Bunch O Balloons have been a huge hit since they arrived in the UK a few years ago and this year they've increased their arsenal for even more garden water fun. We've been sent the new Bunch O Balloons Filler/Soaker for review and as luck would have it, the weather kindly perked up in time for my kids to have a play...


We reviewed Bunch O Balloons last year. They're every bit as good as they look on telly and you really can fill a whole bundle of water balloons in 60 seconds. The balloons are rubber, biodegradable and recyclable. You can find my original Bunch O Balloons review here with our short video - and a couple of errors we made by being too cautious.


The Bunch O Balloons Filler/Soaker is a really great addition to the range and means that you don't even need a tap to fill your balloons. Perfect for anyone who doesn't have an outdoor tap, and it makes Bunch O Balloons portable! You can even fill them on a campsite - but in a pool might well be the best of all.

It's almost Summer and a great time to get children outdoors and learning about where fruit and vegetables come from and how they are grown. We're working in a paid partnership with Sudocrem to promote gardening in schools and show just what a difference it can make.


In a recent survey, 90% of children said that they would like a garden at school. The whole process of planting and raising plants includes maths, science and a host of other subjects, as well as giving your child skills for life. Enjoying and even eating the end results will give anyone a real sense of pride - plus the fresher the produce, the more vitamins and flavour it has!

This Summer Sudocrem are donating 20 Get Out and Grow Kits worth £160 to UK schools and I'm delighted to say I will be giving one of them away on this blog. The kits contain everything the school needs to make a start with their own garden, including children’s wheelbarrows, gardening gloves, mini-trowels, seeds and lessons on how to make the most of a school garden.

Bizarrely February 4th was National Poop Day and Hasbro very kindly sent us one of their family games to celebrate, Toilet Trouble Flushdown. This is one of the simplest games we've ever played, but it's also one of the funniest and it's been a huge surprise hit!!

Not what you might think, Toilet Trouble sees the two players battle it out to see who can spin the roll of toilet paper quicker than the other. The slowest has the forfeit - a face full of water...


I usually avoid games like this because, well, mess, water, crying children etc, but it simply isn't like that. The jet of water is very tiny, under a teaspoonful, it's just the surprise which makes you laugh, but you don't really get wet at all.


Everything is in the box except for 3 x AA batteries, for which you'll need a small crosshead screwdriver and assembly couldn't be easier. The unit can be disassembled really quickly so that you can store it in the box afterwards - yeeeay! There's also very little plastic packaging.

For the second year running Blacks are teaming up with popular weekend TV show Countryfile to support BBC Children in Need, raising money which will support disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

Special BBC Countryfile rambles will take place all over the UK, this year hoping to amass over 18,000 miles in total, walked by ramblers getting outdoors and enjoying their right to roam around our beautiful countryside.


Last year's Countryfile ramblers raised over £100,000 for the charity and this year they hope to beat that figure. For the second year Blacks have created a special BBC Children in Need Countryfile ramble hat to keep ramblers warm and raise a bit of extra money for the charity, as 50% of the purchase price is donated to Children In Need.

This week my 8 and 10 year old boys were in for a REAL treat. Rollplay have sent us the 12 Volt rechargable Nighthawk Ride-On to review and it's been a massive hit here! Very different to anything we've ever owned before and with a full 1 hour battery life, this is the stuff of your childhood dreams...


There really is no assembly, your ride-on arrives in a huge box and needs 12 hours to charge fully, stick in the flag at the back for visibility and you are ready to go. Ours is the 'Black' model, which has a lot of red too. White is also available.


The box has the Nighthawk, flag, power supply charge adapter cable with UK and European adaptors, plus instructions.

We've all seen the adverts and 'oooooh'ed' and 'ahhhhh'ed' at the sight of loads of water balloons filling up at once, with no knotting and no surprise bursting. The stuff of dreams for a young child or a harassed parent, can it really be true? This is a video review, so you'll see our results - and Zuru Toys are also giving a bundle to one of my readers...


Bunch O Balloons were a new thing to the UK last year and this year our sunshine really means they're perfect. We've been sent the Bunch O Balloons Launcher Value Pack to review. Suitable for age 3+, although obviously someone older will have to supervise and help with filling, this set is a full battle set!

Splash Out kids multicoloured water bomb is a ball with a timer and a pin, and the rest is pretty obvious. Throw the ball back and forth until the timer goes off - and hope it isn't you who is splashed by the water!


Inside the box you have the ball, which is good-old clockwork rather than battery-operated, a clear instruction leaflet and 12 x size 4 balloons - or 'water balloons' as we tend to call them.

Being asked to write about grass alternatives is easy for me because it's something my partner and I have discussed at length. My lawn is completely trashed. I mean seriously wrecked. For the last year all the local children have come and played in our garden and used it as a park, and the lawn proves it. I really am not complaining. We have a big garden and it would be a shame to see it wasted, but it's had 10 year's worth of normal family wear and tear in the last 12 months alone... and there isn't a lot of lawn left...


I live in the swampland of the North. My local area is so peaty that my tap water has sediment. Seriously. We made the mistake of buying a white shower curtain once. After a week it looked like someone had tried to colour it in with a brown felt tip. The peat in our soil holds tons of water and protects us from floods when there is heavy rain, but it means the grass is full of springy moss and the lawn is generally too wet to sit on. In a move of unlikely genius we put the swing and the trampoline over the wettest bits. It's definitely hidden it helped...

If you've been to your local Halfords or looked at their website recently, you may have noticed they have a dedicated Kids Zone. The Halfords Kids Zone is where you'll find everything for the younger members of your family, from car seats and safety equipment to bikes and scooters. They currently have a sale, with selected ride ons and scooters discounted up to half price off, and we have been sent the Xootz Retro Racer Go Kart to review - in classic British Racing Green.


For my 7 year old this really couldn't have come at a better time, as he's recently discovered Go Karts and I think his face really says it all. There's love in those eyes...

Treetop Nets has recently opened at Heaton Park in Manchester and we were invited along to review. Treetops Nets is exactly what it sounds like, an aerial adventure completely encased in nets. Visitors aged 3+ can bounce, run, jump and slide in complete safety without the need for a harness.


There are only 4 attractions like this in the whole country and Treetops Nets is the biggest, with over 2000m2 of giant trampolines, walkways, slides and tunnels all made out of netting, suspended between the trees and rising up to 12m off the ground..


Stunningly you can barely see it from outside, so we missed it and went into the park, when in fact it's just to the side of the St Margaret's (play area) car park.

Before we arrived - the impassable driveway!

The roads being cleared just in time for us!

Grandma and Grandad live in the part of Britain most affected this time by the snow and the wind. Had Easter been a week earlier then we could have joined them in being trapped in the house for 3 days and nights with no power, battling the blizzards to feed the animals and playing board games by candlelight for entertainment. As big an adventure as it would have been, I think it's probably better that we turned up a week later, when the roads were cleared of abandoned cars, the shops have re-stocked, the wind has gone and we can watch the Dr Who special!


Fortunately the ponies aren't too bothered by the snow, and after being rescued from the blizzards and moved indoors last weekend, they're really pleased to be back outside - despite the snowdrifts! On some of the flatter and more sheltered fields there still isn't any grass to be found, so they've been having lunch delivered.
 One of the rewards for helping with the ponies is to get a ride. This is Leo - he's quite an old man now, but he's still very patient and ideal for the little children to ride. Both boys first sat on a Shetland Pony at less than 18 months old, so they're old hands now and supremely confident!
 All of the children have ridden the Shetland Ponies, but they're mainly too big now and luckily the ponies are taught to drive, pulling a carriage - but not in the snow!

Some other, smaller, creatures have been leaving tracks. Boy no.3 thought maybe it was a Pterosaur, but I think it was a much more modern type of bird!


Boy no.4 also left plenty of tracks, completely oblivious to the fact that actually he was running across a drift that is 8 feet deep in places - and we can't follow him because we're too heavy! I sent my other half off to rescue him while I stood a safe distance back. Boy no.3 in the foreground is standing on a 3 foot high stone wall, something I don't think he'll understand even when he sees the comparison photo's.


With the ponies back outside one of the main jobs has been to dig out and repair the electric fences ~ something the smaller children can't really help with, although they very much enjoyed running about feeling as if they were useful!


After work comes play ~ and we've really tried to make the most of it. Snowdrifts are brilliant for mini sledge runs for small people!

Why build one snowman when you can build an entire army?

Ice hole!

Our ice hole is still there, but it isn't big enough for Grandad or our youngest child to sit in any more. Sadly our snow is melting, but we really have had an Easter to remember forever and we haven't even had any eggs yet!