Day out to Madame Tussauds Blackpool - Review

I was super excited to be invited to go to Madame Tussauds in Blackpool. It is somewhere I have always wanted to go but never had the chance so I jumped at the opportunity to go!

I also got to take with me Lily and her Auntie and Uncle so it was a full family day out.

We got on the train and headed there for the day. If you don't know what Madame Tussauds is, it is a an interactive and immersive experience offering selfie opportunities with all your favourite stars. But instead of the stars being real they are made from wax. 

Madame Tussauds has very life like wax figures of some of the most famous stars and characters and this may be the closest you could get to rubbing shoulders with the stars. 

As we stepped through the doors we were greeted by lots of flashing lights from pictures of cameras on the walls, it was like walking the red carpet. We carried on walking where we met Simon Cowell. It looked just like the real him, and if you wern't looking properly you could swear it actually was him. 

As we did arrive, the music was super loud and Lily was not a big fan of this. She started crying and instantly wanted to go home. This was a shame that she was a little afraid and I think if the music wasn't so loud she would have been okay. That said, if you know your young child is okay with loud music and noises then I think they wouldn't have a problem and would enjoy the day. There was plenty of children Lily's age (4) getting excited and enjoying having there picture taken. 

As we walked through the exhibition of stars, we got to see the new Doctor Who exhibition with the new Doctor Who star and the Tardis. The Tardis provided a brilliant photo opportunity and is from series 11 of the hit show. 

There was so many different areas with different themes and genre's of stars. The I'm a celebrity section was brilliant and has lots of interactive things to do such as shoving your head into a bowl of bugs. (not real ones of course). This is where you can pose with the amazing Ant and Dec! 

There was a sports section, a comedy section and a music section. All which provided fun opportunities to pose with the stars and take selfies. The sporting Heroes Academy section had an interactive part where you could play football yourself, kicking an invisible ball to a goal. This was all done by computers and Lily found it so much fun to do! I found this section the perfect place to do a silly selfie, seeing if the wax figure was ticklish! 

Another exciting part to Madame Tussauds Blackpool is all the set up photo opportunities that they have provided for you. You can dress up as Doctor Who and stand on a green screen which makes you part of the Doctor Who set. Or maybe you want to become a superhero and get thrown into a comic book as you fight villains. This is something Lily's auntie and uncle loved doing and they went away with a cool looking photograph of them as super heroes. 

The next part was my favourite. I myself am a big superhero fan and Madame Tussauds Blackpool now have a MARVEL SUPER HEROES section where you can pose with your favourite super heroes. You can pose with Thor, which I must admit I enjoyed very much. It is the closest I will get to getting to grab hold of that body.. even if it was wax! Haha Or you can pose with Hulk, Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy or maybe the newest addition Captain Marvel. There is also a set to have your picture taken with Spiderman!
The MARVEL SUPER HEROES section was brilliantly interactive, you can try and lift Thor's hammer or maybe lift up a taxi just like Hulk does! 

I really enjoyed getting to see some of my favourite stars, such as Freddie Mercury from Queen, David Attenborough and even the stars from Little Britain in the comedy section. There was also a cool Festival Fields area where you could pose in different festival scenarios and see some festival stars on the stage. So much to to be had all over Madame Tussauds Blackpool and I think of of my favourite additions was a mirror maze that you could walk around. Lily found this area really entertaining and fun! 

If that isn't enough, there is also a Coronation street section. This area has lots of Corrie stars old and new and you could go and sit in the bar where some of the wax cast of coronation street are sat. The bar is a real bar and so you can actually experience having a drink in the Rovers Return. 

The wax figures are made so well, they are amazing in detail and look just like a real person is stood next to you. I really was shocked by how good they were. It is really strange to be sitting or standing next to someone that looks so real but doesn't move! 

There really is so much going on at Madame Tussauds Blackpool and I must admit there is more to it than I ever thought there would be. We all really enjoyed out day out there and so if its a place you haven't yet visited then it is well worth the visit. 

Head to Madame Tussauds Blackpool to see more! 

There are all sorts of deals to visit Madame Tussauds Blackpool and ticket prices and tickers  can be purchased on the website. 

Have you been to Madame Tussauds Blackpool? What did you think?
Would you like to go if you haven't already? 

*AD - We were gifted free tickets in return for the review, all words are my own*

Winter Gardens Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dream coat Review

Now with this amazing show we really are taking a journey into my childhood! As a child I was a huge fan of musicals and Joseph was one of my favourites. I loved this show and think I could use the words I was pretty obsessed with this show! I saw it live, I had the dvd, I had the soundtrack, I sang it 24/7 and then I even did my own little shows for my family and friends. 

So of corse loving Joseph and his Technicolor dream coat so much I was going to introduce it to Lily. She also loves musicals, anything with singing and dancing in and she is happy. So I found the recorded version of it and put it on the tv for her. She loved it, and wanted it over and over again. 

Not long after this I find out that there is a live show on at Winter Gardens Blackpool! and they invited Lily and I to go and see the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat show. 

If you don't know the story of Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat it is a biblical story about a guy called Joseph and his eleven brothers. He gets given an amazing coat that make his brothers jealous and they sell him as a slave. But Joseph is no ordinary man, he interpret dreams and there for becomes a very special guy. Although this is a biblical story, you do not have to be religious to enjoy it. The storyline, music and dancing alone is brilliant and well worth a watch.  

I was super excited and so was Lily when I told her we was going. 

We went to a 5pm showing on a saturday, the theatre was busy and the stage was set with a golden border around the edging to help set an Egyptian feel. As the curtains opened I was so excited to hear the music play, playing soundtracks with no words of all the best Joseph songs. 

The show stars Jaymi Hensley as Joseph who is origionally from Union J a band that came from X Factor as he came onto the stage he sang his first song "Any Dream will do". I would say this is the most famous songs of the whole of Joseph and he sang it brilliantly. His voice hit every note perfectly and you could hear every word perfectly. Throughout the show he was brilliant! Full of energy, expression and played the part of Joseph exceptionally. 

Of corse another main part of the show is the Narrator and she was played by Trina Hill. The narrator is a big part to play with lots of different type of songs, sung fast, sung slow, sung loud, sung quiet and she did a brilliant job with all of them. 

Everyone who played a part in this show was amazing. Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat always has a choir of children as backing singers and they did amazing. Some looked quite young and they all moved to where they needed to be in time and also sang brilliantly. 

I must talk about the brothers, all eleven of them played their part brilliantly. As a group they all sang together with loud powerful voices and then when they had solo parts they took on there own character perfectly. They were full of life and there dancing skills were amazing! I could not rate the brothers part in this show more highly. 

Now on all shows, there is generally one of two things you don't find perfect and unfortunetly there was one part that I felt put a negative to the show. If you know the show Joseph then you will know that the Pharaoh generally has a elvis vibe to him because he is the king. So usually the voice of Pharaoh is very elvis like and his style may have a slight elvis feel to it. Well unfortunetly in this show I was slightly thrown off to the way they portrayed Pharaoh. The costume that Pharaoh wore was way to Elvis looking, as was the hair. So for me when he started singing the Pharaoh's songs, although he sounded amazing, it felt to much like Elvis was singing rather than a Pharaoh. Then to add to more confusion he sung a love type song that isn't even in Joseph. Looking around I could see other confused faces in the crowd wondering what was going on. I suddenly felt swept from Joseph into a elvis impersonator show. 

But you did soon get over that when it jumped straight back into joseph and the songs you knew and loved were playing. 

Next to mention is the amazing set, costumes and lighting. It all worked together so well. Costumes were colourful and the cast changed in and out of them quickly to play new parts. The set was brilliant, it moved around and they had all sorts of props and big Egyptian statues to set the scene. Then the lighting just added to it, making it even more colourful. At the start of the show when Joseph got given his coat, it wasn't very 'Amazing' and I thought, is that it??? But I was super glad to see that at the end of the show it was brought out and when grabbed and pulled out it showed the array of colours that is Joseph's coat. 

The finale to the show was brilliant and had a the crowd up on their feet singing and dancing and clapping along. I was loving it so much and Lily and I got up and danced to!

Lily really enjoyed the show, in fact I think she enjoyed this most out of any show she has ever seen! She sang, she danced, she clapped and then when she came out of the show she could not stop singing. 

Literally for days after the show it is all she can talk about. 

Winter Gardens Blackpool put on such an amazing show and it was such a wonderful venue to see it in. There are so many amazing shows coming up and I would recommend you get booked now to go see some of them. Head to the Winter Gardens Website to see whats coming up. 

Have you ever seen Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat? 

*AD - We were sent tickets in return for an honest review, all words are my own*

Learning Resources STEMS Review

Lily has been playing with Learning Resources since she was one year old and they have always been the best toys in providing her with learning opportunities. 

Nearly 3 years on and we have moved up some education levels but are still really enjoying using Learning Resources toys. 

Learning Resources recently sent us some STEMS to try out and to review.

They arrived in one of Learning Resources sturdy tubs which are always perfect for storing the toys in. Plus comes with a handle so then Lily can easily carry them around. Toy storage has always been a plus with a lot of the learning resource toys. 

So what are STEMS? 

Well STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. These special little stems are all about encouraging making 3D structures there for using all the above. 

This construction toy consists of lots of pieces of bendy wobbly shapes pieces that click and zip toggether into shapes. The possible things you can make are endless. You could make robots, balls, crowns, animals, what ever your imagination can think up, you should be able to make. 

We was sent a tub of 60 stems. Inside the tub there are 12 of each vibrant colour, pink, orange, yellow, green and blue. 

They are brilliant for learning early geometry and perfecting fine motor skills and hand and eye co-ordination. 

Lily was pleased to get stuck into the tub and get making things with the STEMS. I am not the best at constructing so I showed Lily how to use them and she set to making things. She wanted to make a robot and so started sticking them together to make a head and arms until it started to make shape. 

Lily did struggle at times to push the pieces together but she isn't quite at the age range for this toy which is meant to be for 5+. She also didn't get the fact that they bend. But I imagine this toy she will get better with over time and as her imagination grows so will her ability to understand she can bend things to make a shape 3D. For now the shapes she made was flat. 

She did really enjoy making these and got them back out to play with her daddy, who I must say was much better at construction than I was. 

Inside the tub there is also a instruction booklet which shows you some of the things you can make. I found the instructions hard to follow myself as they were mostly picture instructions but Lily's daddy managed and he made a frog, a man, a ball and a helix. 

These did keep Lily quiet for quite a while but then I can see in the future when she gets better at them it will keep her amused for much longer. 

A tub of 60 is £25.00 and there is a tub of 20 available for the price of £9.00. 

If you would like to find out more about STEMS then head to the learning resource website. 

My Recent Photography - May

I haven't done a photography post for a little while. Mostly because I have been so busy lately. But this weekend just gone I managed to head out with my camera finally and take some photographs. 

It has been a whole year since I went to the 1940's Weekend at Haworth and so a whole year since I posted last years photographs. You can see them here.

I just had to go and visit again and of corse again take photographs. I don't think the event was quite as good for photographs this year as it was last. not as many people dressed up. But there are definetly some I am really happy with and these are my favourites. 

1. Military Boy 

2. Solider On 

3. Me and the Mrs 

4. Home Guard 

5. Mr Moustache 

6. Winston Churchill and his Cigar

7. Resting Solider 

8. Churchill 

9. Fox Lady 

10. Fox Lady and her Man 

Which of the 10 photographs from the 1940's Weekend do you like the most? 

Splishies Review and Giveaway

What things do kids like? Soft toys? Cute things? balls? Sparkles? Colour?

Well Splishies have all that but in one. 

We were sent 2 Splishies from Vivid Toys to try out. We were sent a normal small sized Splishies and a super Splishies. 

Splishies are soft toys with a jelly like squishy ball inside filled with water and sparkles. You can squeeze them, shake them and splish them.

My first impressions of them was that they remind me of something you would use as an adult for stress. They are really squishy and I could see it keeping an adult nice and calm squishing it. I definetly enjoyed looking at all the sparkles fly around while squeezing it. BUT I really didn't see the same happening with Lily as I knew she would be super excited about them. 

And I was right, when I did give them to her she was super excited and straight away knew what to do with them. She was so amazed to see all the sparkles inside flying around. 

Lily loves to squeeze them though and see the belly pop out. she thought this was very amusing. She also found it really easy to squeeze them which is always a bonus as they can be given to her to play alone and she can entertain herself with them. 

Lily also thought that they were really cute. The lining of the toy which makes up the soft toy element is really soft to stroke. Lily also loved giving them a big cuddle. Our super Splishies was a blue bear and our smaller one was a pink whale with a horn on its head.

The only thing Im not keen on this toy for is the fact that the squishy part of it gets things like dust and hair stuck to it easily and I kept having to give it a wipe with wet wipes. I have 2 cats so you can image how tricky it is to keep these toys hair free. 

They are recommended for children aged 4+ and the small Splishies are £7.99 and the super ones are £11.99.

They great thing about these are they are collectable. With 6 smaller Splishies to collect and 4 super Splishies. 

Want to know more? Head to the Vivid Toys and Games website. 

Who would like to win themselves a Splishies and a Super Splishies? Enter on my Gleam app now and you could win both!
Win a Splishie Bundle

Baby Born Surprise Review

As soon as I found out that Baby Born were doing little surprise packs I was very excited and intrigued. Lily loves babies and she also loves opening the surprise packages. So I was excited to be able to review them and find out all about them. 

We was sent 3 baby born surprise packages from Zapf Creation. 

The first thing I noticed was that they were encased in a hard plastic round shaped tub. I advise that you try and open this part and not your child. The plastic is quite hard and when cut is also sharp. 

The next layer there is some material wrapped around a oval shape and tied at the top. It is decorated really cute with baby pictures on it. When you undo this it reveals the baby inside. 

Each baby comes wrapped in a cute little swaddle and each swaddle is different. Our first one we got was wrapped in a Unicorn Swaddle. We also got a mermaid and a bunny. You can also get a Bee, Duck, Ice Cream, blue or pink Butterfly, Blue Bear, Green Peapod, or a Pink Poodle. 

As well as your baby it contains a surprise plastic packet which has a bottle inside, it also has instructions and birth certificate with lots of information about you baby plus a collectors guide. 

On the Birth Certificate you can write babies name, birthday, city of birth, and star sign. To figure out these you need look on the bottom of the collectors guide and it will give you hints to what they are. For example, our unicorn swaddle means that that baby was born in October. 

Each baby also comes with a different hair style and you can tick off which hair styles you get on the collectors guide. 

Your babies will come with their eyes closed. You can either leave it so your babies eyes are closed or you can magically make them open. But note that if they are made to open, they cannot close again. To make your babies eyes open just get a wet cloth and wipe the eyes. It wipes away a little like paint, so I suggest using a wet wipe as these can be thrown afterwards. When your babies eyes are open you can then see what colour they are. The colours of the eyes will help you name your baby and you can refer to the collectors guide to find this out. Our babies had purple eyes, brown eyes and blue eyes. 

Another thing you can do with your baby is feed it a drink. The bottle fills with water and then the bottle fits into the babies mouth. After it has had a drink it will then wet its nappy. Another surprise is that the nappy turns into a patterned nappy when wet. This then means you can look at the collectors guide to find out your babies favourite food. I did find that the babies wet their nappy slowly rather than instantly. One baby had carrots as the pattern for the nappy, which means her favourite food is carrots. 

Lily loved caring for her babies but her favourite thing was giving them a drink and making them wet their nappies. We then used the little plastic tubs they came in as beds and the material they were wrapped in as blankets. Always good when you can make use of the packaging of any surprise related toy. 

Each surprise toy is RRP £11.99 and is available in toy stores such as Smyths Toy Store. 

Does your child like Surprise toys? Would they enjoy a baby born surprise? 

Monthly Book Roundup - What we have been reading in April

Lily is a lot fussier with the stories I read her now, and she does go back to her old favourites a lot of the time, but I do get chance to introduce her to new books each month. Just don't get to read them as often as I would like. I think it is because she is getting older and the repetition of the same books doesn't interest her as much as it did when she was little. 

You can read all my other book reviews Here

So last month I let Lily select which ones she wanted to read. She chose 2 new books for me to read this month. Her stories are getting longer and so we aren't always getting through as many new books each month but I will still be letting you know about the ones we do read. 

Here is what we read in April - 

1. A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson 
We love Juila Donaldson and have such a collection of them to read. This one we hadn't read before for bedtime but Lily told me she has been read it in nursery. The story is about an old lady who thinks her house is too small. She asks an old man how she can make her house feel bigger. Strangely he tells her that to make her house bigger she needs to bring in her animals. One by one she does and the house starts to feel smaller not bigger. So the old man tells her to remove the animals out the house and as she does she then realises her house was big after all. The story has loads of silly rhymes in it and flows really nicely to read. Lily thought this story was fantastic and she really enjoyed me reading it to her. Definitely one of the top Julia Donaldson books to read. You can buy this book in stores such as Waterstones. 

2. Alan's Big Scary Teeth by Jarvis
I do love stories that are based on animals that are normally scary animals but aren't in the story and this one is a great example of that. Alan has big scary teeth and one of the things he loves to do the most is scare the jungle animals. But what the animals don't know is that alan's teeth are fake and he removes them every night when he sleeps. One day the animals find out that they aren't real and see where he hides them at night. They decide to steal the teeth. Poor Alan wakes up and can't find them and is ever so upset and cries and cries. Soon the jungle animals feel bad for him and offer him his teeth back as long as he doesn't scare them anymore. He agree's and they then become friends and play lots of jungle games together. It is a really nice story about friendship and I enjoyed reading it to Lily. You can buy this book online.

Which of the 2 stories do you like the sound of and why?