Apple products: I have well and truly crumbled

Two years ago I said that I 'absolutely' wasn't going to buy any Apple products.

 I loved my Samsung Galaxy Wonder (The Ace's paired down cousin). And, quite frankly, if there's something that absolutely everyone else has or wants, (an iPhone is a case in point) then I am less likely to want to get it.  It's an 'individual' reaction. I was taught to go my own way, to not worry what everyone else was wearing, doing or listening to. In short, I was taught to want to be different.

So whenever there is a product that hits the mass market, be it the Ford Focus, One Direction or Corrie, I, by default, will hate it.

So how did Apple products manage to infiltrate this barrier?

My husband got an iPad. He let me have a play on it. He popped a couple of films on it. And then he added a couple of children's apps. He let me surf the web on it. Before I could frenzily shout "get that mass-market crowd-pleasing over-hyped product out of my house" I found myself addicted to iPad online surfing.

Juggling all those parenting balls? Join the rest of us jugglers at the Britmums Juggling Carnival!

I have a BRILLIANT collection of blog posts to delight your senses.  These are stories from real women about the real challenges we have juggling our roles as (in no particular order) mother, daughter, wife, employee, boss, sister, friend, entertainer, pot-washer, hairdresser, clothes washer, seamstress, baker, spider catcher, dancer, writer, accountant, author, reader, cook, card fairy (magically sending cards to members of the family you've only ever met once, but who you absolutely must send cards at appropriate points in the year), tweeter, sympathetic-ear, first aider, toy mender, story teller, dietitian, referee, taxi driver......... and that's just me!

Grab a Sangria.  Throw on your dancing shoes.  Join us for the Britmums "Juggling" Carnival.  A party for us to share how we keep those balls; clubs; knifes; flaming torches even; in the air, and maybe get a slice of 'me' time in the midst of all that juggling!

Streetdance: can you do it when you are approaching 40?

Last week I announced on Facebook and Twitter that I had signed up to attend a Streetdance class. There wasn't so much as a ripple in the Internet surf.

For some reason I expected more of a shocked response. My followers will be aware that I am fast approaching 40 years old. Admittedly I started dancing at 5 years old.  Disco, ballroom, ballet, tap, modern and Acro - this was the 70s in the Midlands, UK, and the dance was very Pop based.

But despite the fact that I love dancing and Streetdance is great fun. Despite the fact that I am feeling 20 years younger whilst doing this new class. Will I actually look stupid doing Streetdance? At what age does a Street dancer have to stop dancing else they look daft? Is there an age?  

Roll up, roll up. The Britmums Carnival is coming....

It's nearly carnival time here at Yummy Mummy? Really? I have been preparing my headdress and painting the float. In my head obviously. This is an on-line Carnival, and as such it's all rather virtual. The spirit of the event is exactly the same though. It's time to get together, socialise, have a couple of drinks if you are so inclined, dress up in crazy flamboyant outfits (come on! don't be dull) and showcase your talents and skills.

The Britmums Carnival, for those not already in the know, is a collection of blog posts (written in the last month) all shared in one post by the host (moi). Bloggers take turns to host and its a great way to showcase your latest blog post or discover great blogs.

There is usually a theme selected by the host. In the spirit of the event I am choosing the theme:-

Blog Awards: why I haven't nominated myself (yet)

It's parenting blog award season again. The nominations are open for the annual Britmums Brilliance in Blogging (bibs) awards and I am going through the same emotional journey I went on last year when the award season kicked off.

The journey goes something like this:

1) Oh brilliant; look, they have announced this year's mummy blog awards. I should check my blog over and nominate myself – it could be my year to win! I am really optimistic this time as I have been thinking carefully about the posts I write and trying to ensure they are useful and relevant. I can just picture the glitzy award ceremonies full of fashionable yummy mummys providing me will loads of the external validation for my work.

Classic 80s movies: which is your favourite?

I am debating which of three classic 80s movies to watch tonight. I have already taken a fair amount of time to narrow it down to these three. It is a very tricky task as I have a fairly large collection of 80s movies. I am a member of the John Hughes generation, and as such, my movie collection contains almost every single one of his feel good coming-of-age classics; both in their original VHS format (yes I am that old - want to make something of it?) and in DVD format, since the VHS copies have certainly seen better days.

These are the films that shaped my view of what true love looked like, what friendship was all about and what truants were all doing on their days off. One of these films resulted in my lifelong dream to sing on a float in the middle of Chicago. You never know, miracles happen.

Do you remember these? Which of these three would you pick? Which other classics do you remember?

Here are a couple of quiz questions to challenge your 80s knowledge.

1) Who played the Mannequin in Mannequin?
2) What was the original name of the film "Adventures in Babysitting"?
3) Who was the actor that Ferris's sister falls for? And for a bonus point, who played Ferris's sister?
4) What type of car did Ferris borrow?
6) Name three 80s actors that were all super famous that the Babysitter managed to co star with in other 80s classics. (Which films?)

Did you manage the above questions without the help of google? If so, congratulations! You get the 80s gold star.

Gullivers World Hotel and Gullivers Splash Zone, Warrington: A review

Tree house beds: kid heaven!

Should I share?

I was torn as to whether to share this brilliant find with you.  But I just had to.

Oh my! What a fabulous hotel!

Despite Gulliver's World theme park being technically closed at this time of year, the hotel, and neighbouring Splash Zone is still open.

So we decided to book an overnight stay at the hotel, in a family room, for one night.  Some friends of ours and their children booked too.

We set off around lunchtime on Saturday, and arrived at 3pm, in plenty of time to quickly ooooo and aaahhh at our room, more on that later, grab the children's swimsuits and wander across the car park to the Splash Zone.

Gulliver's Splash Zone

The Splash Zone is great for 6 year olds and over. It is essentially the sort of mini splash park you get at family hotels in Spain, but instead of being outside, it is inside, in the same set up as the popular soft play zones that have sprung up in every town in the UK in the last 10 years.

Out of the mouths of babes: April 2013

Teeth brushing time

I am brushing Little Miss George's (4) teeth after a bath. In our family we try and speak bits of other languages when we can, and also try and get the children to brush their teeth for at least 2 minutes, so teeth brushing time is an ideal time for me to count in different languages to kill two birds with one stone.

So I start with German to build up my confidence as that's the language I did at A Level, so getting to sixty is no problem.

That's the first minute gone.