better. Even better is that entry is included in your zoo admission price.
Olympic Learning – Logo 1
The Olympic Logo is one of the four major symbols of the Olympic games, along with the medals, touch and mascots. I printed out all of the previous Olympic logos and we made a timeline of the previous Olympic games from them, adding the year and the venue. Using our atlas we looked up where each of the countries were and with our flags of the world sticker book.