It's taken just under 3 1/2 years, but I've reached my 1000th blog post. That means almost every day I have written and rambled and documented what we got up to. I started The Brick Castle as a place to store reviews for Orchard Toys, and I assumed it would be a handy place to also keep together a record of what we got up to with our 7 children. In fact, it has documented far, far more than any of us could have imagined...

16 Orchard Toys reviews.
55 recipes, 110 LEGO posts, 200 giveaways.
1 holiday to the Isle Of Wight, 2 days out in Blackpool, 3 festivals.
4 Silver Sharks, 2 rescued house-rabbits, 1 Gary the surprise cat.
2 cases of Chicken Pox, many cases of headlice.
1 ice cold jelly bath, 1 sport relief cycle, 1 emotional support trip to the Race For Life.
1 visit to Guinness Book Of Records HQ, 2 trips to Britmums Live, 3 trips to BlogOn Conference.
3 Christmases, 27 birthdays
2 new school starters, 3 school leavers. 4 sets of GCSE's, 2 lots of A levels.
1 child moved out to go to uni, 1 child came home. 
2 car accidents, 1 broken knee.
1 case of Meningitis, 1 Hernia, 2 operations.
1 child's death.
18 collections of monthly smiles.

This is my 999th post and below the smiles at the end are some things that you may not know about the emergency services when you lose someone to suicide. We were treated with utmost care when we lost Elspeth, and for that I can't thank them all enough.

This time of year is hard all round I guess. We are all fed up with long evenings cooped up under indoor light, our young people have exams, and stress levels start to rise as everyone longs for the day they can be sat outside doing naff all but enjoying the sun on their face. I expect this is exactly the period after Christmas when you shouldn't ever make the decision to become a statistic.

20 months turns out to be really quite hard. I was correct last month and the dust is starting to settle. We actually are falling into some sort of 'normal', but that brings it's own problems. We all have time to focus on the here and now, which means you can't help but re-evaluate and assess your situation. After reading something written by a Mum who lost her child a short while before we lost Elspeth, I realised we are certainly not alone in this. You wonder 'is this it? Is this as good as it gets? Will this cloud be over us forever?'. The mud may have gone, but the dust cloud remains and it's kind of hard to see where you will be going from here.

Revell are well-known for their long history of producing model kits, and their Junior Kits are especially designed to introduce young builders to modelling - while working as a fully functioning toy once built. We've been sent the Fire Engine (or Fire Truck if you prefer) Level 1 Junior Kit to review, suitable for children from around age 4.


My newly 6 year old is no stranger to building and modelling, but is not a natural instruction-follower and usually has a 20 minute attention span. He maintained interest throughout this build with a couple of short breaks. He did need a little help with 2 errors and 1 part he simply couldn't understand, but otherwise it is all his own work - and you can tell how pleased he was with it...

It is easy to see just how proud my 6 year old is with his personalised Reward Box, and now I have a chance for one of my readers to win one of their very own. The winner will have the choice of either the Fairy Cottage or the Pirate Chest theme.


Each Reward Box comes with an organza drawstring bag containing 20 silver painted wooden stars and 2 sheets of personalisation stickers - themed and letters.

Lalaloopsy dolls have been popular with youngsters for several years now, and this Spring they've released a series of new Mini Lalaloopsys with the brand new Style ‘N’ Swap range. All of the popular Lalaloopsy characters with new and exciting looks that can be mixed and matched again and again.


The Mini Lalaloopsy Style ‘n’ Swap range includes the Mini Lalaloopsy Style ‘N’ Swap Doll Assortment (£9.99). Each set has one doll, one pet, one accessory and over 10 removable wigs, clothes and shoes.

We love the What On Earth? Timeline Wallbook Of British History that we reviewed yesterday, so I'm delighted to be able to tell you that What On Earth? have kindly offered a copy of this brilliant large format hardback children's book as a giveaway prize.


The Timeline Wallbook charts the history of Britain from when the British Isles were first created right up until the present day and Tim Peake's trip into space. It covers everything from popular culture and historic battles to royal houses and castles, and my boys have found far more that they recognise or have heard about than they ever expected.

The Reward Box takes 'star charts' to a new level, with 3D wooden stars to collect in order to achieve your treat. Your child personalises their own box, using the enclosed stickers if they wish, and they can keep charge of it and count their stars themselves to keep track of how well they are doing.


I'm a big fan of positive reinforcement and I like to be able to encourage my young people to act with care for themselves and others, so we've long been fans of star stickers and reward charts.

My youngest child has had sleep issues, can be a bit boisterous and gets carried away easily, which results in breakages, injuries and annoyed cats. He rarely ever has bad intention, and has an immense sense of pride when he feels he's pleased us, so we have regularly had reward charts for him in the past. He was an obvious candidate for review.

I love looking at new books with my children, and sometimes a different sort of book comes along that really makes us pay attention. The What On Earth? Wallbook Of British History is definitely very different - and very impressive.


From outside the hardback cover the Wallbook Timeline Of British History looks like a regular large format book, but open it out and inside is a pocket magnifier, a 2 metre long pullout wallbook, and an 18 page copy of The Chronicle - a brilliant mock up of an imaginary newspaper.

Fruit Salad is an incredibly quick to grasp family game which is played using a set of 60 circular playing cards and 2 special dice. My 7 year old really likes this one, and as each game needs barely a corner of the table, takes 2-4 players and lasts only around 15 minutes, it's a great game for playing when you have an odd half hour to fill.


Fruit Salad is recommended for children aged around 6+ and I think that's right because it is fast and competitive, and if I played with any commitment I'd still frustrate my newly 6 year old as he simply wouldn't be as fast as me. My 7 year old though plays on a pretty even par, and can beat me regularly.

Over Easter Wilko sent me and my children a gorgeous bundle of goodies from their baking range to have a play with. Annoyingly people in my house were ill, so my plans for Easter cooking were a little delayed. We're all back on track and so I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen with help from my 2 young assistants...


Wilko's sent us some truly gorgeous equipment to help with our baking. The Mason Cash ceramic Mixing Bowl (£15) and Measuring Jug (£10) are absolutely gorgeous, I've taken a very possessive stance over them.

It pains me to hear clanking metal on ceramics, so I'm pleased to say Wilko's also sent us some plastic pig tools (£1 each), plus a Beech Wooden Rolling Pin (£3.50), a 9 inch spring form cake tin, silicone whisk (£1.25), heart cookie cutters and a mini kitchen scale (£2.50).