Ask Italian

Ask Italian very kindly sent us some vouchers to go and spend in one of their restaurants with a view to writing about our experiences.

So yesterday evening we headed for the Ask in Hereford and were greeted at the door by a waiter called Elliot. Elliot was cheery, attentive and very friendly, and the first thing he did was bring the kids some paper and crayons.

Both girls had a child's set menu (£5.95), which included a starter of veg sticks and garlic bread, followed by a pepperoni pizza, and then chocolate ice-cream. And Tom and I went for the three courses set menu at £16.95 each.

All four of us had three courses and the bill came to under £50. The menu is extensive, and the staff very helpful. Oh, and my five year old said she loved the music that was playing and that it made her feel happy!

“ASK Italian have launched a new menu with Theo Randall, one of the UK’s most celebrated chefs.

ASK Italian is ‘Calling all Italian Lovers’ to come and enjoy a very different restaurant experience. Inspired by Italy’s style, warmth and obsession with great food, it is transforming its 123 restaurants bringing a fresh, bold and authentic dining experience to the high street.

With over one million changes made to date – from the menus to the uniforms, music and Milanese-inspired decor – customers will experience the ‘cuore’ (heart) and ‘spirito’ (soul) of Italian food and culture from teams who are knowledgeable, genuine and passionate about making ASK Italian amazing every time.”

Vistaprint - personalised photo calendar

Vistaprint have very kindly just sent me a personalised photo calendar.  In order to get the calendar made, I went onto their website, chose a theme from many different choices, and uploaded 13 (including the front cover) of my favourite pictures of my children.

The whole process was incredibly quick and easy to do, and literally within 10 minutes the calendar had been created.

It arrived yesterday, and I am really thrilled with it.  I decided to give it to my mum for her birthday (which coincidentally was yesterday) and it appeared to be her favourite present by far.

I was really impressed with the service, the straight-forwardness, and the end product itself.  The original price for this calendar was £9.99, but I see now it has been reduced to £4.99 which is an absolute bargain!

Vistaprint also do many other personalised products such as photo books and mugs.  Please do    go and check out their website!

Expert phone advice for parents

Greatvine is a company that brings together experts on parenting as well as health, business and writing. You can read articles, buy downloads or speak directly to an expert by phone. The max call cost per minute is £1.53 and the average call cost is around £20. Here’s some really good feedback on Greatvine from people who have used the confidential telephone service.

Apparently Greatvine’s most common subjects relating to parenting are anxiety and depression, including post-natal depression, child behaviour, baby sleep, relationships and bullying.

I haven’t used the service myself (not yet anyway) but I can see that it could save a lot of time and stress – I remember when Tom spent hours driving Betty around the countryside in an attempt to get her off to sleep at night, for at least the first 5 weeks of her life – I’m sure Greatvine and their sleep expert Chireal Shallow would have offered some more rational approaches to the problem…

The 100+ experts (ie highly qualified people with decades of professional experience) aren’t just childcare specialists but can offer help on a really wide range of subjects from self-esteem and costume design to small business investment and fixing problems with your computer. I even found an article called ‘the 10 commandments of karaoke leadership’ – not sure what that’s all about, but there’s clearly something for everyone here!

Bingo - something for the whole family?

Maybe it’s just me and other people have grown up differently, but I feel like Bingo has skipped a generation. My parents and grandparents both have fond memories of spending time during seaside holidays or even just regular Saturday afternoons going out to bingo halls. I don’t think it was ever the bingo itself that was really the appeal but more the social occasion, a chance to meet new people and see old friends, like a social club but with the added excitement of being able to win some prizes.

I was never taken to the bingo halls growing up, I guess a lot of bingo halls nowadays see it as less socially acceptable to have children there, moving away from the family feel of the game towards a more trendy bar feel often banning under 18s from even coming in. I can’t say this has ever caused me much personal disappointment, I’ve only played bingo once and although I did actually leave the game £5 up, I can’t claim it was really my thing.

However I can’t help but feel it’s a little sad that an activity that could really bring families together is dying. So many other family activities seem more geared towards the children with the enjoyment for parents really only coming from watching the children have fun. Bingo however is different, it’s really designed for the adults but yet there’s something about the simple concept of spotting your numbers that kids really love as well.

I spend my summers working with children at a summer camp, one of the most popular rainy day activities we have is Power Bingo. The kids really love it, they play for small prizes and we run many different variations of the game to keep it interesting, sometimes you have to make different patterns with the numbers, sometimes everyone stands up and the last person to get any number is the winner. You can see how excited the children get as they come close to winning, they love it!

So maybe my generation will be the exception, could Bingo regain its popularity? Online Bingo is currently the fastest growing of any online game. The internet obviously offers a lot of choices, meaning those who want the trendy night club feel bingo can get it, but there is also space for family friendly bingo too. With online bingo you can once again get the whole family involved, spotting numbers and hoping for prizes. So many activities on computers currently seem to be taking away from family togetherness time, but with Bingo I think there is a chance to bring a little bit of it back.

This is a guest post (sponsored) written by Ewan Cambell MacDougall, on behalf of Tombola

Argos clothing range for kids

Argos have brought out a new children's clothing range, which is exclusive to them and includes footwear and accessories.  And they very kindly sent us a couple of items each for Betty and Dolly to try out and review.

Dolly received a Peppa Pig umbrella and rucksack set which is currently on offer for £9.99 (was £14.99), and Betty received the same but in Ben and Holly.

My kids love umbrellas and rucksacks anyway, so to have both adorned with their favourite TV characters is pretty exciting for them both!

They also received a pyjama set, with dressing gown and slippers, again in Peppa Pig style and at very reasonable prices!

Do go and check out this new range from Argos, there are a lot on offer at the moment and if your kiddies are into TV characters and the like (Mickey/Minnie Mouse, Barbie, Cars etc) then they will love these clothes and accessories!

Fancy dress for all!

The Mega Fancy Dress shop have very kindly sent us some fab costumes; a Bumbling Bee for Dolly and a Tinkerbell costume for Betty.  Oh, and a fabulous pink wig for me!

While browsing through the hundreds of different costumes for kids, men and women (everything from animals, to Christmas, to 1960s to fairytale costumes) I was struck not only by the choice, but also by the really reasonable prices.  The Bumbling Bee costume for example only costs £8.99, and the quality and detail of the costume is great.

Betty is of course absolutely thrilled with her Tinkerbell costume, and I love my new wig - I have always wanted a wig but have never had the courage to buy one!

I wore it to a 40th birthday party on Saturday night where the dress code was Pink/70s, so it was perfect and went down a storm!  Again the quality is great and it only costs £8.99!

I would really recommend taking a look at this website if you are after a fancy dress costume or a fun outfit for yourself or  your kiddies, perhaps for Christmas?!

Pleaes note: That is not me in the picture unfortunately - didn't quite have the courage to post the one up of me taken on Saturday night :)