Cirque Du Soleil launched their UK Arena Tour in Liverpool and the tour continued at Manchester Arena until Sunday, followed by Birmingham and Belfast. Last Friday we saw the show in Manchester as guests in order to review.


The cast of OVO features 50 performing artists from 17 countries, including the UK's Alanna Baker, 2011 gymnastics European Champion and a host of incredibly talented artistes. This is theatre and circus with amazing costumes and lighting, rolled into one huge jaw-dropping bundle.


OVO means 'egg' in Portuguese and when we arrived we were greeted by a ginormous egg on stage. As the performance started, characters appeared and mingled with the audience, eventually settling on stage. The giant egg deflated and the performance proper began.

I've always felt miniature construction would be better with a little more light shed on the situation and Light Stax are a very clever and unintrusive method of achieving this. Wireless, you can barely see where the power is coming from and the way they attach together means you can safely make all kinds of amazing light up designs.


I was given some Light Stax to review at BlogOn and my partner opened them as soon as I got home. He set to work immediately producing my blog initials, which I posted on Instagram. We were both really impressed with the Light Stax - and yet we were both very sceptical before we tried them.


They've won us over. We've got the Snapping Crocodile, Hybrid Fire Truck and V2 Beginner Plus set. The power system is really clever, with metal built into the blocks to pass the current. You can barely see it and it doesn't interfere with building.

I've always understood how valuable yogurt is nutritionally and it's something all of my children have loved to eat. We've often bought the big tubs and let the children add toppings of their choice, but Lancashire Farm Dairies have sent us some of their delicious Free Range Yogurt and their fantastic novelty game Toppers to really expand our horizons...


The yogurty game Toppers involves choosing a base yogurt card, picking a sauce card and then throwing the dice to see which two other toppings go in your bowl.

This review for the Blogger Boardgame Club is Who Did It?, a family card game from Blue Orange. Suitable for 3 to 6 players aged 6+, this is a game that really appealed to my 8 and 10 year old boys and has turned out to be excellent fun for everyone. The premise of the game is simple  - get rid of your animal cards to pass the blame on and prove it wasn't your pet who pooped on the carpet.

I've raised 5 boys, I'll be honest, I've heard all of the poop jokes many times over. I was worried I'd be a bit 'yeeuch', but actually it's just funny, fast paced and there isn't time for many poop jokes.
Inside the box are 36 cards (6 animals in 6 colors), 13 poop tokens and a rule booklet. The box is brilliant. Thick card and a magnetic closure, plus it's tiny and will hardly take up any storage space - nicely done.

A while ago I took part in a Twitter party for Jumbo Games And Puzzles, showcasing their new Disney products. I didn't receive my parcel before the party unfortunately, but I have it now and can show you some of the new titles on offer...


Starting with a couple of titles for younger puzzle fans, the Vampirina and Puppy Dog Pals 4 Shaped Puzzles. The rrp is £7.99 and the puzzles inside have 14, 16, 18 and 20 pieces. Age 3+.

Puzzles are great for practising hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, and there's a real sense of achievement and success when they are completed, whatever your age.

A couple of weekends ago we were guests of intu Trafford Centre to take at a look at the Stylist Live event. This was a free weekend long event with talks, catwalk shows and pop up stalls all throughout the main mall of the centre.


We were invited along and so was Sim from Manchester Mummy, so we all jumped in her car bright and early on the Sunday morning. It's really weird being inside The Trafford Centre when nothing is open and it's almost empty...

The Young Explorer Kit from Trends UK is an excellent and well-working science set for children aged around 8+. It's not as 'young' as you might believe, with an impressive and useful Pocket Field Microscope, Binoculars, Compass and Notebook & Pencil. This is for intermediate explorers!


Everything is inside the box in a plastic insert, which can be used for storage afterwards, although realistically it's a big box and these are handy pocket-sized items which my son has instead stored in his treasure drawer. The Binoculars, Compass and Microscope all have a carry strap with a safety release, so you are less likely to have to pick them out of the mud when on explorations.

The Field is an amazing toy product from Ireland that really is a game-changer. Your figures, animals and vehicles can have a really impressive backdrop instantly, and that's incredibly satisfying - even to a grown up. Well-made and impressively realistic, I can honestly say this has been far more of a hit here than I expected.


You're allowed to be sceptical, I was sceptical, but genuinely since I put The Compound and The Field out, our living room table has never seen so much use.

We reviewed the first Gangster School novel and I'm very happy to be back with the sequel, Gangster School 2. Subtitled The Brotherhood Of Brimstone, the second book sees the main characters settled into their school and more settled into who they actually are, and what they stand for.

Charlie and Millie aren't exactly cut out for a criminal life, but they are expected to take that path and this is their second year at Blaggard's School for Tomorrow's Tyrants.


It doesn't take long before our heroes to discover the reason for some mysterious happenings is not as ghostly as it first appears. This is like Scooby Doo but with a genuinely perilous twist and there are a couple of moments when I wondered how serious things were going to get.

Tomorrow is Jeans For Genes day and up and down the land people will have an extra dress-down day, when they can come to work or school wearing the world's most popular outfit, jeans and a t-shirt, and it's all in the name of charity.

We've all heard of Jeans For Genes, but do you know where your donation goes?


The money raised by our donations to Jeans For Genes goes to the Genetic Disorders UK charity, who work to improve the lives of children born in the UK with a genetic disorder. These are often rare disorders which are unable to raise money in their own name, mainly because we've never heard of them, and that makes us the lucky ones. 500,000 UK families aren't so lucky.