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The Gallery: Travel

July 13, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 17 Comments

So the lovely Tara has set us the following challenge this week:

This week it's time to access your happy memories once again about places you've been, things you've seen, experiences you've had.

This week's theme is: Travel.

Which quite frankly after the emotional outpouring about my grandparents last week is a relief.

Now the obvious one for me, is our road-trip around America from six years ago, but I did that one for the Unofficial Gallery several weeks ago. Therefore I'm going to choose a few photos from our first trip away with The Boy.

He was born on Friday 12th June 2009 three hours before my entire family attended my great-aunt's funeral in Dorset, hence none of them being able to visit immediately. I was devastated that I couldn't go to Aunty Nell's funeral because I was so very fond of her, and due to not being allowed to travel in the last month or so I hadn't seen her before she died either. However, contractions had other plans for me that day!

In the September my mum arranged for us all to spend the weekend back down where she used to live and to scatter her ashes. This is not the type of thing my family normally does; someone dies then that's it, they get cremated and their ashes scattered in the garden of rememberance. I firmly believe that my mum arranged this for me. In the end, because none of the others knew what to do (through lack of experience) I ended up taking the bag and scattering Aunty Nell's ashes into the bay at West Bay, where she used to go to mark her school books. I stood there by myself, watching her ashes swishing in the sea, hanging around and not wanting to leave the party. There was my moment of parting, there was the goodbye that I had missed.

When I turned around, the others had joined me from a distance.

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Pop over to The Gallery and check out the other entries using this linky:

Tuesday 12th July 2011 – 'Mummy Spoils Me' (193/365)

July 12, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 2 Comments

Squishy-Squashed Potatoes: TRU Review

July 12, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 1 Comment

If you watched the video of the opening of the first box of toys from TRU then you will have noticed that The Boy kept referring to paint and wanting to open it up. Meany old mummy wouldn't oblige at first, mainly because the item (which was actually a Play-Doh board game not paint) is aimed at children five years or above, and I therefore wanted to review it with his cousins.

The Play-Doh Smashed Potatoes board game is a really lovely game which is very easy to understand, and The Boy's cousins (Boy Cousin – 5, Girl Cousin – 8, Fiery Cousin – 5) picked up the rules very quickly. The board has a 'kitchen' in the centre with various ways of turning a 'potato' into another form and a route around the outside of this which the (up to) four players must complete in one piece in order to win. Each player makes their own playing piece from one of the four different colours of Play-Doh provided, and using the Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head mould.

They spin the arrow on the dial to decide how many spaces they move and move that amount. If the arrow stops on a potato symbol then they must move to the nearest section of the kitchen and squash their potato using that device. Following this, they remould it and start again.

All of the children wanted to play it, we just gave The Boy a potato-head mould and lump of Play-Doh and he was perfectly happy. Boy Cousin (5) really got into the game very quickly and wanted to complete it, Girl Cousin (8) was very interested too and was enjoying it, but Fiery Cousin (5) was getting demoralised with it, mainly because her potato kept having to be squished. This is the element that might need to adapt depending upon the ages of your children; the five year olds weren't happy to have to keep making their potatoes. Another minor, and I mean minor, irritation is that the blue 'kitchen' insert kept sliding around while we were trying to use it and the scissors occasionally popped out of the guide on the cutting device.

The children said: "I like this game because it's delicious" (Boy Cousin was having a mad moment), "I like the mashing", "Chopping potatoes is fun", "The Play-Doh is nice and squidgy, it's easy to make the pieces."

Generally a good game, I personally feel it's suited to 6+ years due to the fiddly nature of the squashing, but that depends entirely on your child's skills.

Play-Doh Smashed Potatoes board game is priced at £24.99 and launches this month in Toys R Us stores.

Orchard Toys: Nursery Rhymes Jigsaws

July 12, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe

I cannot even begin to convey how big a fan I am of Orchard Toys. The British brand produces some of the best games and toys around on the market, and that's both mummy-voice and teacher-voice speaking there.

We were recently sent Nursery Rhyme: Four in a Box jigsaws to review, which came at the right time because The Boy has become very interested in puzzles lately.

The images used on the puzzles are: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Humpty Dumpty; Jack and Jill; and Hey, Diddle, Diddle. Which is, quite frankly, ever so convenient as these are his favourite rhymes at the moment! If you are unsure of the words (I'm certainly not, that much I can assure you) then they are written on the back.

[Read more…]

Monday 11th July 2011 – 'Upsy Daisy' (192/365)

July 11, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 3 Comments

I'm a Toy Genius!

July 11, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 1 Comment

I am over the moon to have been chosen by the extraordinarily lovely Jean at ToyJeanius to be a member of her new family of reviewers.

For those of you who don't know what ToyJeanius is, where have you been shopping until now?!

Toyjeanius is a family run online toy shop based in Hertfordshire. These are not your run of the mill plastic and garish toys that you find in the high street, not from Jean. She spends copiuous amounts of time scouring the latest catalogues from gorgeous companies like I'm Toy, Djeco and Haba to find toys that are attractive, hard-wearing, traditional, education, but most of all, fun! She is a mum herself, albeit to older children, and she knows what works and what doesn't (often through testing them out herself).

We have been fortunate to review for ToyJeanius in the past with the stunning Pally Pirate Noah and the I'm Toy Fire Engine Work Bench which The Boy both adore. Having had the pleasure to review for her, I of course became a customer buying the Haba Threading Beads (which is one of the best toys I could recommend buying for a toddler to develop hand-eye co-ordination) and Haba Baguette Play Food (excellent way to role-play making his lunch). I can't wait to find out what other toys we get to review for my favourite independent toy-shop!

One last point that I have got to make about why I love ToyJeanius. When I needed a present for a friend in a rush I tweeted the lovely Jean who processed my order there and then. She gift-wrapped the item and wrote a card, and the next morning (because this had happened at 10 o'clock at night!) she went straight to the Post Office and sent it recorded delivery. Tell me how many high-street chains give you that level of personalised service?

Proud to be a Toy Genius for the best ToyJeanius there is!

Addendum

When I posted this originally, I forgot to share the blog-love and say who the other Geniuses (genii?) are!

We're proud to be working with the marvellous:

and Edspire.

Little Legacy: Matilda Duck

July 11, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 4 Comments

Penny over at Alexander Residence has come with a lovely idea for a linky:

Little legacy is a remembrance project, a positive and creative place, to celebrate small things handed down by predecessors. I am going to post one every Thursday. If you want to join in at any point, either as a project or a one off, there's a linky below and more information here.

I wanted to take part because I instantly thought of Matilda. Unfortunately I can't show you a photograph of her as she if carefully wrapped up in a box in the attic. I shall have to describe her.

Matilda is a small, intricate, metal duck sat in a metal nest. The whole thing is about the size of an egg, with Matilda hinged on one side so that she lifts up and small objects can be places inside. For several decades she resided behind the sliding glass door in my Nan's cabinet, awaiting the arrival of her owner's four grandchildren of differing ages to squeal with delight over what she had laid. Magically, she laid different things; a few bronze coins, a jellybaby, a Fox's Glacier Mint, a creme eg. The possibilities of Matilda's magic was endless.

When my nan died, mum put her little trinkets out on the table and asked the four of us to choose things to remember her by. I eyed the contents and my shoulders sank to see the lack of Matilda. Mum noticed this and, after my brothers and sister had gone home, she gave me Matilda with the message that she had been saving it for me as she knew how much it meant to me.

Just writing this has filled my senses with the memory of my nan.

Snazzy Faces with Snazaroo: TRU Review

July 11, 2011 by TheBoyAndMe 1 Comment

One of the items that we were sent to review for Toys R Us was the Snazaroo Unisex Face Painting Sticks. This was quite convenient timing because a fortnight ago I spend a jolly (?) few hours painting butterflies and pirates onto the faces of my pupils at the Summer fayre. An ideal opportunity to test them out!

The pack contains a white, red, black, yellow, blue and green face painting stick, and is advertised as 'ready to use; no water needed'. Sounded promising, especially as we invariably end up with a big queue of impatient children, with little time to mess around. They are also non-toxic, and as with most Snazaroo products (except red, never red), are easily removed with soap and water. They are slanted on the end to provide a drawing point and seem to be of a good consistency.

I tried them out when drawing lines on the children's faces, for example the black silhouetted palm tree on the sunset scene, or with swirls on the butterflies, however they just didn't appear to provide enough precision to be used for detail. I also tried them out on a tiger faces and because the stripes didn't need to be more than a line of colour they were better suited to this type of painting.

An aspect that I wasn't keen on was the consistency. They say they don't need to be used with water, but I actually found that I was having to press and drag quite hard to get colour off, and don't forget these are children's faces that I am drawing on. I dipped them in water to see if that helped but it really didn't. If you are using them on older children or for lines that aren't precise, then they're fine. Otherwise I'd rather stick to Snazaroo's blocks of colour and a paintbrush.

Snazaroo Unisex Face Painting Sticks are priced at £4.99 and are available to buy in store.

We were provided with this product to review free of charge. My opinions are, as always, honest and unbiased.