Review & Giveaway Disney Cinderella Royal Edition DVD

If I said to you 'what is the ultimate fairy tale? Which is the story that every little girl loves and the one with the ending that makes you go ahhh?'  I bet many of you would answer Cinderella.

I spent a very enjoyable hour earlier today watching the Disney DVD Cinderella Royal Edition and I have to say that us girlies all loved it!  What with having our very own Royal Wedding this weekend it was super to watch this beautiful animation with my little girls. Surprising I know, but they are not familiar with the story and it was lovely watching them as they enjoyed the romance.  If we are honest probably their favourite parts were those including Cinderella's friends Gus and Jaq the mice.

I'm not even going to insult you by giving you a synopsis of the story, we all remember it from our childhood and if you don't then frankly you will love the surprise.

This Royal Edition has Disney enhanced home theatre mix and that makes for a really watchable movie.  I love the fact that the film stays with the original animation and because of that it holds a real innocence. The songs are superb and the singing has a Wizard of Oz quality about it, I realised today that classic movies like this had a completely different style of music to what we see today in movies. 

As well as the movie there are a couple of nice music video extras on the DVD.

The DVD runs for 62 minutes and is a U certificate for general viewing. You can watch a clip of the movie here and also purchase it if you wish.

I am lucky enough to be able to offer one lucky person a brand new copy of this great DVD.  Here is how you enter the giveaway -

To Enter

• Subscribe to this blog by google friends, email or RSS - all the widgets are on the right (Mandatory).
• If you would like a second entry, then please do like my facebook page! and leave a comment to tell me you have done so.
• For a final entry (max of 3) you can tweet '#Win Disney's Cinderella on DVD from @michelletwinmum 's #giveaway  http://bit.ly/im2Ai4'

Terms and Conditions

• The giveaway will close at 12 noon Saturday 7 May 2011
• The winner will be contacted within 3 days of this giveaway closing
• The giveaway is open to those in the UK and Ireland
• The winner will be chosen by random number generator
• There is no cash or prize alternative
• Your DVD will be sent direct from Disney.

Good Luck!

Big Congratulations to @TracyNixon, you are the lucky winner.  Please DM or email me with your postal details and I will get Disney to post your DVD out to you.  Thanks, Mich x

This is a review, I was provided with a copy of the Cinderella DVD  for free for the purposes of undertaking this review.  This review is honest and I was not instructed what to write or how to write this review.

Review of Bubble Bum Inflatable Car Booster Seat

When I received an email to tell me that there was a booster seat for the car that inflates and can be packaged away easily for carrying about, I thought yes what a marvellous idea.  How amazing, especially if you are travelling on a plane and can not take much with you.  I think it can cost about £3 per day to hire one along with your car.  So if you can buy an inflatable seat to keep forever for £29.99 then this has to be a winner!

and it might be for some people, those people I mention above that travel on a plane, or use loads of different cars for their child to receive lifts in but actually I am not one of those people.  We have one car and I want JJ to be as comfortable and safe as he can be on his seat and sadly the Bubble Bum booster seat was not the answer for us.  JJ is 7 but he is a strapping lad, dressed in clothes for a 9 year old so he was just too big for the seat I felt.  He loves it and told me it was 'well cool' and that he was 'totally comfy' but I am the Mummy and therefore out rank him! 

Look at these pics, does he look as if he is well positioned on the right size seat?

You can't even see it under him, right?

The other side, all looks well here!

Luckily because JJ is tall the seat belt sits over his shoulder in roughly the right place but I tried my girls on this seat, they are nearly 4 years old and very tall and they were too small (in my opinion) for the seat despite it stating that it is suitable from 4 years upwards.

I am pretty sure the bubble bum would do its job if we were in an accident (and it has passed all the relevant safety checks).  You might not realise but the logic of a booster seat is not to raise the height of the child (that is a comfort thing with the seatbelt) the safety aspect is that the boaster seats guides the lap belt over the lap and not the stomach area.  So in this regard the bubble bum is very good as it has two guides either side of the seat to ensure the lap belt goes across in the right place.  I found these to be fiddly though and a touch annoying.  I want to undo the seat belt and have my 7 year old jump out, not have to then fiddle with taking the lap belt out of a guide as he is pinned to the seat!

I will tell you what I was extremely impressed with and that was the professionalism of the company, Cheeky Rascals who offered me the Bubble Bum booster seat to review. I went back to them with my concerns about the size of the seat and the fiddly guides and they took time to reassure me that many people view these as benefits.  Here is what they had to say -

The girth of the seat is perfectly sufficient for the age group that BubbleBum is designed for. With no hard edges, it simply doesn’t need to be as wide as more traditional boosters to be comfortable. In fact, it can be seen as an upside  as it means that the BubbleBum can be fitted where other booster seats cannot – for example in the middle of two other child carseats, or as three BubbleBum boosters across the back seat of a smaller car, where you would normally only be able to fit two seats. Although legally you are allowed to let a child travel without a booster or child restraint in the middle of the back seat if there is no room for the extra booster, the child will obviously be much safer if they are seated on a child restraint such as the BubbleBum rather than just with an adult seatbelt.

The guides for the seatbelt are a very important safety feature of the BubbleBum and they set it apart from other boosters in making it much safer. They do take longer to undo, but are safer because of it. The idea of a booster seat is that it guides the seatbelt across the child’s lap and not across their stomach, so that in the event of an accident, it is the pelvic bones rather than soft tissue that absorb the impact of a crash (head and abdominal injuries being the 2 most common injuries following an accident). Traditional booster seats, although easier to undo, do not necessarily position the seatbelt correctly across the child’s lap and the force of the accident may cause the lap restraint to ride up against the child’s abdomen, potentially subjecting them to nasty internal injuries.  The guides for the lapbelt on the BubbleBum are carefully positioned so that the lap belt is always held in the correct place against the child’s pelvis, even if there is an accident. Interestingly, and relating to your previous point, the reduced girth also helps with this correct positioning.

An American lady – the carseatlady – has some very interesting facts and figures on this as well as a review of the BubbleBum (she was given one  to review – she has nothing to do with either BubbleBum or Cheeky Rascals).

I have to say as well that I do seem to be in the minority with my grumbles as  I did a google search on reviews for  the Bubble Bum and nearly everything I found came back very good. You can check out 24 reviews on Amazon here.

Ease of portability for travel                  5/5
Weight of product                                5/5
Height boosting ability                          2/5
Size of seat                                          3/5
Value for money                                  4/5
Look/ Style                                         4/5

This is  a review post.  I received this car seat free of charge to trial and review.  I was not instructed what to write, these are my honest opinions.

Review of Morphy Richards Meno Milk Frother & Special Offer

How do you feel about cappuccino or a nice frothy cup of hot chocolate just like you get in Costa?  Yep, I love them too and therefore when I received the new Meno milk frother from Morphy Richards I was pretty chuffed.

This mini kettle (the Meno) has made friends with it's big brother in my kitchen and is sitting along side him making me divine drinks each evening.  For I am being strict with myself and just having them on an evening.  It could be quite dangerous (without even having to mention the word addictive), if I start to drink milky drinks all the time I know that a tubby like me will pile on the pounds!

The Meno milk frother is capable of making hot frothy milk for things like cappuccino and hot chocolate (or babyccino as my kids love) as well as cold milkshake drinks. It is very easy to use, pour in the milk, twist and lock the lid and press the button, a couple of minutes later and you have perfect forth, be it hot or cold.  I have to say the heat and froth function is my favourite.  Just take a look at this picture, the froth is great, it stays really firm and makes for a fabulous drink

I have to say that in all honesty I was not as impressed with the milkshake function which froths the cold drink.  It was not as frothy and bubbly as I might have expected but was still good. Actually JJ told me it was excellent, so what do I know?

Once you have used the milk frother it is actually really easy to clean.  None of it can be immersed in water so it is just a case of washing with hot water, a mild detergent and a soft cloth.  It took seconds literally.

The Milk Frother retails at £59.99 from Morphy Richards but if you fancy buying one then you can have a 30% discount when you use the following code MFH6030 and purchase direct from the Morphy Richards site prior to 6th May 2011.  Just enter the code at the check out stage.

That takes the cost down to £42.00 and if you consider that the hot froth gives you a drink as good as you get when you buy from Costa or such it will have paid for itself in no time!!

You might have seen that I reviewed a Morphy Richard Comfrigrip iron on my other blog over the last few weeks (in fact I am running a giveaway for that very iron right now!) and that review has been posted on the Morphy Richards Home of the House Proud site. This is an excellent site; there are loads of giveaways, a wonderful archive of slow cooker recipes and you can even enter the World Championships in Ironing, you know if that's your kind of thing! lol

This is a review post.  I was sent this item free of charge for the purposes of this review.  I was not instructed what to write and I remain honest.

My new favourite Crackers, made by Ryvita (Review)

I am not sure how much I can tell you about some crackers, except to say that these Ryvita crackers (the golden Rye variety) have taken over as my favourite snack with some cheese, ideally creamy Stilton or I'll make do with some cheddar if that is all that is going.

Recently I was lucky enough to be sent 2 boxes of these new Ryvita crackers, both the black pepper variety and the golden rye. Within the larger box they are packaged in a very handy little packet of 6 crackers, so when you open them you always get perfectly crisp crackers to eat.  I hate it when crackers go a bit soft and lose that crunch.  Normally I am a multi grain or poppy seed cracker kind of girl, I like a bit of taste and crunch rather than just boring original cream crackers and these new Ryvita ones did not disappoint at all.  I found that the black pepper ones were not my cup of tea but hubbie liked them and I just adored the golden rye variety.  These most definately will be added to my weekly shopping list as a regular item.

This is what Ryvita say about them - Light and airy crackers with a distinctive crispy crunch. Made with wholegrain rye, Ryvita crackers are low in fat and high in fibre.  Suitable for vegetarians.  Each cracker is 27 kcals.

These crackers are available now from good food retailers and have a recommended retail price of £1.25 for a 175g box.

This is a review post, I was sent a cheese and cracker hamper and asked to try the Ryvita crackers and feedback. I was under no obligation to post a review but after enjoying the product I wanted to share my good find with you.  I remain honest.