Experimental MumScience + Children = Fun + Mess

Ecover Stain Remover

Ecover Laundry Products

Now, I’m sure like me you do enough loads of washing a day to find laundry products about the least exciting thing on the planet. However when Ecover sent me their Stain Remover, I knew I had the perfect tough stains to test their product.

First up was my brand new pair of jeans that had been delightfully decorated by my darling daughters (see yesterday’s post!). Mmmm…metallic paint and really dark denim, as I scrubbed on the stain remover with the little brush, I didn’t hold out much hope. I was sure I’d be left with a faded patch at best. Amazingly they survived and the stain was gone – result!

Oil Stain?

Next up was my daughter’s pink jacket. It’s had this dark stain on it for months, really not sure what it was but it looked like oil. I’d tried to remove it a few times using Oxiclean but with no luck. Although it took two washes at 40 degrees, it removed the stain almost completely with just the tiniest suggestion of a remaining mark. Well done Ecover – I’m very impressed! A 200 ml bottle costs around £2.80 and you can buy it here.

Freya has lost her 15th tooth today and with each tooth lost her letters to the tooth fairy get more and more elaborate (as do the tooth fairy replies!)    ; )

Love the extra paper for the expected answers and starry “shrine” to the lost tooth!

I’ll miss this when all her adult teeth are in.

15th Tooth Fairy Letter

Hotter Terra Walking Boot

Hotter Shoes

I reviewed the Terra GORE-TEX® Walking Boots from Hotter, who claim to deliver happy feet.

Well, they truly are the most comfortable boots I’ve ever owned and the lovely teal colour is wearing up well to the harsh weather we’ve had.

Tiny niggle – I do find the laces get a wee bit loose during the day maybe that’s because they tend to focus on wider feet.

That said, they are still so comfy I’m planning to purchase some sandals during their current 3 for 2 offer for our upcoming holiday (Orlando –  5 weeks to go – yeah!).

Kids Party Quiz

Kids Printable Party Quiz

These are children’s party quizzes, which are sent to you by email in a PDF format.

The price is £7.99, which initially I thought was a bit steep, but you do get 10 quizzes and you can print as many copies as you need. Although the quality of the quizzes was good, I did think that some of graphic quality was a little on the weak side but this doesn’t affect the play quality.

I printed out the file and took it along during our weekend caravan break. The forecast was for rain and I was sure we’d soon need indoor games. On the first afternoon we played the bingo quiz and the girls loved it, taking turns to be the caller.

After a couple of games  the sun came out, the girls made friends and spent their time cycling until bedtime, so the rest of the print outs are still in the caravan locker awaiting another rainy day. I’m sure I’ll be glad of them!

UMI Tabitha

UMI Children’s Shoes

My youngest daughter was sent some lovely sandals from Umi’s Spring/Summer Collection. Erynn has a high instep that gives her a wide foot and so getting shoes that don’t rub and cause blisters can be a problem. These sandals are very padded and soft and they are so comfy Erynn has already had loads of wear out of them considering until recently it was still very wintery in the North of Scotland! We’ll be packing them for our summer hols, comfy footwear while trawling the theme parks will be a must!

Umi’s Autumn/Winter collection will be released shortly and you can follow updates on their Facebook page.

Don't waste a drop

Fairy Liquid – 50 years old!

To celebrate 50 years of Fairy, we were kindly sent a craft kit to decorate the vintage style fairy bottles. My kids firstly thought the “old” bottles were hilarious but then decided them super cool as they would make cool dog squirters for Fern, our loopy spaniel who loves all things water.

Before the mayhem ...

I left the girls enthuse enthusiastically decorating away and pottered off to do a bit of housework, thinking that at 7 and 9 years old they didn’t really need my input and the finished result would be “all their own work”. OMG – when I returned there was paint, glitter and glue everywhere! I couldn’t believe it, it was on the couch (thankfully leather, so wipe able), underneath the table, the carpet, even the cupboard that was on the other side of the room. After lots of swearing, “how b****** old are you” comments and baby wipes, calm was restored…

Until I went to bed, took off my brand new jeans and found that somehow in the clean up I’d managed to sit a puddle of purple glittery paint. Scrubbing my jeans with stain remover at midnight, not my idea of Saturday night entertainment. Grrr …

P.S. Was so busy cleaning, I forgot to take an after photo of the finished creations – the dog enjoyed them!

Fairy’s site has had a retro makeover and it includes a great range of craft, outdoor fun, music and recipe ideas and you could win a dishwasher too!

Back in March, McCains kindly sent us some seed potatoes, they are coming on great! This inspired the girls to plant some more vegetables and they carefully helped fill the reusable grow bags, plant out the seeds and they are very proud of their handiwork.  I love our wee patio veggie plot. It’ll be interesting to see how much veg we manage to grow in such a little space. Looking forward to bumper crops!

According to a recent survey carried out by McCain’s the food producers, out of 1500  7-11 year olds questioned, 10% of them believed that potatoes came from chickens!

In a bid to educate children about our food sources they have set up an excellent website with great resource sections for kids, parents and teachers. It includes everything from recipes to lesson plans.

Throughout the month of March they are also touring schools with the Potato Bus which judging by the photos looks a lot of fun! Here is the Scottish School Itinerary – hopefully your children will be getting a visit.

McCain’s kindly sent my girls their own gardening kits and seed potatoes, which are sprouting happily by the patio doors. This ” tattie holidays” my kids will hopefully have their own crop to pick.

P.S. Here’s a definition of  the tattie holidays and here’s a very Scottish description!

Just before Christmas I read a science story that I hope might just change life as I know it.

Scientists at Touch Bionics based in Livingston, Scotland unveiled the world’s first bionic finger. It can even be fitted with LivingSkin to match your other hand! I’m loving reading their Twitter updates, and keeping up with this amazing invention.

This truly life changing technology will transform the lives of people like me who have damaged or missing fingers due to injury or birth defects.

I was born with amniotic band syndrome (ABS) a congenital birth defect which results in damage to body parts (usually limbs) due to being caught up and entangled in string-like bands will in utero. These strands are caused by a chance accidental tear in the amniotic sac. No prenatal factors have been associated with ABS, although our family have reason to believe my ABS resulted after exposure to strong farming chemicals.

Although ABS is not genetic I requested 20 week scans during my pregnancies to determine if my two girls were affected as amazingly fetal surgery is now possible. Melbourne surgeons were able to save this baby girls legs while her Mum was 22 weeks pregnant!

Luckily both my girls were born completely healthy, in fact my eldest daughter has the most beautiful long slender fingers with gorgeous shaped nails that grow super fast. They look simply stunning with nail polish on.  And Freya that’s why you can’t stop piano lessons  – your fingers were born for playing!

In my case the ABS resulted in two missing toes from my left foot, some constriction bands on my left hand which means I can’t bend my middle finger and teeny tiny baby sized fingers on my right hand that have no nails or knuckles.

Sorry no photos at the moment, although I hate to admit it, I’m still self-conscious at the grand old age of 38. If I’m lucky enough to be able to go ahead with this technology (as it’s so new, and each device is unique, it’s very expensive) I’ll be delighted to share my BEFORE and AFTER photos with the world!

2010 might just be the decade that I become not only Experimental Mum but Bionic Mum too!

I’ve sent off an initial enquiry to Touch Bionics for their review and hope to hear from them shortly.

I’ll keep you posted, wish me luck!

Thank you to Tom at Shine Communications for sending us the brand new Nintendo DS Flips to review. Flips are a new range of interactive books designed to get children exicted about reading.

The video below gives an overview of the cool features.

We received the Cathy Cassidy Flips and here is Freya’s unedited review:

I love Flips, I think there very good.

My mum got sent a Flip for free and they asked me and my sister to try it out.

Flips is about making kids enjoy reading by the more you read the more games and puzzles you unlock, plus you probably want to play games.

Also if you’re not a big fan of reading like me Flips will help you enjoy it.

I’ve been reading Scarlet and I think it’s very good. It’s so good!!!!

My favourite bit about Flips is when you read more you unlock more games and puzzles…

My worst bit is nothing, I like all of it.

That’s why I enjoy Flips and I think they’re very good!!!!!!!!!

My Mum hopes they makes some adult ones too, she thinks they’d be cool at her bookclub!!!

Writing by – Freya Riddell (age eight)

Cling Film Boots!

My Mum is a very inventive women!

In the last week of the Christmas school term the girls had a unexpected day off school after being snowed in at Grannies house. They celebrated by having a snow day, whereas me and their Dad celebrated a further night without children by going out for dinner – thanks Mum x!

The girls were keen to  fully embrace the snowy fun but there was one slight snag, Freya didn’t have waterproof boots with her. So clever Granny made her some…

Here is Freya wearing her suede boots wrapped in cling film and topped with a pair of slipper socks!

Tara over at Sticky Fingers has started a photo meme and is going to compile a photo gallery of all the entries.

The challenge is simple, choose your favourite photo and tell us what it means to you. Then invite someone else to join the fun.

Like most Mums I have 1000’s of photos of the kids, so choosing just one is pretty tricky.

But the photo below is stuck on our fridge and makes me smile each time I look at it.

Frozen Fern

It was taken in Abriachan Wood in February 2009 and it is a picture of my girls Freya, Erynn and our cocker spaniel Fern.

This slightly crazy dog  had managed to find the only unfrozen puddle of water and rolled in it, only to instantly freeze herself. She was covered in icicles and we had to defrost her in a warm bath when we came home. Which resulted in a very muddy bath chock full of forest twigs! The girls thought it was hilarious and Fern loved the pampering, especially the blow dry.

I love the expression on the dogs face, the kids rosy cheeks, the frosty scenery, even Erynn’s wonky fringe following a rather rubbish haircut by me!

I’d like to invite Kathryn at Crystal Jigsaw to submit a photo too. I’ve just discovered her blog but enjoyed reading very much.

About a hundred years ago I replied to a request on British Mummy Bloggers to put Ecover cleaning products to the test alongside some well known brand name cleaning products. Ecover have developed a range of ecosurfactants that they claim to be extremely powerful and supremely ecological. They have a cool website too, love the wipe effect!

Although I like the environmentally friendly idea of Ecover products I was sceptical that they could work as well as the petrochemical alternatives. I know it’s clever marketing but brand name cleaning products like Flash are so shiny looking and clean smelling they just “appear” as if they will work better.

Now where to start in my cleaning spree! First up was the gas cooker top and hood which was in need of a good scrub. In this test I compared Ecover Power Cleaner with Cillit Bang. I’ve always been rather wary of Cillit Bang after once leaving a permanently “clean steak” while over zealously scrubbing a plastic shower cabinet. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the Ecover product worked equally well in this test even on the greasy cooker hood. I did take before and after photos but managed to delete them seconds later. Which is probably just as well, it was pretty embarrassingly crusty!

Time for a tougher challenge…Next up was the very grotty jacuzzi bath vents. I had only just realised (after 3 years of use) that they were removable so they were revoltingly manky and I can’t quite believe I’m posting this photo! To tackle the grot I used both Ecover Multisurface Cleaner and Flash Multisurface Cleaner. Both effectively removed all the hidden grot pretty easily, in fact I had to fill the bath and run the pump to get rid of all the scale which floated away. I had a bath that night to celebrate it’s shininess! I must admit I did prefer the stronger fragrance of the Flash product, although I notice both are fragranced with Liminol. Again clever marketing makes us believe if it smells clean it is clean!

Bath - Before

Bath - After

Lastly I tackled the back door, which has a glass panel that is constantly marked with our spaniels muddy paws. This time I compared Mr Muscle Window & Glass Spray with Ecover Window & Glass Cleaner. This time Ecover won hands down, it polished the glass up really quickly and without any streaks, unlike Mr Muscle and lots of previous products I’ve used. I’ll definitely buy this one again.