A Story Before Bed

Last week Daddy went on a Business trip to Chile for a week. He has been on Business trips before, but never away overnight (since Top Ender has been born anyway) and never so far away. As is normal for Daddy he started to worry about all the things that could go wrong and that led him to want to leave something of himself behind for Baby Boy and Top Ender to have.

Eventually he found a website where using your web cam you could record a story that you can then email to your loved one to watch whilst you are away. The website that he used is called "A Story Before Bed" and Top Ender and Baby Boy loved the story that he recorded for them so much I wanted to share this website with you!

I thought the best thing I could do was record one myself so I could tell you all about it firsthand. It was so easy to do as the website walks you through what you need to do. The first screen you see is this one below, and if you want to you can watch a demo before trying the service for free.



They have a great selection of books to choose from and if you are like me you will spend ages reading through the previews and wondering which one would suit your family best. They can sort the books by length or by age suitability and there a a lot of titles of familiar stories available to record.



Then you get to dedicate who the book is to and who it is read by. As you can see I chose The 3 Little Pigs as I wanted something that Baby Boy would be familiar with and Daddy had recorded The Princess Frog which was more for Top Ender than him.



The website will then access your web cam and get you to adjust the sound levels so that all you have to do is simply read the book, clicking on the pages as you need them to turn over. When you have finished recording the book you get a chance to preview what you have recorded and a chance to re-record it if needed!



I spent the entire preview muttering to myself about how my voice sounds different when it is recorded opposed to what it sounds like when I hear it in my head. Then you can pay for your book at a cost of $4.99 which is around £3 or you have 24hours to decide if you want to keep it.

I had been so impressed with this service that I emailed the company to let them know how great they were and that I was planning to tell everyone about them that they gave me a code to give to you all so that you can record and save a book for free!

The code is valid from today until the 15th December 2009 and you just need to enter it at the checkout once you are happy with your recording!
RG9T-AW7R-CJ4F

Happy recording!

Top Ender Does Panto... "Oh yes she does!"

This is a special post by Top Ender, (Oh No it isn't! Mummy stop adding things and Oh Yes it is!) Mummy has typed what I have told her to say, but she has added pictures and stuff. Mummy also wants to talk at the end.



Last week we finished up our bottle of Blackcurrant that we had been given by Nanny B. On the label it said that I could Put on a Panto. I know all about Panto's as Mummy has told me about them as we are going to go and see Cinderella at the Milton Keynes Theatre as part of the Have A Lovely Time series "The Great British Panto, 2009".



So I got Mummy to take me to the website that is here and followed all the steps to get my own panto of Snow White. I thought that as I was going to see Cinderella that I should do another one, and I like Snow White.



I asked Mummy if she would be the Beautiful Evil Queen as I would be Snow White and I was going to phone up Daddy at work and ask if he would be in my panto too, but Mummy pointed out that even with us all playing a part we still wouldn't have enough people and so I would need to ask some more people.



I thought about this for ages and then decided that I would play all the parts using puppets! Mummy is going to help me make the puppets and a special theatre made out of a box, which she said we would paint red and white stripped like a Punch and Judy tent. I decided that if I used the laptop in my tent, I would be able to use the Autocue 5000T to do all the voices, and that way I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to read the script.



I am really excited and Mummy said she will record our Panto so that we can send it to Nanny B at Christmas as it was her bottle of Juice that gave us the idea! I am off to draw my puppets!

Mummy here (Boo Hiss!), Top Ender is really excited about this Panto and so if I can I will edit a small amount to be shown on here in the run up to Christmas... but you might need to wait until Daddy is around as I have no clue how to do it!

The Robinsons Website is great and Top Ender was easily able to navigate it, and understand what she was supposed to do. I would recommend it to anyone (in fact I already have in the School playground) and if you think outside the box like Top Ender it is easy for those who are younger to be involved in the Panto production too!

Top Enders very own Soap Opera

Top Ender has a great imagination. Sometimes she says things that have me wondering where on earth she got the initial seed of an idea from so that it could develop in to the scenario she is involved in. Just last week as we were walking home from the local shop she was telling me about her divorce from her invisible husband.

Turns out that they were going to his Grandmothers second wedding, and were all dressed up when he jumped in a puddle covering them both in dirty water which ruined the clothes they were wearing. She told him that that wasn't nice to which he replied huh and blew a raspberry and told her if she felt like that then they should get a divorce... and so they did.

Today however he seems to have won her back over as Baby Boy and I were invited to their wedding. We had to sit in the living room and wait for his family to arrive and to save money Top Ender did her own makeup, but got me to do her hair. They decided to have a sit down meal instead of a party and luckily nothing has happened yet to spoil the bliss of married life, but her father in law is drinking a bit much so might start something later.