Blossom Mother And Child

I remember when I was pregnant with both of my boys that trying to find modern, attractive and comfortable maternity clothes was a problem. The town in which I live is nice enough and has a reasonable array of high street retailers in its centre but unfortunately when it comes to clothing for pregnant ladies, it falls short BIG time.  I have to admit that for the majority of my two pregnancies I felt frumpy and huge, despite my so-called 'glow' and yet I would see other mums to-be looking well dressed which would make me feel even less yummy mummy to be and more slummy mummy to-be!

I wish I had know about Blossom Mother And Child  because I could have looked fabulous, feminine and confident if I had stepped out in any of the gorgeous items of clothing it stocks. A one-stop shop for your entire pregnancy and post pregnancy wardrobe essentials, from work wear to party wear; from relaxing leisure wear and bed clothes to accessories and lingerie.

Inspired by the latest catwalk fashions, Blossom's own in-house collection is custom-suited to the pregnant body and its Collection manages to combine comfort with style with its cutting edge designs. This collection has evolved to include basics, evening and day wear to suit every pregnant woman's clothing needs.

I also found when I was pregnant that I could not find a pair of maternity jeans that fitted me properly - they either wouldn't sit over my bump (I did have a huuuuge one!) or the pair I had that sat under, would reveal my bottom when I sat or bent down!! Blossom boast the best denim bar for maternity in Europe and they claim to ensure a perfect maternity fit. There is certainly a wide range of denim items available  including skirts and jeans, with a shape, style and fit to suit all bumps!

Not only does  Blossom Mother And Child  sell clothing, it also has gifts, toiletries, pharmacy and baby wear available. It really is the one-shop stop for pregnant ladies and Mums -to-be who want to look and feel great during and after pregnancy. 

GIVE-AWAY

Blossom Mother And Child has very generously agreed to offer a gift voucher for the value of £100 to one lucky Mummy Mishaps reader!!! How amazing is that? My former pregnant self is very envious!!

To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize please fill in the rafflecopter form below.

The closing date is 12:01am Monday 7th May, 2012

Thank you and good luck :)

My Week That Was - More Rubbish Weather!

So as another week ends, another is about to start and it looks like the dreadful weather is set to remain for a bit longer yet (booooo!). Anyway, here is my roundup from the last seven days.

Monday
For the second week in a row, Burton did NOT cry about going to Ladybirds so although I don't want to tempt fate I really hope this means that he has tuned a corner now and understand that I am only leaving him for a few hours and that I will return to collect him.

While Burton was out Jenson and I played and he thought it funny to sit on top of the box which was full of to cars! Funny boy!


Tuesday
This morning two of Burton's cousins popped over with Granma for a couple of hours to have some snacks and play together.

After lunch while Jenson napped, I took Burton into town briefly to return some DVD's to the library and then we went into M&S to buy some sweets and chocolate!
When we returned home I had to wake up a very sleepy Jenson (I think he is comgn down with something as he slept for ages and he didn't stir easily) so that we could go to the doctors for Burton as he has had sore, gacky eyes for about a week now. We had to wait an hour ! I couldn't believe how long it took! To be fair, both boys behave themselves and made me proud because that is a long time for me to wait let alone two little boys.


Anyway, Burton was given some eye drops which he allowed me to give him after I had let his monkey have some first of course!!

Burton was very excited all afternoon because after tea Granma was coming to pick him up as he and his cousin Ben were going have a sleepover at Granma's seeing as though they play together on Wednesday's anyway. When she arrived, Burton almost forgot to kiss me goodbye!

Wednesday
Jenson awake with a full on cold and was a proper little snot monster, bless him. He and I stayed at home and he was very clingy and wingy most of the day as he wasn't feeling all that well. But after a nap I did make him giggle by blowing raspberries on his tummy!


Burton arrived home for tea and had a lovely day by the sounds of it.

Thursday
We went to see his other Grandma today and Shadow of course! We tried to go out for a walk before lunch but Burton decided he didn't want to walk and wouldn't budge! I managed to get him to walk about a hundred years before he stopped again and wanted me to carry him! He was being difficult and stubborn and in the end I told Mum to go on without us and I then had to carry a wriggling and screaming Burton, while pushing Jenson with my spare arm the short walk back to Mums house which was hard going! Once indoors Burton was complaining that he wanted to go for a walk but I told him it was too late! He could barely talk through being so worked up! He had a sit on the stairs until he came and said sorry which he did after about 5 minutes. No idea where that outburst came from! Ruddy terrible twos *grumble grumble*.

This afternoon Mum, Burton and Jenson, well the latter was getting in the way really but he thought he was helping, used some straws, plastic cups and tin foil sheets and tried sucking pieces of foil up with a straw (inspired by an episode of Show Me Show Me). Then Mum made some tin foil footballs, used the cup as goal parameters and the played blow football! Burton thought this was brilliant fun!


Friday
I took the boys to our local soft play centre this morning and we met up with a friend and her son Joe who is the same age as Jenson. Both boys love Funderzone and it is a good way for allowing Burton especially, to let off some steam and run around to his hearts content.


When we got home Jenson had a sleep so I let Burton do some painting which he loves to do! Within about 15 minutes he had painted 10 pieces of paper!
When Jenson woke up,from his nap his coughing made him sick all over him and his cot sheet, so I decided to bath both boys early which they though was great fun!


Saturday
I made some mars bar cupcakes this morning (recipe to follow soon!) and then Burton's Granma and (Great) Gran popped over for a couple of hours to see us. Burton enjoyed showing off and getting some admiration and chocolate buttons in return!

This afternoon we - well I popped in while the boys and Daddy waited in the car- went to Tesco to get a few things and then we popped over to see Granma again on our way home for a quick cup of tea. We had hoped to go outside seeing as though we have not managed to do so this week but it rained! Again! Boooo!


Sunday
We arranged to go ten pin bowling this morning with all the cousins, Granma and Aunty Emma and Uncle Geoff. Due to Jenson and I being wake since 5.40am we didn't go as Jenson went for a nap, so Burton and Daddy went along instead. Just as well as I organised it! I put the finishing touches to the lunch I made for everyone to have after the bowling, which was a cottage pie and a roasted vegetable potato topped bake. Everyone had a great time and Burton declared that "me like bowling Mummy!"


Daddy and Burton picked Jenson and I and the food up after the bowling, and took us to Granma and Grampy's where we all had lunch. Afterwards all the children played indoors as there was no chance of anyone playing outside as the weather was really stormy all day! High winds almost blew the greenhouse and chicken sheds away!!

And that is it really. Not a terribly exciting week but then the weather hasn't helped. Maybe we will get out and about more this week with a trip to the park!?

I am linking this up to MummyDaddyandMeMakesThree 's fab

Saturday Is Caption Day 28th April, 2012

It's Saturday
It's caption time again!




Then pop over here and check out some other entries

Happy 2nd Blogaversary To Me!

Two years ago today (date wise) it was a Tuesday and Burton was spending a few hours with his Granma - only the second time he had ever spent time away from me at the age of 9 months.

It was an ordinary kind of day and for some reason after lunch I decided to start a blog! I had been thinking about doing so for a couple of weeks having seem a couple started up by other Mums (mainly Emma from Mummy Musings) and I thought it was something I could enjoy as a hobby and it would get my brain ticking over again!

My first post I have featured recently in a Show Off Show Case which was all about me being apart from Burton for a few hours from him on that Tuesday. To be fair most of my posts at the start where about my little baby and his exploits about our life together oh and his penguin!

Of course in the beginning I didn't get many comments or visits to my blog. It takes time to get established and I did not like 'pimping' my posts more than once as I didn't have the confidence in my blogging just yet. I did join in with The Gallery in May which definitely helped get me more visitors to Mummy Mishaps, introduced me to other blogs and got me more people to follow and be followed by on twitter who were other mums like me: people who I had things in common with. It was thanks to Emma from MeThe ManAndBaby and CrystalJigsaw who supported me and my blog in the first few weeks or it being started (thank you ladies).

Fast forward to now and I am really proud of my blog and its content. Of course I write about far more than just Burton now (although he does still feature a lot!) as there is another little person I can find post inspiration from!! Having two has been rewarding but ruddy knackering!!

I have made some great blogging friends along the way and I love how everyone on twitter and in the blogging community is so caring, supportive and lovely!!

Anyway, I just wanted to wish my blog a very Happy 2nd Blogaversary and to thank all of you who read my ramblings and take the time to comment - it means a lot so thank you - yes YOU :)

So help yourself to a slice of (virtual) cake!!

I am linking this up to a great link

 

Slow Cooker Steak & Ale Casserole

Despite summer supposedly being around the corner, when its wet and cold like today comfort food is perfect for serving up for a family mealtime. Here is my recipe for slow cooker steak and ale casserole

You will need:

Some stewing beef  (i used 400g which serves 2-3 people)

3 large carrots

1 large onion

2 oxo cubes

splash of olive oil

4 tbsp flour

black pepper

2 tsp tomato puree

1 bouquet garni

pinch of mixed herbs eg. rosemary, thyme

1 bottle of real ale

(If my OH liked mushrooms then I would add these too).

Then you need to:

coat the beef in the flour which I seasoned with black pepper

heat a few splashes of oil in a pan and brown the beef for a few minutes

crumble in the oxo cubes and mix well

add the ale and bring to the boil

add the tomato puree, the herbs, bouquet garni and allow to boil for a minute two

remove from the heat

meanwhile chop an onion and the carrots and place into your slow cooker

pour over the beef mix and stir

place on a low heat for about 8 hours, season to taste and serve with either buttery mash and veg or another thing I like to do is make a couple of puff pastry (ready made off of course!) rounds, cook in the oven and make the casserole in to steak and ale pie by placing the pie lids on top of each serving of the casserole .

My Action Boy

Like most boys, I am sure, Burton is a bit of a dare devil. He isn't afraid of a bit of rough and tumble, in fact he encourages it! Our family nick name him 'dare devil' and Daddy is very pleased that his first born enjoys being adventurous, and often remarks to me "he is such a boy!" proudly.

In Water

Since he was very small he has been used to being 'thrown' about when playing and when he was first getting used to the swimming pool. I remember other swimmers staring in disbelief as Daddy tossed Burton up high and caught him allowing his bottom half to be immersed in the water. Burton loved it and would laugh loudly and it certainly helped making him confident in the swimming pool. Daddy would splash him (and later Jenson) in the bath from a couple of months old to get him used to having water on his face and in his eyes. He was always perfectly safe and he (as does Jenson) loved his bath time. Again, it was this bath time fun that encouraged his confidence with water which helped when we took him swimming (and it has done the same for Jenson too). At the pool Burton jumps in at the deep end (it's not a full size pool!) and will go down to the bottom of the pool with Daddy or I to pick up diving sticks. He can now swim a short distance without any arm bands too!

On Land

Burton's journey on his (balance) bike has been action filled fun! Once he was able to understand that he needed to balance on it there was no stopping him. He enjoys nothing more than going down steepish grassy hills which makes him go fast and he seems to have no fear and even when he falls off he just smiles, picks himself up, dusts himself down and gets back on again. He now has a bike with pedals now he has mastered balancing, although he hasn't quite got to grips with the pedalling yet. All this is down to his Daddy again, I doubt he would be so fearless or such an action boy if I had taken him out on his bike!!

In The Air

When we went to Butlins last December there was an indoor bungee jump type ride and as soon as I showed it to Burton and daddy I knew what was going to happen next! To be honest, I thought Burton would be deemed too young or small to be eligible for a go on it, but I was wrong! And, of course, he loved it : going high up into the air and he was most upset when he had to get off!!

My Action Boy

Burton is full of confidence thanks to his daddy, when it comes to swimming, riding his bike and playground and soft play fun. Only last week when at a soft play centre with TheBoyandMe , Burton was no where to be found for a few minutes until we saw him looking down over the death slide, which he wouldn't have been able to get onto himself as the top of it was too high for him to climb onto. I dashed off to be him and bring him down again on the normal slide. But it made me smile when TheBoyandMe remarked that she was "convinced if he could have got his leg over that death slide... He would have gone down it!". I suspect this would have been the case too!

I think it is good that he has some confidence but I don't really want him to grow up and be too full of it, because sometimes that can come across as arrogant or cocky and I wouldn't want people to judge him that way. Hopefully, he will have a good mix of character traits and use them well and wisely when he is older. 

I am linking this up to The Gallery where the theme this week is Action

My Week That Was : The One With Another Trip To A&E

The weather has been a bit miserable this week so we haven't been out and about as much as normal but looking back, we still seem to have packed a lot into our week that was!

Monday
For the first time since he first started attending (about 2 months ago), Burton didn't cry about going to Ladybirds and he didn't cry en route, or when I said goodbye to him! In fact he almost ran along the path when he got out of the car to reach the front door! I felt so happy. I hope this continues from now on, but I wont count my chickens just yet!



Tuesday
This morning I quickly popped into town with the boys just to do a couple of things and needed up having a stropping spree instead! What a nightmare! A full on toddler strop unfolded much to my horror! Just awful and I really hope that's the last one of those I have to endure!

This afternoon while Jenson napped, I let Burton do some painting which he LOVED! He got quite creative using a toy car and different shapes and his hands.



I have started letting Jenson feed himself more 'messy foods' now like yogurt so you can imagine the mess being made! Of course Burton thinks this is hilarious and has to get in on the messy act!



Wednesday
We went to Grandma and Grampy's house and there was a surprise waiting for us when we arrived!



Baby ducklings! There were very cute.

Thursday
The boys and I went on a tweet up today to Puxton Park to meet up with TheBoyandMe again which was lovely.



However, disaster struck when Jenson had to be taken to casualty again due to his brother accidental giving him another pulled elbow! Nightmare! I wrote about it here.

Friday
I took the boys to get a few essential food items this morning which is manageable when it is only a quick visit and you bribe them with snacks from the Organix Goodies range, gingerbread men today!

When we got home Burton and I made pizzas for us all to have for lunch, which were very tasty!

Burton's mega sketcher arrived today and he loves it and it has certainly brought out his creative side as he has been doodling lots today and he showed me his whale drawing! I thought it was really good. I think he drew this as we have been reading The Whale With The Snail On It's Tail' this week (brilliant book if you haven't read it)



After tea Daddy set off to Nottingham for the weekend for a stag do, which means it is just the boys and I this weekend.

Saturday
I made some easter egg cupcakes this morning as a way of using up some of the chocolate we still have loitering in the kitchen cupboard! My mum and step dad came over today to help me entertain the boys and Shadow came too which pleased them both! We went to the park before lunch and then afterwards played indoors as the weather was a bit hit and miss with the rain! It was one of those afternoons when every single toy came out of the toy cupboards! Still it gave me the chance to tidy it all away more neatly and put things back in their right boxes and baskets, so the cupboards do at least look new and tidy now! Until the morning of course!



Sunday
The boys and I had a fairly lazy morning after all it was raining and we were without a car! We mostly played and watched a film and I cooked a mock cottage pie (I used turkey mince as I didn't have any beef mince) which we all enjoyed for lunch.

We went to a birthday party this afternoon after all! I didn't think we were going to be able to go due to not having the car but my friend very kindly at the last minute picked us up! What a star! I was pleased because it meant Burton and Jenson ended up doing something outside of the house today and met up with my friedns children. They had a great time playing together!



After tea Daddy arrived home and bathed the boys and I packed all of the toys away.......again!!

I am linking this up to MummyDaddyAndMe 's great linky

Easter Egg Cupcakes

I don't know about you, but we had an obscene amount of chocolate this Easter - far too much for my two little ones to eat up all by themselves! Such are the perks of being a parent sometimes hey?

However, as much as it is great to eat up chocolate eggs I thought I would make some cupcakes with some of it instead. I know its no longer Easter but here are my using up chocolate easter egg cupcakes anyway!!

You will need:

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter

4 eggs

200g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

2 x medium sized easter eggs, which after you have nibbled a few pieces as you break it into smaller chunks, equates to about 100g of milk chocolate

3 tbsp milk

Then you need to:

• Heat the oven to 160oC
• Place the broken pieces of chocolate into a saucepan together with the milk and heat very gently until the chocolate melts and then stir well, and leave to cool slightly
• Beat the sugar and butter until pale and creamy
• Add the eggs and flour and blend together
• Mix in the cocoa powder
• The add the melted milky chocolate and mix well unil all the ingredients are combined
• Fill your paper cases with the mixture (I used an ice cream scoop) - I made 20 cakes in total
• Place in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes until a knife comes out of the cake clean
• Once cooked allow to cool and then top with some chocolate buttercream and (see below) if you like make the buttercream look like a nest

Chocolate Buttercream:

75g unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

• then top with some Cadburys mini eggs

then tuck in!! 

Little Tiger Press Book Review #2

As I have mentioned on this blog before, we enjoy reading books in our home and we have a lot of them too! I think that books are something you just cannot have enough of.

Another popular thing in our home is Justin Fletcher. Burton loves watching him on CBeebies and lets face it with his silly faces and voices he is the perfect children's entertainer.

Those clever people from Little Tiger Press have teamed up with Justin and had him narrate some great stories  on a selection of picture book and CD sets which have been written by Steve Smallman. Genius!

The Monkey With A Bright Blue Bottom

Imagine a time when the earth was new and all creatures apart from birds were just dull and drab looking. What a dreary place to be a part of. That's what a monkey thinks until it finds a paintbox and two brushes. Armed with a palette of brightly coloured paints, the monkey sneaks around while the animals sleep and colours them in.

"Someone painted this kingfisher blue ,

I'm going to paint all the animals too!"

Of course when they wake up the other animals complain at the monkey, but bear has a plan......

The Very Greedy Bee

The bee in this book loves to eat all the flower nectar and not share it with anyone else. Of course in doing so he grows fat and then falls asleep with his full stomach out in the warm sunshine. The problem is the when the greedy bee wakes up it is dark and now he has lost his way. Luckily with the help of some little insects he finds his way home and learns a lesson about the amount of nectar he consumes and about sharing it with others.

Smelly Peter The Great Pea Eater 

Peter is a young boy who loves nothing more than eating peas. A lot of peas. Peas for breakfast, peas for lunch and peas for tea!! He is pea mad and as a result very smelly in the bottom region and end up turning green!! He gets the mickey taken out of him at school as it isn't cool to be green and smelly. however, one day he gets abducted by aliens on a flying saucer who take him to their planet Krell and make him green as they love his greenness and smelliness! However, they don't have peas on Krell and Peter needs to learn to eat foods over than his favourite peas and in doing so stops smelling and returns to his normal skin colour!! Will the aliens still want him as their king?

These are fantastic books. The stories are funny and the illustrations are so bright and really engage with you as you read the words. Burton has really enjoyed having them read to him, in particular The Monkey With A Bright Blue Bottom and The Very Greedy Bee both of which have been read several times! 

Although Smelly Peter The Great Pea Eater is amusing and I like the premise behind the narrative, I do think some of the descriptions used are for slightly older children than my toddler!

However, as much as Burton has enjoyed listening to his mummy or daddy reading the books to him he has also liked hearing the CDs with Justin and here is the man himself reading an extract from Smelly Peter

All there books are very reasonably priced at just £7.99 each and are published by Little Tiger Press

GIVE AWAY

The generous people at Little Tiger Press have very kindly agreed to allow 1 Mummy Mishaps reader a chance to win a copy of all three books

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning these three fab titles is to fill in the rafflecopter form below. Closing date is Saturday 5th May at 12:01am.

Good luck :)

Saturday Is Caption Day Except It's Friday!?

Hey hey it's.......Friday?!! And it's Caption Day??

Er??

Yes I haven't gone mad,must just that for this week it's Friday Caption Day and here is my photo

And if you don't believe me, then check out the other entries over at

Not Again!

I have been deliberating about whether or to blog about this, but I have decided that as my blog is a record of what happens in my life, and that of my children, then I should.

We enjoyed a lovely time at Puxton Park today, which is near Weston Super Mare where Burton, Jenson and I met up with Me and The Boy from TheBoyAndMe. None of us had visited this farm park before but it was wonderful! It had a huge indoor soft play area and then outside there was so much for children big and small to enjoy! A petting village, crazy farm style golf, swings, a wooden climbing tower, go-karts, ride on tractors, JCB style machinery and sand pit and probably a whole lot more. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see too much of the outside as it absolutely poured it down and we all got soaked!

Another reason Jenson and I didn't see as much of the outside as Burton, The Boy and Me is because my little boy ended up with another pulled elbow! I am almost embarrassed to reveal this because for those of you who are familiar with me and my blog, you will recall that barely two weeks ago I had to take Jenson to A & E with exactly the same injury (although I didn't know that was what it was when it happened! I did this time).

Another reason for feeling awkward about discussing todays 'incident' is because it was caused by Burton....again! 

Now I have to mention here, that Burton does not spend his time beating his brother up. He loves him,and sometimes he does snatch things from him and fall onto him and is a bit rough albeit over zealous etc.... I mean he is a toddler and a boy and not even 3 yet. But for the most part it is harmless and just general playtime stuff.

Today, Burton tried to 'help' his brother get into the ball pool by pulling his arm! It was really quick and I saw him do it and told him to stop straight away. I picked Jenson up and he was upset but not massively, and when I touched his arm I did think it felt floppy (which made me feel sick and on the verge of tears again!), but I wasn't 100% certain that it had been injured because the arm pulling had been so quick. So as it was lunchtime I thought I would let Jenson eat first and see if he used that arm (not the same one as last time either!) at all. He wasn't crying so I figured that maybe he was ok after all.

However, half way though lunch I noticed that his arm in question was not being used and just lay by his side in the high chair, and when I moved it slightly to wipe his fingers he winced and cried. Thats when I knew he had another pulled elbow. 
*Flashback to two weeks ago last Tuesday*

Jenson 2 weeks ago

 My first thought was wondering if social services would get involved because this was the second time it had occurred in as many weeks! I mean, maybe they would think it was me causing the harm and think it was child abuse. Or that I was a bad mother and was not fit enough to look after my children!Yes these thoughts entered my mind and I said them out loud too!!

Anyway, fortunately, my Mum and Step Dad live near Taunton and were both at home today so they came over and took Jenson off to the Taunton A & E and Burton and I followed. This was so that Jenson could sit on Mums lap and not have to sit in the car seat.

His elbow was soon corrected and the nurse assured me that social services would not be involved and that this was a very common injury and one that can very easily happen. Burton knew he had caused his brother another visit to 'osbitable' but he honestly thought he was helping Jenson get in to the ball pool. He had been such a good boy today so it wasn't done out of a strop or nastiness.

BUT I really don't want to end up at A & E again ........ at least not this year please! I just felt like such a terrible mummy, I still do. I do watch my children, it's not that I leave them on their own. It only takes a second - a second! - and a trip to hospital can be on the cards. I know accidents happen, and an accident is what happened today, but it doesn't stop me from feeling a bit of a failure.

I am linking this up to

 

Am I MAD Enough For You?

Right I would like to start this by saying that I don't like 'bigging' myself up, blowing my own trumpet - call it what you like, and therefore, I find this type of post quite hard to write.

BUT I feel that if I am proud of my blog, which I am, then I should do it justice and just mention that I have been nominated in 3 - yes I cannot quite believe it either - 3 of the MAD Blog Awards categories!!

These categories are

Best Family Life Blog

Best Family Fun Blog

Best Food Blog

I am absolutely chuffed to bits!

I started this blog almost 2 years ago as a way to keep my poor old baby brain going and to meet other bloggers virtually. I didn't really have a direction at the start, well for the first year really, and to begin with it was mainly my ramblings about Burton and a few reviews.

However, a year ago I kind of found my blogging mojo and haven't looked back! I feel I have discussed a lot of topics on my blog which I think a lot of fellow Mums can relate to : from my sex life post baby, my struggles with parenthood, my wonderful boys, how not to look good in a swimming costume, what to call a fart, and so on. A mix bag really of my everyday life as a full time SAHM with some ranting and funnies along the way! I have demonstrated how bad I am at craft making (like a pirate ship complete with me wearing a stripy baby gro as a head scarf!) and showed photos of myself with hideous hair styles and my bad dress sense from my youth! I also have a section devoted to recipes that I cook for my family (mostly cakes but also some fab slow cooker ones) - nothing posh or fancy, just good old home made family food!

So it just leaves me to say THANK YOU to those of you who very kindly nominated me. I don't expect to progress any further but if you enjoy my blog and it's content and have a free vote and am wondering who to use it on, then maybe you would consider Mummy Mishaps.

I will love you long time!! :)

Right, now I can stop cringing and press post!!

Jenny xx

Little Dish Big Toddle Start Up Packs Giveaway

Little Dish, the company behind those nutritious ready meals for children aged 12 months and over, found in several well known supermarkets refrigerated sections , are proud to be the partner for the Barnardo's Big Toddle 2012.

Big Toddle? You may be asking yourself? I myself asked the same question. Let me explain.

The Barnardo's Big Toddle is the UK's biggest fundraising event for little people under the age of 5. The best way to describe it is a children's 'mini' sponsored walk I guess. There is no distance restrictions - the walk can be as long or as short as your child wishes to walk. The most important thing is to just have fun, to get together with friends and raise some money for a very worthy cause. The message that Barnardo's tries to convey with this fundraiser is that it's all about children helping other children. I think that's a lovely notion.

Each year there is a dressing up theme and this years, its 16th, is Superheroes so your children can dress up in some fun costumes - and lets face it what child doesn't like dressing up in fancy dress? What a super way to raise some funds


Anyone can set up a Big Toddle, maybe your local playgroup or nursery or maybe just with some friends of your children. You can register online here and find out more information here.

However, Little Dish have very kindly offered 10 Mummy Mishaps readers a toddler starter kit to help you set up your own Big Toddle. It has everything you need to get your toddle off to a great start.

If you would like to be in with a chance of receiving one of these packs please leave your name in the comments box below (and twitter ID too please).

Thank you :)