Read With Me 2018 #17

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Thank you to everyone that linked up last week, I'm looking forward to see what you have to show me this week.

Can you believe we're at the end of April already? A third of the way through the year. Madness! But seen as we've met that milestone I thought I'd update you on my Goodreads challenge. So far this year I have read 21 books and my aim is 52 so I am ahead for now.

My Sunday Photo 2018 #17

Fun in the sun, before the rain set in. Not a lot else needs to be said does it. Got to make the most of the sunny days when they appear haven't we.

Celebrating International Tabletop Gaming Day with Dinkee Linkee for Kids

If you weren't already aware today is international tabletop gaming day. In its seventh year, it is a worldwide celebration of tabletop gaming and those who are part of the community will be able to join in with events all around the world and it gives us all an opportunity to dust off those board games and make new memories with friends and family as we play them.

My children are no stranger to board games, I buy a new one every Christmas for us all to enjoy together so our collection is forever growing. My favourite being Telestrations. In a bid to promote this day and get more gamers playing, those great guys at John Adams/Ideal sent my kids and I a new game to play, Dinkee Linkee.

Aimed at children aged eight and above, the premise of this game is a quiz, but not just any old quiz. Oh no, there needs to be at least 3 players, well three teams but we can have one player in each team right. One player/team needs to become the Quiz Master(s) i.e. the ones to read the questions out and the name of the game is to win enough cards to spell out 'DINKEE'.

Time to Ditch the Scales and Lose the Weight Obsession

It is no big secret that I have a love hate relationship when it comes to food. More specifically I love it but it is apparent that it really doesn't like my body sometimes. I've struggled over the years to find the right balance between being healthy and turning obsessive, looking at the calories on a packet and deciding I couldn't possibly eat that. This comes down to what I think about my appearance and the numbers that look back at me when I'm standing on the weighing scales. 

There have been times when I have become close to being very ill when I chose to not eat, I lost a lot of weight and I had an obsession with seeing the numbers on the scale go down but we all know that's not a good thing to do and to be honest looking back I also know that it didn't make me look good at all. And if I'm honest since having my daughters I have struggled more because I know that I need to set the example, to show body confidence and to not pass my insecurities onto my children.

L.O.L Surprise! Pearl Surprise Limited Edition Review

My girls are huge fans of the L.O.L dolls. They've been collecting them on and off since they were first released and with such a huge range available I don't think they'll ever complete that collection. However they were one step closer when we were recently asked if we'd like to review the new L.O.L Surprise! Pearl Surprise.

This is a larger shimmering turquoise pearl which is filled with both rare and limited edition dolls and accessories and there's an added surprise element as you make your way through unboxing all of the layers.

Read With Me 2018 #16

Hello and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Thank you again to everyone who continued to link up during the Easter holidays. 

The girls and I all agreed that it was so nice making use of the library again these past couple of weeks that now the weather is starting to improve we're going to try and get down there after school at least once every two weeks.

My Sunday Photo 2018 #16

Can you spot the heart?

My First Book of Quantum Physics April Book of the Month

If you're like me then you may be of the opinion that science can be a little on the boring side. Science writer and educator Sheddad Kaid-Salah aims to change that opinion for the younger generation with My First Book of Quantum Physics. And I tell you what my eldest daughter and I were so impressed that we chose it as my April book of the month.

What this book does is break down what a lot of us will call the techno-babble. It lets the reader in on the science beyond the atoms and quarks, explaining the subtle differences between waves and particles, and where they overlap, and much, much more!

Sunshine, Water Fights and Sandals #LittleLoves

I hope everyone has enjoyed as much sunshine as we have this week. Although maybe not quite as much seen as I ended up a tad burnt on a couple of days. Needless to say I have now stocked up on suncream for this year. There is just something about having the sun out that is an instant mood booster isn't there. I've found myself smiling a lot more and the stress that I've felt in recent weeks has decreased significantly too.

It's just typical that the sun graced is with its presence just as the kids went back to school after the Easter holidays. That would be sods law wouldn't it. Although my girls didn't seem to mind this because it meant that they could switch from their winter uniform to their summer one, well my youngest did anyway. My ten year old is apparently far too cool to wear summer dresses now and opted for changing her blouse for a polo top.

Of course with all this talk of warmer weather it seems inevitable that a lot of my #littleloves this week will have a a more summery vibe ....

Read

With the kids back at school I've actually had more opportunity to read some books of my own rather than just listening to the kids read their library books. The first book I read is actually a review you'll have to look out for on my blog in upcoming weeks. The Wrong Man is what I'd describe as a crime come romance novel that was somewhat unique and actually for being part of the crime genre, it actually stands up as a god holiday read.

Introducing the New Cuddly Toy in Town, Lumo Stars

My children have always been a sucker for a plush toy. This is shown by the fact that on an average night in bed, I can't find my kids amongst their cuddly toys. But as I know with my own obsession with shoes, you can never have enough cuddly toys, there's always room to squeeze just one more on, if only to make for a nice soft pillow. And now there's a new, unbelievably cute and cuddly collectable available, Lumo Stars.

This new collection of plush toys are inspired by Nordic nature and mythologies, each toy has deep, colourful eyes reminiscent of the Northern Lights and every one is based on a common animal living in a Nordic country. And what makes them stand out even more from your run of the mill cuddly toy is that they are actually born from a successful storybook which was created by co-owner of Tactic, Kati Helijakka.

Disney Vampirina Boo-Tiful Dress Review

My children have always loved dressing up, letting their imaginations run wild and how can dressing up be made even better, well by adding in a Disney costume of course! One of the latest shows to hit Disney Junior is Vampirina, this has become a huge favourite for my five year old so when I was asked if she'd like to review the Boo-Tiful dress I knew I'd be in her good books when it got delivered.

The show is based on the Vampirina Ballerina series of books written by Anne Marie Pace and illustrated by LeUyen Pham and it follows the story of Vampirina "Vee" Hauntley who becomes a new kid on the block after she and her family move from Transylvania to Pennsylvania to open a local bed and breakfast called the Scare B&B for visiting ghouls and goblins.

Read With Me 2018 #15

Hello and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Thanks to everyone who continued to link up in the holidays, who else is sad that it's back to normality for another few weeks?

The girls have been busy reading library books over the holiday, they seem to be more eager to read when they aren't being told to do so by the school!

My Sunday Photo 2018 #15

Got to capture blue skies and sunshine when you can haven't you. I'm hoping for more of these views, wasn't quite warm enough for me to put my sandals on yet though.

Baking and Slime Creating #LittleLoves

As we near the end of our second week of the Easter holidays, am I looking forward to the kids going back to school? The short answer to that would be no. I actually despise sending them back to school, back to the chaos of school runs and homework, the reality of not enough hours in the day. Despite having a fairly good routine with all of my girls, it still feels like we're always trying to 'catch up' on things.

It's not been the best weather wise this week, you know that normal mix of lots of rain and hints of sunshine but we've certainly made the most of our time even though we didn't have much of a budget (helped with a couple of lazy days thrown in). 

Read

Funnily enough I've not really had any time for reading this week, the kids have read more than me. We've had two trips to the library whilst they've been off. I think it's great to keep them reading when not at school but better that they can choose books that they really enjoy. This also meant that my ten year old was more inclined to get on with her homework of a book review because she'd picked a book based on her likes rather than just her abilities.

Zoomer Zupps Pretty Ponies Toy Review

Zoomer Zupps have recently released a new series of toys. If you haven't heard of these before I'll tell you a little bit more about them. Originally they were released as pups, they are interactive toys that are made to respond to your child's touch. The latest animals to step into the Zoomer world are pretty ponies.

What are Zoomer Zupps Pretty Ponies?

Each of the ponies come with a collectors card and a bonus comb and the idea is that the more you play with them, the happier they will be. Kids can play by petting their heads where there is a hidden sensor or by pressing down on their nose. The pony will then respond with pony like neighing and with their eyes lighting up as well.

The Slime Workshop Book Review

SLIME. If you haven't been introduced to it then where have you been. This has been the latest obsession with my children for quite some time although so far we haven't mastered making a good batch (apparently not the right contact solution). They've been reliant on their friends making it for them. Just a couple of weeks a go the ten year old came home with a storage box filled with blue slime! 

But that was all set to change when we were sent the handy book, The Slime Workshop.

Whip up these 20 cool slimes created by slime enthusiast Selina Zhang (@anathemaslime ) Follow the step-by-step instructions to make slimes to squish, stretch, poke and play with.

Read With Me 2018 #14

Hello and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Last week was a quiet one being the Easter holidays but thank you to those who still linked up.

After finishing a series of books the previous week, it was on to a couple of books that I'd been sent via Netgalley, one of those being Liz Nugent's Skin Deep.

My Sunday Photo 2018 #14

Before the rain set in a couple of weeks back we had a gorgeous couple of days of sunshine, ok not the warmest but decidedly better than having rain or snow. I took this photo when we were walking along the harbour. This is definitely the Daddy's girl pictured here. 

Chocolate, Excited Children and Peter Rabbit #LittleLoves

The Easter holidays are well underway, in fact it's almost one week down. Anyone else already thinking that this is going by way too fast? We managed to spend a long weekend all together as the hubby had the bank holidays off of work. A lot of our days were spent on catching up with family, which is not a bad thing. There's never normally enough hours in a day to spend quality time with people so it was nice not to rush around.

As much as I love a good Easter egg (has to be Cadbury though!), this is a holiday that does nothing for my waist line. I was quite proud of myself for actually managing to squeeze in half an Easter egg into one of my days macros/calorie count, shame that I can't say the same for the other six days! Now there's the kids lingering chocolate that is just constantly calling to me but with a holiday booked for August I'm determined...ish to sticking to a healthier diet.

Just to go off theme, my #LittleLoves this week have absolutely nothing to do with chocolate...

A Couch for Llama Book Review

I don't know what it is about Llamas but both my kids and I find them highly entertaining. If you've never heard the Llama then I urge to google it now and have a listen! Anyway, I'm not just randomly talking about Llamas, the subject arose when I was asked if I'd like to review Leah Gilbert's new picture book, A Couch for Llama.

What happens when the Lago family needs a new couch? They get more than they bargained for!

Read With Me 2018 #13

Hello everyone and welcome to another Read With Me, thanks to all those who linked up last week, I hope you'll be linking up again this week.

Last Monday I said I'd had a slow week reading, well I turned that around by reading four books. I started and finished the Court of Thrones series, reading all three books oh and then pre-ordering the forth in the series. And I also read a book which I was gifted via Netgalley called Clean. You can see my review for the latter on my Goodreads page.

My Sunday Photo 2018 #13

With the clocks going forward last week (anyone missing that hours sleep?) and the fact that we're now in April, surely it's more than time that spring actually makes more than a guest appearance and becomes permanent for at least a couple of months?

Daffodils always make me think of the season changing and the bright colour has me yearning for warmer days, getting outdoors more and actually seeing what spring has to offer.