Freddie you are Five!

How is it your fifth birthday already gorgeous boy!

It really seems like yesterday that James was in reception and we were celebrating your first birthday and now it's you in reception! 

This last year has seen you attempt the soya ladder and pass steps one and two! You then sadly failed at step three twice! 

You are now sharing a bedroom with James, or well you are meant to. You still find your way in to mummy's bed or mummy into yours most nights!

You still love you cow Moo and sleep with it every night! 

You absolutely love going to school and have some lovely little friends. Two of which have siblings in James class. 

It's been a strange year with the Coronavirus lockdown, this gave us so much time together as a family safely locked away in our house. 

During this time you developed a love of the Red Arrows and you like nothing more than watching them on YouTube and telling us you are going to be Red 10! 

Happy birthday our gorgeous Freddie Bear

We love you so much xx

Review of the Zak Storm Hover Vehicle and Collectable Coins

James is such a typical boy, who is into cars and super heroes. He also loves technology, so anything that involves his tablet is a big plus to him! He loves playing games on his tablet that will help him with his learning or that he can incorporate with his toys! So when the people behind the Pop UK show Zak Storm got in touch and asked if he would like to review some of their toys and the accompanying app on mummy’s iPad he was thrilled! He loves his tablet, but if he gets to use mummies he is thrilled!

We were sent the Zak Storm Hover Vehicle and Figures retailing at £14.99 and two of the Collectable Coin packs retailing at £4.99 per pack.

These actually arrived with us late afternoon while mummy was cooking the tea and James was thrilled to see that it was actually something for him to use! He however decided to wait till the next day after school to take them out of the packet as he still had his school reading to do that night.

The first thing that mummy did was get out the iPad and go to download the app, this is where it got tricky as when we went to download it onto my iPad mini 2 it wouldn’t download with the message saying you need iOS 10, My iPad operates on iOS 9.5 which according to Apple is the highest iOS software available for that device. Luckily the app is also available on Android and Amazon FireOS 5.0, so you don’t necessarily need to own an Apple device to access all the fun that the app and Collectable Coins create!

The Collectable Coins have a QR code on the back of them to scan into the app to receive digital rewards such as weapons, powers, words and health. This helps you to progress in the game! So the more coins you collect, the more loot you can get to help you in the game!

The best thing I have found is that you don’t need to actually have the app to get enjoyment out of the figures!

Zak Storm is what is known as a connected play experience, where children watch the show, play the game and level up to enjoy a mobile gaming experience like never before. 

James had a brilliant time exploring the app and scanning in the codes on the coins to see what he got! I can definitely see us ordering James some more of the coins as he loves blind bags and the fact that these ones have the codes for the game, it’s even better!

We have also downloaded him the Coin Sheet from the Zak Storm website so he can keep track of which coins he has and which coins he needs!

James loved showing the app and the coins to daddy and seeing as daddy is a big fan of computer games, I think this is something that daddy and James can enjoy together!

These products that we were sent are available from Smyths Toys, along with many other toys which I think will be on James list for his birthday!

**We were sent these products free of charge in exchange for this review, all words and pictures are our own!**

All About James

All About James!

James is now nearly five and a half years old and he's just over a term and a few weeks into year one at his primary school. My last big update on James was his birthday last August and I thought it was about time that I did an update on my big boy! 

As the photo shows he always seems to get food all over his face and he hates having his face washed so he took to wearing his spiderman mask this day to cover the mess and to stop us washing his face!

James was the inspiration behind the name Mummy to my little cheeky monkey when he was 20 months old! And he is definitely still very cheeky. He's got beautiful blonde hair and bright blue eyes and is my mini me! He definitely uses the big blue eyes to get his own way and he had his TA in nursery and reception classes wrapped around his little finger!!

Since going into year one at school he has developed a new found love for reading, at bedtime him and daddy have been reading Roahl Dahl books which he has loved! We started last summer reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator! We then moved onto The BFG and The Witches. So for Christmas we bought him George's Marvelous Medicine, The Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox. We do a reward Box with James and when he fills his box we have promised him a new book so he is working so hard to get his stars to get his book!!

Over half term we are going to visit daddy's family in Surrey and we will be spending a day in London as since he learned about the great fire of London in school and of course seeing Big Ben on Go Jetters he has wanted to visit London!!! We are also going to go and see Buckingham Palace as James loves the Queen. He even asked if he could meet her but mummy told him that would be slightly impossible.

He absolutely adores his little brother, well he does most of the time! Some days they are thick as thieves and others James wants him as far away as possible! Poor James is often being chased around by Freddie especially when he gets home from school! Freddie is like his little shadow when he gets home as he has really missed him during the day! 

We are so proud of James and how well he is doing at school.

James you are FIVE!

James today you turn five years old! How has that happened! I really feel like I have blinked and you have grown from that tiny baby into this tall handsome cheeky young man. You are still very much a daddy's boy, but if daddy is not at home you love mummy cuddles, especially at bed time. You have been known to sneak out of your bed once daddy has settled you and into mummy and daddy's bed for mummy snuggles.

You are always asking lots of questions and are very inquisitive. You love playing with water and sand! You do struggle a bit with writing, so mummy and daddy have been helping you over the holidays. I think the structure of year one will help you though.

You go back to school in ten days time and into year one already! It really feels like only yesterday you were starting the school nursery!

You are the best big brother to Freddie, he absolutely worships the ground you walk on! He hates leaving you at school, but when he sees you on a night he has the biggest smile on his face!

You absolutely love school and you have a brilliant group of friends. I have loved being able to stand outside the shops and watch you play in the foundation unit playground this year! Some of your games look so fun! Next year though you will spend your break times in the big school yard so the only time mummy and Freddie will see you will be on a Thursday when we are at our sure start group as we can see into the main yard from the sure start garden!

You are definitely still very stubborn and boy if you don't get your own way do you let us know you are not happy!  

You adore watching Cbeebies and your favourite TV programmes are: Go Jetters, Octonauts and Peter Rabbit. You had an absolutely brilliant time when we visited Cbeebies land at Alton Towers back in April and you keep asking when we are going to go again! Hopefully we will go again next year. You also love watching milkshake on channel 5. Your favourite programmes on there are Digby Dragon and Rusty Rivets. 

So all thats left to say is I hope you have a brilliant day my gorgeous boy and enjoy your party which you are having next weekend, just before you go back to school.

All my love

Mummy

xxx