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.

An Olympic Party with Hornby

Hornby are gearing up for the 2012 Olympic Games and invited myself and the kids to London’s biggest toy store “Hamleys” for a private party.

Having a child with Aspergers syndrome with an interest in transport, one who loves a good old Hornby train set meant it was an invitation to good to refuse.

My daughter had her friend stay over so and spent the day doing “girl stuff” So, this trip was one made by myself and two boys.

We arrived a little later than others, little man was busy checking out the underground, but when we did arrive we were greeted my the funky Olympic Mascot. The party was allocated in a side room and was decked out in British colours and Olympic cheer. Harley had his eye on the balloons as soon as we arrived (Thankfully he got to take one home even if he did let it go flying into the London sky a little after we left)!

Hornby had some fantastic new products on show, all released in celebration of the 2012 games. Little man loved the new Scalextric Velodrome Cycling Set which is the first and only of its kind. This has two miniature cyclist dressed in Team GB outfits that race around a Scalextric track operated by two hand held controllers. Priced at £69.99 it isn’t cheap but one of a kind.

You can only imagine how exciting the range is for my Little man. His had a special interest in transport for as long as I can remember. His 11 now and although his finally acquired some additional interests in the last year (mainly Lego and wrestling) he still loves his transport, especially trains, buses and the underground so he was pretty impressed with these below.

We had an awesome time at Hamleys, both boys were smiling as we were taken on a tour around the store. Sadly little man now hates having his photo taken especially in public but as you can see this isn’t the case for the two year old.

Harley especially, was dead impressed to meet Wenlock (yes, the one eye mascot)! Hornby have been sure to included both the Olympic and Paralympics Mascots within some of its fabulous merchandise. This includes the funky Chocolate vending machine that little man is actually lusting after, as well as some fab 2012 Mascot key rings that are really heavy and well made (we were lucky to receive some of these in our goody bags).

It was a really good day and we all thank Hornby for inviting us. If you want to check out the Official range of London 2012 products, pop over to their website and check it out.

Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this post, but attended a party with the children to check out the new range and the children received a goody bag.

#Silent Sunday