Red Rose Home

We're huge jigsaw fans in our house and we all enjoy completing puzzles. Some of our favourites are from Ravensburger so, when we were invited to host our own Puzzle Party recently we jumped at the chance! We've received a huge box of puzzles, games and activities to enjoy.

Join in With #RavensburgerPuzzles Twitter Party Fun!

You can join in the fun too. Simply head over to Twitter and follow me (@RedRoseMummy), @RavensburgerPC and @UKMumsTV and follow #RavensburgerPuzzles for the chance to win puzzle prizes!

We're really looking forward to taking on the puzzle challenges. LM loves the Farmyard Fun puzzle while Bud loves Alphablocks and wants to complete that puzzle first. I think that the 3D Minion puzzle looks amazing and, as I'll be the only 7+ person at the party I think it's only fair that I get the chance to do that one.

Mae sure you have your smartphone, tablet or laptop handy and join in the fun on Twitter, Tomorrow. Tuesday 18th August, 2-4pm. See you there!

LM is a huge fan of Doc McStuffins and the adventures of the six year old doctor with her list of patients are often enjoyed in our house. We have a fair collection of Doc McStuffins toys already and I like that most of them include a role play element which allows LM to pretend to be Doc and care for her teddies and dollies in the same way she does. The most recent range of Doc McStuffins toys includes a Pet Vet Bag which is animal themed and allows Doc to take care of her furry friends.

The Pet Vet Bag is similar in style to the Doctor's Bag and Eye Doctor bag (LM has the latter already) in that it's a hard plastic bag which contains a range of different instruments for animal care, These include an otoscope, comb, tongue depressor, magnifying glass, brush, scissors and a very exciting bracelet (that you can also use as a collar on your toy pet). The pack also includes a sheet of stickers which feature little plasters for healing minor injuries.

The tools are the perfect size for little hands and LM got to work straight away with her toys, brushing their hair. looking into their eyes and ears and wearing the watch.

The set has a new colour scheme for Doc McsStuffins and features blue and green rather than pink and purple. The trademark sparkly glitter handles are present on some of the bigger instruments. LM loves pointing out the sparkle on these. The bag itself has a mock zip around the outside with a cute little paw tag but, in fact, opens by simply clicking it apart. The bracelet keeps the same colour scheme going and lights up when you press the paw on it.

LM has been delighted with the arrival of the Pet Vet Bag and she has played with it daily, she's taken it everywhere with her, in case of pet emergencies! The set is the same good quality we have come to expect from the Doc McStuffins range and we'd really recommend it for children aged three plus.

The Doc McStuffins Pet Vet Bag has an RRP of £22:99 and is available from all usual toy stockists including Smyth's Toys.

Disclosure: We received the toy for review purposes.

There's so much I'd like to change about our home. While I love where we live - it's close to family and friends, Bud's school, LM's future nursery, our toddler group and local amenities -our house could do with significant improvement to make it into our real dream house though.

Firstly I would love an extension. We have a large back garden so, if we were to build out into it, we wouldn't lose too much space. Ideally we would be able to extend on two levels but we have a semi-detached house and I suspect that we wouldn't get planning permission for this. A single storey extension would still work though and I'd love the chance to open up a large kitchen-diner space with room to eat as a family, entertain and a play area for the children.

Photo Credit: Studio Urban Blu/Homify

If an extension wasn't possible then I definitely think we would consider a conservatory on the rear of our property. The rear of our home is south-facing so a glass conservatory would create extra space and somewhere for the children to play, while flooding the back of our ground floor with light on the rare sunny days we get up North!

I struggle to carve out space to work and keep all my bits and pieces organised and I've been looking at wooden Summerhouses for the garden. I love the idea of having a little corner all to myself and I'm sure I would be able to be more organised that way. Knowing my children they would find a way to colonise it quite easily though! My dream Summerhouse would be painted Duck Egg Blue and have a gorgeous desk and chair, alongside some storage to keep all my files exactly where they should be. I'd make it the centre or all of the Garden Ideas I have in mind for our outside space.

Photo Credit: Garden Affairs Ltd/Homify

Smaller jobs that we really need to think about sooner rather than later include new windows, ours have hideous fake leading on them and we still haven't got around to replacing them in the five years we have lived here. Our current windows are still sound so it's hard to justify the cost until they need replacing.

I'd love to have shelves built into the sides of our chimney breast at some point. Custom made shelving would utilise the space so much more efficiently and mean that we could add our television and media boxes to them, freeing up some space in our lounge. I love the idea of having shelves which exactly fit DVDs and books, it would look so neat! Storage is generally an issue in our home so I'm always on the look out for clever ways to deal with this. I think these shelves would be perfect.

What are your dream home improvements?

What's Happened? What's Happening? had a great response again a fortnight ago and we've both enjoyed reading all about your summer adventures, days out and holidays in What's Happened? We've loved seeing previews of forthcoming events in What's Happening? too. Each fortnight we will be choosing our favourites from the previous linky to showcase.

This week there were two days out that really stood out to us and made us wish we had been there. The first of these was Happy Homebird's account of her family's visit to the Erasmus Darwin house in Lichfield, the Georgian house that was once home to Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin and is now a museum dedicated to the interesting life he led. The images in this post really bring the museum alive and we love how hands on and interactive the museum sounds, our families both love days out of this sort and it will definitely be on or list to visit if we are in the area.

Photo Credit: Happy Homebird

The second post we decided to feature was a festival with a difference, Jibber Jabber UK's write up of Upfest, Europe's largest street art and graffiti festival that takes place in Bristol is full of vibrant images that really highlights the art that we often overlook in our cities.

Photo Credit: Jibber Jabber UK

Our What's Happening? choice for this week is a great post from A Family Day Out that showcases some fabulous days out across the UK from Balloon Festivals to Fireworks Championships. Do head over and check it out for some fantastic Summer days out.

Photo Credit: A Family Day Out

What have you been up to? What are you planning?

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An InLinkz Link-up

Café Rouge is a restaurant chain that I'm quite familiar with but it's one that I've never really considered visiting with the children. It's always been somewhere I've visited for a quick pre-theatre meal and I've enjoyed their Prix Fixe menu a good few times for it's excellent value and tasty options. Last Sunday we were invited along to Café Rouge at the Trafford Centre, Manchester to try out the newly revamped Menu pour les Enfants, having had a preview of it on the Café Rouge website I was interested to see what Bud and LM would make of it.

Eating Out With Kids: Café Rouge Trafford Centre

The Café Rouge Trafford Centre restaurant is situated on the first floor in the Orient are of the shopping mall, which makes it a great option for those visiting the centre for shopping or entertainment. Even though it's inside a mall you'll see the characteristic Café Rouge decor and French style that makes them sorecognisable. We were seated in the outside area of the restaurant which meant we got to enjoy a bit of people watching.

On arrival we were greeted by the host, Ben, who took time to speak to the children and give them their own menus and crayons. He stressed that they were theirs to keep and take home with them which Bud and LM loved. I found his manner to be very welcoming and I liked that he crouched down to speak to the children at their level. It really helped my confidence in eating at the restaurant for the first time before we even sat down.

Eating Out With Kids: Café Rouge Trafford Centre Children's Menu

The children's menu was in the form of a leaflet which unfolded to reveal a big puzzle and colouring in sheet so both LM and Bud got busy with their crayons, while we ordered drinks. This really helped to keep them busy and entertained. Bud and LM both ordered apple juice from the selection of soft drinks and fruit juices on offer. They could also have chosen Bottlegreen fruit cordials or milk (plain or flavoured).

The children's menu has one starter option - Warm Fougasse Finger and Crudités with a tomato dip. These were delivered soon after our drinks so Bud and LM both tucked into these straight away while Ian and I perused the menu. I had a little taste of the bread and dip and both were lovely. The bread was soft and fresh while the tomato dip reminded me of an Italian marinara sauce. Bud cleared his plate and LM ate a good chunk of her starter too. I think it's an excellent idea for a starter and I loved that they arrived before we ordered so the children could be getting on with them. A definite thumbs up.

Eating Out With Kids: Café Rouge Trafford Centre Children's Menu Fougasse and Crudites

Children's main courses were a choice of ten options in total. This is a wider choice than many restaurants offer and I think the vast majority of children would be tempted by something on offer. We considered the Petit Croque et Frites (Cheese and Ham toastie with fries) for LM but opted for the Fab Fishcake instead. This is advertised as Salmon Fishcake and Frites but we asked for veggies to be added and it arrived with mixed peas and sweetcorn. The same vegetables were served with Bud's Poulet Goujons (Breaded Chicken Fillets and Fries). Both children tucked in happily, Bud more so when his requested ketchup arrived. He cleared his plate while LM ate all of her veggies and a chunk of fishcake. She was less keen on the excellent fries but I think this was because she was full rather than any reflection on their quality. Both the fishcake and chicken goujons were really tasty.

Cafe Rouge Children's Menu Fishcake and Poulet Goujons

Dessert offered five options (although one of these was ice cream, with six flavours available alongside three different toppings!) I was pleased to see Fresh Fruit Salad on offer and thought one of my children might have opted for this. Instead LM chose Vanilla Ice Cream with Marshmallows. The ice cream was lovely with real vanilla seeds to be seen.

Cafe Rouge Children's Menu Vanilla Ice Cream and Marshmallows

Bud chose the Fruit Ice Lolly (which was Apple and Blackcurrant flavour) and very much enjoyed it. After dessert Ben the host came over to offer the children some popping candy to try. This was a hit with LM but Bud wasn't so keen.

The Café Rouge Menu pour les Enfants is £6:95 for three courses and a drink. Drinks refills were available for 75 pence extra. I think this is really excellent value for money, based on the food that was served, excellent service and menu options. It's much more of a 'restaurant' than many of the options we consider when eating out with the children and I think it helps to them to become accustomed to more formal dining. We had a lovely family meal and I think we'll definitely be revisiting the restaurant in the future.

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

We're so pleased to be working with Cuddledry as one of their Superbloggers this year and I'm sharing another of their fantastic products with you today. We're huge fans of poncho towels in our house as they are great for a quick cover up after leaving the pool or the beach and both Bud and LM have had them over the past few years. We were sent the Cuddledry Swim Poncho Towel for LM to try and have been putting it to the test over the past few weeks.

We only have a shower in our house which can make bathtime something of an undertaking. It's definitely a two person job but poncho towels stop us having little wet people running around having ditched their bath towels. We also use them at the swimming pool when it is simple to pop them on over wet swimsuits, ensuring the child who is waiting to be dried and changed stays warm.

The Cuddledry Swim Poncho Towel is bright blue, trimmed with either orange or lime green (we have the orange one. It's made from the beautifully soft Cuddledry mix of cotton and bamboo and is super-absorbent. Often LM is dry just from wearing this and doesn't need to be towel dried.

Our poncho towel has now been washed a few times and it's got even softer than it was new. It's so warm and snuggly for LM and she always grabs it before her shower so it's ready for her when she gets out. I think she'd sleep in it if we let her!

There are some nifty design features which show how much thought Cuddledry put into their designs. The deep v-neck makes it easy to pop on and off over your child's head and the poppers underneath the arms ensure that the poncho stays put rather than slipping around. You can simply unfasten them to take the towel off easily when it is wet.

Cuddledry Swim Poncho Towel Blog Review Underarm Poppers

We'd really recommend the Cuddledry Swim Poncho Towel. It's made getting dry after showering and swimming a much easier process for us and LM, we all love it!

Cuddledry Swim Poncho Towel Blog Review At the Beach

To purchase the towel or see the rest of the range please visit www.cuddledry.com and to keep up with all of the Cuddledry news follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

We received the towel for review purposes.