The weather, amongst many other things, is conspiring against me. Although yesterday we managed to be outside most of the day.

A trip to Bruntwood Park and a picnic under the trees filled the morning. In the afternoon we had a playdate. H and his girl buddy B who is a year his senior discovered some left over mosaic glass tiles from last years bathroom refit, through 3 & 4 year old these were “treasure” sparkly coloured treasure which was to be hidden & found in an Easter Egg Esque Hunt.

They had an absolute blast & played this for ages, would’ve carried on longer had tea time not come around. Today’s lesson learnt was “Egg” Hunts aren’t just for Easter!

Mr L is working in London village for 5 weeks including weekends, pre-school is out leaving me solo with Lil H and Baby G. The first three days went pretty well, a planned combination of holiday classes, play dates and activities. Day four following a bad night with Baby G of no defined cause so I’m blaming teeth, but of course! The day started early due to a massive storm/downpour just before 6am which woke all of us. Lancaster 0, Rest of the world 1.

So mother nature took the first shot and the day went downhill from there. I then downloaded the photos of H’s sports day. This I did but my attempt to copy them on to DVD saw them disappear a matter of seconds after I had deleted them from the camera. Lancaster 0, Rest of the world 2, Swear words several.

Agitated, frustrated, cross about the pics our day continued pretty uneventfully. I was looking forward to the pre-school mums end of year soirée. Here comes the finale.

Rushing to get out the door on time I went to iron my favourite White top on the bedroom floor faster than getting the ironing board. Mistake, big mistake. I ironed across my shirt and the carpet not realising I’d first ironed across the black plastic cable of my hair straighteners.

Day four began too early and ended with no sports day photos, my top – ruined, bedroom carpet – ruined, hair straighteners – history, iron – in the bin! Lancaster 0, Rest of the world 6, Swear words – hundreds, wine consumed – excessive!

We all have days like this right?! Please lie to me if not it will make me feel better!

I don’t often get to many blog events. The juggle with being a working mum between nursery runs, childcare with Lil H and Baby G is still so little makes it tricky, however last week the lovely people at Warburtons and Clarion Communications hosted a coffee morning at the Manchester Museum – snacks and Dinosaurs – all the ingredients for a great morning out.Apart from having great names let me tell you some more about ChippidyDooDaa Pitta Chips and SnackaDoodle wholegrain snacks. I can’t think of a comparison to draw to explain what ChippidyDooDaa Pitta Chips are like, tortilla-esque so great for dipping but a lower fat choice as they’re twice baked rather than fried. The three flavours Mature Cheese & Spring Onion, Chilli Jack and Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar are mouthwateringly distinct (nothing worse than a snack you can’t tell the flavour of!). My personal favourite was the Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar.SnackaDoodle snacks are not dissimilar to bite sized rice cakes but crunchier and with only 84 calories per 20g bag a good choice for the dieters snack attack! Sadly Mr L & I have eaten our samples but they are arriving on shop shelves as I type. For more information or to order some savoury deliciousness visit www.warburtonssnacks.co.uk

I also got to meet up with my best mummy blogging mate Amy from and 1 more means four … and 1 more, I finally met for the first time the lovely Sandy Calico from Baby Baby, Amy and Sandy gave me the lowdown on what I missed at Cybermummy due to our Cornish staycation. I also met skybluesea, adventures of a sleepless toddler, AandEMummy Daisy Davies and other lovely ladies.

A big thank you to Warburtons and Clarion Communications for a great Blog event & letting this mummy sit down drink coffee, munch on yummy snacks & chat with my blogging buddies!

Just a quick update from Lancaster Towers and I shall cut to the chase.  I am solo with my two little creatures for at least 5 five weeks full time, including weekends and yes pre-school is out!  So yep that’s a 24hr x 7day x 5week = 840 hour / 35 day shift. 

It’s cool I have a plan, a spreadsheet no less!  I have this for the entire 7 weeks of the summer break through to and including the first week back at pre-school.

The above planning means my days are sorted, I also have a couple of days working which I am really looking forward to.  Evenings can be a bit “samey” and whilst I am more than capable of whiling away night after night on Twitter *coughs 14,600 tweets* and amongst my favourite blogs I have decided to host a weekly “girlie movie stay-in-ival” like a carnival / festival but without a field and with proper toilets!   So I have a couple of girlie pals coming over to mine to watch a movie drink wine and eat chocolate – cool, huh? 

Slight problem though… after Toy Story 3 (which I saw on Sunday and rocks more than the word ROCKS suggests, you just HAVE to see it!) and Sex in the City 2 I have no idea what to watch – HELP!  I have a copy if “Its Complicated” which is where we will start next week but then what?  I asked my girlies and like me they are trapped in mummy-ville and are half a decade out of touch!  Suggestions via my Twitter-ati (love you guys *waves*) so far include:

Valentines Day
Mamma Mia
Twilight
Paranormal Activity
How to lose a guy in 10 days
Dirty Dancing
Four weddings and a funeral
The Notebook
What women want
Devil Wears Prada
Men Who Stare at Goats

Can you help and a comment with your movie faves, thoughts and recommendations, thanks so much!
Lots of love, Claire x

Amongst the many PR requests I get this one I thought was so sweet and I’d like to help the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Manchester track down Joe from Warrington to reward his honesty.  As Thomas Carlyle said “Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.”

Since opening in March this year over 3,000 pieces of Lego have gone missing, an amnesty was called for the return of missing pieces, figures, vehicles etc and this week a letter was received Joe from the Warrington area who has returned a keyring.   The keyring, worth £3, was posted back to the Centre with an accompanying letter that simply said :  Dear Lego Land, I am sorry for stealing this keyring. From Joe.  The letter had a Warrington post mark and was just addressed to LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Manchester 

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre said would like to say thank you to Joe and reward him for his honesty. We were so touched by the letter that we would like to invite Joe back to the Centre with his family to enjoy a day out as our guests.  Whilst we of course do not condone what Joe did, returning the keyring proves that Joe has learnt a lesson, and we’d like the opportunity to meet him to praise him for admitting his mistake and for taking action to resolve his actions.

Judging by the writing, I would think he is about seven or eight years old. The envelope has been addressed by someone else, so we can assume that his parents have been involved and hopefully will read this appeal. 

If anyone knows who Joe is, then please can they get in touch with the team, ldc@brazenpr.com, or call the Centre directly, identifying what type of keyring Joe returned and arrangements can be makde for him to return to the Centre.