The full title for this toy is Star Wars Force Link 2.0 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon with Han Solo Figure and it's worth that mouthful. This is a fantastic vehicle which acts exactly as you'd hope, and we've been sent it to review by Hasbro...


We are long-standing Star Wars fans here and so Star Wars toys are always welcome. Over the last 24 years I've watched all of my children 'shhhhhooooosh' around the room with various Millennium Falcons and other Star Wars vehicles, and this is by far the most impressive and special. No longer do you even have to make your own sound effects...

Five years ago I hadn't heard of Hotter Shoes and now I'm a complete convert. I lived in Dr Marten Boots for about 20 years and in the Summer flip flops or barefoot did me. I thought there couldn't be anything more comfortable, but I'm willing to admit I was wrong.


At BlogOn conference I won a pair of shoes from Hotter and it was a win I was really delighted about. Since the loss of my last pair of 3 year old DM boots (they don't make 'em like they used to), I've been wearing the Hotter shoes that I chose for review last year. No longer relegated to fancy evenings and days out, they became my everyday shoes and I like it a lot.

The new Jurassic Kingdom movie is out and so are some brand new Dinosaur toys! On Thursday 14th June BrainStorm will be having a Twitter party with several fantastic giveaways, and they've sent us some of their newest dinosaur toys to take a look beforehand...


Brainstorm bring us a lot of really excellent STEM supporting toys for curious kids and future scientists. They help children explore their world - and beyond! We last worked with them on a project involving Brainstorm's Space Toys. This one is based a little further back in prehistoric times...

I'll start with the important bit. We absolutely love this book. 5 Simple Steps To Saving Planet Earth is a fantastic read for any young independent reader aged around 7 or over. It may also be a children's book, but it's a brilliant story that pretty much anyone can enjoy.


Funny and cleverly inventive, the science fiction and adventure storyline has hints of ancient tales with heroes like Hercules, and more modern adventurers like Percy Jackson, yet still manages to be completely different.

Our heroes are Billy Hollingworth, a regular dinosaur-loving, rugby-playing schoolkid, and the Ysygol, a tiny little alien who has been sent to find him. Billy has been chosen for a very important mission crucial to the survival of the planet, and the pocket-sized Ysygol (I-cy-gol) is his guide.

We've all played with a Rubik's Cube and you've probably had a try of a Rubik's Snake, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Rubik's have a whole range of toys and games for one or more players, and they've sent us 2 of their new games to review.


We've been sent the Rubik's Battle Card Game and the Rubik's Flip 2 player game. We have also been sent one of the original Rubik's 3x3 Cubes - updated to be smoother and faster than ever.

We are big fans of StikBots. These little jointed characters have suckers on their hands and feet, and are perfect for your amateur film makers to practise with. We've been sent the Movie Castle Set to review, and it's a fantastic backdrop and accessories for our next StikBot movie...


Inside the box are lots of pre-cut sheets of construction material, accessories, 1 x StikBot, a sheet with loads of stickers and instructions. You don't need anything else, this is glue-free and slot-together.

The Varta Slim Power bank promises up to 5 full phone charges or 2 tablet charges before it needs to be recharged itself. Smaller than a paperback book, and safely encased with a metal cover, it is ideal to take away with you and likely to be invaluable to us this Summer.


Everyone has a cupboard somewhere full of very exciting electrical gadgets. Sometimes this is a drawer, sometimes it is called a garage or a shed. Your gadgets (including your vehicle) will all need power and this is where Varta come in. They have been making batteries for over 100 years and more recently have increased the range, now making chargers, torches and other consumer products.

Last night we were treated to nostalgia and laughs in beach bucketloads as we were guests of Bolton's Octagon Theatre to review their brand new show - Summer Holiday. This is an ambitious and very different performance, which starts at Bolton Interchange and ends in the theatre - and you get there in style, by double-decker bus...


We loved it. I haven't laughed and grinned so much in ages. The show went incredibly well from our perspective, despite including 6 genuine Bolton Vision double-decker busses, 4 different locations, 11 different musical instruments, 10 actors and a broken down mini at the bottom of the Bolton Town Hall steps. Hats off to everyone involved - thank you for a great evening.


For anyone who didn't watch Cliff Richard and crew in Summer Holiday every Summer as a child, this is the tale of a group of bus drivers who have the idea to transform a bus into a mobile hotel and take people over to the south of France. Set in 1963 when most people hadn't been abroad on holiday, this was incredibly exotic and daring.

This half term we managed to get ourselves up to Scotland to stay with my partner's parents. It's the first time since we lost Elspeth and was full of memories, as we knew it would be. It was also the most amazing break and I can't describe in words just how lovely it was to be back...


My younger children have missed out on the Shetland Ponies, they are only just small enough to ride now and haven't ridden since they were tiny. Thankfully the weather was on our side. We had 4 days of amazing 27 degree sunshine and plenty of chance to spend hours outdoors. The complete opposite to last time I wrote about a visit to my partner's parents in the 8 foot snowdrifts at Easter 2013.

Earlier on today we were guests of Z-Arts in Hulme, Manchester, to see the morning performance of Oxford Playhouse's family theatre One Small Step. We were promised 50 years of space travel in 60 minutes, in a show that is suitable for children and grown ups aged around 7+, and with a cast of only two actors.


It was brilliant. My other half is meticulous in his detail and 'the space race' is something he knows well. We all have an interest in science, technology and space, so we were all looking forward to it. A couple of my boys were even hoping to catch the cast out with technical errors... it wasn't possible.

Using a collection of household items as props, the two-person cast portray every character and all of the necessary rockets and capsules. They create the flag left behind on the moon, and they even recreate the moon. They dress as astronauts and newsreaders, and the impressions were excellent. If they'd had James Cameron adding special effects, ultimately it wouldn't have been any more convincing. There are tons of ideas there which children can duplicate at home for free.