children
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Christmas At The Botanical Gardens
Last Thursday was possibly the coldest night of Winter so far, but it was also a night full of magical sparkle and beautiful lights. A very special blogger event was taking place at Birmingham’s beautiful Botanical Gardens which have been transformed into a wonderful illuminated trail for the festive season, and with the promise of vintage fairground rides, warming mulled wine and deliciously festive food, we donned our hats and scarves and braved the cold in order to see the Botanical Gardens in a whole new light. We were not disappointed. The glasshouses, trees and bushes of the gardens are totally transformed as they twinkle and sparkle in the darkness.…
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Countdown to Cruella Pt 2 – A Chat With The Cast
Following on from my chat with the director of 101 Dalmatians, Tessa Walker, and puppetry designer Jimmy Grimes, this post is, as promised, a chat with some of the cast who will be bringing Dodie Smith’s much loved classic tale to life at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre next month. Emma Thornett and Oliver Wellington We start with a chat with Emma Thornett and Oliver Wellington, who play Missus and Pongo in the new adaptation. If you are unfamiliar with the book, you may be wondering who Missus is, but, as Emma explained, Missus is actually the mother of the puppies, rather than Perdita. Disney merged Missus and Perdita into one…
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Countdown to Cruella – Behind The Scenes at 101 Dalmatians Pt 1
Every year at Christmas time, the Birmingham Rep offers something a little bit different to the traditional panto fare. This year it is bringing an eagerly awaited production of 101 Dalmatians to Birmingham and last week, on World Theatre Day, I was lucky enough to get behind the scenes at the Rep, to watch a rehearsal, chat to the cast and director Tessa Walker, designer Jamie Vartan and puppet director Jimmy Grimes. It was a fascinating look at what goes into the production of a Christmas classic. In this first post I am going to bring you the chat with director Tessa and puppet director Jimmy, who talked about why…
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Awful Auntie Live On Stage In Birmingham
Awful Auntie stormed into the Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre tonight delighting both children and adults alike. The latest David Walliams novel to be adapted for the stage has all the hallmarks that make Walliams’s books so brilliant, a monstrous villain, a plucky, determined child, a story of loss and friendship. But, unlike the other Walliam’s stories, this is a story set in the past, in the 1920s, and there’s no sign of Raj. That said,it is still a brilliantly told tale, and in Alberta Saxby, it has one of the most memorable baddies in recent times. Stella Saxby is 12, almost 13, when she wakes up in her bed swathed…
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Christmas Gift Idea: A Photo Gift Idea From Lifecake
Lifecake is a fantastic App that gives you a way to preserve your photographs and videos that accumulate over time. It is a visual storytelling platform that can store all the photographs you take of your children and can organise them into albums, sorted by special occasions, birthdays and memorable dates. In addition, you can also share the details with your loved ones, who may not live close, so that they too can keep up to date with all the memorable milestones our children experience every single day. Currently you can download the Lifecake app from Google Play and the Apple Store and receive 10GB of free space for storing…
