Teenage Spots and Wrinkles! Its all in the Sk:n

These seven are enough to give me wrinkles!

In our household we have an age range from four months up to 42 years old, so at any one time there is likely to be 'issues' or `problems '.

Currently we have two teens and a tween, which means hormones and puberty !

And the good news is, this will be with us for another 18 years, oh joy...

By which time my face will also consist of many, many wrinkles....

I am not known for my love of make up and skin care, I may remember to put on moisturiser in the morning (if we are not running too late and Tyrus hasn't smeared it all over my mirror!!) but that's about it, now i'm not sure if my attitude towards it has rubbed off on the children, as neither Xene nor Neva have shown much interest in this whole beauty lark, much to the disappointment of my sister (who is a beauty therapist).

But they do take care of their skin. A few of our family members suffered quite badly with acne as a teen, with so many children this may occur, and my wrinkles will definitely increase!

My nan has amazing skin, and no-one can believe she is her age, in fact she often gets mistaken for my auntie, much to the disgust of my mum and her sister, so I am hoping that we all follow in her footsteps...

If, however we don't, there are treatments that can help, one of which is a chemical skin peel which takes away all of the dead skin cells and and encourages new ones to grow, making for a glowing, healthy mum!

It can also be used to treat acne and if you add up the cost of all the teen lotions and potions that are supposed to help, it may be worth considering if the chemical peel cost would work out cheaper.

There are many types of treatments available for each skin condition, you can find out more by visiting http://blog.sknclinics.co.uk

Who knows, by the time Viggo is at school I may have a 'beauty routine'!

But I doubt it, any tips that don't involve an entire hour of my day ?

this is a sponsored post

A Great Way To Feed The Family

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sian’s Plan for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
As a mum of seven I always try to ensure we eat healthily, but as you can imagine each of the children have very different tastes, so I tend to stick with the meals that I know they will all eat, which is OK but becomes quite boring!
I find myself standing in the supermarket looking for inspiration, but it doesn't happen and I grab the same ingredients to make the same dishes!!
When I was asked if I would like to test out Sian's Plan, I was eager to give it a go.

 Sian’s Plan guarantees healthy eating, the tools and support help busy parents provide real, healthy, home cooked food easily. Utilising over 30 years of experience Sian has created a colour coded meal and essential shopping list solution that is practical and flexible. It sounded like a great idea, not only would I be cooking food that was healthy for the entire family, but I would have new and interesting ideas and the Plan would create me a shopping list that I could just take to the local supermarket, or upload onto the Tesco website and choose all of the ingredients from the comfort of my own home and have it delivered.
The first dish we attempted was Chicken Satay skewers, I had most of the ingredients in the cupboard, so just needed to purchase some chicken breasts, the entire meal took very little time to prepare, I then left it marinating in the fridge until the evening meal, which then took 20 minutes to cook. 

It was a great hit with the children and we served them with Rice, which wasn't such a great idea as it ended up all over the dining room floor! (Don't mix a mischievous toddler and rice)
The boys adored the Store cupboard Pizza and I am a great fan of the Spicy Potato/ Sweet potato wedges.
I love the fact that the recipes are very easy to follow, the ingredients are quite simple, meaning I don't have to go traipsing around specialist health food shops just to make the first dish, I can easily get them at the local supermarket. They are all very easy to prepare and take very little time to make, which is perfect for us as a large family with children coming in and out at different times!
The recipes are low in Fat, Sugar and Salt but this doesn't make them any less tasty or appealing, in fact my fussy teenage daughter hasn't turned her nose up at any of them yet!
Its really easy to sign up to, just go to http://siansplan.com/ Each subscription gives you full access to over 200 recipes guaranteed for their quality and health.
If this sounds like the perfect healthy eating plan for your family there is a special offer, a 25% discount on a quarterly package giving you three months of healthy eating for £20, just enter JANPLAN on the payment page.

What is your favourite healthy eating meal to serve the family ?

#Project 365 Days 12 - 18

 Day 12 - Viggo learnt to roll over today, he was very pleased with himself, now it all begins!!

Day 13 -  That Monday morning feeling! both Kaide and Eowyn fell back to sleep after eating their breakfasts...

Day 14- Tyrus has a fascination with my hair when its up, he keeps trying to sneak up behind me and grab my hairband, this resulted in mega tickles!

 

Day 15 - Brotherly Love

Day 16 - The School Run, today Kaide was sent home early as he had bumped his head on the climbing apparatus, so it was just the girls to pick up today.

Day 17 - Jackdaw Rescue, the birds that live near our house have a habit of perching on top of the chimneys and falling in, we spent the entire afternoon trying to coax one out, which actually turned out to be three large Jackdaws...

Day 18 - College Application, Xene spent Saturday putting the finishing touches to her personal statement she needs for college, it only seems like yesterday she was born.

I LOVE my new coat !

I love being outside with the children IF I am warm enough, I always find that I ensure all of the children are all wrapped up warm, but I forget about myself.

Most mornings on the school run each child is packed off with coats, hats and  gloves and I will probably get in the car in just a t-shirt, it is only when I get half way to school that I realise I am a little chilly!!

So, when the wonderful people at GO Outdoors asked if I would like to choose a winter coat to review, I tried not to sound too desperate!

First thing I had to do was decide on a coat, which sounds simple, but not with the amount of choice on the website, there were so many to choose from, it took an entire evening of careful consideration, reading about each coat and deciding if I would look good in a particular colour. I always choose my colouring from the autumn palette, so lots of browns and greens, would I break the habit of a lifetime and go for some way out there colour ....

Er no, I found a perfect coat in brown and green!

It is called Regatta Huski Women's Waterproof Jacket.

I placed my order and it was delivered the very next day, perfect for the rain, followed by massive hailstones!!

I ordered a size 10, now that I am no longer the size of a house and it fits perfectly, there is room to put on a base layer and a thin jumper, although the coat is so warm, I haven't worn more than one layer underneath.

The entire inner of the coat is soft and warm, the hood keeps the wind and rain out without restricting my view.

It is perfect for wearing Viggo in his sling, as it is not too big and bulky.

It has numerous pockets and you can adjust the sleeves and neck to fit your individual body shape.

I cannot wait to go out and try it in the snow, when it arrives.

It is lightweight enough that I can slip it on as I rush out of the door in the morning and dash into the car, I can keep it on whilst driving, which is one of my biggest problems, I can't stand driving with a big, bulky coat on, I would rather freeze.

Both Xene and Neva are the same size as me and have both said how much they like it, which is great news for Go Outdoors, but maybe not for me, as I may go to put it on one morning and find that it is missing!!

If you are looking for a new coat for any member of the family, I would definitely recommend Go Outdoors, the quality of their products is excellent, but their prices are extremely reasonable.

Disney Infinity - The Game For All Ages!

About this time last year Lochlan was raving about a new game that was coming out in August based around Disney, which immediately got the interest of the girls!

So, we waited until it had been out a short time before making the decision to purchase the starter pack for the X Box, it was a `present' from their baby brother Viggo.

The game consists of a disc that goes into the console and a base unit, that you can place two characters on, and a power disc.
The starter pack gives you three characters to start your collection.It is available on Nintendo 3DS, Playstation 3, Wii, Wii U, XBox 360, PC and iOS.

The great thing about this game, which I think has a slight edge on the others is that EVERYONE can connect with Disney, if you ask anyone I am sure they will have at least one favourite Disney character.

With so many films, the number of characters that they can add to the set is very vast.

They are bringing them out in waves, which means they are perfect for christmas and birthday presents.

The price of the characters are not too expensive and they have the added bonus of power discs that can be purchased for a few pounds to enhance the gameplay, perfect pocket money buys!

In our house Xene aged 15 enjoys playing it as much as Tyrus aged 2, so it really is a family friendly game.

For christmas this year six of the children had particular Disney characters on their lists.

The characters are very detailed and look just like their character from the film.

Bit of a Johnny Depp theme going on!

Wreck it Ralph!

They are not flimsy and can withstand Tyrus picking them up and playing with them as toys!










Xene chose Rapunzel
Lochlan Wreck it Ralph and Vanelope
Neva Elsa from Frozen
Kaide Toy Story
Eowyn Violet
and they all agreed that Tyrus would love to have Mickey mouse (nothing like a bit of sibling influence!)

As you can see Eowyn loves putting the different characters on the base, one of the great things about it is they just have to be placed on, there are no fiddly connections or getting them in a particular position, although Tyrus's favourite game is waiting until two of his siblings are deeply involved in the game, running in, swiping one of the characters and running into the other room giggling madly!!


There are two different Modes, Toy Box, that you can build your own world and Play that you complete mini adventures.
I have managed to get one game on it so far, which was rather fun, I was able to use rapunzels Frying pan to whack Buzz Lightyear and my character Wreck It Ralph was able to pick up Buzz and hurl him across the sand!!

The only change I would make is to have the option to add more characters to allow more than two people to play at once.

A very fun family game, that will keep the children entertained for hours, there doesn't seem to be an end to the game, as new characters are introduced and you build new worlds, the game play really is INFINITE....