MINI Countryman World Record Attempt

When we went to Westfields Shopping Centre to see Mickey Mouse (and didn't actually see him) we noticed a MINI Countryman in the corner of the main plaza and discovered that there is a record attempt at getting as many people into a MINI as possible. Top Ender and Daddy are never one to back down from a challenge and so they decided to jump on in!

And I don't want any comments that Daddy is a natural at being squished because of all the practice he gets living with me!

Robinsons Search for a Star - Coming to a Theatre near you!

Top Ender loved the Panto last year that we saw (Cinderella at Milton Keynes Theatre) and loved putting on her own Pantos (with the Robinsons Put on a Panto website) and so when she realised that this year she was old enough to audition for the local Panto she was very excited. I was even more excited because not only is Joanna Page in the Panto this year, but so is Stavros Flatley and Luke Perry! Of course we signed her up as soon as we were able to.

I don't think it was a coincidence but more of a stroke of luck that we were invited down to meet Joanna Page at the launch of the Robinsons Search for a Star in Milton Keynes, and Top Ender although not quite realising who Joanna was at the time did recognise Dick Whittington (A beautiful Jenna Brook) and Sarah (A handsome David Chambers and if your reading this David let me know your website and I will link to you too!) as characters from Panto.

If you don't know me in real life feel free to skip this next paragraph and for those of you who do know me in real life his name really was DC and I did kind of shout out disbelievingly "Your joking!" before explaining why I shouted that at him. It wasn't really *our* DC though was it? Someone saw him yesterday afternoon at the end of day right?

Joanna was so sweet and took the time to speak to Top Ender and I (Baby Boy had fallen asleep) on several occasions even though there were the local newspapers and local TV Stations there (and they were probably much more important for coverage than me) and even started having a discussion about Glee with Top Ender and after a quick rendition of Journey's Don’t Stop Believin’ by Top Ender told her that she hoped that she would audition for the Panto. Top Ender was of course ecstatic and is now really looking forward to the auditions in early September!

This compliment meant that Top Ender thought it was only fair to warn Joanna that "Sarah isn't really a girl, but a boy wearing girls clothes and that boy is really a girl dressed up!" which Joanna displayed great mock surprise at and said something about keeping an eye on them for Top Ender!

Now Top Ender has already made me log on to the Robinsons Search For a Star website and register her for one of the 400 audition spots in Milton Keynes (there are now 399 left people!) and if you think that your children might like a chance and they are aged between 6 and 16 then hurry along and see if a Panto near you is taking part (As far as I can tell the 12 areas which are taking part are; Aylesbury, Glasgow, Brighton, Bristol, Bromley, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Richmond, Stoke on Trent, Wimbledon and Woking) and register quickly!

Of course we will keep you fully updated with the Audition process, but if you could all let Top Ender know that you are supporting her and keeping your fingers crossed and saying things like "Break a leg" then I would be really really grateful!

The Gallery - Playtime

The Gallery theme this week was on playtime. I really didn't know what to use, I knew that there were lots of photos that I have of Top Ender and Baby Boy playing and even of Daddy, but I couldn't think of the words to go with them. It was all rather one lined "Top Ender and Baby Boy play so well together" or something.

So I looked through my photos and nothing inspired me.

I would of taken a new one, but you know as I have mentioned at least 1000 times on Twitter I'm not very well and its too much effort to get the camera out.

So I looked through my photos again. And then I saw it. Please pretend that I am looking more attractive

I remember this day really well, it was a couple of months before Baby Boy was born. Top Ender had been on her best behaviour so we had gone to the park as a treat in the afternoon. Only thing was once we were there she wanted us to join in. I went on the swing, the See-Saw and we laughed and laughed.

That's what playtime is to me.

Making Bath Time MORE Fun!

As part of our 104 Days of Summer or Family Fun on a Phineas and Ferb Scale, we needed some ideas that only took a few minutes to arrange. We had already decided that not all our days needed to be on a grand scale, that it was the Fun that had to be on a grand scale. The one thing that I know that can turn anything from small to big is imagination and so I told Top Ender and Baby Boy that they were going to go Deep Sea Diving just before Bath time.

Of course my bathroom isn't built over an ocean and Top Ender and Baby Boy don't have any scuba gear or training, so this was going to be Deep Sea Diving with a difference. This was deep sea diving with food colouring...

When you add a few drops of food colouring to bathwater it changes colour. It is diluted enough that it doesn't stain the children (or the bath, but if you have a porcelain bath you might want to be careful) despite what my Nan might tell you. Everybody knows that the sea is blue and so blue food colouring was added to the running water and we got this;

Top Ender and Baby Boy loved the bath and it was a struggle to get them out that evening, but I was able to bribe them out with a promise of a new bath adventure the following evening. Coming up with an idea the following evening was as hard as opening my cake decorating gels and looking to see what colour took my fancy!

I decided that yellow would probably be the best bet, and added some yellow gel to the water. It required a bit more swishing around, but then that just serves me right for being fancy and having gels instead of the liquid kind that most people have.

The result was a sunshine bath and although I didn't think this looked as impressive as the Deep Sea Diving bath, Top Ender and Baby Boy loved it... as you can hear from our singing in the video!

So the next time you can't face having a boring old bath, or you want to add some excitement to your children's bath time why not go and raid the cake decorations for food colouring to add to the water!

The Bic Picture! (See what they did there!)

We draw a lot in our house, I once drew JoJo from JoJo's Circus and it was so great that everyone knew who it was, without me having to tell them. I tried to repeat it and sadly it looked more like the scary clown from Stephen King's IT. I drew this picture of Top Ender which isn't that bad, but I am not going to try again. I don't want to mentally scar my children anymore than I already have!

Luckily my complete lack of artistic talent hasn't stopped Top Ender and Baby Boy from expressing themselves and both of them are often found creating masterpieces. Baby Boy at the moment has gone for my abstract approach, and no matter what he draws it is always a Car and a Rocket taking me and him on an adventure. Mind you seeing as how he is always pointing at various objects and saying "That's you Mummy" I don't know if I should believe him... especially as I was a lampost yesterday.

So when Bic suggested that I might like to let you all know about a competition they are running for Primary School aged children (between 5 and 11) I knew that Top Ender would want to enter and it would give me a perfect chance to tell everyone about it too.

This is where Top Enders picture should be, but she asked me not to show it to you all. I can tell you about the floating houses, with ladders up to them because of the overcrowding on the ground, but I can't show you it as she has gone a little shy (yeah I know) and as I have always maintained if Top Ender asks me not to tell you all something then I won't tell you.
So this is perfect for a rainy day (which there seem to be a lot of this Summer Holiday so far), just get your little ones drawing a picture with the theme "Life in the Future" and post it along with a signed consent form (from http://www.bickids.com/) to the below address by the 20th August 2010.

THE BIC PICTURE
c/o 3 Monkey Communications
Medius House
2 Sheraton Street
London
W1F 8BH

And if you do enter Good Luck!

World Party - Croydon Summer Festival 2010

It isn't just me who comes up with places and ideas of where we should go as a family, Daddy comes up with ideas too and this past weekend when we went to the Croydon Summer Festival it was his suggestion.

We went to the World Party day (well evening) as we wanted to hear Martha Reeves and the Vandellas but due to some issues with traffic and roads being closed and a lot of police guarding crime scenes we arrived after they had left the stage.

As we came in we saw this sign, I am not sure who brings a kangaroo to a festival, but we were pleased that they were very clear about what sorts of Animals weren't allowed into the grounds! If anyone has ever taken any form of Marsupial to a Musical Festival, if they could let me know in the comments that would be great.

We had a quick look around the stalls and exhibitions (and of course the fun fair) and saw a fantastic sky dancer/air ballerina who was attached to a giant ball (and two men on the floor making sure she didn't fly away) and the movements that she made in the air were fantastic, and only a little scary as she would rush towards the crowds before suddenly swooping back into the air!

We managed to get back to the main stage in time to hear the other act that we wanted to hear... The Lightning Seeds! Honestly this photo does show Ian Broudie on stage...

We set up camp nearish the back of the crowd and both Top Ender and Baby Boy were having a great time having a dance to the songs (which I knew more than I thought I would) and even got me dancing although there is no video footage of this phenomena! It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day and I think that I could be tempted to go to every London borough Summer Festival!

Go! Go! Go! and see this show!

On Saturday, Daddy and I took Top Ender and Baby Boy to London to see "The Go! Go! Go! Show", (after having been given tickets by Mummy Marketing) which is a family musical about a group of five friends and without giving too much away involved a sweet sock-stealing "Fluffalope", magic bikes and some fantastic songs that none of us have been able to stop singing...

We went on the underground to Leicester Square (which is on the Northern and Piccadilly line) and then walked round to the Leicester Square Theatre (its hidden up near the Prince Charles Cinema near China Town) for the 2:30pm show. We made our way down the stairs and found a foyer with a very friendly man selling merchandise which was very reasonably priced and saw me buying Top Ender and Baby Boy flashing wands (£3 each) and a Souvenir programme pack (£5), there was a place to leave our buggy and a huge pile of booster seats for children to use in the intimate theatre.

We were all quite excited to find that over the back of our seats were different coloured socks (which becomes important later) and we settled down ready for the show. From the start Baby Boy and Top Ender were excited and as soon as the musical started they were dancing along and learning the Go!Go!Go! club move and shouting excitedly when ever the cast asked the audience a question. Top Ender was in heaven and laughed loudly at the jokes, as only a six (and a half) year old can, and has already learnt all the words to Heaven Bound. Any doubt that I had about us not enjoying the show was removed from my mind as we all grew more and more engrossed in the show.

There is an interval in the show, and if you are tempted to buy an intermission icecream do be warned that they are £2 per tub, but it was really nice ice-cream and according to the pot they have won lots of awards for being so nice.

The second half of the show started getting a bit too much for Baby Boy, but with some clever Mummy and Daddy tricks we managed to get him to watch most of the second half, without too much stress and we decided that he would skip meeting the cast after the show and go and claim our buggy. Whilst he and Daddy were claiming the buggy they did meet Mr Baffled who was very charming according to Daddy.

Top Ender and I battled it out to meet the other cast members (nearly losing an eye in the process from some sharp elbowed mothers) and even though they had just finished a show and must of been exhausted they were all so lovely and I hope that take this show on tour... or at least release a DVD as all of them deserve success in the future.

For further details of show times and how to book tickets, visit http://www.gogogo.tv/ and do it soon, it is one show that the whole family really will enjoy!

When we were offered our tickets, we were also offered tickets for a family of four as part of a competition and so if you would like to win tickets to see ‘The Go!Go!Go! Show’ then all you have to do is answer this question;

What is the name of the sock stealing creature in The Go! Go! Go! Show?

A. The Sock Nabber
B. The Fluffalope
C. The Sneak

Please leave your answer in the comments below (on A Mothers Ramblings, not on any other feed such as the Facebook group), and use a valid email address as this is how I will contact you if you have won. If more than one answer is correct, a random number generator will be used to choose the winner, based on the order of entry. Competition closes at 1pm on the 7th of August, transport is not included.