The movie that dominated the award ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic this year was the curiously named Argo.  The title doesn’t give anything away and neither will this review in terms of spoilers but the hype and accolades are well deserved.  We watched Argo (DVD + UV Copy) last night with friends visiting for the weekend and all really enjoyed it.

Argo is a a tense watch, you need to pay attention but listen to the dialogue to follow a great story that will have you gripped.  It is not the sort of film that you can half watch, put your phone / tablet down and pay attention because it is worth it and also your husband will get seriously irritable if you require him to fill in the blanks whilst you were gassing with your pal forcing him to go back 10 minutes to re-watch part of the movie.  I speak from personal experience!

The movie is based on real events in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis where the CIA and Hollywood came together to save the day and the lives of six hostages.  A situation that went unknown for many years until it was declassified many years later.  Academy Award® winner Ben Affleck directs and stars in the film sporting some rather fabulous 1970′s facial hair – think Bee Gees!  He wears it well!  I also loved the catch phrase from the movie, well phrased swear words always make me smile.

Thank you Warner Bros. Pictures for sending us the Argo (DVD + UV Copy) we never made it to the cinema to see Argo and really enjoyed the movie which it out now on DVD to buy, rent, view.

We’ve had a pre-release copy of Barbie in the Pink Shoes to watch for a couple of weeks – Diva G aged three already owns five times as many Barbie’s as she’s had birthdays so I was confident and correctly so that this would be enjoyed.

It’s a straightforward movie – it’s about Barbie, it involves ballet, shoes and a lot of pink.  If you are three this is:  THE. BEST. FILM. EVER.  If you are the adult in charge of a three year old this DVD will provide 1hr 12  mins of entertainment to your little one so you can get some stuff done!

The story has a nice “never give up” message to it  as its about a girl who never gives up on her dancing dream.  Barbie™ stars as Kristyn, a ballerina who dreams of one day joining an established dance company. She longs to dance just like the troupe’s lead dancer, Tara but no matter how hard she tries, her performance always seems to lack that special something. All this changes when she stumbles upon a beautiful pair of magical pink ballet shoes that take her on an amazing adventure to a fantastical world of ballet.

Kristyn and her friend Hailey encounter magic and mystery in this wondrous land but of course there is a baddie and this land is ruled by an evil Snow Queen.  They must dance like never before, through their favourite ballets, to defeat the evil Snow Queen. Only then will they find their way back home in time for the big performance. Inspired by her magical journey, Kristyn performs the iconic dances of Giselle and Swan Lake but with her own flourish and wows the big ballet company. Dancing like the star she is on this magical ballet adventure, Kristyn realises that when you dance from your heart, your dreams come true!

Barbie in the Pink Shoes is the latest installment in the fantastical adventures of Barbie™ available on DVD and Blu-ray from 18^th March 2013 The DVD and is available to pre-order now – a great chocolate alternative for an Easter gift.

Shortly, and by shortly I mean moments, after you have decided which tablet you are going to buy you need to pick a case to keep your newest and most precious possession safe, clean and scratch free. This is almost as big a minefield as the initial “which tablet to choose” because get it wrong and it could hinder your tablet and you might even, heaven forbid, have to take it out of the case altogether! EEP!

At Christmas we had a switch around of tech.  Our first generation iPad was loaded with new apps, given a Ninja Turtle desktop and handed down to Lil H and Mr L picked himself out a brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.  All I had to do was get a case for it. Such a responsibility, I was lost in an online world of star ratings and reviews and none the wiser thankfully an email from MobileFun saved the day asking if we’d like to review a table case. Yes. Yes we would thank you. I chose their best selling case for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, the SD TabletWear Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 case.

Choosing a case for someone else’s tablet it could have gone so wrong but actually it went so right.  Mr really rates at the case, it fits the Note perfectly and there are cutaways in the appropriate places for the camera and speakers.  The lid rolls down to cover the screen like an apple smart cover, it can also be folded to create a stand a function which works really well at both a shallow and almost upright angles.  The Note has a pen which doesn’t have a proper cutaway which makes it initially difficult to get the pen out, however this has stopped our children getting, and losing, the pen and accessing it is something you quickly learn the knack of.  The case is neat, looks smart, protects the tablet well, is light and practical and with change from £20 is great value for money.

Now, all I need to do is get myself an iPad Mini, then I will head over to MobileFun and pick out an iPad Mini cover

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We haven’t been to Paris or Orlando but we have had a some Disney magic closer to home.  I blogged back in June about our excitement  in being invited to see Mickey’s Magic Show at The Lowry and last weekend we headed off to Salford for the show.  

Its started at 10:30 and finished about 12:15pm with a 15minute interval, my 2.5yo and 5yo loved it.  Mickey and Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy are ably assisted by a magician his trainee bringing a “believe in yourself” message throughout the show.  The magic was impressive and had me and Mr L wondering “how on earth?”.  There were Princesses – Snow White, Belle and Cinderella, beautiful costumes and lots of classic Disney sing-a-long songs.  A few lucky children were picked out to help with the magic, that interaction and a smaller venue helped make this possibly one of the most intimate Disney shows we’ve seen.  Here are Lil H and Diva G ready for the show to start, you can sense the excitement.

Lil H’s favourite part was when the Magician appeared next to us in the audience and when the girls were cut in half and had their legs mixed up!  That’s boys for you!  Diva G loved the appearance of each and every Princess equally and Cinderella’s transformation still has me pondering “how did they do that?”  You can still catch Disney Magic at the venues below:

• 17th – 19th of August 2012 Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
• 23rd – 26th of August 2012 Brighton Centre, Brighton
• 29th Aug – 2nd Sept 2012 Echo Arena, Liverpool

Thank you very much to Disney Mums for inviting us to the show, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ve made a photo book once before of Lil H’s first year. I love it. Since I made that one I started working again, a working mum, then Diva G arrived, I have a massive list of photo books I’d like to make and a hard drive of tens of thousands of photo’s, you know how it is yes?

Pixum offered me a credit to try out their Photo Books I was pleased but slightly daunted by the commitment – knowing how many I have already planned in my head and never created!  As is always the way, getting around to it was the hardest part, I decided to make a book of Jubilee celebrations in London.  I knew if I set off searching my photo archives I’d be days/weeks/months lost in memories. So armed with recently downloaded photos and fresh memories I put together a small landscape hard backed photo book.  Diva G and Lil H are thrilled with the memory book too, they love appearing with their friends in the book and it really has helped to secure their Diamond Jubilee memories.

 The process took me a few hours, I did it over a couple of days as I could save and return to my project.  I found it easiest to go through all the photos, pick my favourites by popping them into a separate folder and then set to with laying out these favourites.  There are loads of page layouts, single and double page spreads, you chose the layout, the colour ways and your images – you have complete control with the Pixum software.  I am delighted with the results.

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