Jen Walshaw | Mum In The Madhouse

Tips for LEGOLAND WIndsor with 7 and 8 year old

We love LEGO and we are also huge fans o0f LEGOLAND. We go to the LEGOLAND Windsor once a year and Maxi and I were lucky enough to visit Legoland Florida earlier in the year too. On Fathers Day The Mad Blog Awards hosted their first #MadDayOut at LEGOLAND Windsor and we were lucky enough to be asked to come along and help at the event.

My boys are 132cm and 127 cm, so can go on every ride. Maxi, who is the taller child can go on them all independently. Mini can go on most independently, but needs to be accompanied by an adult on some of the others. We were also gifted a gold VIP wrist band, which I believe is the equivalent of a Q-BOT Ultimate. This meant that we skipped the queue on every ride. We managed to go on every ride in the p-ark in one day and there were no queues! Was it worth it? Well once both the boys are over 130cm we will buy then a Q-BOT Ultimate each, as it made the day so much more special and as a trip to LEGOLAND is a once a year thing for us I would rather save up and do it in style.

So What are our top tips for making the most out of your visit to LEGOLAND?

Get there early – The park opens for general visitors at 10am. Get there early for the park opening. It is quietest first thing on a morning.
Pick up a lost parent wrist band at the beginning of the park (Guest Services). These are invaluable. There are a lo0t of children and it is easy to lose one as Penny will tell you.
Head for the rear of the park first. The most popular rides are driving school and boating school, so it pays to get the queuing out of the way first and we found the queues much less on a morning. We start at the back and work our way forward.
If you stay in the LEGOLAND Hotel you get access to Atlantis 30 minutes early.
Be prepared to get wet. Splash rides include Pirate Falls Dynamite Drench, SQUID Surfer and Vikings River Splash. We use poncho’s to ensure that we have dryish clothes!
Take swim wear or UV wear for children. The new DUPLO Splash Valley and Drench Towers is a superb water area with slides, fountains, water guns and much more. There is a toddler area and an older child area. It is great fun and perfect for when your children are flagging. We managed to both grab a cup of tea whilst the boys made the most of the water.
There can be a lot of walking and waiting, so if you have a buggy take it. Even if your child doesn’t normally use it.
Make use of all your time. We stayed till closing time, a lot of people leave earlier so the queues get shorter.
Turn up for the Pirate of skeleton bay show early (20 mins approx before the start) and put down a picnic blanket a little to the right of the control booth on the corner. The show is brilliant and will be enjoyed by all. The harbour coffee shop does starbucks quality lattes. Even better this is the perfect place and time to have your lunch in front of the show, its fab! And bring a picnic as food is ridiculously expensive.

Ways to keep costs down

Take a packed lunch. There are areas for eating your packed lunch or snacks. You can also go back to the car to get it. There are also lockers at the beginning if you want to store your bags, but they do not refund your coins.
Kids eat free after 3pm in certain restaurants
Get a refillable drink for £7, especially if it is warm. You can use the drinks bottle once you get home too.
Get the shopping over with at the beginning. Set a budget and make sure you stick to it! You can also leave your purchases their to collect on your way home.
Keep an eye out for 2 for 1 deals by search on line.
If you are travelling the park have an affiliation with a number of hotels and you can get your second day free. It is worth checking out booking both hotel and park entrance with these hotels.
We had THE best time, in fact Mini called it Epic. To see more pictures why not take a look at our LEGOLAND 2013 Google+ picture album

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Top ten food safety tips to protect your family from kitchen bugs

2 Comments / baking / By Jen Walshaw

Top ten food safety tips to protect your family from kitchen bugs

Last week was Food Safety Week 2013, run by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and this year they focused on ways to reduce the risk of food poisoning at home. Here are some simple tips to help keep you and your family safe.

1. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water before cooking and after changing nappies, touching the bin, using the toilet, handling pets or preparing raw food.

2. Wash or change dish cloths, tea towels, sponges and oven gloves regularly and let them dry fully before you use them again.

3. Remove unnecessary clutter and wash worktops before and after cooking to prevent cross-contamination.

4. Always use a chopping board and wash the board in hot, soapy water after using and in between preparing raw and ready-to-eat foods. Better still, use a separate chopping board for each.

5. You don’t need to wash raw meat or poultry as thorough cooking will kill any surface germs. Washing meat can actually splash germs and raw juices onto other surfaces and equipment.

6. Make sure your fridge is set below 5°C to prevent harmful germs from growing and multiplying.

7. Don’t overfill your fridge. Air needs to be able to circulate to maintain the set temperature. If you are using infant formula we recommend you make up each feed as your baby needs it, using boiled water at a temperature of 70ºC or above to reduce the risk of infection, and use it within 2 hours. If you have no choice but to store made up bottles, do so in the coolest part of your fridge, away from the door, and for no more than 24 hours.

8. Cook food thoroughly until steaming hot in the middle to kill harmful bacteria. Food can then be cooled to a suitable temperature for children by cutting into smaller pieces and separating into shallow bowls, or even placing in a sealed container and running it under cold water.

9. ‘Use by’ dates are typically found on perishable products (dairy, meat and fish) and are based on scientific testing to determine how long these foods will stay safe. After that date, food could be unsafe to eat even if it is correctly stored and looks and smells fine. If you need to store a food for longer, consider freezing it.

10. ‘Best before’ dates are used on foods that have a longer shelf life and tell us how long the food will be at its best. After that date it is normally safe to eat, but its flavour and texture might have deteriorated.

To see how safe your kitchen habits are and for more tips, take the FSA’s Kitchen Check online. You can get your little ones involved too by downloading their fun young people’s activities.

Kitchen Check can be found at: www.food.gov.uk/kitchen-check

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Fundraising Ideas for Everyone

1 Comment / Featured and Guest / By Jen Walshaw

Fundraising Ideas for Everyone
Charities in the UK rely solely on the fundraising efforts of the public, together with donations made via their shops and collections and legacies left in people’s wills. They receive no government funding and in times of financial hardship like those we are currently experiencing during this recession charities find that their funding drops considerably.
This is understandable: when your job is unsafe and you are worried about how you are going to afford food and your mortgage, your ability to donate to charity has to come lower in your list of priorities than it usually would. However, even if you cannot afford to make regular donations yourself, you may still want to help your favourite charity. You could do this through volunteering your time or you could organise a fundraising activity.
You may think that fundraising events are organised on a large scale by dedicated fundraising teams. In fact, anyone can host a fundraiser. All you need is a worthwhile cause that everyone can get behind to support, and an idea for what to do to raise the most money possible. You can get everything you need in terms of forms and advertising online.
For example, the RSPCA has a Choices website where you can not only select a particular project to support (e.g. your local rescue centre, or providing veterinary care to the animals helped by the RSPCA to name but two) but can also download all you need to get your fundraiser up and running. You can also set up a fundraising page online that you can promote through your favourite social networks: it’s really easy, all you have to do is fill in your name, brief details of the project and why you want to support it, and what you’re doing to raise the money (and how your friends can help you to achieve your goal).
Are you stuck for ideas on what sort of event you could organise? A lot will depend on the space you have available and the time you have to organise it. A lot also depends on the weather! Since it’s summer and we’re hopelessly optimistic in the UK about how sunny it will be, here are some ideas for fundraising during the summer months to get you started.
A summer fete is the obvious choice, if you can gather together members of your local community to organise stalls and entertainment. Perhaps speak to your local church or even the PTA at your children’s school about coming together to organise a traditional British fete in a location central to your area. As well as selling crafts and cakes, your local school could put together a dance routine to entertain people, and sell refreshments to raise even more cash. Look into local companies that hire out bouncy castles to see if they will be prepared to donate a bouncy castle or slide for the event. You could also organise races like the egg-and-spoon, sack race or three-legged race with a small donation for taking part. Offer chocolate as prizes – this won’t cost much and you might even be able to get a donation from your local supermarket if you ask and explain what the event is supporting.
On a smaller scale, you could organise a car wash. Look for car parks close to main roads where you can put up a sign advertising the fact that you are washing cars for the RSPCA with a suggested donation of, say, £5 per car. Or you could go door-to-door or call in at local offices that have their own car park and ask if anyone would like their car to be washed for charity.
Whatever you do, have fun organising the event and be pleased that you are doing your best to support a charity that is close to your heart.

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Seven

13 Comments / minimad / By Jen Walshaw

How can my baby be seven? All of a sudden he is starting to look like the man he is going to be. So in honor of my darling Mini, this is for you.

You give the best cuddles in the whole wide world, they are all encompassing and frequent. One of my favorite times of the day is that cuddle in my bed before we get up and face the day ahead. Oftren we each say five more minutes.

You have no pause button. You do everything at full speed.

You are extremely sensitive, although you often hide it under your bravado. You care about what other people think and say.

You have my temper! It is like looking into a mirror. I know this is something you are working hard to control, but baby it is going to be a challenge. I know, I have been there, however, it is part of your personality. We talk about being able to learn to read and write, so learning to control your temper will be something you can do too.

Your family mean everything to you. You love us all with a passion.

You are a reader. You love fact books and sleep with your Guinness Book of Records and 2013 Football fact book. Every morning I remove at least 4 books from your bed.

You put your clothes on back to front. When we tell you, you just shrug and say it is “your thing”!

You are still mad about anything London.

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Win Your Family Holiday This Year!

competition / By Jen Walshaw

Win Your Family Holiday This Year!
The recession has hit most household budgets hard, with families struggling to meet basic outgoings, and not very much left in the pot for luxuries like holidays. If you’re feeling pretty gloomy at the prospect of giving your break a miss this year, imagine how good it would be to win your family holiday this year!
With Cushelle and Butlins, you could do just that. They have teamed up to give away three UK breaks, for families to try out the brand new Wave Hotel at the Bognor Regis Butlins resort. The lucky winners can check in two adults and two children, for a super exciting vacation at Butlins.
Those with older children, between the ages of 8 and 14, will be especially excited by the new Wave Hotel, as everything about it has been carefully designed to appeal to hard to please teens and pre-teens. The designers have gone with a cool and quirky underwater theme, complete with submarine style rooms, and the tech geeks at Butlins have gone all out to integrate the latest gadgets and gizmos to appeal to tech savvy kids.
The piece de resistance is the Games Port, where families can challenge each other to interactive modern games. The hotel also boasts a kindle and iPod library for guests, free Wi-Fi and a Soho Coffee Co Café. In the bright, funky designed rooms you’ll find iPod docks, freeview, and individual DVD players for each bed – saving on squabbles over what to watch!
Outside of the hotel (if you can drag the kids away!), the Bognor resort has also been treated to a brand new fairground, where you can ride your favourites for free! There’s also a fantastic new Discovery Studio hosting live shows themed on science, animals and magic – perfect for inquisitive kids!
It’s got to be worth a quick click to enter – all you have to do is enter a Cushelle barcode online. And even if you’re not a winner, Cushelle will give you £20 off your Butlins break of choice, making a family holiday that little bit more affordable.

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Win a years supply of tea for your teacher from Whittards

competition / By Jen Walshaw

So why not print the entry form and have them draw their favourite teacher with a comment and email either a photo/scan to teacher@whittard.co.uk by 30 June 2013.

So my boys are going to do one for each of their teachers, when I asked Mini his response was:

My teacher deserves a years supply of tea as he is the BEST teacher in the world, plus he supports Middlesbrough Football Club and they have been relegated.

Maxi thinks this teacher deserves a years supply of tea:

My teacher has beautiful hair and helps me learn and puts in lots of effort.

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My Maternity Essentials

1 Comment / Featured and Guest / By Jen Walshaw

A friend of a friend is currently pregnant and has asked for tips on all things maternity. Now I wasn’t a very good pregnant person and spent most of it in and out of hospital, but there where somethings that I could not have managed without.

A fragranced candle – Everything smelled odd to me throughout most of my pregnancy. My usual perfume was to strong, MadDad’s aftershave turned my stomach as did cooking smells, however, I found a fragranced candle that I could bear and we had one for each room.

Peppermint tea – I went off tea, coffee and all milky drinks when expecting. I indulged my need for a warm drink with fresh mint tea and during the winter good quality dried tea leaves.

Big pants – I know that a lot of people like under bump pants, but for me I needed big pants. I bought packs of them from M&S and they were fab. They also worked great after I gave birth as they didn’t rub on my c-section scar.

Body Oil – My skin was really dry and I moisturised with body oil, I also used it in the hope of not getting stretch marks too.

Audio books – I just couldn’t concentrate on reading for any length of time and found audio books a real lifesaver.

Bubble bath – I suffered from Hyperemesis throughout both my pregnancies and everyone kept telling me to have ginger (ginger tea, ginger biscuits, ginger ale, ginger everything). Eating generger never did anything for me at all, but a bath with ginger and lime scented oil did give me a little respite.

Acupuncture – This was the only time I got any relief from my sickness throughout my pregnancies. It was worth every penny we paid for it.

Multivitamins inc folic acid – Yes I was vomiting, but I still took vitamins in the hope that some got to my babes!

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Cruises: The Perfect Family Holiday?

Featured and Guest, Holidays abroad, travelling with kids / By Jen Walshaw

Cruises: The Perfect Family Holiday?
Cruises are becoming more and more popular for family holidays as many providers have begun to cater for younger couples with children.

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Colouring in for all ages

12 Comments / crafts / By Jen Walshaw

One such activity, which is perfect for all the family is colouring on fabric. The fabric is from Ikea (TIDNY)and is only £7 per meter and the fabric pens are £7.99 from Yellow Moon. It is an ongoing project and once it is all coloured in I am going to set the c0louring by ironing the fabric and then make it into cushion covers for the family room.

The fabric is really think, so is perfect for children of all ages as you do not have to worry about younger children being heavy handed and ripping the paper or the colour bleeding through. We are also going to get the fabric paints out and use them to do some of the colouring too.

I love this for so many reasons. It is something that we can all do (adults too), it is a quiet activity that gives us time to chat and laugh together as you can see from the images below!

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