Our Top 6 Family Movies To See This Summer

I've always had a love for the movies. I really enjoy the whole experience of going to the cinema, picking up a hot dog (with lots of mustard) and a tub of Ben & Jerry's before settling down on the back seats to see something new and exciting. The big screen, comfy seats and atmosphere in the darkness are really mesmerising for me. 

The Mini Mes have a similar passion for films and there are quite a few releases this summer that they are looking forward to seeing. These are the top 6 on our family watch list!

Cinderella - Out Now at Cineworld

This classic tale has just hit the box office as a live-action version and I really can't wait to see it. I'm not sure who is more eager to get tickets; the Mini Mes or me! I'm such a big Disney fan and this really leaves me feeling a little nostalgic at the thought. The idea of an ordinary girl finding a prince is magical and the fact that his royal highness is played by Richard Madden makes it that little bit more appealing. A great family must-see with a wonderful cast and amazing costumes.

Christmas Gift Guide - The Children's Edition

With the Christmas countdown truly underway, it's time to pick up and purchase all of the lovely gifts you will be popping under the tree for your little ones to open this December. Whether they prefer beauty and dolls or construction and crafts there is something to put a smile on any face with my ideas below.

Disney On Ice Returns With The Magical Ice Festival

Disney on Ice is returning next year for another incredible tour and not only will there be the much loved characters from The Little Mermaid, Tangled and Beauty and The Beast but Frozen will be there too! All of the little (and big) Elsa, Anna and Olaf  fans will love this magical family show which is visiting Aberdeen, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds from March 2015.

Mickey and Minnie mouse will be in an arena near you where they shall introduce you to Sebastian

Crosse & Blackwell 4Kids Jelly *Review*

Combining food with fun is the best way to encourage children to eat from my experience, so the new Crosse & Blackwell Jelly Pots were bound to please.

 

Each of the 6 flavours has a specific Toy Story character associated with it and being BIG Disney fans this immediately appealed to a rather fussy eater - Jamster!

 

 

 

The 6 flavours:

 

Mandarin in mandarin jelly

Mixed fruit in strawberry jelly

Peach in peach jelly

Apple in raspberry jelly

Peach in strawberry jelly

Pineapple in pineapple jelly

 

 

 

Each pot is 125g making it the ideal size for picnics, lunch boxes or as an after school snack and as 1 of your 5 a day it's great for the health conscious too. A spoon is included with each pot which is very handy and the lid is easy to peel off, even for younger children, so you don't need to worry that they won't be able to tuck in at nursery or school without you to assist.

 

 

 

The jelly is easy to scoop with the spoon, we didn't have any real issues with it wobbling off, and the segment sizes are perfectly proportioned with the young in mind. I was pleased with the taste, as were the Mini Mes, as they were sweet without being overpowering and you get texture from the fruit chunks. The Mini Mes favourite was the mandarin, mine was the apple and the Mr liked the pineapple most - something to suit everyone! It's great that they are low in calories too so I didn't feel guilty enjoying them myself.

 

Each pot is made with no artificial preservatives or colours and contains real fruit juice. They are suitable for vegetarians and I was really impressed by the long life on them. Ours don't expire until December so they can remain in the cupboard without worrying that they will go off in a hurry.

 

 

 

Each pot is 65p which is perhaps a little more expensive than other snacks but as they are good for you, large in size and filling plus a great way to convince the kids to eat their fruit, I would definitely buy these again.

 

You can find out more about the Cross & Blackwell range here: http://www.crosseandblackwell.co.uk/our-pantry/4kids/fruit-pots/

Watch, Bake, Create - Dinosaurs

This is an activity link up where you can share your recipes and crafts based around a particular theme. This week focuses on dinosaurs and we have made Fossil Cookies, D is for Dinosaur Window Art and watched Dinosaur DVD.

 

You can grab the badge and link up your own posts at the bottom.

 

Dinosaur Fossil Cookies

Using a basic cookie recipe we transformed ordinary biscuits into fossil food! With the Mini Mes dinosaur toys, we pushed their feet deep into the cookies, almost all the way through, to create prints within them.

 

 

Ingredients
225g butter       
110g caster sugar
275g plain flour

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Combine the ingredients together to form a dough.
• Roll into small balls and flatten slightly (to around 1cm thickness maximum).
• Push the toys into the cookie rounds to create the prints.
• Cook for 12-15 minutes until golden.
• Scoff!

D is for Dinosaur Window Art

With a capital D for the body, this cellophane dinosaur craft not only helps to teach about the alphabet but is pretty to display in windows to allow different colours to shine through into your room.
 

 

Equipment

Card

Pens

Scissors

Glue

Cellophane

 

Method

Draw a large capital d onto the card and cut it out, removing the centre too.

Using the D as a template, cut out a piece of cellophane the same size.

Attach the cellophane to the D using the glue.

Draw feet, a tail and neck with head onto the card, cut out and attach to the D with glue.

Draw on facial features, toes etc.

Allow a few minutes to dry completely.

Display in your window.

Dinosaur DVD

 

 

 

This movie is a family favourite where a group of dinosaurs face several challenges and learn about the importance of friendship along the way.

 

Aladar the iguanodon, separated from his parents as an egg, is raised by lemurs within a jungle. After a meteor shower destroys his homeland his journey begins to find a safe place to live.

 

 

 

If you have any dinosaur themed posts you can link them up below.

You can grab the badge too if you wish.

 

 

Next week the theme will be Mermaids.

 

 

Just Dance Disney Party *Review*

Getting fit and having fun is the perfect combination and Just Dance Disney Party provides just that. While the Mini Mes get to dance along to their favourite songs from a variety of Disney shows and movies, I get to burn off some calories (which you can track) having a boogie with Wii remote to hand!

The game is suitable for ages 3 and over so the entire family enjoy it. With 25 songs from movie classics including Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Tangled plus tunes from Disney's latest shows like Hannah Montana and Jessie there is something for both old and young to appreciate.

Beautiful costumes from Rubies

The choreography, which includes all new duets where you can select which character you wish to copy, is easy to follow with next move icons displayed in the bottom corner of the screen. The more correct moves you make the higher your score will be and there are even gold moves for extra points too. 

You can play individually or together as a team and try the different modes for added variety which include Freeze & Shake and Balloon Pop .

The graphics are fantastic and are brought to life with immersive visual effects and the environments from the actual movie or show you are dancing along to. The game is very easy to navigate and we were really impressed!

You can create your own custom playlist or select from the ones available and there is the option to put on Non-Stop Shuffle for a dance timing of your choice; 15, 30, 60, 120 minutes. There are options to have certain songs play in alternative languages and with the lyrics scrolling at the bottom you can sing along and learn the words as you dance too.

In the main menu there is a Parents section where you can track game stats, progress, medals and read health tips - I found this really useful to see what calories I had burnt and to check how long the Mini Mes had been playing.

The game was fun, with a nice variety of songs including the Mini Mes favourites (and mine) and there were dances of different pace and difficulty to suit every ability. The calorie tracker was greatly appreciated by me trying to lose weight! I would recommend this for Disney fans and also for parents trying to get fit as it doesn't feel like exercise but helps to shred unwanted weight. It could do with some songs from Toy Story for Jamster but he still loved the game and dressing up to play regardless of that.

You can buy your own copy from Amazon

 

The beautiful costumes that we received were from Rubies. They were great quality and a comfortable fit - the Mini Mes have worn these many times since receiving them already.
You can purchase the costumes here: http://www.rubiesuk.com

*We were sent Just Dance Disney Party and 2 costumes for the purpose of this review. The opinions given are honest and our own*

My favourite Disney

Some of my earliest childhood memories involve Disney. Visits to the cinema to see the latest movie release with my family, beautiful soft toys stacked at the end of my bed and a trip to Disneyland Paris to name but a few, but there will always be that one favourite movie; Beauty and the Beast.

There is something enchanting and magical about every Disney but there has always been something about this movie that I've found truly captivating. Apart from the catchy songs and moving story-line I really like the idea that love is about what's on the inside and not just based on appearance. Although I never viewed the movie in that way until I became an adult!

Belle is portrayed as a slim, stunning character but it's nice to see her fall for the guy that you wouldn't expect -  a beast. It makes love seem achievable for everyone regardless of race, age, build and looks. It allows you to think that you will find your prince one day and although they may not be a hunk stereotypically they may be the sweetest, kindest and most generous person alive and beautiful in your eyes. 

It teaches not to judge people on appearance and that is the message I would like to pass on to my own children. Treating others equally is an important life lesson.

If you plan to head to Disneyland in the near future Paris Est is one of Al Fresco Holiday’s parks that is closest to Disney Land Paris, with some great deals currently available for 2013 bookings. http://www.thomsonalfresco.co.uk/parisest

*This is a sponsored post. The views on Disney are my own and are honest*

Project 366, 214/366 - Tangled

We enjoyed another afternoon at the library today making Disney Tangled themed crafts. Jamster got to make a sword and Minxy made a tiara then they both got to make flags and Pascal, the chameleon from the movie - so cute! If you would like your own to download I found it here for you to print off.

Project 366, 169/366 - Marvel Madness

We headed to town this morning as the Mini Mes have been eager to spend their birthday money for some time and Jamster decided to spend some of his in the Disney Store.

He has always loved role play and dressing up (not sure where he gets that from *cough*) as various characters so he loved this. He can't wait to see Avengers when the DVD arrives.

A day in London - Jubilee Family Festival

On saturday we headed to Hyde Park, London (3 trains and a car trip either way eek) for the Jubilee Family Festival presented by Sainsbury's. I hadn't even heard about the event until a friend of the Mr mentioned that he had won some tickets the week before, although with local events and rain on the agenda I can't say I had really been on the look out for celebrations on a larger scale!

Entry
We arrived at Hyde Park around 11.30 after a few hair-pulling-out-teeth-gritting moments at the underground stations wondering if we were going in the right direction. There were 4 queues that seemed to go on for miles but thankfully they were moving quickly so the kids nibbled some sandwiches while we waited to get past the big golden crown gates.

What's inside
Inside we picked up our free leaflets with some details on what companies were there and what was happening at each stand.  We were also provided with lost child wrist bands which always puts my mind at rest a little when there are huge crowds. It was already rather busy but there seemed to be alot to keep everyone entertained. There were plenty of food stalls, ice cream vans, a Pimms bus (oh yes!) and bars too for hungry tums if required.

After exploring a little we headed to the Ribena stand where they were giving away free drinks, had a guess the berries in the barrell competition and a family photo opportunity. I discovered at this point that you could also collect stamps from each stand to get a free bag when you had collected 15.

The bag however was a basic pullstring style which was completely empty and rather disappointing, especially when you pay £52 for entry for a family of 4. It would have been nicer if Sainsbury's provided these upon entry to carry all the bits we picked up going round or atleast had a Jubilee momento in them as a keepsake.

We continued around the stalls and stopped for lunch after a while. I'm very glad we took a picnic with us as queues were large and prices quite high. I'm glad we didn't take cans or bottles as they were confiscated at the gates.



Favourites
The kids seemed to really enjoy the Kleenex stand where you were given free balsam tissues and could decorate your own tissue boxes. They also liked the Kingsmill (Queensmill for the ocassion) display where you received free bread and fillings and were asked to make a Jubilee themed sandwich entered into a draw and the Jammie Dodgers stand with free biscuits and masks and a meet the character/photo opportunity.

Some pictures from our day...

Overall the kids thoroughly enjoyed the day but from a parents point of view there were a few let downs. The majority of stands were purely promotional and queues were large. We were unable to get in the Disney tent as queues were 2hrs + and I like many parents wasn't willing to wait that long.

Considering how many tickets were sold you would assume they would've thought ahead and had larger tents/stands to allow room for more to gain access. There were also large queues for the toilets so it would've been better to have a few more around the park - it's a family event afterall so toddlers and young children will need to go and wont want to wait! Generally a good day though as they kids being happy means I'm happy. It sure wore the kids out anyway...