Sorry kids.....

Sat here reading the news and all it is filled with is sadness. Last week, with all the stories about kids being killed by their own parents, I realised what an awful time we live in. Parents are supposed to look after their children, not hurt them! Today topped it off, I read the news that Baby P's "mother" would be released early after she "no longer poses a threat to the public". Of course she doesn't! The one person who she SHOULD have looked after is now dead, that poor little boy tortured and she stood by and allowed it to happen! That's the reason I use the term "mother" very lightly! She was in no way a mother - yes, she may have given birth to him, but she certainly didn't love, nurture or protect him, like any real mother would.

I'm sat here so angry. My fists are clenched, I can't stop thinking about that poor little baby, about all the poor little babies and children that have been through similar. Why do "parents" (and I use that term very lightly too!) do it to their own flesh and blood? I just don't get it.

At that point, I remember about the baby in my arms. My baby, snoring, peaceful while he sleeps. That thought comes back to me, "How could they do it?!". Baby B is perfect! Yes, he has his moments, but that doesn't make me angry. What makes me angry is the pain and suffering that kids have to go through from the people that are SUPPOSED to look after them, make them safe, love them no matter what. It's like a contract - as soon as they are born, you should be ready to sign your heart away. Promise them the world.

How could anyone hurt someone so innocent?

But I'm not liking this world at the moment. What has happened? Rewind back 20 years ago and it was safe to play out in the street. We could go anywhere and not worry about being snatched, attacked or worse. Our parents knew once they called for us, we'd be back inside. But now, I don't even like the girls walking down the shop on their own - and that's only a five minute walk away!

I find myself each week apologising to my children. Sorry for all the nasty people, the way the world is and the things people do. I wish I could change it for them.

Back to school - The Bento Box review

J is such a fussy eater, so I was dreading him going to school. At home, when asked what he wants for dinner, he'll normally ask for either bread and butter or rice pudding. Sometimes, he'll surprise me and ask for sausages, but that's not often. So I was secretly hoping that, by having his school friends sat eating the same things as him, it would encourage him to eat more things.

Normally, the kids would have school dinners. I prefer them to have different things each day and I remember how much I hated having sandwiches! But, looking through the school dinners menu, I realised there was a lot of things J would just not eat.

So when Munchkin offered to send us a Click Lock Bento Mealtime Set to review, I jumped at the chance!

The Click Lock Bento Mealtime Set

 From the outside, it looks much nicer than a normal sandwich box. The Clip Lock on the sides make the lid very secure (which means no crumbs or other bits of food in the bottom of his school bag!). There's even a little fork and spoon!

 Inside the box there are three separate compartments. One large and two small. On some food boxes I've found that lids are difficult to remove. Not a problem here though, they were so easy to remove and place back on, which is great as it means J can be independent with his lunch box.

 I sliced up some cucumber, J's favourite food at the moment! As you can see, I managed to get a good few slices in the one compartment. I put some coleslaw in the other, just for the picture, but it shows how much you could put in there.

 Nice and secure in the pots, I love that they are removable so if I wanted to make J some pasta (another favourite) he could have his sandwiches in one side and pasta in the other.

 The only thing I was disappointed with was that the main part for the sandwiches wasn't that big. In the photo you can see I had to remove the crusts from the bread for them to fit in, which was a shame as J loves his crusts - but there was a little extra room then so could fit in a sausage roll.

It looks so tidy and smart when everything's inside. J was so excited to take it into school and show his friends. I've even had other mums ask me where to get it as their child wanted one.

Overall, it was a brilliant lunch box. It certainly does the job it's intended for and with many uses I can see us using this for many years to come.

Disclaimer: We were sent the Click Lock Mealtime set for free to review. However, our opinion is 100% our own.

Kids capture the colour competition!

When I seen Travel Supermarket were holding a competition for kids, I couldn't wait to get J behind the camera. Almost every week I have to go through my phone to see what pictures he's taken, or edited. The record so far is 693 - 200 of which were Baby B's nose. "But it's so cute mum!" was his response when I queried why so many.

Just one of the photos J has taken with my phone!

We were sent a camera for J to use. He didn't take a minute to get it on and going - another 5 pictures of Baby B's nose! This was going to be tricky! But out on trips he wanted to take as many pictures as he could! So here we go!

For the WHITE category,

Harvey is a "Very big, very white rabbit, just like the one that should come out of a magician's hat!" - J

As J pointed out, there's no snow to take a picture of - so he opted for his grampy's rabbit instead.

For the YELLOW category,

"My favourite thingy mum HAS to be in the competition!" - J

A yellow minion. J loves Despicable Me, as do we all, so he had to get this in for the yellow category!

For the GREEN category,

"The pelican is on green grass though mum! That will count!" - J

I did try to explain, but he was having none of it! He wanted this picture of that pelican on the green grass.

For the RED category,

"Postman Pat's van is red! I want him to be in it!" - J

Of course, he was correct. Postman Pat's van IS red. And J did have lots of fun that day at Longleat!

And finally, for the BLUE category,

"Watch us splash!" - J & L

I did try to explain that he needed to take all the pictures but he wanted a picture of his cousin L and himself splashing in the pool after it sprung a leak! "We had so much fun mummy, I want to remember it forever and ever!" - so he asked his sister, T, to take the picture for him.

So that was J's entry into the Kids Capture the Colour competition! He had lots of fun taking photos all over the summer - look out for more soon!

(And J)

Bizzybee Gloves review

As any mummy knows, or daddy for that matter, children come hand-in-hand with mess. Whether it be muddy shoes, toys strewn over the floor or little puddles of water over the bathroom floor after their bath - us parents need to be on our toes, ready to sort it out! Little messes I can cope with, but any that require cleaning fluid (like mopping the floor, wiping down the sideboards, even washing the windows!) are part of my nightmares! You see, my skin is really dry, so wearing rubber gloves irritates them, and I don't know what it is about the smell - it's just something I don't like.

So, when Bizzybee sent me two pairs of gloves to review I hoped they would help rid me of my scares!

The first pair, moisturising gloves, I was looking forward to using the most. On the Bizzybee website, they are described as "A brand new glove with built-in TLC" and I really couldn't agree more! 

 As soon as I put them on, I noticed the difference between them and normal rubber gloves. These were softer, it was like they had a velvety lining inside. They are also latex-free, which is great for all those who suffer with the allergy!

They were so lovely to wear while washing up. I'm not usually one to wear gloves whilst doing the dishes, but I will be from now on! They were so comfortable, so soft, and I couldn't feel the heat of the water either! Perfect for washing Baby B's bottles in!

The only downside to these gloves are they're not available in any size except medium. They were perfectly sized for me but would be no good for anyone with big hands, including the Mr., even though it'd be a struggle to get ANY gloves on his hands! *chuckle*

The second pair, scouring gloves, seemed a god-send. Come on, hands up, who has left a pan on the stove for a little-bit too long? Who has burnt something in the frying-pan?  I'll admit it if you do! In fact, I'm the master of leaving pasta in the pan for too long! Ask the kids, they'll tell you - mum always gets distracted when cooking pasta - nothing else, just pasta! Do you realise just how hard it is to get burnt pasta off the bottom of a pan?

For the sake of this review, I did the unspeakable. I left the burnt pasta in the pan for 48 hours. Shock! Horror! Arghhhhh! Yep, I did just that. I'm not proud of it, I hate foodstuff left anywhere, let alone in a dirty pan on the sideboard in my lovely new kitchen. Yes, 48 full hours or torture! Of course, it was no problem for the Mr. and the kids, they didn't even see it there. But I knew I had to do it to test these gloves out properly!

Disgusting, 48-hour old burnt pasta!

And what a shock I had with the results!

They fitted comfortably, these are available in size large, so better for the bigger handed. The scourers were over the palm and fingers of the right-handed glove so, again, no good for the Mr. (being left handed) but, again, no gloves on his hands!

The first and second finger had scourers that went over the tips, perfect for those corners that are hard to reach!

All I added into the pan was a drop of hot water and left it for a minute to soak. Even without any washing liquid, the burnt pasta came away so easily! I didn't even have to scrub hard, so minimal effort for maximum result!

These gloves are amazing, a mother's work is always hard, but these make it that bit easier!

All sparkly clean!

So, thank you Bizzybee! You gave me something I will cherish for a long while! They might look like just a pair of gloves to you, but they are my helping-hand!

Disclaimer: We were sent the two pairs of gloves for free to review. However, our opinion is 100% our own.

How to..... enter Rafflecopter competitions!

After the last competition ended, I was quite stunned to have to disqualify no less than 11 entries picked as a winner. And that was without going through every single entry!!

It occurred to me that maybe people don't understand how to use Rafflecopter. Most comps hosted through RC are easy, some have just one entry, others can have hundreds. But, however many ways, they can help in the way to winning.

So here's my guide to entering Rafflecopter comps!

Using Rafflecopters own giveaway (click "See Rafflecopter in action"), I'll show you how to use it correctly!

• Firstly, you DON'T have to be a Facebook or Twitter user. You can sign up with just your email address. But you may have to have one or the other for a mandatory option (if any) so please remember to check!
• Many have a daily entry, some have a few daily entries - check & bookmark!
• Check to see what options, if any, are mandatory - if it says "you can earn X more entries today, it normally means those showing are mandatory.
• ALWAYS read the T&Cs - obviously this goes for all comps, not just RC - the T&Cs should clear up any queries about daily entries and any mandatory options, as well as inform you about the age / location etc that the entrant must be.

If you go to the Rafflecopter comp - you'll see it asks you to sign in. You can either sign in with Facebook or email.

On this particular comp, there is one mandatory entry - which mean you have to answer that question before you can enter for extra entries. This is a nice simple Rafflecopter comp, but still people get confused. Especially with the Tweet (often daily).

When you click on the button next to "Tweet about the giveaway", it'll come up with a box.

 Now, this is where people are missing out. You MUST click the little "Tweet" button in the box - which will bring this up:

Then click on the "Tweet" and wait for the screen to change to this:

Now you can do one of three things.You can click on "View it on Twitter" - this will bring up your tweet in a new page, where you can copy the link. If you're not quick enough, just go to your Twitter profile, find the tweet, right-click the time stamp (where it says "8s ago", "5 mins ago" etc.) and copy that link. Or you can right-click on "View it on Twitter" if you're fast enough, and copy that way. Then all you need to do is paste the link in the Rafflecopter. 

Another big mistake on Rafflecopter is that when it comes to comments on Blog posts, follows on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram - is that people sometimes don't use the same name. Many blogs use different comment options; Disqus, commentluv and the like. Make sure you know your username of which one you used!

Same goes for Twitter and Facebook usernames. They are both so simple to find yet many get it wrong! Go to your homepages on both and you'll be able to find them easily! Twitter is the name that comes up when you tweet or the one that people add when they want to talk to you - mine is @thecrazperfblog for example. Facebook is a little more difficult, go to your homepage and copy the web address - it should look something like www.facebook.com/TheCrazyPerfectBlog or it'll have a series of numbers instead of words .com/xxxxxxxx - if you're having any trouble, give me a shout and I'll help!


I've done it, used xxclarexx as a username on something but put my real name in the Rafflecopter form  Massive fail on my part because if I was lucky enough to be picked, the promoter wouldn't be able to link my username with my real name. Such a simple mistake but so often done 

Don't let the number of entries put you off - at the end of the day, it takes one entry to win. And with some RC comps, there are 100s of entries available for any person, so it doesn't truly reflect the amount of people actually entering!

If you do still struggle, feel free to comment - I'll help whenever I can, or check out Rafflecopter's Support page 


Hopefully there'll be less disqualified entries next time  

Where has the year gone?

It's October. Almost the second week of it in fact. Where is this year going? The kids are growing too fast, Baby B will be 28 weeks tomorrow, yet it feels like just last week I was holding a little baby in my arms, snoozing 18 hours of the day. Now I have a cheeky, talkative, little monster in the walker giving me little "I'm a good boy really" smiles and blowing kisses!

I have to admit, I love babies at this age - they start to build their character, no longer "boring" as my dad says, they don't just sleep, drink and poop! Of course, they still do all those but with other traits added into the mix! The only thing I am really not liking is the amount of dribble. You see, you can almost guarantee that at the precise moment I pick Baby B up for a play, or go in for a kiss, he has plenty of dribble to pass over to me. I get soaked, I may as well have gone for a bath! It's all down to his teething, he didn't dribble at all with his first two teeth, but since the top ones have started coming, his mouth is like a little waterfall! Apart from the amount of his clothes I've had to wash this week due to wetness, I'm glad he's following suit of his sisters and brother. They all teethed really young and had all their teeth before 9 months old. I think they all teethed for around 6 months, so they didn't suffer too long, I just really hope Baby B is as lucky.

Back to it being October. Today is the 6th, which means it's my dads 50th birthday.

In just 81 days it'll be Christmas day. I can hear the gasps of horror! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I have, but only because I was lucky enough to win some shopping vouchers last week. I've promised myself I won't be going overboard with presents this year as the kids have so much stuff. Between buying and winning things, their bedrooms are full of toys, clothes and goodness knows what else! Time for another clearout I think!

DC Super Friends comic review

J was sent a copy of DC Super Friends comic to review.

J is a massive fan of the DC characters, his favourite are Batman and the Green Lantern. As you can see from the picture, he loved it! He spent hours looking through before I could get anywhere near to take some pictures!

The comic is priced at £2.99 - compared to other comics that J enjoys reading, I think is very reasonably priced. You can subscribe, which is cheaper, at a price of £33.00 for 13 issues (saving 15%) or £7.80 a month (saving 20%)!

There is a free gift every issue, we had communicators with this issue and J loved that he could change the pictures in them!

J and C read the comic together, J's reading skills are slowly improving so he needs his sisters to help, C said she enjoyed reading it as much as J. There's plenty to do inside when they've finished reading - activities, colouring, cut-out and keep, even a competition!

Playing with the Cut-out and keep mask!

Hello??

Even Baby B got involved!

J's already begged me to buy the new issue when it comes out, which I will be doing. It has so much to keep him entertained through those common "I'm bored!" times.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of DC Super Friends for free to review. However, our opinion is 100% our own.