An Olympic Giveaway

Olympic fever has hit London (or should I say the world)! Myself and children are getting into the Olympic spirit both on and off the net.

Along with all the other billions of households we kicked back, tortilla chips and dip to hand and watched the 2012 London Games opening ceremony.

Little man was clearly very excited. He was demanding the house sat silently as he bounced off the walls as the countdown to the official opening of the games started. Little man’s special school have done a lot to teach students all there is to know about the games and it’s history. I was most impressed with the Little mans knowledge when he stated that the Olympic rings represent the 5 major regions of the world coming together to form the Olympic movement. When I asked him what the colours of the rings represent he impressed me that bit more when cleverly stating “The 5 colours found in the 5 rings can be found in every national flag in the world, but this is actually a trick question as it’s never actually been emphasised” the clever little so & so!

Alice-Sara fell asleep mid-way through the ceremony, toddler didn’t last five minutes but Little man was gripped till the very end (if we ever host the games again, please a little earlier for the opening ceremony)!

Although little man doesn’t really sleep, what routine we did have went right out the window what with the late starting and finishing of the ceremony. He also got a bit upset as certain acts were dropped due to the overrunning of the ceremony! It wasn’t that he really wanted to see them, more the fact that to a child with Aspergers syndrome schedules are created to be followed and kept! He seemed to enjoy the countdown and the parade the most (he looked up all the different teams on his atlas which he seemed to enjoy)!

As much as the little man enjoyed watching the Live opening ceremony of the 2012 games, his black and white thinking did cause one or two misunderstandings! The main factor was the ceremonies theme and how this had no relation to sport! It took a while to explain but we got there in the end.

For me the ceremony was totally brilliant and I enjoyed it much more than I had first expected I would. The highlight had to be the contribution made by Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (GOSH). My younger sister who is now 22 spent much of her childhood in this hospital as she battled childhood cancer (Leukemia). The performance was electrifying, it really captivated one’s imagination.The whole evil verse good concept that was portrayed within characters such as the “Child Catcher” and “Mary Poplins” was brilliant and nothing less than spectacular!

Since the night of the opening ceremony I’ve watched many of the games play out and have particularly enjoyed that of the swimming (well done Rebecca Adlington on your bronze medal).

It seems the women of GB are doing well in winning us the medals, what with Rebecca Adlington above, the cyclist Lizzie Armitstead taking the silver medal and then today’s Helen Glovers and Heather Stanning bagging GB first gold in their rowing victory! Not that the guys haven’t done well in collecting the medals! Let’s not forget the fabulous Bradley Wiggins, the GB cyclist who bagged us our second gold medal today.

So, with all the excitement floating in the air I’ve decided to run a little competition of my own to celebrate Great Britain’s day of gold!

Last week I was exceptionally lucky to bag myself a prize on twitter. The RT competition was hosted by Debenhams in partnership with Pizza Express. My prize… A stunning Leggera Swimsuit to celebrate the Pizza Express new 500 calorie Leggera pizza range. The Leggera costume is absolutely stunning and extremely sexy! I ordered my prize in a medium (size 12) and wasn’t disappointed! However, despite the sheer loveliness of the Leggera swimsuit (a striped skimpy number) I’ve decided to prize it off on the blog! My reason being, I’m just not confident enough to wear it and therefore give it the showcasing it deserves… This really should be paraded on a beach some where!

That’s not all!

I’ve also got some fabulous official Team GB 2012 merchandise to giveaway with the costume! These include a couple of GB 2012 wristbands, a packet of Team GB sports bands, a London 2012 rosette badge and a fabulous heavy solid Marideville Paralympics Mascot keyring by Corgi. All these were given to myself and children during an invite only Olympic 2012 party at London’s Hamleys (London’s biggest and most loved toy store). Even the youngest toddler received a goody bag and these were the items he wouldn’t require (I can’t see me giving him a set of door keys anytime soon)!

To win this Olympic Gold prize consisting of all the above just do the following.

Compulsory action: Subscribe to the blog via feedburner (located in sidebar) then in a comment let me know the name/email of your subscription and tell me what was your best part of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

Additional entries! Important please read…. For each action please leave a separate comment with your contact details so I can contact you in the event that you win (twitter handle or email address)

1) Follow my sister blog Mummy of many talents

2) Tweet “I want to win a fab Olympic goody bag & swimsuit with clairelouise82”

3) Pin the competition on pinterest

4) Use any of the share buttons below (excludes email)

Note the Swimsuit is a UK size 12

Competition will close on the 15th August 2012 at midnight

Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored competition, I have supplied the prize myself and not via sponsorship. Open to those in the UK only. Winner must claim prize within 48hrs of winning notification.

Nerf Vortex Nitron Blaster the ultimate boy toy review!

As you all will know by now, we have all been very busy this November with the Santa’s Little Helpers feature, though it has been lots of fun its been non stop! So… Here is our latest review of another one of the top Christmas buys for 2011 and this time we are bringing it to you in association with the fabulous Debenhams

Little man has been on non-stop about the range of Nerf blasters, for a boy who was into nothing other than transport (and don’t get me wrong, his buses still come before anything else in this world) he isn’t doing to bad discovering new-found interest, which is really something given his limited interest, a characteristic of his Asperger’s syndrome.

I do feel that not only has our Santa’s Little Helpers feature played a massive part in this, but also the fact his now in school and around other children on a daily basis, which is a welcomed change from his days in mainstream that presented us with nothing but battles and weekly exclusion.

His new special school is where he first heard about the new Nerf range. So of course when Debenham’s joined our Christmas feature and offered me a choice from their top toy sellers to review, it had to be the new Nerf Vortex Nitron.

 Nerf is a collection of blasters (I tend not to like the word gun even if these are just toys) However these pretty much resemble water guns and come in a host of shapes and sizes, and of course prices!

The Nerf Vortex Nitron is one of the bigger blasters in it’s range and includes a 20 disc magazine, 20 disc and onboard storage for additional magazines to give you maximum firepower (additional magazines and disc can also be brought separately).

It is said that the Nerf Vortex Nitron is the ultimate innovation and technology. It has a really awesome feature which is it’s electronic scope that features targeting lights to help centre your aim. It also features XLR long-range disc technology to launch disc an extra long distance which little man was all so keen to demonstrate over and over again.

It would seem that all the boys want a piece of the Nerf and little man seems to be right on up there.

His eyes light up like balloons when he came home and found this large package on the desk. I don’t really like to alert him that these things are on the way otherwise like many kids do he has the tendency to drain away my brain with, “Has it come yet mum, has it?” So yes this made an awesome surprise at the end of a busy school day.

Little man waited for daddy and as soon as he stepped foot in the door little man put the Nerf Vortex Nitron right under his nose. It wasn’t that he wasn’t able to set this up alone, it was actually dead simple and he did this no problems at all (basically has one or two things to connect) he was just really excited and wanted to such this excitement with his father! This is when I see the big kid come out in his father though it was pretty awesome to watch father and son have some big kid fun!

Little man’s awarded score

I didn’t even get the chance to ask Little man what his overall score was because he beat me to it by stating, “Um, mum, before you ask… I give it a 5 star” Yes the top stars were award by the little man.

Parental perspective

I was happy for Little man to review the New Nerf blaster because like I’ve stated, his interest are rather limited so it’s nice to see them expanding a little. The Nerf did all that it claim to do, isn’t a noisy toy which is always a blessing in my book, and lastly it seems to appeal to the big boys as well as those younger ones (so be prepared to see the child return in your partners). Warning: This toy does require the use of 6x C batteries plus another 2 AAA batteries (I highly recommend the use of rechargeable batteries as that’s one hell of a lot of batteries for one toy). I also awarded the Nerf Vortex Nitron the full 5 ***** as it gave me a good few hours undisturbed soak in the bath so thank you Debenhams.

Once dispatched Debenhams provided super fast home delivery and throughout the customer service was Ace!

Nerf Vortex Nitron is available from Debenhams at
£45.00

So, there you have it, another great toy brought to you by Little man and Debenhams as part of the Santa’s Little helpers Christmas gift feature.

For more information or to order yours… Just click HERE

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• Nerf Vortex Nitron Blaster (thediamondringreview.com)
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• Nerf Vortex Nitron: The World’s First Full-Auto Nerf Disc Blaster (techeblog.com)
• Geek Toys : NERF Vortex Disc Blaster (thinkgeek.com)