Slightly Fat Features - Variety in the Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol

We got to the Tobacco Factory Theatre early to bagsy prime seats in the centre front row of the auditorium. And then, I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was an ill-advised move at a comedy variety show.

They were kind. Although, as we left the theatre, the Slightly Fat Feature’s drummer, Matt, did comment that my 5-year old looked a bit less scared now it was all over. She wasn’t scared but I did get my fair share of cuddles of unsurety throughout the performance, especially when said percussion man had offered her one of his knocked out Tic-Tac teeth (we’d just eaten a whole box between us, coincidentally).

As is her way, she sat opened mouthed through much of the utter silliness before her. I giggled throughout the majority of the evening. The show reminded me of being in a festival circus tent, such as Watchet has to offer: nothing too rude, definitely OK for young children, in all its pantoesque innuendo.

Initially, I cringed mirthfully when two of the performers put a row of toy dogs in a line to smash them with a hammer to play out “How much is that doggie in the window.” She got it. I got it. We were there.

50 magical tricks in 5 minutes, all completely awful and fun – congratulations. Evel Kenil on his unicycle jumping 4 double decker buses, so slapstick. A duel for the love of Anna, a female member of the audience, entertaining and a little jumpy up there at the front. Escapology, what a build-up. A Vegas Elvis harping on about healthy eating, spear that pepper! Miniature Cowboy, please sit on my lap next time.

Guest performer, Les Bubb, was excellent. Mime and comedy done well. “Balloons aren’t really that heavy, are they, Mummy. Is he pretending?” No flies on my daughter.

On our way back to the car, she gave thought to how a man could really be sawn in two. “Maybe there were two men. One on was on his knees and another one in the other box?” she said sleepily. You’d have to stay up all night to catch these kids out. Wayne Marvell, you were her absolute favourite, something about the eyes ...?

Slightly Fat Features in the Factory runs at the Tobacco Factory Theatre until Saturday 29^th October. And yes, it’s very much recommended if you like a laugh, whatever your age.

Review by Becky

Newsletter - 23rd October

It's finally here! Monday 24th October sees the opening of Our Children's Art Exhibition at Weston-super-Mare Museum. Come along from 1 to 4pm to enter the Waterstones Donkey Poetry Competition and be in with a chance to win a £30 gift voucher at their Weston store.

Thanks so much to Karen Blake, who has mounted and hung a selection of the paintings done by the kids at Boomfest and Weston Community Show held in the summer - beautifully presented.

Also, Crystal D'esprit has taken a lot of care to display the rock art and wooden sculptures made by the children at this month's Wonder of Sculpture event at Worlebury Glade. Keep your eye on MUSE for more brilliant work that Crystal will be doing soon.

Thanks too to Keith Ramsey at Minedeep Photography, who has taken some lovely photos of our children at work!

And a special mention to all of our sponsors who have made this exhibition possible: Mums Diary, Coochy Coo, Connies, printing.com, Click Tat Photography, Weston-super-Grandad John Condron, Loves Cafe, Bootcamp Somerset and Coco Brown's Cafe! We love you all ♥

If you can't get to the Museum on Monday, don't worry, the exhibition runs until Tuesday November 1st. FREE entry to the the Courtyard and Gallery.

Also this half term, print off your special Weston-super-Mum 20 % off voucher for Connies in Waterloo Street, redeemable on Thursday 27th October on all things to make and in the cafe!

Competitions:

* Win a family ticket for 4 at the Tobacco Factory Theatre's Family Variety Show on Tuesday 25th October, 7:30pm

* Win a ticket for 2 to The Baby Show at Earl's Court, 28th-30th October

Halloween:

* Friday 28th October, 4-6pm: Free Spooky Party at the Play Area of Weston Woods, run by Action Pussycat

* Monday, 31st October, 6-8pm: Halloween Party in Grove Park. Free

* See our forum for more Halloween Events, posted by our members

For lots more events happening this week, please see our Events Wall

News, Views and Discussions:

* Catch the Early Bird ticket to Dreamland Adventure at the Blakehay Theatre this Christmas. Only £6 when you buy before November.

* See My Fair Baby's special Sofa Show on our home page.

* The Children's Centres are looking for volunteers

* Kelly is looking for classes in Weston for 1-2 year olds

* Karen B has collated your responses about Theatre in Weston and posted your thoughts to The Friends of the Playhouse, Weston

A big thank you to all who came to the successful Back to the Meadows street party on Saturday. The place took on a whole new vibe and we got to meet lots of the traders, whilst having some good, old-fashioned fun!

Newsletter - 17th October

Weston-super-Mum Events:

* Thursday, 20th October, 10-12: Cafe with Toys at Barcode. Come and enjoy a hot drink and cake, while your little ones play in a safe and comfortable environment. Free (drinks 50p). All families welcome. Cafe run by Brandon Trust, with thanks ♥

* Monday, 24th October - Tuesday 1st November: Our Children's Art at Weston-super-Mare Museum. Paintings and sculptures made by the kids at various Weston-super-Mum events this year. We're hoping to have a gallery opening on Sunday 23rd. Please check the event for updates on this! So excited about this exhibition!!!

* Wednesday, 27th Oct, all day: 20% off at Connie's for all members - don't forget to print off the voucher here

For all other upcoming events, please check our Events Wall!

Views, news and Discussions:

* Do you know of anything going on in our area for Halloween and Guy Fawkes' night? Please tell us!

* Nikki is looking for toddler dance classes in Weston

* Find out all about the Dreamland Adventure pantomime at the Blakehay Theatre

* Have a safe and enjoyable Halloween - advice from Liz Hughes, Inspector with Avon and Somerset Police

* Weston-super-Share: Thank you from Weston Foodbank

* Find out more about Back to the Meadows this Saturday. Becky interviews Mary and Holly.

Win a ticket for two to The Baby Show at Earl's Court this weeks (pick the day you prefer!)

Back to the Meadow, come and play ...

Can you remember a time before the X Box, when children skipped and played in the street? Well just for one day, Saturday the 22^nd of October, Meadow Street (from Alfred Street to Orchard Street) will become a playground, so come along and join in the fun!

Bring your family and enjoy the day that time forgot. From 11-4pm you are invited to join Central Children’s Centre and local businesses and traders to come and play on Meadow Street.

Come in fancy dress to claim your free party bag:

Weston-super-Mum is running hula hoop competitions and Sustainable Weston are planting trees (in pots to take home) There will be face painting and henna tattoos, story time from Weston libraries, baby massage in the children’s Centre, a Lego workshop, badge making from Warm Families

There will be prizes and balloons and bunting and so much more.

Atlantic Fish Bar are providing fun activities for the children and a special menu including fishy shaped chips. RM Signs & Textiles will be holding a raffle, first prize a hoodie, second prize a t-shirt and 10 runners up prizes of baseball caps! ‘Chance 2 Dance’ will also be joining in the fun with Street Dance Performances’. There are also activities in Weston-super-Mare Museum on Burlington Street, which is just around the corner and in case of very bad weather some of the activities will be moved in to the Museum. Whatever the weather there will be fun and activities in the street, so if it’s raining come along, wear your willies’ and have fun. Can’t wait to see you there.

To find out more about what is on and how you can join in call Mary Morgan from the Neighbourhoods Team on 426998

Art!

On Saturday 8th October, 11am-3pm, Weston-super-Mum and MUSE, which inspires children to learn through music, art and drama, will join forces at Worlebury Glade on Worlebury Hill Road (Weston Woods).

Made possible through the sponsorship of Proper Job, families are invited to use their imagination to craft sculpture from Weston Woods' natural resources.

Some of the pieces made will form part of Weston-super-Mum's Our Children's Art exhibition, which takes place over the October half-term holidays at Weston-super-Mare Museum. This exhibition is a collection of art created by children at Weston-super-Mum and MUSE events at places around Weston, such as Anchor Head, Boomfest, Weston Community Show and Weston Woods and will include paintings, drawings, photos and sculpture.

Weston-super-Mum is asking for sponsorship from local businesses to facilitate the mounting and framing of individual works of art. Printing.com, Click Tat Photography and Bootcamp Somerset are some of the businesses who have already sponsored a painting. Businesses and individuals interested in helping to fund this project should log onto www.westonsupermum.com to find out more.

No Secrets - Keeping Our Children Safe

A BRAND NEW COURSE FOR PARENTS!

Starting 15th September and running every term-time Thursday, No Secrets aims to provide an environment that will enable parents to meet together in a relaxed setting where they will be able to access a range of information, facts and resources that will enable them to raise their own awareness and strategies to review how to keep their children safe.

Led by Christine Western, Family Support Worker with a BEd (Hons) in Primary Education, No Secrets will cover a range of topics: internet safety, bullying, road safety, sexual and physical abuse, drug and alcohol awareness, peer pressure and more.

Where resources are not available on any of the topics we would hope to get parents enthusiastically working together to come up with ideas to design resources that can be made available to parents to help them keep their children safe, and so being more proactive. This would be in the form of workshops with support from the team.

Join other parents for coffee and a chat in the first instance and help shape this brand new course - your input is so valuable

No Secrets is supported by

Thanks Boomfest!

Boomfest was a great success with lots to do for families with children of all ages.

The Weston-super-Mum arena was well attended on the two days that the weather allowed and, by Sunday, word had really got around about our baby feeding and changing area and it was a thrill to see so many people use the facility. Our arts and crafts area inspired the imagination and it was paintings and drawings galore. Our tipi tent was decorated fully too.

None of this would have been possible without so many willing hands, members of the community who gave their time and energy over the three days, so we’d like to thank all the mums and dads who helped out in so many ways: setting up, donating materials and furnishings and inspiring the children to create their own art. You are all very special and make this community what it is!

Thanks also to Conceptwear, who provided our pink Weston-super-Mum jackets and to printing.com on Locking Road who did us proud with a huge, personalised banner.

The three facepainters were excellent but don’t take our word for it, look at some of the evidence.

On Friday, Victoira Ayshford was our facepainter:

On Saturday, Klair Palmer from Magic Faces by Klair:

And on Sunday, Sam Maher from Dotty Faces.

Here’s what some of our members thought about the Boomfest Weekend:

Clare Kingsbury-Bell:

Jake and I spent most of our Saturday at Boomfest and he's only just stopped asking to go back. With just his two years’ experience of life, he easily recognised a special place just perfect for play.

In between his frequent visits to the ice cream stand, he made sure he tried out just about every piece of play equipment and activity there was.

Bewildered by face painting and baffled by hula hoops, he bopped along to the bands and tried to copy the dancers.

But the highlight of the day was overwhelmingly Colourscape. Uneasy at first in the entrance, he then ran around non-stop for more than 30 minutes bouncing off walls and giggling. I'm sure he thought he was inside a bouncy castle. The only tears of the day came when I insisted we finally leave.

Billed as a festival to celebrate some of the work of young people, it felt like much more - a festival to celebrate just being young.

Karen Blake:

This weekend just gone, Weston-super-Mare proved it could rival any festival Bristol can offer when Boomfest exploded into Clarence Park, and I was really proud to be associated with it as part of Weston-super-Mum. There was lots of work to do before with gathering and borrowing the stuff for setting up, taking a trip to The Scrapstore in Bristol to get materials and making the Tipi and giant jigsaw mural that would be decorated throughout the weekend. But all the preparation was so worth it. I was inspiring to see so much creativity, friendship and teamwork throughout the course of the weekend.

I had SUCH an amazing time and met some wonderful kids and parents who threw themselves into the arty activities with gusto. It was hard work, but what a great event for us to be part of. I really hope we can be part of this again next year, so fingers crossed that Boomsatsuma youth co-operative can manage to raise the funds they need to run this fantastic event again.

April Lewis:

I came only for about 4 hours on Sunday as we were in Wales on day one and two on a family holiday. Glad I removed myself from the holiday washing as personally I enjoyed the colour tunnel with my boys as I am sure lots did. It was something completely different to anything I have ever done with them and their faces were truly amazed and fascinated inside the tunnels. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it and it was thanks to Mark Bradshaw’s filming of it seen on Facebook.

It was also great fun in the Play forum area too with lots going on. Aaron particularly liked all the equipment there to play on forgetting about the entertainment which lots of older children were enjoying.

The main stage was great to here different bands and again some entertainment for the children to win an ice-cream.

And lastly, not that I am biased, the Weston-super-Mum area where I thoroughly enjoyed getting arty with my 2 year old who after his painting was extremely proud and carried his work around whilst playing for the rest of the afternoon.

Most excitedly, I thought about starting a collage and just thought I might be doing it alone. But had two girls join in and do it themselves with a little steering or was there? The girls, aged 6 and 9, got really got involved in a themed piece of work, which began by me asking, ‘What does this orange round cut out circle (almost see through, shiny sweet wrapper type, that you would get inside Quality Street), make you think about?’ Instantly the 6 year old girl said, ‘Fire.’ The piece grew and evolved with communication between me and the girls on what they felt should happen and what colour and textures could they add.

Certainly an afternoon I will never forget I loved the imaginations working and the personal questions that they asked each other, making sure they were both happy before the next piece got glued or placed.

Keith Ramsey:

I went to Boomfest with a fair degree of trepidation. I'd agreed to take some photographs for Weston-super-Mum and, although I'd photographed one event for them before, this was much bigger, with far more room for error.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried; the atmosphere was relaxed and the company was good. Everything went well and I even took one or two pictures that I was quite pleased with. My only real regret was that it was impossible to see and record everything that was on offer.

I think it's fair to say that Boomfest was a success. It was new type of event for Weston-super-Mare, and I think it may symbolise the revival of community spirit in the town. I certainly hope so, and I hope that it returns next year. One request: if it does come back, please can we have the bigger version of Colourscape?

Lucy Frampton:

My kids had a great time and I thought the organisers got it spot on with providing entertainment and activities for all ages. We particularly loved the fantastic theatre performance on Saturday night. It has been recreated many times by Reuben in the sitting room with all the props. Also thought the play rangers were fab, Colourscape and the Banghra band at the end were fantastic. Liked the risks they took with slightly less obvious stuff and of course the Weston-super-Mum stall.

And this is Mark Bradshaw's video of Colourscape, using photos taken by a few of us - HERE