Yes it's true. The long wait is over and Game Of Thrones: Season 6 starts on Monday 25th April. The public have been listened to, and it will be broadcast simultaneously with the US at 2am GMT on Sky Atlantic and then repeated at 9pm. Plus the Catch Up episode will be available from around 3am. You can find out if Jon Snow is going to come back at exactly the same time as everyone else on your Facebook friends list. Spoilers may be a thing of the past...

My youngest child is a climber. It wasn't a complete shock to me, his older sister was a climber too and had fallen off the dining room table and split her head open by the time she was 12 months. Her 2nd glue-job was when she was still under 4. Thankfully so far those are the only trips to hospital with small people who have fallen, however that is some sort of miracle.

Aged around 18 months she climbed barefoot to the top of our 8 foot tall wooden garden fence. Sadly no adult is able to climb up a fence like that, and I actually had to leave her up there and run into my house , go all the way upstairs to fetch a stepladder and not trip up on the way back to get her down. She thought it was hilarious, she could see the neighbour's dog and she liked dogs. And cats....(I don't have a picture of a dog and I've heard cats attack you in the night if they think you are the enemy).


We knew our youngest was inquisitive, and more than a bit lively, from very early on. A walker by 11 months, he had already learned how to undo stairgates by twisting the two bottom supports until they were loose, and then just pushing the gate to crawl under it. It was no coincidence the gate at the top of the stairs was screwed completely to the wall.

The FabLab Metallic Tattoos kit from Interplay has over 120 temporary tattoos in gold, silver and black. Recommended for age 8+, I can think of a few adults who would get a lot of fun out of this kit - including myself as it turns out...


The kit has everything you might need including the 4 sheets of tattoos, plastic scissors, a big piece of sponge which you can cut to a manageable size to help apply your tattoos and an instruction leaflet.


The tattoos themselves are lovely designs! Really varied, there definitely is something for everyone, and a lot are really very generic and could suit almost any potential temporary tattoo buyer.

Updated to add Minecraft Vloggers and other TV and internet stars and celebs! - see the end of the article!

This October the first ever Digital Kids Show will take place at Event City in Manchester. A 2 day event bringing to life digital entertainment in a fun a friendly format for children and their grown ups. Six different zones will ensure there is something to interest everyone - I'm just now sure how long we'll be spending at each!

I get tons of press releases each day and I read them, but mainly I don't have time or inclination to share, however when it's really relevant to my audience and something I think is pretty awesome, then it's great to be able to tell you about it.

The long-standing Children’s TV duo Dick and Dom will kick off proceedings - which is enough to get my teenagers giggling and wanting to go...hmmm...

The six zones will include:

Gaming and Retro Tech - well, what more do I need to say, this is one of our favourite things. The very best retro and next generation computer games and tech, everything from Mario to Minecraft. There will also be some of the latest VR gaming and gadgetry.

It's not every day you can see a giant pair of wellies on Blackpool beach, but Madame Tussauds have taken a pair onto the sand to promote their newest area inside the attraction - Festival Fields. They didn't only have giant yellow wellies braving the elements - Olly Murs, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran were there too, as the festival headliners...


We are a house full of music fans, and most of my lot are no stranger to festivals either, so Festival Fields sounds right up our street. It's also got it's very own camper van to go with the wellies - throw in the wet wipes and you've got my 3 festival essentials!

I've been to Blog On conference in Manchester for the last 3 years and I've had an awesome time. As was pointed out to me today, I rarely ever get the chance to switch off and unwind, and Blog On is 6 hours for me to just be Jenny. There is a linky to introduce yourself, and I really don't know everyone, so here are my answers the list of questions as set by Chelsea Mamma. 

1.) Share a picture of yourself  - there are very few photos of me - this is the only one taken by someone over the age of 6 in the last 2 years where I wasn't stood next to someone in a costume!


2.) If you had to describe yourself in three words... Truthful, sarcastic, broken

3.) How long have you been blogging and what made you start? I've blogged for a long, long time, but The Brick Castle is 3.5 years old and just celebrated my 1000th blog post - it's all in there. This is post 1001.

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.