Half-Term Fun – My Sunday Photo

My Sunday Photos / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We had some half-term fun last week. We started off with a few chilled out days indoors, watching films, crafting & colouring as the weather was rubbish. The week got a bit better with a trip to Kent for a birthday party breaking up the boredom.

Birthday Party

Nothing beats cake, especially chocolate cake! The girls had a great time and stuffed their faces. With a second piece to bring home, the girls were a little spoilt too. In fact, Izzy ate her second piece then said ‘Mumma, How dare you give me cake!?’. I guess I committed a crime there, clearly good parents sneakily eat the cake themselves! 😂

It took me a day or so to recover and feel up to leaving the flat again but by the Sunday I decided to take the girls for a walk. We had plenty of half-term fun indoors but we needed to break it up and get some air. The girls needed to burn off some energy too and the sun even appeared for a bit!

Of course, this gave me a good excuse to get outside with my new camera and play with it a bit more. Eva decided she wanted to take her bike so of course, Izzy had to take her scooter too. Before heading along the river we popped to the local shop for drinks to take with us and I captured this shot of Izzy zooming through the college.

Scooting

Izzy Scooting

Half-Term Fun

When we got to the park, Izzy discovered her love of slides again. She had loads of fun climbing up the ship and sliding back down again. She looks so happy here, hopefully, the sun will shine more and we can enjoy many more weekend walk’s!

Half-term fun

Eva wondered what you were supposed to do with this part of the Ship play equipment. Whilst I was off snapping the scenery around us, Eva concluded this is the only explanation…

Weekend Walk

Not sure she is correct but points for effort! Oh and waiting whilst I faffed having forgotten my own sunglasses and being blinded a little. What do you think?

 

Photalife

 

Our Favourite Printable Resource Sites

Education / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Our favourite printable resource sites have kept us busy this half term with lots of fun, printed activities. Sharing them seemed a good idea and a way to keep track ourselves. Keeping the girls busy with printed sheets is something I have really enjoyed being able to do again. We have found some fantastic website for all kind of printables from masks, colouring, counting, cutting & making.

Our Favourite Printable Resource Sites

 

Educational Resources

We love educational resource sites as they have some fantastic activities. We currently have free accounts for Ichild & Twinkl resources but have a full account with Mrs Mactivity. The girls really enjoy finding fun new educational resources, especially seasonal ones during school holidays. 

  1. Mrs Mactivity – A newly launched Printable Resource site, Mrs Mactivity has a collection of fun printables. From handwriting, math, mindful colouring, dot-to-dot and seasonal hunt checklists, there are new resources added regularly.
  2. Ichild –  A huge range of resources for all age groups. We previously shared their Handwriting sheets Izzy had been using in our Printable Activities -Fun For Kids post. We love that there is everything on this site including science
  3. Twinkl – Perfect for school work, Twinkl has some great resources that have helped Eva enjoy her work even more. They have some great writing sheets and activities. We recently Printed Mary Anning Page borders for work Eva had been asked to re-write for display.

Colouring Fun

As well as handwriting and math we love to colour and I’ve been printing mindful colouring sheets for the girls. They love a range of characters and we have found several great, free printable sites.

  1. Crayola – Crayola has quite a few colouring pages & activities which I hadn’t realised until recently. They have a great selection of well-loved characters to be printed out and coloured.
  2. Nick Jr – They have some fantastic colouring pages with all the girl’s favourite characters they love printing out Paw Patrol and Shimmer & Shine sheets.
  3. The Purple Pumpkin Blog– I have to admit The Purple Pumpkin Blog has some AMAZING printables which the girls love! Admittedly the purple name did draw me in but the printables are fab and we always have a browse when we need something new.

What sites are your favourite printable resource sites?  Do you use any of these sites too?

Healthy Home-Cooking With Sensio Home Stainless Steel 3-Tier Steamer Review & Giveaway!

Giveaways / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We’re enjoying healthy home-cooking with the Sensio Home stainless steel 3-tier steamer. This powerful 800W, 6.8-litre electric stainless steel steamer is £29.99 on Amazon. The Sensio Home 3-Tier Steamer offers a healthier, fresher way to steam meat, fish, rice and vegetables.

Sensio Home Steamer Review

How It Works

It works by continuously boiling water and releasing steam which thoroughly cooks the food in the baskets above. The best part is it cooks your food without the use of extra oils or fats. Steaming food retains vitamins and nutrients, a much healthier way to cook than frying or roasting.

Sesio home 3-tier steamer

You can place your food in any of the 3 containers how you like. Simply fill the unit using the handy indicator on the front to monitor the level and turn the power on. With a handy 60 minute mechanical timer you can cook your food easily. The stackable containers are easy to remove and clean and my favourite part, they are dishwasher safe!

Healthy Home-Cooking

You can cook so many different vegetables in the steamer along with chicken, fish, rice and eggs, perfect for quick healthy home-cooking. We had a 3-tier steamer a few years ago that was very well used until it finally died and we forgot to replace it. I absolutely love having a steamer again, this Sensio Home 3-Tier Steamer is brilliant. It takes no time at all to cook everything we need for a delicious home-cooked meal we can all eat.

Healthy home-cooking

I love the taste of steamed vegetables, you really can tell the difference. Rice comes out lovely and steamed chicken is absolutely amazing! I am fussy when it comes to eating meat, in all honesty, it has to be cooked just right. I like chicken but if the texture isn’t right it puts me off and I can’t eat it. With steamed chicken, it is juicy and packed full of flavour every time and with the timer, you can trust it is fully cooked.

Fancy winning one for yourself? Enter the gleam competition below for your chance to win!

Win a Sensio Home 3 Tier Steamer #1

Do you use a steamer for healthy home-cooking too? What do you think of the Sensio Home 3-Tier Steamer?

 

 

DIY Daddy

 

Burnished Chaos

St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies

Book Reviews / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Eva’s been reading St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies. Written by Karen McCombie and Illustrated by Becka Moor, this is the 3rd book in the St Grizzle’s Series. Available in paperback for £5.99 this fab book is published by Stripes, an imprint of Little Tiger.

St Grizzle's school for girls, geeks and tag-along zombies

St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks And Tag-Along Zombies

We join Dani back at St Grizzle’s School for a third time as she discovers mixing her new and old life isn’t as easy as she thought. A shy new student suddenly disappears at St Grizzle’s, making life harder for Dani. Along with her friends, Dani has to unravel a truth about this shy tag-along zombie! As always with St Grizzle’s it sounds like a wacky story just from the title.

Previous Books

Having read St Grizzles School For Girls, Goat and Random Boys & St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Ghosts and runaway Grannies, Eva though this sounded fantastic. As a fan of boarding school series such as Malory Towers as a child myself, I can totally see the appeal.

Karen McCombie has written yet another fantastically funny storyline for Dani and her friends and had Eva absorbed from the first page. With its humour and references to YouTube Bloggers, zombies and chaos it kept her entertained until the very last page.

St Grizzle's School

Eva managed to read St Grizzle’s School For Girls, Geeks and Tag-Along Zombies in one day. She sat there giggling her head off turning page after page. I love seeing Eva unable to put a book down, truly engrossed the storyline and characters. We will definitely be waiting impatiently for the next book in the series. I am sure Izzy will eventually come to love the St Grizzle’s series too.

Has your child read any of the St Grizzle’s School series yet? Do you think it may be a series they could enjoy?

 

Fang-Tastic Friends – Vlad The Worlds Worst Vampire

Book Reviews / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Eva received Fang-Tastic Friends, the second in the Vlad The World’s Worst Vampire series this week. Written by Anna Wilson, Illustrated by Kathryn Durst and published by Little Tiger, Fang-Tastic Friends is a great sequel which Eva loved. This hilarious and charmingly illustrated paperback for kids is just £5.99.

Fang-Tastic Friends - Vlad The World's Worst Vampire

Fang-Tastic Friends

Vlad is back on another Fang-tastic journey full of hysterical yet relatable moments giving a comical twist to common issues children face. Vlad’s main focus is making friends and fitting in at human school. Vlad’s parents take a trip to Transylvania, leaving him with Grandpa Gory giving Vlad a chance to sneak off to human school. There’s a catch though, whilst Vlad stays with Grandpa Gory he has to complete, and master a list of vampire challenges to impress his parents with or there’ll be trouble!

Engrossed

Eva couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into this Fang-tastic sequel and join Vlad and his Fang-Tastic Friends. In fact, she was so excited she ended up reading the book in one sitting, sneakily staying awake until gone 9 pm! Having really enjoyed Vlad The Worlds Worst Vampire, which she regularly re-reads I wasn’t too surprised Eva had become so engrossed in the story. I was very much the same at her age.

Worried

Vlad is worried he won’t make any Fang-Tastic friends at human school but he soon makes friends with Minxie. Minxie quickly finds out Vlad is a vampire but she keeps his secret. Continuing to practice his vampire challenges, Vlad feels stressed that he can’t get the hang of mind-control.

 Mind-Control

Vlad feels like he can’t master mind-control, even trying to call Flit his pet bat, doesn’t work. That is, until Boz a school bully keeps bothering Vlad & Minxie. Wishing the class tadpoles would leap out of their tank and on to Boz the bullies head seems to work at least! Eva found this hilarious! She found it even funnier when Vlad pictures Boz tripping, flying into the bike shed & Boz being covered in spiders, works too. Vlad is worried though as his mind-control only seems to work on Boz!!

Fang-Tastic Friends Back Cover

What Happens Next

Eva says she can’t wait to see what happens next and is totally hooked on this series. She hopes it isn’t too long until Fang-tastic Friends is followed by a third book in the series. Fang-Tastic Friends is fantastic, even I got a bit engrossed flicking through the book. This is definitely a series full of humour and issues children and young vampires face. We can’t wait to read more about Vlad and his Fang-tastic Friends.

Do you love the sound of Fang-tastic Friends too? Have you read the first book yet?

 

 

 

BeanBoozled App From Jelly Belly

Apps / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

The BeanBoozled App from Jelly Belly launched this month alongside the Emoji App. This free mobile app lets you take the BeanBoozled challenge anytime and anywhere. The BeanBoozled app is available to download for free from the App Store and Google Play Store.

BeanBoozled

 

BeanBoozled App

BeanBoozled consists of 10 pairs of identical Jelly Belly jelly beans with very different flavours! One possibility is absolutely delicious whilst the other is frightening! The Beanboozled app uses a virtual spinner which is a replica of the one from the BeanBoozled Spinner Gift Box.

BeanBoozled!- screenshot thumbnail

The app selects the colour jelly bean the player must try. Using real-time video capability the app allows friends to see your reaction as you spin the virtual spinner and try different Jelly Belly jelly beans. You can connect to your contacts through the app to play with your friends, all players can see the virtual spinner as if you were in the same room!

 

App Features

The Apps share mode lets you save photos and GIFs from your feed and share it directly to your social media channels. This also gives you the option to add BeanBoozled-themed frames to each photo. The free app also features a flavour menu to identify flavour possibilities from the current 4th Edition mix. It also features a store locator with a postcode search. The apps final feature is a shop online.

4th Edition Flavour Menu

Barf or Peach

Booger or Juicy Pear

Canned Dog Food or Chocolate Pudding

Dead Fish or Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Lawn Clippings or Lime

Mouldy Cheese or Caramel Corn

Rotten Egg or Buttered Popcorn

Spoiled Milk or Coconut

Stinky Socks or Tutti-Frutti

Liquorice or Skunk Spray

 

This game really is for the brave with those flavours on the list! Eva, of course, couldn’t wait to try them out and use the app so we had to try it out. We decided to take it with us to Will & Alfie’s party. Unfortunately, on her first go, Eva got rotten egg flavour and didn’t want to try again but watched the other’s try them out.

All Jelly Belly jelly beans are certified OU kosher, vegetarian, and free from gelatine, gluten, fat and dairy meaning most people can join in. Make sure to have a plate/bin nearby when you play BeanBoozled though, there were a LOT of jelly beans spat out haha!

Are you brave enough to play the BeanBoozled App?

 

Emoji App And Mixed Emotions Collection From Jelly Belly

Apps / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

The Emoji App has just been launched by Jelly Belly and is available for free download from the App Store & Google Play Store. The new Jelly Belly Emoji app lets you communicate with your food, expressing yourself through Jelly Belly Stickers.

Emoji App

Emoji App

Emojis are everywhere on social media and I know this fun app will prove popular, especially with Jelly Belly fans. I have to admit I like the idea of this fun new app. The girls and I love trying out new apps as they launch especially when they have fun themes like this. Jelly Belly is well known for their delicious jelly beans of every flavour and now you can send them as stickers too!

The new Jelly Belly Emoji app lets you share Jelly Belly stickers through text messages and social media. The Emoji app is completely ad-free with no annoying adds stopping your fun. Using a slider you can change the size of each sticker you send.  

Emoji App - Jelly Belly

The Jelly Belly Emoji App is inspired by the Mixed Emotions™ Collection which consists of five flavours of Jelly Belly® jelly beans paired with an emotion. With this fun app, you can use the 5 emotions to create Mixed Emotions recipes using a combination of emotions associated with universal experiences.

Using these combinations you can choose from 45 branded Jelly Belly stickers including Mixed Emotions faces and favourite flavours of Jelly Belly jelly beans. The 5 emotions are Happy, Angry, Playful, Sad and Love. Combining these emotions can create a several Mixed Emotions recipes such as 1 Happy + 1 Playful = Summer Holiday.

Mixed Emotions Combinations

Mixed Emotions Collection

Whether you’re having a happy day or an angry one, there is a Jelly Belly® jelly bean for everyone in the new Mixed Emotions Collection. Traditionally Jelly Belly is stamped in white on each jelly bean but Mixed Emotions flavours are matched with feelings instead. The Mixed Emotions Collection five flavours available this August include:

·         Happy tastes like refreshing Lemon on a sunny day

·         Playful teases the taste buds with Sour Apple

·         Angry sears like Hot Cinnamon

·         Sad envelops you in Berry Blue

·         Love warms the soul with Bubble Gum

 

The Mixed Emotions collection launches with a variety of packages, including snackable and shareable bags. These are available at https://www.jellybelly.co.uk/stockists.

Jelly Belly jelly beans are certified OU kosher, vegetarian, and free from gelatin, gluten, fat and dairy.

 

Tammymum

Clouds & Roses – My Sunday Photo

My Sunday Photos / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve captured Clouds & Roses for My Sunday Photo this week after missing out for a few weeks. With my LG G4 breaking and using a Samsung S5 I began to get frustrated with my photo’s and lost interest. That is until the Mr decided to surprise me with a lovely Purple Camera! Having 20.2MP to play with again has sparked that interest again. I’m sure I’ll share more about my Canon Ixus 285HS at some point too. I love anything new to play with but so far have stuck to auto settings.

Clouds - My Sunday Photo

Anyway, back to clouds & roses ! Over the week I have been taking different shots from the flat. Knowing how my usual low quality pictures come out any improvement was a bonus but this new camera picks up a lot more detail! I love how these photo’s of clouds came out, all taken at different points across the week.

Clouds & Roses

As for the Roses, I have played around with the editing slightly after taking the photo’s and really like these two shots.

Pink Rose

My editing skills are quite poor but I like how these turned out. I’m now considering paying a bit more attention to my photography and hopefully keep improving!

Rose

I love how clear the colours are compared to my previous photo’s. With a bit of time and some setting adjustments I am sure this camera will keep me snap happy for quite some time! I am just hoping the weather starts warming up again soon for walks with my camera and the girls. We have some lovely parks here that I think I can capture much better than I have before with the Ixus. The fact it’s purple too is obviously a bonus haha 😉

What do you think of my Clouds & Roses shots using my new camera? Which photo is your favourite?

 

Photalife

Personalised Superhero Party Pack From Personalised Parties

Personalised Gifts / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I received a Personalised Superhero Party pack from Personalised Parties for a party of 8. Knowing Martyn & Hannah were having a small joint party for William and Alfie’s birthday’s during half term I figured I could help find some fun extra’s. This fantastic personalised superhero party pack was bound to add a little colour to the table!

Personalised Superhero Party

Personalised Superhero Party Pack

This fantastic pack is available for £34.99 (+ £3.95 P&P) and contains:

  • x8 PERSONALISED SUPERHERO PARTY PLATES
  • x8 SUPERHERO PARTY CUPS
  • x8 PERSONALISED SUPERHERO PARTY BOXES
  • x8 SUPERHERO PARTY HATS
  • x8 SUPERHERO PARTY MASKS.
  • x16 PERSONALISED FOOD FLAGS (x8 each of two different flag designs).

The party boxes pop together easily with tabs numbered 1 to 4 on the bottom. These boxes are sturdy with carry handles for party guests to take home. You can’t fail to forget whose super(hero) party it is with these fab personalised superhero party boxes.

 

The party hats are also easy to assemble with tabs and are supplied with string. We loved the idea of using these party hats as chip cones too!

Ordering

Ordering a personalising a party pack from Personalised Parties is quick simple. Select the pack you want then decide on what you want written with 21 character spaces. Even if you mess this up like me and put the wrong child’s name (Yes, I totally did that haha!) there is still time to change the order with a quick email. You can select which font and font colour you would like too before going through to your cart. Once you are in the shopping cart you can change the pack quantity you want to order before paying. Delivery takes up to 10 days so make sure you order in time.

Party Time

Personalised parties have you covered for anything else you may need to throw the perfect party too. From party signage, invites, gifts and more with a range of designs you are spoilt for choice. After my epic name fail it shows the swift response and customer service by PersonalisedParties.com too!

Do you know someone who would love a personalised superhero party?

 

Tammymum

Chinese New Year Resources From Mrs Mactivity

Crafts / 6 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Looking for fun Chinese New Year Resources to keep the kids busy? We love finding sites for new resources to us at home, especially during half term to stop the boredom.

Mrs Mactivity

Mrs Mactivity is a freshly launched resource site for parents and teachers in its early stages. Having left teaching due to the high workload and stresses and strains Mrs Mactivity decided to devote her time and energy helping teachers who are in the same position she was as a teacher. Knowing parents can find it difficult to know how to help their children at home too Mrs Mactivity was created. Free membership is available with limited access to resources, as you can see below there is also a Trial package or a 12-month package. At just £9.97 for a full year of access, this is an affordable site for resources to use.

Mrs Mactivity Pricing

Chinese New Year Resources

With the Chinese New Year approaching I looked through the categories to see what was currently available on Mrs Mactivity’s site for something to do. This Chinese New Year is the Year of the Dog. Each year it changes, I was born in the year of the horse! 

 

Mindfulness Colouring

We came across these fantastic Year of the Dog Mindfulness colouring pages which both girls wanted to colour first. Children love colouring in and it is such a calming activity to do. We quickly got a few sheets printed off to colour in.

Chinese New Year Colouring & Word Trace

Next, we printed out Chinese New Year animals with traceable names finished with Happy New Year in Chinese. Izzy loved these as we have been practising writing for a while now, she can do most of the alphabet with a little reminder and these sheets are fab. She kept quiet colouring and writing for almost an hour!

Chinese New Year Resources From Mrs Mactivity

 

 

Dot to Dot Activities

Eva loves dot to dot activities so we ask Mrs Mactivity if she could create some for the Chinese New Year. As you can see these turned out great and kept Eva happily busy this morning. Being KS2 Eva found the sheets Izzy loved a little too ‘babyish’ but these dot to dot activities were right up her street. She was over the moon her suggestion had been taken on board and a brand new Chinese New Year resource was created.

STEM Activities

There’s a fab page full of STEM Chinese New Year Resources which the girls loved! All the activities are simple to make without instructions. Most involve Lego which the girls really enjoy including the Great Wall of China & Pagodas. We love the idea of the egg box Chinese dragon, we will be giving that a go over the weekend when we finish out Mount Merapi make!

Do you love these Chinese New Year Resources as much as we do? Make sure to check out Mrs Mactivity as it grows to find new and fun resources for children.

DIY Daddy