We are partied out Chez Lancaster. Sadly not in the champagne, cocktail, high heeled kind of way. More your sausage roll, cheese & pineapple hedgehog kind of way!

Lil H turned 4 years old on Monday yep the big 0 4. Celebrations commenced the day before with grand parents, then on the day our family and more grand parents. Then I hosted a party for my, sorry H’s, NCT pals (can he have NCT pals?!) followed by one for a few of his pre-school pals.

I’m a traditional birthday party mummy, he’s 4 after all – musical bumps, statues, pass the parcel, seeing as it was Easter we had some chick & egg hunting too. There’s something I don’t do though. Something I can’t stand. Unfortunately for my kids they love this thing. I bet your kids, if not all kids, love them. I’m talking about Party Bags and I *big fat black cloud & cross face* hate them! I can stand them.

Party bags. Little bags of junk. Little bags of useless tut. Little bags that make mess and require parental input to use / fix toys. They can end up costing lot of money and certainly take lots of time to put together.

This year our party goers had an Easter egg & a cute mini gift balloon, Hello Kitty for girls, toy story for boys and a windmill for the babies. Previously we did chocolate lollies with each Child’s name piped on (we got ours from our local favourite Simon Dunn).

So what’s your thoughts – party bags? Love em or hate em?

I was offered a Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 mini pro phone to try and thought why not, is there life outside of the iPhone I wonder?  It made me think about all the phones I’ve had over the years.  I started with Nokia 5.1 – a brick with an extendable aerial – woo, get me!  I bought it in 1997 and I still have the same number and my best friend bought hers at the same time and we have the same number apart from the last digit and she still has hers too – aw, cute!

Remember when phones just for calls oh and playing snake?!  I moved from Nokia to Sony Ericsson for quite a few years when colour screens and cameras were a must as they were the leaders in phone cameras. Then came the iPhone nobody can deny it was totally different (and in a good way) touch screen, user friendly and comfy in your hand.  It had Angry Birds.  Oh and Angry Birds The Seasons! 

First thought was that it is small, really small, look …

I thought it might be too small but its not.  On the first day I thought my fingers might be too big but you quickly get used to it.  The keyboard is small, just like the phone but surprisingly useable.  It’s nice the way this phone fits easily into one hand and can be completely navigated through with just your thumb. 

This was my first experience of a piece of android kit and phone has apps for everything, I almost snobbishly thought there was nothing like the choice of apps in the Apple Store – wrong – it is basically the same choice from my perspective as a user.  I was wrong.  There wasn’t an app on my iPhone I couldn’t get for this, Angry Birds?  Check!

The thing for my that was my favourite and really impressive is the camera, I always have my phone in one hand and used to take lots with my phone in the days before my iPhone (I have a iPhone 3G by the way) but have given up a lot because the camera is pretty rubbish on my iPhone – but this is great, really great 5megapixels -  see my on the hoof Silent Sunday post and I have even printed some new moo mini card with shots taken with the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10 mini pro.  Never mind Hipstamatic – this bad boy has a FLASH!  Also as its android it links through your Google account so you can upload straight to Picassa and beyond – I *heart* this function a lot!  

One great app already on this phone was Timescape, if you love social networking *cough* who me? or just communicating with friends through more than just by phone calls this gives you everything in one place as text messages, calls, Twitter and Facebook updates all scroll across this phones touch screen in one at a glance page.

• I love, love, loved the camera and its FLASH!
• I really liked its easy connectivity with Google
• I liked that is was different to the majorities iPhone
• I was impressed with its price at round about £200 – free with a contract on most networks
• There is room for improvement with the screen resolution, very occassionally things stuttered
• Overall this is a great little phone very small but very useable. 

You can check out a video demo of the phone here:

By the way Sony Ericsson sent me the Xperia™ X10 mini pro to try and return which I have.

Man is a woman’s best friend.

He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.

He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

He will make sure she always feels that she’s the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.

No wait…… sorry……. I’m thinking of wine.

My friend sent me this. It made me laugh. Thought you might like it too. Cx

My back is broken, not actually broken, but something went “ping” in there and I cant stand upright or sit, I can lie down but mostly I’m in pain. My friend is a physio he’s fixing me. Amusing side note – if you miss type physio auto type suggests patio *giggles*

Did I mention I am loaded with pain relief? Under the influence of a selection of tablets – some left over from my c-section, others purchased over the counter in foreign climes under the advice of my pharmacist buddies *giggles more*.

I’ve kind of lost my blogging mojo of late for many reasons but one of which is I’ve wanted to write about something but haven’t. It’s in me and nothing else can get past, except the odd review or competition cos they use a different part of my blog brain. So under the influence of diazepam I’d like to rant about other mothers…

There are some mothers, definitely one mother, who are a total waste of oxygen. There’s not just one mother sadly there are lots of the “pain in the ass” mother types. I was inspired by Karin over at Cafe Bebe who has experienced similar, do check out her recent vlog if you’ve not already

So this mother, let’s call her Karen, as that’s her name. Now I have encountered Karen before. I deliberately keep my distance because, well, she’s really quite unpleasant. At baby music class she talks throughout to her friend unaware of the impact this has on the overall causes, the disruption her children are causing or the inappropriateness of her mostly blue language amongst a baby/toddler class. She and I parent differently and as far as I am concerned out two approaches are incompatible when it comes to being more than familiar faces. I don’t like her, can’t believe she likes me and I couldn’t care less about either of this facts.

So imagine my surprise if a few months ago when we are both in the same soft play Karen approaches me “oh hello this must be baby G, she’s lovely…blah, blah, blah” I was on my guard but she seemed friendly enough. It was a front. Shortly after. “Claire my J says your H has just pushed him” *sigh* they’re 3 years old that’s what they do, “oh right, H come here, did you push J?” H said he didn’t. I asked Karen had she seen it. She hadn’t. I asked H to be careful and kind and that is where it should have ended.

It didn’t end there. Karen then continued to cross examine my H “you won’t get into trouble H, just say your sorry, you did push him didn’t you, just say your sorry, did you push J, you did didn’t you?” I reminded Karen that we hadn’t seen the situation, my irritation with her inappropriate interrogation of my son in front of me left me aghast. “It’s very important to me that H apologises” how can that be expected if he says he didn’t do something and neither of us witnessed the alleged misdemeanour? Then in front of both of us her J body slammed into my H, before I could pop her J into a chair, shine a bright light in his face and reciprocate the cross examination and verbally bash an apology out of him, Karen announced “you see that’s because your H didn’t apologise that’s what J does because he’s upset about the lack of apology.” I walked away, I took H and I walked away.

I was furious. Absolutely livid. It bothers me that I allowed this woman to question my son, it caught me off guard. I find it vile that she felt she had that right. She did not. It bothers me months on, it bothers me that I am still cross. This creature, Karen, has a total lack of self awareness. I attribute this to limited intellect. Oh and the fact she’s a complete bitch clearly. I don’t go to soft play to make my day more difficult. No one does.

Karen you’re a trouble causer and a first class pain in the ass. You’re also an unpleasant gossip so if you’re reading this just check behind you next time you want to *whisper* to a friend about “I’ve got a story about that Claire she’s got H & G…” remember I have the hearing of a bat and you have a big fat mouth which I’ll happily plant a big fat lip on it.

Will I regret this post in the morning? No because I already feel a whole lot better. Thanks for listening!

Claire x

I’ve been to the last few Baby Show’s and the next show is taking place 20-22 May at NEC Birmingham I can’t make it this time due to my desperate search for a new house an unexpectedly quick house sale, although I have to say this make me very happy! 

The Baby Show is definately worth a visit if you have children under two years old or are expecting a baby or thinking of having another one.  The Baby Show is the UK’s number one baby and pregnancy event for a reason it has great deals and fantastic giveaways with Prima Baby and Fisher-Price on board ensuring a great, stress-free day out that can save you and your family a fortune.  

I have five pairs, yes that’s right FIVE PAIRS of competition tickets to give away simply leave me a comment below telling me what in May, other than than The Baby Show, you are looking forward to simple as that!  I will draw the winners by random number draw on, lucky for some unlucky for others, Friday 13th May 2011 – entries must be on this post by midday on Friday 13th May 2011.

So tell me in May what are you looking forward to? 

Going to The Baby Show and …