You know how much I love Butlins so having the chance to show you this exclusive video live from the Wave is amazing.

So lets go join Angela Griffin and my good friend Jae Hopkins at the opening of the Butlins Wave Hotel in Bognor Regis as they give us a sneak preview of the nation’s newest and most exciting family holiday resort.

If you have any questions that you would like answering about the Wave please fill in the form below and we will see if we can get it answered Live at 2pm on Monday.

Well what a weekend, was it really only a Friday and Saturday? For those of you who saw me on Saturday I can only apologise for my hungover state and I really do hope I wasn't as bad as I remember.

Britmums live started in the best possible way for me with an impromptu stop at the pub after I ran into the lovely Northern Mum we were soon followed by others including the BIB award winning Hello Its Gemma.

As soon as I entered Britmums Live I decided to head straight to the Hub where I looked for the Butlins stall, as my sponsor I thought I had better make that my first port of call. I actually managed to stay there for most of the two days, telling everyone who passed how great Butlins is and hopefully convincing a few people to change there mind and give it a go. I know I collected a lot of business cards and application forms so I am glad I am not part of the Butlins team choosing the Mum ambassadors. With so many lovely blogs and bloggers out there it will be so hard to choose from you all but good luck to everyone who applied. I know 20 of us will be very happy to receive the free holiday so fingers crossed.

So I didnt get to see as many sessions as I would have like but I did manage to see the semi naked men and drink a lot of their wine, before heading to the pub to drink even more. That was why I was not as perky or as chatty on the Saturday, I was very hungover. If I had been at home there is no way I would have surfaced till at least midday and probably later. Thanks to everyone who gave me sympathy that I really didn't deserve it was very much appreciated.

Overall I had a great time chatting to everyone one on the Butlins stall and making my way around the hub talking to some amazing companies and Pr professionals and my husbands jaw dropped when he saw the amount of swag I returned home with, in fact I had so much I have no idea how I managed to carry it all from London to Manchester.

Oh and the boobs well I found this picture of me that was tweeted by a once dear friend of mine who may find herself crossed off the christmas card list . . .  you know who you are.

From the makers of Peppa Pig and the producers of the two hugely successful Peppa Pig theatre tours (for which I wrote a lovely poem here) comes the first ever stage version of Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom. This brand new UK tour opens in Dartford on 26 October at the start of an extensive UK tour, booking through till summer 2013.

The Little Kingdom – where everyone is very, very small – is home to Princess Holly and her best friend Ben Elf. Holly is a young fairy princess who is still learning how to do magic properly and sometimes her spells don’t work out quite right. Ben is an Elf. Elves don’t do magic but they are very good at making things. Ben doesn’t have wings like Holly but he flies on the back of Gaston the Ladybird.

In this exciting new musical adventure, Ben and Holly have fun and games helping Gaston clean up his messy cave; they go on a trip to The Big World with tooth-fairy Nanny Plum; and still have time to plan a surprise for King Elf’s birthday party, complete with an unplanned jelly flood.

Packed full of games, songs and laughter, this is an enchanting and magical visit to the Little Kingdom, live on stage for the very first time. This beautiful story of elves, princesses and childhood innocence will delight all the family.

I am keeping my eyes out for more dates to be announced and I have already had confirmation that there will be a competition to be had right here before the tour starts. So keep your wings crossed as you could be going along to see it.

If you cant wait to see if you will be our winner why not head on over and keep an eye out for dates near you

www.benandhollylive.com
 

When I wrote the post on 7th June about Out of Date produce and bad customer service at Asda (found here) I never expected the response that I got.

After tweeting out my blog post, I had a message from @AsdaServiceTeam asking for my contact details. The next day I received a phone call from someone who had obviously drawn the short straw that day at head office who very politely and professionally handled my complaint.

Whilst away on holiday I received a letter from them ensuring me that the manager of the store had been informed and that they will be checking all the shelves for out of date stock. The gentlemen I had spoken to on the phone had been talked to and they also enclosed a £25 gift card.

Last night I decided to put them to the test, I went to the store with the specific intention of buying as much out of date produce as I could. I hoped to be able to find £25 worth to show them what there gift voucher bought. However I was to be very disappointed, I searched and searched, I reached to the back of shelves, I got down on my knees and I stretched up high. I checked every type of product in three whole aisles (the culprits from the previous shop) and I came up with nothing. Not a single out of date or even near date product to be seen.

I suppose this does go some way to restoring my faith in Asda because at least they responded and acted when they needed to. I spent the voucher on some storage solutions for the kitchen to help out in my childminding duties as I didnt actually need any food shopping.

So this round goes to Asda, thanks for listening but next time lets not make me do the blogging in the first place.

Wow I knew this month would be busy but is it really only 19 days since I finished my job?

With a Jubilee weekend, School holidays, two birthday parties, a midweek break at Butlins and the start of my new career as a childminder I feel as though this month has been here for ..... well months I suppose.

Two days into my new career and I am firmly setting ground rules, ensuring I start my paperwork the way I mean to go on and wondering where all the time goes as I struggle to fit in activities. The kids have all settled well and Alison is coping nicely with having to share her toys.

The biggest surprise has been Elizabeth who is thriving on being 4 and being a big girl now. As soon as I collect her from school she puts on her little fluorescent jacket, takes a child in each hand and walks them to the car. Helping them to cross the road and avoid lamp posts. She says its her boss jacket but apparently I need to have a bigger one as I am the biggest boss. Well at least she understands that much.

June is only just half way through but this weekend comes one of the biggest events on a bloggers social calendar, this weekend is Britmums and I am very excited. I was kindly sponsored by Butlins (as i am sure you are all fed up of hearing) and I was booked a twin room. I don't actually need two beds so I offering it up to anyone that needs it. So give me a shout if thats you.

I am really looking forward to talking to all the sponsors and enjoying a good drinking sessions with some friends old and new as well as visiting some of the sessions. I am also looking forward to being without children for 2 days.

I wonder what the rest of the year holds for us? If my calendar is anything to go by it will be very busy.

Staying in the shoreline hotel and having dinner, bed and breakfast means that we had the opportunity to dine in quite a few venues for our dinner this week and we decided to make full use of it.

The first night we spent in the Shoreline hotel purely for convenience but we have since dined in the new Beachcomber Inn, Turners restaurant and the new hotel that will be available for Wave guests, The Deck.

Being given vouchers to use in the restaurants does mean that on occasion we had to pay for a little bit of the bill but wouldn't you pay a bit extra for this.

You could actually dine at the Deck for no extra cost and with a cook to order Grill and a fresh pasta bar as well as the normal premier dining buffet options we were definitely spoilt for choice and so full we felt like we would burst when we left.

With gorgeous big open spaces, a great variety of seating and even some Etch-a-sketch available for the kids to play with, The Deck has a brilliant feel to it that doesn't seem like the normal canteen type dining that you come to get used when on resort. We are really looking forward to September now when we will be staying in The Wave hotel and dining in The Deck all week long but this time we will eat in moderation.

Being on site when Mike the Knight took to the Butlins stage for the very first time was a very exciting experience not just the girls but for us too. What made it even better was seeing our girls favourite redcoat Michaela take to the stage next to him as Charlie.

I wont tell you the story but what I will say is that it was brilliant. 

The best part was seeing Michaela (or Charlie) sing the Mike the Knight theme tune

The show was amazing and I know that children will be very excited to see this over the coming months.

The stars of the show

Seeing Katy Ashworth in person was an unbelievable experience, the energy and crazyness that roles off that women is both contagious and brilliant. The show involved choosing 12 children from the audience to take part in the show to help Katy cook Tomato and cheese spirals. These were then cooked whilst Katy read all the children a great story and generally acted like a lunatic which obviously the kids loved. I have never seen a children's tv entertainer be so energetic and open with kids in the way she was. To top it all off she came out at the end of the show to meet all the kids and she was just so friendly and wacky that the kids loved her.

Panto at Butlins has always been brilliant and this year Bognor's panto is Beauty and the Beast. With stunning costumes, amazing songs and a great story, the characters had us roaring in laughter, cheering in triumph or shouting "Bonjour Madam" along with the rest of the audience. From the hilarious plate scene when Louis and Dotty made a bit of a mess of things to the final dance scene to "i'm a believer" we loved every minute of it.

Elizabeth's favourite part was when they read out her Birthday although she will be called "Elizabeth Seaham" from now on after Dotty got her name all confused.

I loved seeing some of our favourite redcoats and other butlins stars in this show in particular Redcoat Josh who is one of the first redcoats we met two years ago and recognises us as soon as he sees us.

There has been so many new shows on at Butlins this year that we have been really excited dashing from here to there to see them. From Katy Ashworth in I can cook, the new Thomas the tank engine show, the very first Mike the Knight show and the Big Red Beach Party this week has been amazing. 

I am going to write posts on some of the shows but here is a quick photo gallery to show you the quality of the entertainment that we have seen.