Red Rose Mummy

A year ago I didn't really know who Justin Fletcher was. I was dimly aware of a character on cBeebies named Mr Tumble but as my toddler refused to watch television for more than thirty seconds at a time our exposure to children's TV was minimal. Twelve months on we are regular cBeebies viewers and big fans of Justin Fletcher in his various cBeebies incarnations.

I was really pleased to see that Justin has released a new CD. Bud loves music at the moment and is building up a small collection of his own CDs. Whenever we travel by car now he asks for 'my songs' and we have to pop one of his discs into the player.

'The Best of Friends' features Justin singing a mixture of old and new songs. His version of 'Reach' by S Club 7 was a particular highlight for me but we also enjoyed the great singalong nature of tracks like 'One Man Went to Mow' and 'Ten Green Bottles'. I really loved the inclusion of 'Let's Go Fly a Kite' as this is one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite films!

Track Listing:

1. The Best of Friends (Best Friends Forever)

2, Rockin' Robin

3. Ugly Duckling

4. Ten Green Bottles

5. Jump Jive An' Wail

6. This Old Man

7. Reach

8. Pop Goes the Weasel

9. We're Off to See the Wizard

10. One Man Went to Mow

11. You're a Pink Toothbrush

12. The Clapping Song

13. Zip a Dee Doo Dah

14. There's a Hole in My Bucket

15. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

16. Sing a Song of Sixpence

17. Let's Go Fly a Kite

18. If I Only Had a Brain

19. The Prune Song

20. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

We're really enjoying playing 'The Best of Friends' and would really recommend it to any little Justin Fletcher fans. The CD is out now and is available from all the usual outlets and at Amazon and iTunes.

You can also see Justin live on tour at venues across the UK later in the year. We're thinking about buying tickets as Bud would love it, I'm sure.

To keep up with all of Justin's news check out his official Facebook page.

Disclaimer: I received this CD free of charge for review purposes, all opinions are honest and unbiased.

I received a sewing machine for my birthday two years ago at the end of this month. I've never taken it out of the box. Today I sorted through my stash of fabric and found this printed fleece. It's lovely and lightweight and I think it will make a cute spring dress for Little Miss. The top fabric is a dress my Cousin bought for her at Christmas and I'm going to use it as a template. The sewing machine is going to emerge this week. Wish me luck!

...and, oh! Excuse my hideous curtains. I have some lovely voile which needs to be hemmed before I can hang it. That's second on my list of sewing projects!

Small boy toddler rolling MOSI Soft Play Museum Science Industry Manchester

It was a glorious day here today so we spent time in the garden tidying and trying to ready it for the Summer. Bud said he was helping but this mainly consisted of him moving his footballs around the garden!

A few weeks ago we visited the Imperial War Museum North. It was a glorious Saturday and we decided to make the most of it by going for a wander around Salford Quays to see the new BBC Studios in MediaCity which have opened up in the last couple of years. It's a while since we've been able to have a walk around there as the last few times we've visited in vile weather.

We were quite surprised to see the pedestrian bridge raised (bottom row centre above), I knew it did lift to allow ships through but I've never seen it before. The basin was being dredged so it was up to allow the dredger free access.

The new studios are a sight to behold. Towering glass and steel structures emblazoned with the BBC logos and some of our favourite characters. Bud (and I) were excited to see Mr Bloom, even if it did look like he'd been sleeping in compost from Compo.We also spotted Sid, Cerrie, Andy and Alex from cBeebies and Dr Who, another favourite. We even snuck inside to see a replica of the TARDIS! I was interested to see that you can tour the site and I'd love to do this when Bud gets a bit older.

BBC Studios MediaCity cBeebies Dr Who TARDIS

I was particularly excited to see a small Blue Peter garden featuring a bust of Shep (who I'm too young to remember) and hand and paw prints from some of the presenters and animals. This was a lovely little haven, a peaceful corner of the site which Red Rose Daddy failed to spot when he walked past. He and Bud wandered back to find me and Little Miss and then we all enjoyed a quiet few moments sitting beside the covered water feature.

When we'd finished up around the BBC we wandered around to the Lowry Outlet Mall, opposite the Lowry Theatre and Gallery. We were quite surprised to see a big crowd who, it turned out, were queuing to watch the auditions for Britain's Got Talent. We saw a few big blacked out cars but didn't spot Simon Cowell. After a little time spent shopping and a wander past a veritable troupe of unicyclists. Troupe. Is that the collective noun for unicyclists? A quick Google tells me that there isn't one but unicyclists themselves seem to like 'wobble' so we wandered past a wobble of unicyclists and then we headed home after a really lovely day out.