I Eat Books and Babies

Graduation

2012-08-02T10:16:00.001-07:00

The Gallery: Sunshine

2012-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Sunshine never lasts long in this country, but when it comes around you can pretty much guarantee that me and the family will be out enjoying it while it's about.

I love the sun, heat, smell of suncream lotion and warm sand beneath my feet and really wish sometimes that I'd been born in a warmer climate but I'm stuck with England at least for now. Oscar is also a lot like me, wanting to go out and play in the grass when it's warm and we tend to do a lot more when it's warm too.

Here's a few lovely pics taken this week in the gorgeous heatwave.

Party In A Box: Gruffalo

2012-05-30T03:49:00.000-07:00

Oscar has turned 4 this year (he's beginning to call me "Mum", instead of "Mummy" and it makes me feel VERY old!) and we throw him a little party every year to celebrate. This year we knew would be tough because he has his own tastes in things now and knows what he wants and more importantly what he doesn't want! So it was hard to try and think up ideas for his 4th.

I had vaguely heard of Party In a Box from their big brother company, Timeless Toys. I had seen various things up on facebook which had me intrigued, as it's not really something I'd heard of before, so when I was asked to review a Gruffalo themed party, who could say no?!

Oscar loves books, in particular The Gruffalo so I knew this would be a fun thing for him.

Party in a Box create the perfect party package for various ages, with various themes, so I know it's something I could use time and time again as Oscar gets older and as his tastes change.

The first thing we received was some invitations to send out. Unfortunately they arrived quite late in the week, so I was unable to send half of them out and could only hand deliver the rest in case the mail was slow, which was a shame because Oscar had great fun writing in them!

Then, three days before the party, the BIG box arrived. I was so excited, I had to make sure I opened things carefully in case anything broke! All in all, there was three huge boxes in the one mahoosive box!

The first thing out of the box was a polystyrene and marzipan cake! Unfortunately Party In A Box had had some troubles with sending out the cakes previously and they ended up in their final destination, smushed to smithereens. Their genius idea was to send "cake pops". Aka, cake on a stick! And then stick them into the big polystyrene cake. I thought it was a great idea and it looked good too as it was very unique.The cakes were only slightly damaged on arrival, but no so much that you would notice if you were about to bite into it. (It was just my scrutinising eyes -.- ) They were personalised too with "Oscar", "4" or Gruffalo pictures which I thought added an excellent touch. (The cake is not included price per guest.)

The cakes tasted okay. I wasn't overly impressed as it was mostly very sweet marzipan and only a little bit of sponge so not many of them were eaten, and because of the hot weather, the cakes started falling off the sticks! Luckily I had bought another cake for the adults which a couple of the kids tucked into so they didn't miss out.

The next box out was of the accessories. This included, *takes a big breath* Gruffalo themed; cups, plates, napkins, tablecloth, banner, balloons, a packet of party games, thank you cards, and a pre-wrapped Pass the Parcel game!

The accessories were all very good quality and included everything I would need to decorate the party. I have an awful memory and I'm pretty much guaranteed every year to have forgotten something, but being sent everything in one box just put my mind at rest, knowing I didn't need to remember anything else! The only thing I had to remember to bring was the party food, so it made life much simpler.

Last out of the big box, was the party loot bags. As we had one cancellation late in the week, I nicked one for myself to have a peek at. The loot bags included, sweets, a wooden pop up animal, a wooden game, a Gruffalo biscuit and a gruffalo badge. Oscar enjoyed opening his and still plays around with his little wooden animal.(despite the fact we bought him a BIKE!)

But the piece de resistance, was Pass the parcel. The only downside was there was a party game included where you had to put little dares on paper such as "walk like a Gruffalo" in between each layer, but as it came pre-wrapped we weren't able to play that part of the game. However, everyone enjoyed themselves anyway, with one of the daddies playing the music, the kids (and a couple adults!) sat in the circle and every time the music stopped, everybody cheered and got really excited.

At the end, the birthday boy got to open the final layer to find a really cool 24 piece Gruffalo puzzle. He was very excited! Him and his best friend got onto it quick smart!

Party in a Box sets are available in different quantities with the prices depending on the number of guests. Ours was for 8 guests and equalled £8 per person. The price per person decreases as the number of guests increases with the cake pops are an optional extra.
All in all it's a very good package which made my life a lot easier and included everything I'd need and everything Oscar wanted.

*some children not photographed due to not wanting pictures posted online*

*I received no financial reward for this post, although I did receive the Gruffalo package box for review purposes. All opinions are my own and have been in no way influenced because of this*

** These photos curtosy of Party In The Box.

The Gallery : Mornings

2012-05-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you will know that I loath mornings.

I really wish I could wake up, bounce out of bed and get on with my day Mary Poppins style, but I just can't do it. However good my intentions are of going to bed extra specially early it never pans out and I end up waking up groggy regardless. I am never truly awake until i've at least had a cup of tea in the morning. Until then, I'm a horrible person to be around.

I thankfully have ingrained it into my 4 year old that mummy doesn't like to be woken up before 7.30, in fact even during labour I ended up having a nap (though to be fair I was in full labour for almost 2 days!). My son is the complete opposite of me and is rarely tired. He stopped having naps at a ridiculously early age and when he's awake, he's bloody awake.

So, obviously there are quite a lot of photos of me half asleep in bed or on the sofa and quite frankly none of them are very flattering but a friend once took a photo of me waking up in the morning after a night out which pretty much sums it all up. I do not look best pleased.

Silent Sunday

2012-04-29T04:27:00.002-07:00

World Book Night 2012

2012-04-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

World Book Night is a celebration of reading in UK, Ireland, Germany and USA and this is happening...Tonight!

In UK alone, 20,000 regular and passionate readers will gift 24 copies of their favourite books to encourage others to read more. World Book Night also gave away 620,000 more books to people in the hardest to reach areas, ie, prisons, care homes, hospitals and sheltered housing.

So How Does It Work?

25 books titles are chosen and printed with the special 'World Book Night' edition. Givers apply for a particular book (you get a first, second and third choice), which they then must commit to gift to non-readers to share their love of reading.
The Givers then collect their books from local bookshops and libraries

Why Should I?

Over half of adults of working age have literacy skills below what is expected at GCSE level and 16% are below the level of an 11 year old.
4 Million children in the UK do not own a single book.
Women with low literacy skills are five times more likely than an average reader to suffer with depression.
A third of people in UK have not bought a book in the past 12 months and 34% never even read.

Research into libraries' use of reading for pleasure with adults with literacy needs establish that simple interventions such as World Book Night can make a real difference in people's motivation to learn as well as gain more confidence and skills.

Why Today?

April 23 is a big day in the book calendar!
It is both the birth and death day of William Shakespeare as well as the death of Cervantes, a great Spanish novelist. It is in their honour that UNESCO appointed it the international day of the book

Which Books!?

The books chosen for this year are:

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
Iain M Banks - The Player of Games
Mark Billingham- Sleepyhead
Bill Bryson - Notes From A Small Island
Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist
Martina Cole- The Take
Bernard Cornwell - Harlequin
Roald Dahl - Someone Like You
Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
Emma Donoghue - Room
Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of The Day
Stephen King - Misery
Sophie Kinsella - The Secret Dreamworld Of A Shopaholic
Andrea Levy - Small Island
John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let The Right One In
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Audrey Niffeneger - The Time Travellers Wife
Maggie O'Farrel - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
David Peace - The Damned Utd
Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens
Meg Rosoff - How I Live Now
Joe Simpson - Touching The Void
Dodie Smith - I Capture The Castle
Markus Zusak - The Book Theif

*WBN 2011 preview video

You can Login or Register at the World Book Night Website from 7.15pm tonight to hear more from authors and celebrities.

Dystopia - What Next?!

2012-04-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

Wizards and vamps are out.

Dystopian fiction is in.

With the recent success of The Hunger Games, many people have been coming to me asking...what next? Fantasy and dystopia novels are my absolute favourite though it's hard to come by good ones. But I've found the best that I like so, here I am to give you my favourite things to read that are similar to Hunger Games

Scott Westerfeld - Uglies Series

This series is good for the younger readers. It's about a world where children are said to be ugly until they have undergone a massive surgery to enhance their features at the age of 16. Until this happens you're an Ugly. Afterwards you're a Pretty. However there's something a bit weird about the Pretties in how they act and the main character, Tally wonders what else can be out in the world so she doesn't have to be a Pretty.

It's a great book series to teach young girls about inner beauty as well as strength and personality. As an older reader it's not one of my faves because it's too much easy reading for me that doesn't get my brain thinking hard enough but for a quick and easy read this could be the one for you.

James Dashner - Maze Runner Series

This I think is the series most like the Hunger Games in that there is an arena type setting and it's based around children in the aftermath of the apocalypse. It still has many differences though and although this was hard to get into (it took me until page 100ish and the introduction of a different character-Minho) come the end I was really enjoying it. It was annoying at first because Dashner gave away so little information for such a long time. So many times I was ready to give up and not bother with the rest but I just had to find out! I haven't read the second or third books yet, but I don't feel like I need to rush out and grab them like I did with THG. I still enjoyed it though!

Terry Brooks - Genesis of Shannara
You have not read fantasy until you have read a Terry Brooks novel. He's a great author who has been writing for years and years and there's not one books of his that I haven't loved. This series is a mix of post apocalypse, dark fiction and ultimate survival. I was engaged very early on and is one of those series that I just had to run down to the bookstore to grab the second and third books after being in a trance reading the fist. It's a hard story to try to explain without giving away the good parts but if you're really into the dark side of fiction then this one is perfect.

Michael Grant - Gone Series

The Gone series is very popular particularly amongst teen boys. It's centred around a town in California which is encased in a big bubble and everyone over the age of 15 disappears and everything living thing left inside the bubble starts developing supernatural powers. Book 6, Light isn't out yet but I'm very much looking forward to it. It's a great series, dark, violent and deliciously horrific. Though it has received a lot of criticism from older and more advanced readers, for the likes of teenagers (aka its intended demographic!) It got a lot of praise.

One of these series should sate your thirst for something dystopia or fantasy. They're just a few of the best that popped into my head first but there's tonnes more out there if you look hard enough. Happy reading!

Silent Sunday

2012-04-07T17:12:00.001-07:00

Saturday Is Caption Day- Caption THIS!

2012-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Gallery - Easter

2012-04-07T05:26:00.000-07:00

The theme for this weeks Gallery is: Easter!

My family didn't really celebrate Easter. We got one chocolate egg each from our parents and although we did get to eat chocolate in the morning (though after brekkie) the day was never really celebrated in any way. We're not a religeous family, but I really did miss out on the fun Easter activities my friends got to do!

The past couple of years we've not done a whole lot for Easter for our son, mainly because we thought he was too young to really do anything. He's nearly four now and so we decided to take him out for an Easter egg trail!

This picture was taken the morning of the Easter trail, getting ready by scoffing our faces with choccies and milk and snapping random pictures of each other. This picture for me, is the epitome of Easter.

Chocolate and kids.

Hair Hair Too Much Bloomin Hair

2012-03-28T02:06:00.001-07:00

Oscar has always had such lovely thick hair and it grows very quickly (just like his Daddy!) I end up having to cut their hair at least once a month or they end up looking like big girls.

It takes me an extra week to convince them they need it cutting, then I have to try to keep Oscar still because he loathes having his hair or nails cut.

He'll not be happy unless every inch of his body is protected then the whole time he'll have his hands up by his neck as if i'm going to lop his head off or something.

I've tried to take Ozzy to hairdressers before but I've not met one stylist who can keep him still long enough.

The problem I have with my boys is they look ridiculous if I just took the clippers to them because their heads are so BIG!

When Oz was born, the first thing the midwife said to me was "Oh my, that's a big head!"...*cough*...yes love I know..

Anyway, last night after much bribery and corruption I managed to get him to sit still and managed to get his hair cut completely instead of getting half his head done then him whimping out.

Here's a picture of him with the longest his hairs been and what he looks like now!

HUGE difference! I think if it was any shorter than that though he'd probably look silly.

Anyone else have any hair cutting problems with their children?

Silent Sunday

2012-03-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

The Hunger Games Movie Review

2012-03-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

CAUTION!

May contain spoilers!

If you haven't yet heard of the Hunger Games, then you must be living under a rock, as I've been seeing it EVERYWHERE for about a month. (if you really haven't heard of it click HERE for a short description-you will need to scroll down a bit)

It came out in cinemas on Friday and I have been so excited to see it since first reading the trilogy in 2009!

My love of the Hunger Games is equal (if not greater) to my love of Harry Potter. I get emotional at the bloody trailer!!

When they first started making the Harry Potter movies, I was not quite old enough to fully understand how massive it was.
But I got excited for 'The Golden Compass" to be released in cinemas, which left me disappointed...as did the movie version of Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak, Twilight and The Chronicles of Narnia. (Not too bad in comparison to the rest but I left the cinema without that excited buzz).
And I am Number Four was good but I wasn't really that excited for it.

Basically every book to movie adaptation I've seen since Harry Potter has left me feeling BLAH. Finally I think something has gotten me excited again!

This time around, I'm old enough to understand the Hugeness of it all and the suspense has been killing me! I've been walking around doing Rue's four-note whistle without even realising!

I bought my tickets a week ago and I've been guarding them with my life.
I finally went to see it last night!

Whenever I go see a film adaptation of one of my favourite books, the first thing I look for is holes in the storyline that an audience who hasn't read the book might not understand. The Hunger Games was fairly hole free, however I think they could have emphasised some points a bit better. Such as, Haymitch sending Katniss parachutes of goodies if she did what he was hinting at. It only happened once in the film and come the end, I think if i hadn't read the books I wouldn't quite understand Katniss' feelings towards Peeta.

There are so many good points though, I don't think I'll be able to fit them all in!
Firstly, the cast and their costumes were well done. I actually quite liked a lot of the fashion they put them in! I think Jennifer Lawrence (or JLaw as I am now calling her) pulled off Katniss really well. And despite the fact that Peeta isn't as good looking as i'd of hoped, I did still like the character. My favourite scene of him, was when Katniss looks for him in the arena, his camouflage is amazing!

I wasn't expecting for a teeny weeny tear to appear at the chariot scene, because it was Peeta being all lovely and protecting Katniss and I just love Peeta in the books. (Gale is hotter in the movie though!!)
Although I would of preferred more fire surrounding them...after all...you could tell it was fake fire, so a little bit more coming off them would have been better!

One bit I really liked was the fact that they have put in a point of view from the Gamemakers, which is not in the book. It was really interesting to see how they add things into the arena to make the tributes lives hell. I particularly liked when they added the muttations at the end (the half breed animals), at one point I think the entire cinema papped their pants!!

On the whole, my only real complaint is that it can't be four hours long or had the other two book movies with it!
It was as true to the book as it could have been, and I will be watching it again next weekend!

Saturday Is Caption Day

2012-03-24T02:15:00.002-07:00

Zog - Julia Donaldson

2012-03-19T04:31:00.001-07:00

Zog is another classic book by Julia Donaldson. Not one of my favourites of hers but definitely up there!

Zog is an enthusiastic yet accident prone dragon who goes to dragon school. He's very keen to try his best but he just keeps having accidents! Luckily though, Zog gets help from a mysterious girl who patches him up. But when Zog has to go and capture a princess and yet again it goes all wrong from him, will the mysterious little girl be able to help him...?

Zog still has that lovely rhyming that Donaldson does so well and as usual Axel Scheffler's art work is brilliant. It doesn't have that amazing quality that is in Gruffalo or Room on the Broom but this is another that I do enjoy reading.

It's another book that Oscar can almost read alone to me just by memory. If you don't already have this in your collection, it's sure to be a hit with your little ones!

I did not receive any financial gain for writing this review but I did receive the book for review purposes. All opinions are entirely my own

Silent Sunday- Mothering Sunday

2012-03-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

Mothers Day Book

2012-03-15T11:03:00.002-07:00

My gosh!

A post!

I have finally gotten my computer back from the fixing man and can start actually doing stuff online now. woo hoo.

Mothers day is but a stones throw away and perhaps you're looking for a nice book for your little people. Well here's a great idea you and your kids can get into.

This is by Usborne Activities, called Things to make for mums. Which I'm guessing from last years macaroni and glitter picture frame you're in desperate need of! It's full of clever ideas and projects for children to create for their lovely mums. There is an abundance of how to pictures and step by step guides and a bazillion stickers to add that extra umpf to the things they create. Activities include such things as paper flowers, chocolate truffles and yes, the inevitable decorated picture frame.

Usborne also has many other creative colouring and activity books that could give you hours of peace and quiet while you enjoy a breakfast in bed and Eastenders omnibus.

Whatever you do for your mothers day, make sure you don't do much!

I Have a Thing...For Gingers

2012-03-05T10:43:00.001-08:00

I have a thing....for red headed lovlies.

There I said it.

Some of the hottest people I can think of have ginger hair.

Shut up, I know you're thinking "Ron frickin' Weasley!?"

Even in the books I fancied him more than I did soppy Harry.

Anyway the reason I bring this up is because my BFF is a ginger. It obviously not the only reason i'm friends with her but still...it helps.

I've not had many close friends in my life before, mostly because my step-dad was a Royal Marine which meant we had to move every 2 years, so pretty much as soon as I got close to someone i'd end up having to move and not keeping in contact with them. (This was in the pre-facebook days when your only means of contact was to write a letter or run up mums phone bill).

Although I've been living in Plymouth for 10 years now It has still been difficult for me to change my mindset of making friends. I've made friends mostly through parenting websites since my son was born and still occasionally speak to those people but mainly just over facebook.

At first, Lauren and I didn't reeeeally get on. It just feels a little awkward when you try to make friends for the purposes of playdates I think. So we sorted that issue out by chucking playdates out the window and now our children are, in the nicest possible way, an inconvenience!

I love spending lots of time with my family but Lauren and I tend to dump our kids with our men and head out to cinema, Flabelos...Amsterdam!

We like similar things, have similar parenting styles and generally can pretty much know what the other is thinking. I also probably wouldn't be blogging if she hadn't of kicked things off!

Although we haven't known each other for years or anything, I can see us being 50 odd and still complaining about our fellas, children and shoddy kids tv shows. So we did this!

So there's a nice little soppy post about my Bff Lauren.

I Eat Cake

2012-02-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

So!

After 3 weeks of going to Flabélos doing 10 minutes at a time I haven't really seen that much of a difference.

I have lost a bit on my thighs (2inchs) but it's not all that noticeable and the area I wanted most to lose off of-my waist-there was absolutely no difference.

I have seen a slight improvement in the tone of my body now and have taken pictures over the past few weeks to see if you can see the difference. Which I can, but not enough for me to show on here!

I am slightly disappointed as It is fairly expensive for quite few results. Perhaps if i'd done it for a little longer and tried some harder workout positions then It might be a different story.

It was definitely a fun experience though and my first port of call when I've actually lost a bit more weight so It can tone up my body a little more.

A lot of celebs use the machines though so it must work better for some people. Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Jane Fonda and Heidi Klum are just some of the skinny little A-listers it obviously works for. So, if you're looking to try something new, have money to burn and after a laugh, Flabélos is the place to go. It's just not for me!

Silent Sunday 26.2.12

2012-02-26T02:07:00.001-08:00

All Quiet On The Books And Babies Blog!

2012-02-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

Hello lovely people.

I won't be posting in the next week as I'm off to Amsterdam to visit the Nine Months fair!

I'll have lots of fab things to talk about when I get back I'm sure and I also have a review of a childrens book and another one for the mummies and daddies too but for now, It'll be all quiet on here.

See you when I get back!!

Judgemental

2012-02-17T04:18:00.000-08:00

So, this has been a big discussion for a while now but I just want to talk a little bit about my experiences about being judged, particularly recently with thinking about having a second baby.

Oscar, our nearly 4 year old, was a happy little accident. Andy and I had only been together about a year and were still living with parents, but it happened and it's been great. We love Ozzy and the fact that I'm a young mum hasn't really bothered most people. Occasionally I'll get double glazing salespeople asking me if my mum is home but on the whole i've not had many problems.

The fact of the matter is, I'm not married yet. The main reason being is, I want a wedding where all our friends and family can be there and it be a proper celebration of our love. I don't want it to be huge, just simple but fun! But of course weddings are very expensive! We just can't really afford to do it for the foreseeable future, particularly because I'm not getting any hours at work at the moment so our income is lower.

So when I've been telling people lately that I'm not married, I have one child and we're in talks about a second child they seem to think that I am just a leech sucking off peoples tax money through Job Seekers Allowance (which by the way I've never touched in my life, even at my lowest of low points).

I'm totally fine with not getting married for now. I'm engaged, Andy proposed to me a while ago and we're trusting and comfortable with each other enough that I don't mind the wait. It is after all, only a name change and a bit of paper. I don't see how this decision has made people think that I am any less of a person than someone who is married.

In today's society it is completely acceptable to have children and not be married, so I don't quite understand why I'm hearing this abuse now and not before when It's just been Oscar.

I recently asked someone what they thought my next step should be, go back to Uni to study something I would quite enjoy doing, which would also benefit my family as I'd be earning much more money, It would also mean Andy can afford to quit his job and join the Army/Police as he has been planning to do for a while, OR, should I complete our family first and wait a while. Careers last a whole lifetime, whereas if I leave having another child too much later, there will be a massive age gap between Oscar and his little brother or sister which I would prefer not to have to do. They almost screamed at me and told me to get a proper job and suck it up basically.

I just find it all really rather sudden. Why now? Why is it I get this abuse at my second child and not my first? I was very much worse off financially then as well. I just don't get it!

I Eat Cake - Week 1

2012-02-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

So it's been a week using the FLABeLOS machines. The motivation to actually go is the hardest part, and arranging a time with Lauren too, but we did it in the end! Can't really say I've noticed huge improvements although the cellulite on my upper thighs has improved a little!

Still have 2 weeks to go though so it's still early days.

This weeks figures look something like this:

Bust 0" loss

Waist 0"loss

Hips 0" loss

Thighs 2"loss

Arms 0" loss

So that's not too bad going really for 30minutes of standing on a machine. I've been doing very little actual exercises on the machines due to feeling like crap lately. Next week I'll hopefully feel a bit better and do some proper workouts and that might help out a little more!

♥ Valentines Day ♥

2012-02-14T03:15:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines to all you twitterpated love birds out there! And if you don't have anyone to spoil you today...well then, who needs men/women (delete as necessary!) anyway!

Me and my Fiance, Andy don't really celebrate Valentines day. We make sure we do something together, even if it's just a meal and a couple of glasses of wine but we really don't see the point in wasting money on cards and flowers and teddy bears when it's so easily forgotten. The cards get chucked into the bin a week later or put into that "junk drawer" where you'll find birthday cards from when you turned 12, some lifeless batteries, 2 envelopes and a wide variety of different nuts, bolts and screws. The flowers wither and die, and the presents will usually end up with Oscar if it involves chocolate or teddy bears!

So, we decide just to chill out. I think it's important to make and effort all the time in relationships, but it's also another nice time of the year where we can make an effort with each other, which can otherwise be forgotten through the rest of the year.
I won't go into specifics, but this year Andy and I celebrated Valentines at the weekend (because he works nights during the week), so I cooked up some steak, he got some chips from the chippy and some wine, I lit some candles for the dinner table and we mostly just sat and talked for a while. And it's been a while since that happened.

Despite whether valentines is a made up phony holiday for greetings cards to make profits I think people should try to show their love to everyone and just have a little fun. There's no need to buy cards or flowers or flimsy 99p presents, just go and tell your loved one how you feel with your own words!

And use protection! ;)

Saturday Is Caption Day 11.02.12

2012-02-11T03:51:00.001-08:00