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Monday 30 September 2013

GU Cheesecakes *REVIEW*

Hello Everyone,
Well last week I was really lucky to be asked to review some GU Puddings! I had 4 to review but I have the 2 different cheesecakes here for you to read about first.
The first cheesecake I got to try was this After dark chocolate and Vanilla cheesecake and I can confirm it was delicious!

These cheesecake retail at around £3.59 so a little pricey but they really are delicious. The base is a crumbly chocolate biscuit base, a Madagascan vanilla cream cheese in the middle and then the GU signature chocolate ganache on top!

The pots are quite tiny (90g each) and at first glance you think your going to be wanting 2 or 3 however you will soon discover this is not the case! They are so chocolaty I think you really would struggle to eat more than 1.
As I said above at £3.59 for 2 these are a little pricey but they would be great if you fancied something a little special maybe for a date night with your other half or if you were having friends round for food.

Next up we tried the After dark GU York cheesecakes. These were also delicious and personally my favourite!
These cheesecakes consist of a indulgent baked New York cheesecake with a lightly spiced caramelised biscuit base.


The base really stood out with these ones and it really gave a lovely flavour against the smooth creamy cheesecake topping. Again these retail at around £3.59 for 2 and are 80g but they really are worth splashing out on if your looking for something a little bit special!


The puddings all come in glass ramekins and these can be washed and kept after and make great little bots to keep sauces and condiments in or if you like baking these could be used again to bake another yummy treat!

You can buy these puddings and many more flavours from GU from most supermarkets.

Overall the cheesecake's really are delicious and give such a rich, indulgent flavour! They are quite pricey so maybe something that you would buy for a special occasion or if your after something a little bit more special. James who is 4 did have a little try of both of these but wasn't very keen. I think its because the flavour is so rich its maybe a little much for a child. GU have lots of other flavours in there range so why not check them out at

xXx 



Friday 27 September 2013

School already!?!

Hello everyone,
 
James will be 4 next month and I really cant believe it! He still seems like my tiny little baby sometimes.
James attends nursery several times and a week and I think I am only just getting used to not having him home all the time. Then it hits me, I start seeing all these advertisements for school open days and it dawns on me that these open days are for James! My tiny little baby next year will be heading off into the big wide world of school!!
 
I have to admit I am petrified of James going to school he seems so little and still my baby although I have to admit id probably think he was still my baby at 13 lol. I feel so much pressure making sure I pick the right school for him and then there's the stress of waiting for the form back to see if they even get there first choice of school.
 
As a first time mum these are all firsts for me and its so daunting I often wonder if I am doing it right or if  I am making the right choices for James future. 
 
How did you find it sending your little ones of for school for the first time?
 
xXx

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Getting with the times!

Hiya everyone
 
Well ive done it ive finally got up to date with new aspects of social media for this blog!
I can now be found on here of course! facebook and twitter!
 
My facebook page can be found at ... Owl Crazy Mummy Facebook page.
 
My twitter can be found at .. Owl Crazy Mummy twitter page.
 
Please pop by and say hello. Both of these pages will contain links to my blog posts so you can find and re read posts you liked.
 
xXx


Monday 23 September 2013

Weekend with Cuddles the dog!!

Hello Everyone
 
Sorry I have been very quite over the weekend I have been really poorly with a cold and cough so have been trying to rest up.
 
How was your weekend?
 
This weekend James brought home the nursery teddy! His name is Cuddles and each child at nursery has the opportunity to bring him home and look after him for the weekend. He comes with a little suitcase with a toothbrush, fork and spoon and a comb in along with a diary which you fill out at the end of the weekend with what adventures you had with Cuddles.
 
 
This weekend James had 2 parties to go to so cuddles came along to those as well as helped put petrol in the car, sat at the table and had breakfast with James, snoozed in the car, Travelled up the escalator in the trolley and helped make a pirate treasure map!
 
James had great fun looking after Cuddles and I think its a great idea from the nursery! It had James wanting to get himself and cuddles dressed for bed, clean his own teeth and brush his own hair!
Cuddles has come everywhere with us this weekend and I think James will be sad to see him go but we will have great fun filling out his diary with a few photos we have taken over the weekend.
 
 
 
Hope you all had a fab weekend!
 
xXx

Thursday 19 September 2013

DC Super Friends Magazine *REVIEW*

We were recently lucky enough to receive a copy of a brand new magazine that is being released this month!! Its called DC super friends.
The magazine goes on sale today (19th September)
This is what Titan magazines had to say about their new magazine DC Super Friends ... "DC Super Friends offers exciting stories about the super friends Batman, Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern along with many others. Dc Super Friends is packed with lots of creative learning quizzes and activities, colouring games, cut out and keep, make and wear activities, character fact files, a fan mail section for all those lovely pictures we receive and brilliant prizes to be won through our competitions."
When we first received the magazine we thought the bright colours were really eye catching and would my James immediately wanted to look at it and didn't want to put it down. The toys also caught his eye and he was eager to get it out and have a play with it which is always a good sign! As I am sure with lots of kids the first thing they look at when picking a magazine is the toy lol!
 The magazine is aimed at preschool boys aged 2-5 and James is 4 so really aimed at his sort of age. Although I did think that 2 may be a little young for the magazine as it has paper pages which are easily torn and a lot of the activities were aimed at children a little older so I would say the magazine would suit ages more 3-6.
Dc Super friends contains lots of different activities which James enjoyed doing as they were quite short and they didn't require to much attention perfect for a child! Although he did find a few of the activities a little difficult and needed a bit of help from me and his dad.
However this didn't put him off, he especially loved the colouring in pages and the pages in which you could make items. Although the items that you could cut out and make did require extra items which luckily we had in but would be a little disappointing if we didn't have them to hand however most of the activities in the book just require pens/pencils.
Here are a few of the activities included in DC Super Friends..
Here are the toys that came with it, Each addition has a different toy and this first magazine included to plastic communicator toys with changeable pictures. James had great fun playing with these and it was great that it came with 2 so he could play with his friends with them.
The magazine is priced at £2.99 which I think is the going rate for magazines at the moment. Although this magazines does seem a little bit shorter (fewer pages) than some of the magazines priced at the same rate James still seemed to enjoy it. He did however miss the stickers that you sometimes find in the centre of magazines as this magazine does not have any stickers so maybe something that could be added in the future?

The next edition is out on 17th October and contains a free pull and go helicopter and lots more fun activities.

Friday 13 September 2013

Where did that time go?

So my post today is a little bit different as I thought I would write about my feelings as a mummy.

 
When I had my little boy I was just 19 and I was so scared. I didn't know what I was suppose to do as a mummy or if I would be able to do it!
However we were blessed with our little boy James on 11th October 2009 and he was perfect! However things weren't as rosy as in the magazines life changed and I found myself suffering from Post natal depression. It was hard I didn't know at the time I had PND and I felt like a bit of a failure. All the magazines show these pictures of these mothers who have popped back into shape a week after giving birth and they look happy, healthy and glowing out walking with there babies.
The reality however is slightly different! Don't get me wrong I loved James to pieces but suddenly I had a little person to look after and sleepless nights with constant feeds and nappy changes thrown into that. It was like my life had changed over night and I had no idea how to cope.
 
(James 1 day old!)
 
However we got through as a family and things got easier as we established a routine and when I realised it was ok to ask for help! James grew up full of smiles and laughter and I realised I must be doing something right.
 
Sometimes its easy to blame your self or think you have failed as a Mum like those days when you spend the day in your pyjamas or the days when the kids will only eat turkey dinosaurs and waffles for tea or the times when you send them to nanny and grampys house for a few hours because you need a few hours to yourself. But that's ok!!
 
When he comes up to me at night and wants cuddles and kisses me goodnight and says "love you mummy" I realise that's not failing at all! James is happy, healthy and tells me daily he loves me. He is care free and enjoying life just as he should be. Yes some days I don't get out of my pyjamas or even brush my hair until after lunch but James doesn't care. He loves me because I am his mum because I offer him all the love I have.
When he runs around the park, or happily counts to 10 or even 15, when he comes out with words that are so impressive I don't think even hubby knows how to spell lol!! I think to myself that was me I was part of the process that nurtured this tiny baby into this intelligent beautiful boy!
 
James is now nearly 4 and he is such an intelligent little boy who is always happy. I am always getting compliments from passers by on how happy or polite he is and inside I think yep that was me! I taught him that!
 
(Here he is now with our pet guinea pig!)
 
Having a baby changes your life and yes its hard, yes it changes life for ever and YES its ok to struggle and admit it! we all got through it at some point and its OK!
So tonight give your little ones an extra tight cuddle and look at them look at what you have achieved look at your family and feel proud of yourselves you made that precious bundle!!  


Saturday 7 September 2013

Today we made Pizza!!!

Im not sure about you but I am forever lost for ideas for tea time that the whole family can enjoy! There's only me hubby and my little boy who is 4 but I find us having the same meals over and over and it gets really boring.
On a weekend we are a nightmare for getting takeaway and now I've joined the gym this is something I am trying to avoid!
This week I decided to sit down and think of new meal ideas and with a little help from a few other mums I came up with lots of new meals for us to try this week. I am going to share with you a few of our meals this week so it may give you some new ideas. All of the meals are brought and made on a budget of around £50 per week for 3 of us  and that includes toiletries!
So today we made Pizza!!!
Here is James making his...
It was pretty simple to do and something everyone could get involved in. You can choose what ever toppings you like we had...  hot dog sausages, salami, mushrooms, onions, tuna, ham and mozzarella/ cheddar cheese.

I used a pizza express pizza sauce which comes in a tin and is only 99p and really gives that authentic pizza taste but you could easily you passata/ tomato puree.
The bases you can buy in most major supermarkets! I've definitely seen them in Tesco and Morrison's and there really cheap around 70p-£1 for 2 good sized bases!!

It was also a great replacement for the usual takeaway we would usually get and ALOT cheaper!!
Here is James finished pizza (He chose onions, mushrooms, hot dogs and cheese for his toppings)

We had great fun making them and it cost around £5 to make 3 pizzas with lots of different toppings and we served ours with a salad. Not bad to feed a family of 3 and it definitely got a big thumbs up from James who loved the idea of helping make his own tea!


xXx

More meal ideas will be coming up in the week!! x

Monday 2 September 2013

Ribena Plus *REVIEW*

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing the new range from Ribena called Ribena Plus. I was sent 6 cartons of the new Ribena plus 2 of each of the following flavours Raspberry and Apple, Summer Fruits and Apple and Peach.


The new Ribena Plus range includes Ribena Plus with vitamin A and vitamin C to help support immunity, and Ribena Plus with calcium for healthy bones. This is a definite bonus for me as a mother I am always a little conscious about what I give my little boy to eat and drink so to be able to give him a drink he enjoys and know it contains extra vitamins and calcium is a definite bonus.
We tried the 200ml premixed cartons although the range is also available in 500ml premixed bottles and a larger concentrate bottle.
The cartons retail at around £2.70 for 10x 200ml and the 500ml bottles retail around £1.10
First impressions were the cartons were bright and colourful and the cartons were the perfect size for little hands to be able to hold onto themselves confidently without having to worry about them squeezing to hard trying to keep hold of the carton.
James immediately wanted to try some and he chose the Raspberry and Apple flavour which he declared as "Very Yummy"! I also tried this flavour and it really was delicious! The flavours really tasted like apple and raspberry and although sweet they were not to sweet and certainly not as sweet as other drinks I have tried.
We all tried the summer fruits flavour but didn't think much of it. The flavours were not really there and it tasted a little bland and there was no distinguishing flavours that popped out unlike the apple and raspberry flavour.
My son tried the apple and peach flavour and loved it. This flavour tasted more of peach than apple but had a lovely subtle flavour that was really refreshing especially straight from the fridge in the recent warm weather we have had. This flavour also wasn't as sweet as the Apple and Raspberry flavour so a bonus for those who maybe prefer a drink that isn't as sweet.  
Here is my little boy enjoying the apple and peach flavour.
The only downside I found (which really is down to personal preference) was that I personally prefer the sports cap style bottle for drinks. This is because it means when my little boy opens a drink and only drinks half I can just close the lid and save for later. However with cartons once they have been opened they need to be assumed there and then which is a little tricky especially if out and about walking around. However this really is just a personal preference and has no effect on the taste of the actual product!
Overall we all enjoyed the Ribena plus and would definitely consider the cartons for the future.
For more information about the product please visit the Ribena webpage here...  www.ribena.co.uk/

Sunday 1 September 2013

Sun-Maid Raisins *REVIEW*

**AD - Review**

Like most parents I am used to hearing the words "I'm hungry" and so I always try and have a few healthy and delicious snack ideas on hand or in my bag for exactly those moments. It saves me having to spend lots of money on things when we are out and about and stops the kids snacking on less healthy alternatives and one thing I recently found that both kids love are raisins. So when we were recently offered the chance to try out a few different products from the Sun-Maid range I knew the kids would be up to the task.