Bonfire night with Princes HotDogs

I was asked to try out a few different ways to serve Hotdogs for bonfire night parties, everyone must have herd of the good old classic Tomatoe sauce, mustard and onions but with a HotDog mad son it has slowly got boring and i find myself cooking something different for myself.

I was sent some Princes HotDogs and a few different ways to try them we chose to do ours using part baked baguettes once they were fully cooked I cooked up some baked beans and put them at the bottom of the roll, I the cooked the Hotdogs and put one on top of the beans and then sprinkled on some grated cheese and then served.




These went down a big hit with the kids that I didnt get to try any of the other recipes and now when the kids want hotdogs they always ask for the special ones, Hopefully I will be able to test a few of the others out sometime soon and when I do I will let you all know how they taste.

Hulk Vs Wolverine DVD

Those of you who may be thinking that this is another live action feature length movie will be very disappointed. Hulk vs Wolverine is an animated movie and is not for children of a young age, the age rating of 12 should be enough to make you aware of that but for those who think it will be a cutesy film need to be made aware that this is Marvel at it's visceral best and featuring 2 of the worlds most recognisable anti-heroes.

Drawing from Wolverines back story the mysterious Canadian governments Department H has called Wolverine back into action to track down and kill if necessary somebody who destroyed a town that is on the US – Canadian border. After a few hours he comes upon a scrawny, semi clad man sitting on a log. Not knowing that the man is Bruce Banner Wolverine doesn't heed any warnings not to “Make me angry” and this queues an epic battle between Hulk and Wolverine.

Whilst they are keeping each other busy unbeknownst to them other members of Department H are closing in a ready to take both men alive and shoot them full of tranquillisers.

It is really nice to see some of the not quite so popular characters of the Marvel Universe being featured as members of Department H, Lady Deathstrike, Deadpool and Omega Red are featured along with the more familiar name of Sabre-tooth, and it is during this part of the film that Hulk stops being against Wolverine and both of them team up to try and escape the clutches of Department H (headed by Professor Thornton) as potentially deadly experiments are being planned for them so an ultimate weapon can be created. For risk of spoilers I wont go into who or which side are victorious but this animated feature is left on a cliffhanger.

From a technical viewpoint the animation really is amazing and if you are a fan of modern graphic novels or just the Marvel universe in general it will suit you down to the ground, as will the choreography of the spectacular set pieces. Voice actors have been well cast too especially Fred Tattasciore as the screaming rage machine that is Hulk and Steve Blum as the ever growling Wolverine.

Those who have only really experienced Marvel from the slew of recent live action movies along with those who have grown up loving Stan Lee's characters will love it in equal measures, however unfortunately I can see the former group looking over it while browsing the shelves at their local DVD retailer and dismissing it as just another childrens movie, they will do so at their loss as it really is a great film.

You can buy this DVD now in all good retailers.

Shelby's Snack Shack Game

I was sent the Shelby's snack shack game to try out and review with my kids, When it arrived my first thought was that the box looked very old fashioned, But it really attracted my attention, I think if I saw this in a shop I would have to go and take a look at it,

The game comes with a game board (which is also the box) 1 shelby squeezer, 40 bones, 4 bowls and 1 double game spinner, The aim of the game is to get the most bones, This game really helps the younger players count as they spin the spinner and if they have to collect bones they have to spin a number to see how many they need to get, my 4 year old son managed to count out his bones really well and even went on to winning the game.

The only problem my kids had with this game was picking up the bones with the squeezer but after a while they soon got used to it and managed to do it fine, My kids really enjoyed playing this game together and wanted to play it again and again.

NashVille Season 1 out on DVD 15th July

Being forced to listen to country music as I was growing up sort of put me off the genre for a good few years, however as I got older I found my tastes have changed and now for some reason I quite like it. Which is a good thing as I'm sure you have guessed by the title of the show Nashville is all about country music.


The main focus of the show is about 2 characters, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Paniterre), the new face and mega star of country music and Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton), former country queen whose fame and fortune are now on the decline.


After finding being told that her music is no longer selling as much as record executives would like former country music mega star Rayna Jaymes has been told that instead of headlining her own tour she must now support and open for the new, younger fresh face Juliette Barnes who instead of having a more traditional style of music records what Rayna Jaymes classes as bubble gum pop.


Seeing as there is quite the clash of characters Rayna dismisses a joint tour out of hand and has the idea of touring with just her lead guitarist and former love Deacon Clayborne (Charles Eston), which wouldn't be a problem if not for the desires of Juliette to have him joining her band and touring with her.


What isn't helping either ladies fortunes is Rayna's estranged, millionaire father pushing her husband to be mayor of Nashville for his own purposes and Juliette's drug addict mother reminding her of a past she has long tried to forget. At least all of this turmoil is giving both stars great writing material for new songs and for me the music is the real star of the show. The majority of the songs featured are stripped back to the bare bones of just honest to goodness lyrics and basic guitar accompaniment, especially those of aspiring and somewhat reluctant songwriter Scarlett O'Connor and her writing partner Gunnar Scott. If you are a fan of country music or not you cannot help but be moved by their words and voices.


I would highly recommend this series to anybody if they are fans of the musical genre or not as the side stories and characters are sometimes more interesting than those of the main characters and it is extremely refreshing to hear just music without any of the synthetic enhancements that seems to populate the charts these days.

Munchkin, Disney toddler dining set

The Munchkin Disney toddler dining set is a must have for any Disney fan, You can buy a choice for designs, My daughter is a huge Minnie fan and we was lucky to get the Minnie set sent to us to review, I opened the box and pulled it out and as soon as my daughter saw what was in there she started shouting mine mine, Lucky for us the post arrived just before breakfast so she was able to try the spoon and bowl out right away.

Both the bowl and plate have a grippy base and this has been a big floor saver as my daughter loves to push her plate around the table and it always ends up on the floor, But with this set she hasn't been able to do that, The plate is divided into 3 sections which I love the idea of this as it makes sorting her food out so much better, The fork and spoon that comes with this set is rounded for safer feeding and has a curved handle for easy holding.

I have found that since my daughter has started using this set shes eating more of her dinners as she likes to see the picture on her plate, I have also noticed that shes been using her fork a spoon a lot more than she was her others that we brought her.
The toddler set we was sent is suitable for 12 months plus and I think its perfect for getting your little one eating by themselfs.

To find out more about there Disney range please click here

Water

It's something most of us take for granted but two days with in a week our village has been without water all done to two burst pipes, When the first one went we was without water from the moment we got up and we had the kids home from school as hey also had no water, It was a nightmare,
The water came on again at about 9am so I quickly filled the sink so I could wash up and filled the kettle and some pans with water incase it went off again and it did about 30 mins after it came back on, we decided there was no point in staying in with the kids so we packed a picnic and took them for a walk along the river, we finally came home about 3pm and we still had no water, it's not till you don't have any you realise how much you rely on it, we couldn't have a wash or flush the toilet, but luckily thanks to my quick thinking we had water in pans for drinks which was a good job as it was a hot day.

Well today we had water most of the day but when I went to get my daughter from school I came home to find we had no water yet again only this time I really didn't have much water around, but I noticed my kettle still had a full amount of water and I had a bottle of water left over from last time in my cupboard, my husband was at work so I rang him to see if he had some money to pick up some bottles of water, luckily he works in a bottle factory so he grabbed some bottle and filled them with tap water and brought them home for us, he even had enough for some of the neighbours to take some too, but still as I'm writing this we have no water, a toilet that needs flushing and some very grubby kids that will need a good wash when the waters back on, but at least I have some coffee to drink with out it I would be lost as I normaly have a bath every night, but after having no water it has made me think about how much I use and how I can cut it back and one way is instead of having my nightly bath have a shower every night instead and just have a bath once a week.

Now I'm just hopeing that the water will be back on in the morning as I really wouldn't like my kids missing another day at school.

MAM Perfect Soother 12+

You might remember my review for the MAM perfect soother, If you can't it can be found here, The MAM perfect soother 12+ has a bigger teat more suited for older babies and toddlers.


It took a little while for my daughter to get used to using her new 12+ perfect soother but once she was finally used to it, Its the only one she will now take and it travels everywhere with her.
If you want to buy a MAM Perfect soother 12+ you can do so from here, There is 4 different designs to choose from 2 for a girl and 2 for a boy, The one we was sent was the lilac butterfly and out of all the MAM soothers we have this has to be my favorite design yet.