We get to play with some awesome toys sometimes that sadly aren't yet available for our friends, and Yoxo is one of them. We were sent our Yoxo from America where it is available to buy already. The range is expanding as we speak, the company is growing and hopefully sometime soon it'll be in store for my more local readers too.


As soon as I saw the boxes I knew this was special. There was a GIRL!!! On a construction toy box - not only is she a girl, but she isn't making flowers or kittens, she's building a car. Brilliant.

Because girls do drive cars you know...


Yoxo is thick shaped card with slots and moulded corners. It is the right size to fit together not only with itself, but with loads of your other toys - including LEGO, cardboard boxes, kitchen towel rolls and all sorts.

It's been far too long, but we're back with a new review for Drumond Park and we've been sent Sshh! Don't Wake Dad!, a battery-operated board game for 2-4 players aged around 5+.

The aim of the game is to move your counter around the board, even across the 3D Dad's tummy, until you reach the fridge where you can pinch a very tempting slice of cake. Be careful though, if you disturb Dad as you go past then he'll wake up with a jump and you'll have to return to the start...

My Fairy Garden is one of the Craft Box range of kits from Interplay, and it's an award-winning best-seller for children aged around 4 and over. There are 5 different products that combine small world play with growing live plants. Your child will be learning science while creating their own unique Fairy Garden.


As well as the Fairy Garden itself, the other products in the My Fairy Garden range are the Fairy Flowerpot, Lilypad Gardens, Woodland Fairy Door and Secret Fairy Door.

Numberbundles are 'mathematical activity boxes supporting the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum for children aged 3-7'. The boxes are sent out to subscribers on a monthly basis although you can buy them individually, and each one contains different activities around a common theme. Children use the box with their adult, because learning together teaches everyone so much more than working alone.


My young boys are 5 and 7, and we have been sent a couple of the Numberbundle boxes released recently to review.

Apple Strudel originated in Austria over 300 years ago and has been popular especially in Eastern European countries for several generations. The perfect seasonal mix of carbohydrate, fruit and sugar, served with cream, ice cream or custard, it is comfort food at it's best, and using ready-made puff pastry it's ready to bake in 15 minutes, ready to eat in an hour.


The chefs who work at Gracewell Care Homes pride themselves on their quality food, and have enlisted Michelin Star Chefs to work on their recipes. They have created a recipe booklet featuring some of their resident's favourite dishes and asked me if I would like to pick a recipe to try, and they'd provide the ingredients and a gadget to help me cook. Apple Strudel is a favourite here, so it was an obvious candidate.

I've never liked cats and so Gary The Cat wouldn't have been the sort of thing I'd have thought to buy, but Gary has been with us a week now and although we've not had chance to test all of the features, we've found he's been popular with pretty much the whole family.


Gary was delivered by means unknown, without so much as a note or delivery ticket, and as soon as he realised we were awake, screeched and scratched and cried at our door for an hour until we gave in, opened it and let him in.

In less than a week's time you are meant to present your Mum with something fabulous, which you haven't bought yet. If it's looking like chocolates from the garage on the way there yet again, then here are a few ideas and you still have time to order online!

Peach Perfect have some lovely gifts to suit all budgets, and you may have seen on my social media that they sent me one of their Homemade Naturals DIY Beauty Craft Kits. I have the Relaxing Lavender Bath Melts Kit (£15), which is incredibly beautifully presented, 100% natural (free from any parabens or synthetic preservatives). In Eco-friendly packaging, it's also vegan and cruelty-free. The kit is really easy to use and contains everything you need to make around 10 cocoa butter based 'cakes' which melt in the bath to release gorgeous relaxing aroma and essential oils. My skin feels amazing...


My Passport Ultra from WD (£62.99) is an amazingly simple and good looking portable hard drive that you can set to back up your laptop or PC as regularly as you'd like. Protect those treasured family photos and videos or your entire music collection against the heartbreak of accidental deletion or hard drive failure. I have a giveaway to win one and my full review here...

To help celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March, the kind folk at the holiday letting agency www.Cottages.com are offering my readers the chance to win a fantastic collection of 15 Roald Dahl books to keep your young fiction fans busy for a while.


www.cottages.com has more than 15,000 properties across the UK, and to help you choose your next holiday destination, they have put together a map of places to visit connected with some of our favourite children’s authors and stories.

Britain has a rich history of literary connections, and visiting somewhere you have read about and imagined is magical for adults as well as children. To help you find the perfect day out I've teamed up with www.cottages.com, who have created a map of some of the best places to visit if you want to immerse yourself into the worlds of your child’s favourite authors and stories.

I've been lucky enough to visit a few of the places that inspired some of my favourite authors, and it gives a real insight into how they and their characters lived and felt, and it helps make your favourite stories come alive.

If you are looking for an unusual Mother's Day gift that protects what is of value and could save a lot of heartache and annoyance as well as being beautiful, then My Passport Ultra might be just the thing.

Western Digital (WD) are specialists in making sure you don't lose any of those precious memories saved on your phone, tablet or computer. They sell a huge range of back-up and storage solutions to meet any need you may have, and one of their most popular is the My Passport Ultra portable hard drive. Not only user-friendly and useful, available in 4 colours and with matching accessories it looks darn good too...