Yeah, if you do accidentally set fire to your frying pan, probably best to grab the kids and leg it, but I was reminded last night of a question we always asked when I was at school. If your house was on fire what would you grab to take with you as you run out of the door?

If you had time to grab just 3 things (and everything living is safely out on the lawn already - including the fish and the Yukka plant), what do you take? This isn't real, this is fantasy, so 'the bath' is a real option.

When I was 15 it was band posters, tour t-shirts and my midi system - of which I was very proud and it cost an entire 60 quid! Back then £60 was the equivalent of a million pounds - well, to me it was.


Now I'm a weeny bit older , I actually DO still have my tour t-shirts and posters (not the cheap tinny midi system though). Up in my loft is a mildewed programme bearing the autographs of Michelle Shocked, Billy Bragg and Michael Franti. I've got a poster that Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera has signed and written 'Sorry' on because I was crushed at his gig at Rock City. I've got programmes, maps, tickets and wristbands from every festival I ever went to. I even have a flyer from when me and 7 other people went to see My Bloody Valentine at The Dial in Derby on a Tuesday night for £2.50. None of it would make it into my top 3 though....

No.1 ~ Photo's of the kids. Real photo's, the kind I used to walk into town to collect and it cost me £2.50 for the film, and £3.00 for developing and I'd have 3 blank photo's, 2 shots of the floor, 1 picture half superimposed on another, 6 shots so blurry you couldn't see anyone, 4 where the heads were cut off and (if I was lucky) 3 where the subject was actually looking at the camera. We didn't even get a computer until my oldest was 7, so my real photo's mean a lot to me. (Good job this is fantasy because that's 2 tea chests already).

No.2 ~ All the 'treasure' I've collected from my children over the years. The certificates from school, the paintings, the cord clamps (everybody saves them, right?), first teeth and shoes, birth certificates, first passports, GCSE work they threw out and I rescued from the bin, birthday cards, programmes from plays and assemblies, bits of paper with the first 58 times they drew a recogniseable human on them......all that.

No.3 ~ The Jewellery Box my partner bought me for Christmas the year before last. I love it, it reminds me of one my Grandmother had and it's very beautiful. It has my treasure in it - ear-rings and gift tags and little Lego boxes with tiny things in, and on top are some cuddly things that my children and my partner gave me....

It's also possible I might just be able to fit in 4 or 5 band t-shirts at a push....


I guess that time and experience teaches us what is actually important, things are just things really, and anything that can simply be bought can usually only ever have limited value.


What would you save?

To celebrate the fact that my blog is now 4 months or 1/3 of a year old, or the fact I've got 457 following on Twitter, or the fact that my children have all now had chicken pox and hopefully I can tick that one off, or whatever you want to celebrate, I'm doing my first giveaway.

Because my blog isn't just about pre-schoolers I have decided my first giveaway isn't necessarily for the tinies, it's more for bigger kids.

Skylanders is an incredibly popular game which is available to play on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U. The characters are not only within the game, but you have a real world figure to stand on the 'Portal Of Power' which connects to your games console, and makes the animated character appear within the game.Each toy also has the ability to store game information, so you can take it with you to your mates and join in with them without losing your stats! There are various extra single figures, and therefore characters, available to buy, and I have one to give away.


My 4 year old has been asking us to get this for the last few months. He'll have to wait until he's older, but for the rest of you  I have 1 Skylanders Giants Eye-Brawl Figure to give away using the rafflecopter form below.


This giveaway is open only to UK entrants, the prize is one new Skylanders Giants Eye-Brawl supplied by myself, the winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter when the competition ends and the timer runs out.I'll make every effort to contact the winner, but if I've not heard back within 48 hours then I reserve the right to choose another winner.

We have been lucky enough to review the Pirate Shapes game by Orchard Toys for Izziwizzi Kids Playfest.

As with all Orchard Toys games and puzzles this is designed and manufactured in the UK from strong 100% recycled board. It has really bright colours, modern pictures and chunky pieces that don't bend or come apart during even quite boisterous play. It is built to be played with, and built to last.

Pirate Shapes ~ Age 2 1/2+


The Pirate Shapes game retails at £9.50. It is suitable for 2-4 players and the suggested age range is 2 1/2+. It is perfect for nursery or pre-school aged children who are learning shapes and colours. It teaches turn-taking and basic game play, and the concepts of winning and losing. Because you pick from a selection of upturned shapes the child has to pay attention to which shapes they need to collect, and then when they turn over the cards they need to compare their piece with the 'gaps' they have and see if it is the right colour and part of the picture to match with what they need to complete their board.




Boy no.4, who is just 3, absolutely loves this game and has carried it around with him since we introduced it. He has chicken pox and it's making him feel secure and taking his mind off the itching. He's happy to enjoy it just as a collection of jigsaws, playing the game with someone else is a bonus! He's already become far more confident with his colours and has learnt the names for oval and rectangle, which he wasn't certain of before.

Both my 3 and 4 year olds love this and it gets a definite 'thumbs up' from us. 

We have been lucky enough to review the On the Farm - Giant Jigsaw Playmat by Orchard Toys for Izziwizzi Kids Playfest.

As with all Orchard Toys games and puzzles this is designed and manufactured in the UK from strong 100% recycled board. It has really bright colours, modern pictures and chunky pieces that don't bend or come apart during even quite boisterous play. Orchard Toys are built to be played with, and built to last.

On The Farm ~ Giant Jigsaw Playmat ~ Age 3-12


On The Farm retails at £13.95. It is suitable for 1 or more children and the suggested age range is 3-12. It promotes imaginative small worlds play and helps with manual dexterity, comprehension and understanding of the world. It develops language skills and encourages conversation. It is two-fold in that it is a jigsaw  and then a playmat using the characters supplied and any other animals, people and vehicles which the child may have available to them.

Although this works perfectly as a stand alone item, it can be combined with the Giant Road Jigsaw using the included link pieces, to create a far bigger playmat which can be put together in a multitude of different ways to create a landscape suitable for the play area, number of children taking part or just whatever your child wishes.



When they were young my older boys had a 'road' which was comprised of jigsaw pieces in a similar way, but was nothing like as durable or attractive as this one. They loved it and played with it regularly for months until it fell apart. The board that Orchard Toys use is really thick and will last far longer, it also stays together really well even when being 'driven' across with toy cars, ponies, aliens or anything else!
In my experience adding a playmat to pretend play makes it a completely different game. The pictures encourage the children to 'group' like items, consider what happens in real life far more and give visual cues as to how their play can progress. They are more likely to 'feed' their animals and keep their main storyline going for longer rather than shooting off at tangents constantly. It gives a focus for play and keeps the active area contained!

We're so impressed with the Giant Jigsaw Playmat that when we saw the Giant Road Jigsaw for sale at the RRP of £13.95 while on holiday in Wigtown this week, we bought it. On The Farm gets a definite 'thumbs up' from all of us. 

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!

Biff is really super soft and has a zip up mouth so that when you are worried about anything at all, you can say it, or write it down, or draw a picture, and put your worries into the Worry Eater's mouth, and he will get rid of them for you. Monsters under the bed, bullies in school, spending time without your Mum or going to the dentist....he will eat away any worry, and stop it eating away at you....
 




We won ours from Izziwizzi Kids Playfest, and Coiledspring posted it to us direct. If you'd like to buy one then they are available for the general public to buy from The Toadstool. They may even work for adults...

Update: 07/082014 We've now had our Worry-Eater for nearly 18 months and he looks as good today as he did when we got him.He's been hand-washed no end of times, loved and hugged, used and stuffed full of Wotsits. He never seems to mind....

In my free time (yeah, right) I play games. Board games and computer games. I've loved my Playstation for as long as I can remember. As I gained more children I lost more playing time, but I still manage to have a turn occasionally.

I got the platinum trophy for Bioshock (did everything you possibly can with a degree of skill), completed Bioshock 2 a few times and have been waiting a long time for this one.

If you don't play games - but want to impress your other half or stun your teenage kids with your encyclopaedic knowledge, then this is for you -



Generally you only kill people who are already shooting at you, and most people are just innocent passers-by (at least for the first portion of the game). If there is a red bar above a persons head, they're going to attack and you should probably stop them - now is the time to shout 'look, over there, the guy with the gun, hit him, hit him again' until the red bar vanishes.

The player is a man brought to this cloud version of the 1900's World Fair to rescue a young woman named Elisabeth. He travels there in a glass elevator - however he isn't in Wonkaland, he's in a place called Columbia which is an entire massive town built on top of a layer of cloud (in the 1890's they invented secret engineering techniques which are to this day kept secret from us plebs).

'Columbia' has been purpose built up in the clouds by a bunch of crazies from the US government. The founding men in charge of this land are God-like in the eyes of the misguided folks who live there. Most people in the game are actually drug-addled psychopaths who are fighting each other in a civil war between the rich and the downtrodden.

The crazies spent most of their time encouraging Scientists to invent superhuman powers (called vigors) to be used by the locals. These are collected, bought and implanted by the player. They are powered by 'salts' which is the blue bar at the bottom left of the screen. When it runs out, no special powers....boo. The powers have giveaway names like Shock Jockey and Bucking Broncho.

The player finds useful stuff and picks it up until their ginormous pockets can take no more - objects glisten, so to earn Brownie points say something if you see a shiny that the player is walking straight past. Stuff is also hidden in bins, bodies, cupboards, all over the place. People who die often turn into a small box full of treasure, which you can loot.

Food gives the player health, cigarettes remove health (red bar at top left of screen). If you're really dying you can buy a hot dog from a street vendor.

Cigarettes give the player salts, alcohol removes salts (remember, the special powers thing?)

Alcohol gives the player pishedness, so don't drink too much or it might go a bit blurry. It does however also give you health so sometimes you just need to stop and have a drink. It's remarkably like real life.

Medical kits give you.....erm...health - duh.

Salts make the special powers work.

The aim of the game is to find out why you're actually there and what's going on, which is a whole load of 'yeah, okay'. You do know you need to rescue Elisabeth. She has spent the last few years in her own version of The Trueman Show. She's been living in a cupboard, so she's read loads of quantum physics, but her social skills aren't great. Later on in the game she'll no doubt have secret abilities and powers, but you don't know about that yet. Every now and again she chucks stuff at you that she picked up off the floor and she can pick locks.

Elisabeth can rip holes into another world. This world is sometimes Paris. You can't go there, but sometimes she can bring stuff back - flowers and some of Harry Potters Dementors seem to be popular choices.

You can spend money at vending machines. You can buy chocolate and bullets and all sorts of useful tat.

You can hook your hand onto rails that run around the entire town and slide about like a roller coaster. You can even speed up and slow down. It's waaay cool.

You find out the back story by listening to tapes, watching films and chatting to locals. Most of this is drivel at the time, but makes sense later, you don't need to really pay attention unless you intend to discuss it at length on a philosophical level. Just be certain that the people who hired the player to rescue the girl will have a hidden agenda, and will probably also have accidentally created a man-tearing monster who will later on try to kill you.

Every now and again the player gets to a really action-packed bit. This is the equivalent of a 'level boss' at the end of a level. There can be a huge thing to kill, or a horde to dispatch. It will usually have some excitement music and it isn't the time for you to walk in front of the telly or demand that your teen goes to bed. If you want to be popular wait until the music has stopped and then make your move.

There are loads of different clothes this guy can wear that enhance his performance. I've not seen disco-pants yet, but they may be in there.

It autosaves. This means as the player moves through the game it saves the position ready for when you die and have to repeat what you just did, only in a far more skilful way. When it says 'autosave' at the bottom right of the screen, you are safe to tell them that 7 hours is enough for today, maybe you should think about going to bed.......or washing....

If you do play games then this is for you -

Yeah, it's really good, we're enjoying it so far, as we'd expect. More reminiscent of Bioshock 1 than 2 actually, huge map, same familiar controls, different abilities which is nice. The clothes thing takes a bit of remembering and I keep expecting him to carry Elisabeth around. Weird how they felt they needed to have loads of water everywhere when it's set up in the sky rather than down in the sea....

With a family as big as mine sometimes you can justify some crazy, naughty bulk purchase bargains....


I reckon 3 each for the children..........

and the spare for me.......

Happy 3rd birthday to the little one of the family......with his blue 'Mike The Knight' cake that nearly didn't get decorated in time because we spent all day trying to save the fish!

PS. In case anyone was worried, the fish are currently still swimming.....