Win an Orchard Toys Prize Bundle (Blogoversary Giveaway #5)

I'm incredibly proud of my long-standing relationship with Orchard Toys; the games and puzzles suit us well as a family, and I enjoy sharing the word about both the educational and fun aspects of the brilliant range. Orchard Toys sponsored me for Britmums 2013 (and I've got an exciting announcement coming up regarding this) and were more than happy to provide a bundle of prizes to help celebrate my three year anniversary!

The prize package consists of:

Orchard Toys competition

To be in with a chance of winning these wonderful prizes from Orchard Toys, fill in the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win a Pink Lining Mini Yummy Mummy Bag (Blogoversary Giveaway #2)

I've got a little infatuation with bags, and Pink Lining bags are one of my favourites; stylish and practical, I can always fit in everything I need. The Boy is developing a bit of a liking for them too with a lunch bag and satchel to add to our collection.

Pink Lining were eager to help celebrate three years of TheBoyandMe, and have offered a wonderful Mini Yummy Mummy bag worth £39.00 as a prize to one reader.

The Mini Yummy Mummy bag comes with a fold-up changing mat, zip front pocket for keys, money and phone as well as a back pocket and dividing pouches inside. The bag also now comes with an adjustable shoulder strap that is long enough to fit over most pram/buggy handle bars. Internal Features: 2x small pouches, a fold up padded travel changing mat and a small zip pocket.

One lucky reader will be able to choose their prize from the three designs; Bumble Bees and Stardust, Cream Bows on Peppermint, or Purple Dragonflies.

pink lining competition

To be in with a chance of winning this prize, please complete the Rafflecopter form below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Orchard Toys: Pigs In Pants (Review & Giveaway)

We've been sent one of the new Orchard Toys games to review,  Pigs In Pants. It is one of those fabulous games that really appeals to children, mostly because they get to shout things like "I'm going to pinch your pants!" or "I'm going to nick your knickers!"

Pigs In Pants 1

Using a similar set up to 'Where's My Cupcake?', players have a board each in the shape of a cute pig who looks rather abashed at having no pants on, and the object of the game is to collect the most pants on your pig board by matching them in your hand with the other cards in play.

Orchard Toys: Pigs In Pants

  • Each player (2-4 players) starts with a pig board and they are then dealt two of the cards each, which they hold in their hands and can see.
  • Four pant cards are placed face up in a line in the centre and the remaining cards are placed face down in a pile next to them.
  • The youngest player starts by checking to see if they can match a card in their hand to one of four in the line. If they can, or if it matches one on another player's board, they collect those cards and place them on their pig board along with the matching pants card from their hand. (When collecting from another player though, the whole pile is taken from the pig board and the 'taker' must shout, "I'm going to pinch your pants!")
  • If the cards in their hand don't match any in play, then they shout, "No knickers!" and place that card in the line-up of four.

Orchard Toys: Pigs In Pants

  • At the end of their turn, players must make their hand back up to two cards each time by taking from the face-down pile.
  • The game ends when no-one is able to match any further cards, and the winner is the person with the most pants on their pig board.

The Boy absolutely loved this game, I'm sure it was the element of playing with pants and shouting about knickers which made him chuckle the most, but it is a really fun game to play with the lead position switching between players right until the very end! It's also an excellent game for promoting observational and matching skills, as identified in Orchard Toys Educational Guide, along with strategic thinking.

Pigs In Pants is available to buy from all good toy shops and directly from Orchard Toys online, with a RRP of £7.50.

However, the wonderful folk at Orchard Toys are giving away one to one lucky reader of TheBoyandMe. Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below for the chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Orchard Toys: Yo Ho Ho (Review & Giveaway)

Pirates seem to be a little bit of a fascination for The Boy at the moment, and so I was pleased to receive this pirate memory game from Orchard Toys to try out with him.

Orchard Toys: Yo Ho Ho

Yo Ho Ho is a very simple and traditional memory game, along the lines of 'pairs', with players turning over two face-down cards at a time to try and match a 'pair'. Designed for 2-4 players and for children aged 4-8 years, but I'd say that children younger than four could play it easily, and likewise older children. The added twist to the game which can be included for older players is that if a pirate flag is turned over, then that player can do a dastardly deed and pilfer the cards from another player's treasure pile.

At present we haven't added this rule into the game, but we do have great fun playing it as a simple pairs game. There are actually four cards of each design, which helps increase the chances of younger children finding a pair. The illustrations are trademark Orchard Toys; bright and colourful, fun characterisations of familiar figures.

Orchard Toys: Yo Ho Ho

The educational guide states that Yo Ho Ho has been designed to:

  • encourage observation, memory and language skills
  • develop personal and social skills
  • link with Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum Key Stage 1

In addition to the above, I'd say it is also great for:

  • oracy – it encourages discussion, and can even lead to storytelling if they are used in the same way that story stones are;
  • drama – role play either with small world toys or with costumes and re-enacting the scene;
  • geography – looking at pirate maps as an extension activity.

Yo Ho Ho is available to buy from Orchard Toys directly for £7.50. A fantastic, traditional and quick game for all ages.

However, the very lovely folk there are offering a copy of this game to one reader of TheBoyandMe. Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below to be in with a chance of winning.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Orchard Toys: Who's In Space? (Review & Giveaway)

'Who's In Space?' is without a doubt one of my favourite Orchard Toys products produced in the last year or so. And I am a big fan and we have a lot of their games and puzzles, so that statement is not made lightly.

The 25 piece jigsaw puzzle is aimed at children aged 3+, and depicts a scene of three astronauts (mixed gender and race, as with all Orchard Toys illustrations) on the moon completing some research. In the background are five of the planets in our solar system, the International Space Station, a comet, and a small green alien in a purple spaceship. Because after all this is a puzzle for children!

[Read more…]

'Justin Fletcher: The Best Of Friends' CD (Review & Giveaway)

Imagine the combination:

'Reach for the Stars' + 'Justin Fletcher' = ?

To me that equals one of the best things I've heard in an awfully long time!

There is something so intrinsically right about Justin Fletcher and the way he makes children and adults smile, that listening to his CDs has the same effect. And while the songs are certainly not the latest Goyte chart-topper, they do introduce children to a diverse range of different musical genres and classic songs in a non-patronising manner.

The Boy has passed the stage of listening to nursery rhymes and wants to listen to music, but finding suitable music is hard as so much of what is in the charts has unsuitable lyrics or themes for children. Justin Fletcher has taken a great selection of older and well-known songs and covered them in a child-friendly manner to suit the 21st century. The 'Best Of Friends' CD includes:

  • Rockin’ Robin
  • This Old Man (Nick Nack Paddywack)
  • Reach
  • We’re Off To See The Wizard
  • Zip A Dee Doo Dah (The Boy's favourite on the album, I keep hearing him singing it as he's playing)
  • Let’s Go Fly A Kite
  • If I Only Had A Brain

along with the title track ('Best of Friends') and many others.

Justin will ber performing the title track on his new Justin's House tour this Easter, and I'm very excited as we're going to be seeing this in Cardiff (thanks to securing tickets months ago!). I just know that The Boy is going to love it.

The 'Justin Fletcher: The Best Of Friends' CD is available to buy from Amazon, iTunes and all good retailers. For more information on the CD, please visit Justin's Facebook page.

However, I'm lucky enough to be able to offer a copy of this CD to one lucky reader. Please fill in the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent a copy of this CD for the purpose of this review. My opinions are honest and unbiased.

Orchard Toys: 'Big Police Car' Jigsaw (Review & Giveaway)

The Boy is getting to the point where he comfortable completes 35+ piece jigsaws, using the image to help him identify the correct pieces. He's got the tricks of finding the edges and corners first, then working out the different sections of colour, quite practised and enjoys piecing jigsaw puzzles together.

We were recently sent the new Orchard Toys Big Police Car jigsaw to review, and although it has fewer pieces than he's used to (30 pieces) it actually offered him quite a large challenge due to the nature of the design.

[Read more…]

This is 'The Day That'…

… my dad held my son for the first time.

Do you have a special day? One that you want to remember with a unique, personalised gift? Enter my 'The Day That…' competition to win a £250 'The Day That…' framed print and you could do just that. More details here.

  • Chose your favourite picture of your own special day;
  • Post it on your blog. You can write about it too, but how much you write is up to you – there may be a story behind the photo that you want to share, or it may be that the photo says it all;
  • Somewhere in the post add the following statement (including the link):
  • Add your post to the competition linky below before 15th August 2012 at 9pm.

A panel of judges will carefully go through every link, looking for a picture that they think best captures the essence of your special day – a picture really does paint a thousand words after all. They don’t have to be technically perfect; we’re looking for emotion and inspiration.

Oh and could you please link this post in somewhere too? Just so other people know where to come to enter!

And that’s it. Pretty straightforward isn’t it? Create your The Day That… blog post and add it to the linky now for your chance to win.



Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds (Review & Competition)

One of the things that I was adamant with when setting up The Boy's bedroom when he was first born, was the window coverings. I was determined he'd have a black out blind and the linings on the curtains, as I didn't want him waking up at silly o'clock in the morning during the Summer, and I wanted him to have uninterrupted sleep during his afternoon naps. It's worked brilliantly and as a result is always something that I've worried about when we've gone to stay with friends and family, or gone on holiday. Most holiday homes have thin curtains which serve little purpose other than to throw a tinted hue over the room. I've been known to be pegging black out lining to the curtain rail in an attempt to darken it sufficiently enough for him to sleep.

Well, not any more!

Last week we were sent the Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds to review, and they came at a perfect time as we were away for Easter weekend in a place that I knew had wafer-thin translucent curtains at the windows. These blinds are excellent. The pack contains two blinds and each one measures 1.2m x 1m. They fold down into a circular lightweight storage bag (measuring 45cm diameter) which took up barely any space in an otherwise cramped car!

Each of the blinds has a toggle through the middle of it with a suction cup attached to the one end. Simply position the suction cup and attach it to the window, pull the toggle and it holds the blind in place over the window, pulling taut to rest against the frame.

They overlapped perfectly and pulled tight to cover the wide expanse of window with no problem whastoever. Bearing in mind I'm not a 'follow-the-instructions' person, I had them up in the window within thirty seconds. For deeper window recesses there are extension rods to attach.

The left picture above shows the window to be covered, the middle shows it with the 'curtains' drawn, and the right hand picture shows the blinds in action. Apologies for the blurriness on the middle picture but I was taking the photo without a flash and had to stand still for thirty seconds to get the photo. I couldn't take a photo of the room with the blinds attached at first, as it was pitch black and my camera couldn't focus. I had to place my phone on the bedside table with the light on to give it something to focus on. As a result the slight light strip you can see is from the reflection of my phone not from the window.

One last point to note is that, despite many 'pop-up' items being nigh on impossible to 'pop-down' again afterwards, these were back in the storage bag within thirty seconds.

The Lights Out Portable Pop-Up Blinds are excellent! I would buy these in a flash because they work brilliantly, and I wish I'd known about them when I first had The Boy, so many holidays could have been more enjoyable with more sleep!

The kind souls at Lights Out are offering a set of the Portable Pop-Up Blinds to one lucky reader. Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form in order to enter.

All entry mechanisms must be completed for your entry to count.

[Read more…]

366 #15

Congratulations for today is Day 106 of Project 366!

Well done to everyone who has broken the 100 day boundary, it's pretty amazing that we've all got this far and the habit is probably firmly ensconced now. Furthermore, with the improvement in the weather (apparently Summer's on its way?) there is a heck of a lot more material to photograph now.

The Project 366 Facebook group is a fabulous community who offer support to those taking part in this photography project, and give much blog love. We've made it a closed group so that not every Tom, Dick or Harry can see the content but if you'd like to join just click the 'ask to join group' button in the top right hand corner of the page.

To celebrate Day 100, I've got another cracking competition for you all. As you've probably seen, the very generous Snapfish are offering a prize this week of £35 credit to one lucky participant in the linky. I've reviewed Snapfish in the past and was amazed at the range of products available, with a brilliant quality finish on the items. In order to enter the competition, you'll need to add your favourite photo as normal, 'like' the Snapfish Facebook page and fill in the Rafflecopter form to say you've done this.

Time to link up:

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on just a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
ShowOff ShowCase

[Read more…]

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...