The Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour #sweetsandtreats

I first discovered Harry Potter when I was a student, during the hype surrounding the publication of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I eagerly watched the first film - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - as soon as it was released in cinemas back in 2001 and I kept up with the book and film releases until the final film, part two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in 2011. So I'm quite a fan and pretty familiar with the franchise! (Of course, I also have a son called Harry, and that may not be entirely co-incidental!)

I've been very keen to visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour for quite some time, and so it was a great treat to be given the chance to visit the studios last weekend. Harry has just begun his introduction to Harry Potter, and so far he has seen and enjoyed the first two films, and he'll be working his way through the rest shortly. Mia at 4 is a little young yet to watch the films, but I was hopeful that there would be enough in the tour to keep her interested.

We visited on a Sunday in the school summer holidays, so we knew that it would be busy. We were booked onto the first tour of the day at 10am and arrived about twenty minutes before. We did have to wait in line for about half an hour before we could begin our tour which wasn't ideal, especially with impatient children, but once inside we found that the crowds dispersed well and there was plenty of space to see everything. Standing in the queue also gave us the opportunity for a good look at the first set - Harry's room in the cupboard under the stairs.

Both children were given a Harry Potter Passport which was a great touch for keeping them interested as we followed the self-guided tour. There were six stamps to collect, as well as hidden golden snitches to find and lots of trivia questions.

The first part of your tour is the Great Hall set. Over the summer the studios are hosting the first ever Sweets and Treats feature which focuses on how food, both real and replica, was made for the Harry Potter films. There are demonstrations at several points in the tour, and the tables in the Great Hall have been laid with some delicious looking cakes and desserts, albeit it only props.

There is a time limit to this area of the tour, but we had plenty of time to linger and see everything, as well as taking lots of photos. The lighting on the tour is perfect for taking great photographs, I've come back with so many!

Throughout the tour there are plenty of costumes on display, all of which are instantly recognisable. The mannequins look a bit creepy in the photographs, but it actually works really well in real life and it's great to be able to get so close to the costumes and have a proper look at them, there is so much detail.

You move on from the Great Hall into a large open sound stage, where you can see many different sets and props from the films. The whole area is very well designed so that you can get close to the sets to take photos and have a really good look at them, and the crowds flow really smoothly through the whole area. There are also plenty of places where you can sit down for a rest! I really enjoyed looking around the different sets, and there are lots of information boards packed with trivia. It's amazing how much thought has gone into everything, and there are plenty of extra details which it is easy to miss when watching the films.

There is a lot to see here, before you turn a corner and there in front of you is the Hogwarts Express waiting at the platform! To one side there is the chance to pose for a picture as you push a luggage trolley through to Platform 9 3/4, and then you can walk along a carriage of the train, with each compartment set up as it was seen in a different film.

Finally you can take a seat in a carriage like one that was used for filming, and enjoy a short 'journey' with some projected scenes where you are encouraged to react to what you can see through the windows. There is also the opportunity to have your photograph taken in a carriage with a green screen and then purchase a photo with different images superimposed onto the windows of your carriage. This is just one of several green screen photograph opportunities during the tour. They aren't for us, but if you wish you can have your photograph (and video) taken against a variety of different backgrounds to purchase and it looked pretty fun with just short queues. The picture below of us in the carriage was taken on my phone by a friendly member of staff.

After this there is a chance for a sit down in the cafe before moving on to the exterior sets. The cafe has a selection of hot and cold food, and there are plenty of tables where you can also eat your own food. Our main reason for stopping here though was the Butterbeer!

We've very much enjoyed sampling Butterbeer at the Harry Potter theme parks in Florida, so having a cup here was a must, although at £2.95 for a small cup it is pretty pricey. This summer, Butterbeer ice cream is also available to purchase. It was delicious, although I'm afraid that at £5 a tub we chose to make do with sharing one between us!

After this you can see some of the exterior sets. Harry was fascinated by these large chess pieces that mysteriously seemed to move as soon as he touched them - it must be magic!

Here you can also visit a very famous house - 4 Privet Drive - where Harry lives with the Dursleys. In the first film a real house in Bracknell was used, but subsequent films were made using a set and you can walk right up to the 'house' and peer through the windows. There's nothing to see but it makes a great photo!

The finale of the tour is the huge scale model of Hogwarts Castle which was used for many film sequences. It's pretty amazing and you can walk right around it to see it from all angles.

We had a wonderful visit and as a fan I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to go. I do think that the ticket prices are pretty steep, but having said that if you are a fan of the franchise it's an opportunity to see things that you really can't see anywhere else. We spent about three hours here, and I could probably have spent longer if I'd not been with the little ones. Harry enjoyed the visit very much and loved spotting things that he recognised from the films. Mia to be honest was slightly too young to get the most out of it, although she didn't get bored as long as we kept moving and the ice cream break in the middle kept her going!

If you are a Harry Potter fan, you might be interested to read my reviews of the Harry Potter attractions in Orlando, Florida:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure

We received complimentary admission to the Warner Bros. Stuidio Tour in exchange for a review. Adult ticket prices (16+) start at £33 and child tickets (5-15 years accompanied by an adult) start at £25.50. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and a reservation must be made for a particular time slot.

Tips for trying out family camping

I wrote recently about how we'd spent a few nights camping as a family in the New Forest. Growing up I had a lot of camping holidays, but Ram is a more reluctant camper, and of course as adults you have more concerns about the practicalities of family camping. I don't claim to be anywhere near an expert, but I thought I'd share the ways in which we make the most of our camping experience without doing without our home comforts for long.

Firstly, begin by camping in the garden. You can test out your tent and be confident that it will remain standing, is waterproof, will fit all of your bedding, and that the children won't suddenly change their minds.

So far, we've only been camping away for one night. We arrive at the campsite soon after midday, pitch our tent, then we have the afternoon and evening to spend exploring the forest and having fun outdoors. We leave first thing the next morning, so there is no need for showers and we are home by lunchtime.

We eat a main meal out in the evening, so we don't need to worry about cooking, washing up, or transporting all that extra equipment. There is always a pub nearby with easy parking and a play area for the children. If we do progress to camp cooking then we'll go with a disposable barbecue, with plastic plates and cutlery. For lunch on our first day we take along some sandwiches, and for breakfast we pack some dry cereal like Cheerios in a plastic tub for the children and a selection of croissants.

We sleep on two double airbeds, and although it's not too much hassle to pump them up with a foot pump we recently invested in a cheap electric pump that runs from the power socket in the car which makes inflating a lot quicker. It also deflates, so you can easily remove all the air before trying to stuff them back into original packaging. We take our own pillows and we each have a cheap sleeping bag. We take an extra blanket or two and we dress warmly for sleep.

Something that we very much enjoy having with us is our folding camping chairs. It makes a big difference to your comfort when you have somewhere that you can sit properly and they have drinks holders in the arms for that all important 'Pimms in a tin'.

We have a torch each, and they are all wind up torches which are pretty cheap in Ikea. We're not very good at winding them up in advance so you need to wind them as you go, but they are fun for a late night walk in the forest. We also have a small battery powered lantern which hangs from the roof of the tent and makes getting ready for bed in the dark much easier.

We are very much beginner campers at the moment, and I'm not sure that we'll ever manage more than a couple of nights away, but even spending just the one night in a tent with the family can be really fun and it's a great experience to share with children!

Sponsored post - Choosing the ideal family car

Our current family car is a Ford Focus. We've had it for a few years now and it has done us very well in that time. We've only had a couple of issues, although as time goes on we are finding ourselves paying more and more to fix things that have gone wrong with it, and just last week we found ourselves having to fork out for a new battery.

So I've been thinking about the ideal features we would look for when planning to purchase a new family car.

Safety is obviously key. We'd always look for a car which is Isofix for the car seats, along with plenty of room to fit them in. Room for someone to sit comfortably in the middle between two car seats is a huge bonus - in our current car anyone that has the misfortune to need the middle seat is pretty uncomfortable!

Another important feature is reliability. When you are travelling with young children you need to be confident that your car can get you safely to your destination without incident.

Like most people, we also need to consider the affordability of a family car. When taking out a loan to finance a car then it's worth spending some time comparing the different deals on offer - and you can visit the TSB loans homepage to work out some typical monthly repayments and see if they are in your budget.

Once you've got the big things out of the way, there are still a few extra things that can make a car journey with the family more pleasant. I'd love a car which has integrated DVD players or space to hold an iPad in the headrests so that the children could watch something while we are travelling on long journeys. In the past we have got by with iPads in their laps, but I don't trust them to hold tightly enough to make it a regular thing!

Plenty of boot space is a big advantage, as even a trip away for a couple of nights seems to produce several suitcases along with all the extras that are flung in at the last minute.

I'd also like a car with a way of easily charging mobile phones and other devices while you are on the move. And finally, a car with a self-emptying rubbish bin would be amazing!

What features do you think are particularly important in a family car? To explore your options when looking at purchasing a family car, you can check out this car finance guide from TSB.

This is a sponsored post.

Review - Glorious Vintage jigsaw puzzle from Ravensburger

I love doing jigsaws, and I'm very lucky to be able to review puzzles from Ravensburger from time to time. This month I've been completing the Glorious Vintage puzzle, a 1000 piece jigsaw that is a celebration of the wine-makers' art across the ages. The design is a mixture of vibrant and lush images - from vineyards to rolling hills, wine cellars, vintage posters, as well as wine bottles in all shapes and sizes.

I love puzzles like this with lots of little details, and I've reviewed a couple of other puzzles from Ravensburger which are similar in design - The Gardener's Cupboard and The Red Box. All of these puzzles were quite daunting to begin with, but once you become familiar with the different parts of the picture they become a lot easier and you can often take a piece from the box and, referring to the picture, place it exactly where it needs to go.

I started with the edge as I always do, and once it was complete I started to look for pieces with text or smaller pictures and the puzzle soon began to take shape. The inclusion of a separate sheet within the box containing the finished design is really helpful, because then you can sort your pieces out across the two halves of the box and it's easier to refer to than the front of the box because you can lay it out flat next to you.

I love having a jigsaw puzzle out to be worked on and it certainly stops me wasting so much time on social media. The children enjoy trying to help out too, and I always let them put the last few pieces in!

This is another lovely puzzle from Ravensburger, a fantastic design with lots of detail and plenty of variety.

I received this jigsaw in exchange for a review.

Dinosaur Island at Southwater Country Park

Dinosaur Island at Southwater Country Park opened earlier this summer, and it's a brand new dinosaur adventure themed playground. We visited this week with some friends and had such a great time I thought I'd share what we thought of it as I'd definitely recommend it!

I have fond memories of Southwater Country Park as I grew up in Horsham. I used to go canoeing with the Venture Scouts and I also remember raft building (and sinking) on the lake with the Guides. The playground is at the far side of the park, so it's a short walk from the Visitor Centre. The free parking is clearly marked from the road, and dinosaur footprints mark the way to the playground. We arrived quite early knowing that it would be popular in the summer holidays, and it was pretty busy by the time we left around lunchtime.

We set up our picnic blanket by the sandpit, knowing that it would be popular. Luckily we'd been told to bring buckets and spades, and the children spent a good while busily excavating the dinosaur bones. It's such a simple idea and yet brilliant, there's so much enjoyment to be had from digging around with a 'purpose'. There is also a small framework in the sandpit along with pulleys and buckets for moving sand about.

The playground covers quite a large area, and there is lots of different dinosaur themed play equipment, as well as the playground classics like swings and slides. The centrepiece is a large volcano which children can climb. I'd had an idea that the volcano was supposed to do something eruption related, but it stayed dormant during our visit so I'm not quite sure if there is any more to it or not.

There are a couple of rope walkway areas for the children to explore around the playground, one has been there for a few years now and there is also a newer one which seems to be aimed at slightly older children, it certainly looked quite difficult to me although Harry had no problems getting around it!

There is a lot to do, and we were quite happily entertained in the playground for a couple of hours, along with eating our picnic. There was an ice cream shed next to the playground but unfortunately it was shut and it was too far to walk back to the Visitor Centre for an ice-cream - they were definitely missing a trick there as I would have bought some! The main toilets and changing facilities are also back in the Visitor Centre, which is worth knowing. There are a few portaloos set up next to the playground but they are only temporary for the summer holidays and to be honest they were pretty grim.

Southwater Country Park isn't just about Dinosaur Island though, and it's definitely worth making the trip even if you have to travel a short distance. The paths are smooth and level, so ideal for pushchairs, and there is a large lake in the centre with a sandy beach where you can swim and paddle. There are ducks and swans to see, and some beautiful wildlife areas.

If you are interested in visiting you can find out more information and location here - Southwater Country Park.

Playing the #minsgame - an update

Back in March I wrote about how in February I'd been challenged to play the #minsgame. The Minimalism Game is a way to reduce your possessions and declutter over time, with the idea of removing the same number of items from your home as that date in the month. So on the first of the month you declutter one thing, on the second you declutter two things, all the way to the end of the month where you need to find 29, 30 or even 31 items to remove, depending on which month you choose. Even at the end of February, the shortest month, your house will be lighter of an amazing 406 things.

I was very successful in February and I completed the challenge without too much trouble. It was such a success that I decided that I wanted to continue, and although I wasn't able to do quite as well in March, I did make it as far as the 24th of the month which was pretty impressive. Over the next few months it became more difficult to keep up, as we were away several times and I was running out of obvious things to remove. I did continue through May and June though, and got about halfway through each month.

As a part of the process I became somewhat addicted to our local Freecycle style group, where you can post a picture of something that you no longer need, and become inundated with people clamouring for it. I found it a lot easier to use than the old Yahoo Freecycle group, and it feels safer somehow dealing with people when you can see their Facebook profile. It is well moderated, and because you can see what everyone is asking for there are no more begging e-mails, you can pick out the people that are just asking for everything and get a feel for the good and bad collectors.

With small children in the house decluttering is an ongoing process. I'm always finding things that they've grown out of, and we are always accumulating bits and pieces from party bags and Kinder eggs, not to mention the multitude of finished and half-finished craft projects that pile up. I'm going to have to take a break over the summer, but when September comes around I'm definitely going to be playing again! Do you want to join me?

Frames for holiday and vacation postcards

This month, appropriately enough, the theme for my Bostik Bloggers craft box was Holidays. It was another fantastic crafty box, and we came up with two crafts using the materials and Bostik products inside - some simple frames to display holiday photographs or postcards and some paper plate hanging decorations featuring beads and sand art.

Postcard or photograph frames

Our first craft was some frames for postcards. I always try to buy the children a postcard when we go on holiday somewhere as a little memento for them, especially as we hardly even seem to print out our digital photographs. We made some simple frames for them to display one of their favourites.

You just take an A4 sheet of coloured cardboard. Fold it in half, and on the inside draw around your postcard or photograph. Use a craft knife to cut out the hole, making it slightly smaller than the opening that you have drawn.

Decorate the front of the frame - we used ric rac, stickers and wooden decorations. To stick down the wooden decorations we used Bostik glu dots which we received in a previous Bostik Bloggers craft box, they are very sticky and great for holding larger decorations firmly in place.

The stickers were self adhesive but we made sure that they were firmly stuck with the fine and wide glu pen. We finished the frames by taping the postcards in place and glueing around the edges of the frame. Then the children used some blu tack to stick them up in their bedrooms.

Hanging paper plate sand decorations

Then we used some of the extra materials to make some hanging decorations. To begin with, I cut out some glittered card to fit inside the paper plates and glued it firmly in place using the Bostik fine & wide glu pen. It's a great idea - the glue is stored in the centre of the pen and then there is a fine nib one one side and a larger, soft nib on the other side, and you can choose which to use depending on how accurate you need your glueing to be. I used the wide nib to glue the glitter card to the plate, then we used the fine nib to trace out some patterns to be covered in coloured sand.

The glue pen was really easy for little ones to use, and although I helped Mia, Harry was able to draw out his own picture. Then we sprinkled gorgeous yellow sand over the design and shook off the excess leaving our patterns behind.

Regular readers will know that I'm a huge fan of Hama beads, and I was delighted to find some inside our box this month. But this time I decided to try something we've not actually done before and use them for threading - and I really like how they look! Both children were able to thread the Hama beads onto some wool using a thick needle, along with some of these lovely plastic animal beads.

I used some coloured ric rac to make hanging loops, then I threaded the beaded strings through the bottom of the plate. I think they make lovely colourful decorations for their bedrooms, they remind me a little bit of dreamcatchers! There is plenty of coloured sand left over and the glue worked perfectly with it so I think that's it is a craft we'll be trying again.

The box of craft materials was provided to me free of charge by Bostik as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers Club.