We have been lucky enough to review the On the Farm - Giant Jigsaw Playmat by Orchard Toys for Izziwizzi Kids Playfest.

As with all Orchard Toys games and puzzles this is designed and manufactured in the UK from strong 100% recycled board. It has really bright colours, modern pictures and chunky pieces that don't bend or come apart during even quite boisterous play. Orchard Toys are built to be played with, and built to last.

On The Farm ~ Giant Jigsaw Playmat ~ Age 3-12


On The Farm retails at £13.95. It is suitable for 1 or more children and the suggested age range is 3-12. It promotes imaginative small worlds play and helps with manual dexterity, comprehension and understanding of the world. It develops language skills and encourages conversation. It is two-fold in that it is a jigsaw  and then a playmat using the characters supplied and any other animals, people and vehicles which the child may have available to them.

Although this works perfectly as a stand alone item, it can be combined with the Giant Road Jigsaw using the included link pieces, to create a far bigger playmat which can be put together in a multitude of different ways to create a landscape suitable for the play area, number of children taking part or just whatever your child wishes.



When they were young my older boys had a 'road' which was comprised of jigsaw pieces in a similar way, but was nothing like as durable or attractive as this one. They loved it and played with it regularly for months until it fell apart. The board that Orchard Toys use is really thick and will last far longer, it also stays together really well even when being 'driven' across with toy cars, ponies, aliens or anything else!
In my experience adding a playmat to pretend play makes it a completely different game. The pictures encourage the children to 'group' like items, consider what happens in real life far more and give visual cues as to how their play can progress. They are more likely to 'feed' their animals and keep their main storyline going for longer rather than shooting off at tangents constantly. It gives a focus for play and keeps the active area contained!

We're so impressed with the Giant Jigsaw Playmat that when we saw the Giant Road Jigsaw for sale at the RRP of £13.95 while on holiday in Wigtown this week, we bought it. On The Farm gets a definite 'thumbs up' from all of us. 

Before we arrived - the impassable driveway!

The roads being cleared just in time for us!

Grandma and Grandad live in the part of Britain most affected this time by the snow and the wind. Had Easter been a week earlier then we could have joined them in being trapped in the house for 3 days and nights with no power, battling the blizzards to feed the animals and playing board games by candlelight for entertainment. As big an adventure as it would have been, I think it's probably better that we turned up a week later, when the roads were cleared of abandoned cars, the shops have re-stocked, the wind has gone and we can watch the Dr Who special!


Fortunately the ponies aren't too bothered by the snow, and after being rescued from the blizzards and moved indoors last weekend, they're really pleased to be back outside - despite the snowdrifts! On some of the flatter and more sheltered fields there still isn't any grass to be found, so they've been having lunch delivered.
 One of the rewards for helping with the ponies is to get a ride. This is Leo - he's quite an old man now, but he's still very patient and ideal for the little children to ride. Both boys first sat on a Shetland Pony at less than 18 months old, so they're old hands now and supremely confident!
 All of the children have ridden the Shetland Ponies, but they're mainly too big now and luckily the ponies are taught to drive, pulling a carriage - but not in the snow!

Some other, smaller, creatures have been leaving tracks. Boy no.3 thought maybe it was a Pterosaur, but I think it was a much more modern type of bird!


Boy no.4 also left plenty of tracks, completely oblivious to the fact that actually he was running across a drift that is 8 feet deep in places - and we can't follow him because we're too heavy! I sent my other half off to rescue him while I stood a safe distance back. Boy no.3 in the foreground is standing on a 3 foot high stone wall, something I don't think he'll understand even when he sees the comparison photo's.


With the ponies back outside one of the main jobs has been to dig out and repair the electric fences ~ something the smaller children can't really help with, although they very much enjoyed running about feeling as if they were useful!


After work comes play ~ and we've really tried to make the most of it. Snowdrifts are brilliant for mini sledge runs for small people!

Why build one snowman when you can build an entire army?

Ice hole!

Our ice hole is still there, but it isn't big enough for Grandad or our youngest child to sit in any more. Sadly our snow is melting, but we really have had an Easter to remember forever and we haven't even had any eggs yet!

Biff is really super soft and has a zip up mouth so that when you are worried about anything at all, you can say it, or write it down, or draw a picture, and put your worries into the Worry Eater's mouth, and he will get rid of them for you. Monsters under the bed, bullies in school, spending time without your Mum or going to the dentist....he will eat away any worry, and stop it eating away at you....
 




We won ours from Izziwizzi Kids Playfest, and Coiledspring posted it to us direct. If you'd like to buy one then they are available for the general public to buy from The Toadstool. They may even work for adults...

Update: 07/082014 We've now had our Worry-Eater for nearly 18 months and he looks as good today as he did when we got him.He's been hand-washed no end of times, loved and hugged, used and stuffed full of Wotsits. He never seems to mind....

In my free time (yeah, right) I play games. Board games and computer games. I've loved my Playstation for as long as I can remember. As I gained more children I lost more playing time, but I still manage to have a turn occasionally.

I got the platinum trophy for Bioshock (did everything you possibly can with a degree of skill), completed Bioshock 2 a few times and have been waiting a long time for this one.

If you don't play games - but want to impress your other half or stun your teenage kids with your encyclopaedic knowledge, then this is for you -



Generally you only kill people who are already shooting at you, and most people are just innocent passers-by (at least for the first portion of the game). If there is a red bar above a persons head, they're going to attack and you should probably stop them - now is the time to shout 'look, over there, the guy with the gun, hit him, hit him again' until the red bar vanishes.

The player is a man brought to this cloud version of the 1900's World Fair to rescue a young woman named Elisabeth. He travels there in a glass elevator - however he isn't in Wonkaland, he's in a place called Columbia which is an entire massive town built on top of a layer of cloud (in the 1890's they invented secret engineering techniques which are to this day kept secret from us plebs).

'Columbia' has been purpose built up in the clouds by a bunch of crazies from the US government. The founding men in charge of this land are God-like in the eyes of the misguided folks who live there. Most people in the game are actually drug-addled psychopaths who are fighting each other in a civil war between the rich and the downtrodden.

The crazies spent most of their time encouraging Scientists to invent superhuman powers (called vigors) to be used by the locals. These are collected, bought and implanted by the player. They are powered by 'salts' which is the blue bar at the bottom left of the screen. When it runs out, no special powers....boo. The powers have giveaway names like Shock Jockey and Bucking Broncho.

The player finds useful stuff and picks it up until their ginormous pockets can take no more - objects glisten, so to earn Brownie points say something if you see a shiny that the player is walking straight past. Stuff is also hidden in bins, bodies, cupboards, all over the place. People who die often turn into a small box full of treasure, which you can loot.

Food gives the player health, cigarettes remove health (red bar at top left of screen). If you're really dying you can buy a hot dog from a street vendor.

Cigarettes give the player salts, alcohol removes salts (remember, the special powers thing?)

Alcohol gives the player pishedness, so don't drink too much or it might go a bit blurry. It does however also give you health so sometimes you just need to stop and have a drink. It's remarkably like real life.

Medical kits give you.....erm...health - duh.

Salts make the special powers work.

The aim of the game is to find out why you're actually there and what's going on, which is a whole load of 'yeah, okay'. You do know you need to rescue Elisabeth. She has spent the last few years in her own version of The Trueman Show. She's been living in a cupboard, so she's read loads of quantum physics, but her social skills aren't great. Later on in the game she'll no doubt have secret abilities and powers, but you don't know about that yet. Every now and again she chucks stuff at you that she picked up off the floor and she can pick locks.

Elisabeth can rip holes into another world. This world is sometimes Paris. You can't go there, but sometimes she can bring stuff back - flowers and some of Harry Potters Dementors seem to be popular choices.

You can spend money at vending machines. You can buy chocolate and bullets and all sorts of useful tat.

You can hook your hand onto rails that run around the entire town and slide about like a roller coaster. You can even speed up and slow down. It's waaay cool.

You find out the back story by listening to tapes, watching films and chatting to locals. Most of this is drivel at the time, but makes sense later, you don't need to really pay attention unless you intend to discuss it at length on a philosophical level. Just be certain that the people who hired the player to rescue the girl will have a hidden agenda, and will probably also have accidentally created a man-tearing monster who will later on try to kill you.

Every now and again the player gets to a really action-packed bit. This is the equivalent of a 'level boss' at the end of a level. There can be a huge thing to kill, or a horde to dispatch. It will usually have some excitement music and it isn't the time for you to walk in front of the telly or demand that your teen goes to bed. If you want to be popular wait until the music has stopped and then make your move.

There are loads of different clothes this guy can wear that enhance his performance. I've not seen disco-pants yet, but they may be in there.

It autosaves. This means as the player moves through the game it saves the position ready for when you die and have to repeat what you just did, only in a far more skilful way. When it says 'autosave' at the bottom right of the screen, you are safe to tell them that 7 hours is enough for today, maybe you should think about going to bed.......or washing....

If you do play games then this is for you -

Yeah, it's really good, we're enjoying it so far, as we'd expect. More reminiscent of Bioshock 1 than 2 actually, huge map, same familiar controls, different abilities which is nice. The clothes thing takes a bit of remembering and I keep expecting him to carry Elisabeth around. Weird how they felt they needed to have loads of water everywhere when it's set up in the sky rather than down in the sea....

With a family as big as mine sometimes you can justify some crazy, naughty bulk purchase bargains....


I reckon 3 each for the children..........

and the spare for me.......

Happy 3rd birthday to the little one of the family......with his blue 'Mike The Knight' cake that nearly didn't get decorated in time because we spent all day trying to save the fish!

PS. In case anyone was worried, the fish are currently still swimming.....

To celebrate his birthday in style yesterday (more to follow on that - obligatory cake photo etc) boy no.4 really pulled out the stops.


He's bored, stuck inside all week while his brother complains that things are touching his chicken pox spots. We've missed all the super exciting parties and groups just before the Easter break, the weather has been dismal and we're all full of colds, so it's been a bit pooh.

I went to answer the door to boys no.1 and 2 who were coming back from the Dentist. Seriously, how long does that take? They live here, I only opened the door! I returned to the living room and what greeted me was this...


That is 2 full pots of fish food in a fish tank - this is enough for 6 months, it will kill them.

I spent far longer than I'd like rubbing my head trying to think what to do next and wondering if it would look better if I left the room and came back. I tried a few times just to be sure, but it didn't (damn it).
Organising my head, then 10 minutes running about like a crazy thing trying to find the bucket to put the fish in with absolutely no success. Why is it that you trip over something every day for weeks, and then as soon as you REALLY need it, it's gone? I finally spotted a plastic tub which would do just fine (and the Playmobil is handier when it's chucked out onto the floor anyway).

The fish we have are Silver Sharks. They're not small, they're very quick and they can jump about 30cm. I haven't had to catch them for a while, but it's a 4 handed job. Lacking the extra appendages of an octopus I passed the job on to boys1 and 2 while I sat on the floor ready for the inevitable catch. Stunningly this did not happen. Remember that fact because it's a moment to be proud of in this story - we never once dropped a fish.

We now have the fish decanted into the Playmobil box and the task of emptying the tank is underway with jugs and the household 'sick bowl' because that's the closest we can find to a bucket. There's a trail of water the full length of the house because naturally the best place for a fish tank is at least 100m from the nearest sink or drain. Boy no.4 is having a whale of a time (excuse the pun). This is THE most exciting thing that's happened all week, he can hardly contain his excitement and is desperate to join in. He's running about laughing with spoons and beakers dipping them into anything he can find.


Boy no.3 obviously feels a bit left out by all the attention the fish and his brother are getting, but hasn't the energy to join in, so he secures his position in the pecking order by lying down in the middle of the living room floor and going to sleep.

Boy no.4 is bored with being told off and manhandled away from the action, his brother can't even be suitably poked any more and decides instead to help by getting us some more water for the Playmobil box. He uses the water dispenser on the fridge and the biggest beaker he can find, with which he manages to jam the switch. Water cascading down on him isn't his favourite, so he takes all his clothes off and comes back to harass us again instead. Fortunately boy no.1 spots the new indoor swimming pool before it reaches the edge of the lino, removes the beaker and starts mopping. Doorbell rings. Ah, yeah, Tesco.

15 minutes later we have £200 of  food balanced on the kitchen table, sopping floors throughout, Silver Sharks in a Playmobil box full of tap water, 10 quids worth of fish food goo blocking the drain, a 3 year old birthday boy wearing only a Mike The Knight helmet (presumably to protect him in case of another indoor shower) and a 4 year old with Chicken Pox asleep in the middle of the living room floor. 2 fed up teenagers and 1 Mum who is wondering if there can be any job harder in the entire world than that of parent.

My partner comes home from work...."so, how's it going?".....



I've cheekily added this to Actually Mummy and Just a Normal Mummy's 'What's So Funny?' linky - although it was us asking the question and him answering....

Finding something for a little girl to wear for a special occasion is really easy in my experience, for young boys I've never found it so simple. A nice pair of jeans and a cool t-shirt looks great, but it lacks that special something. It works for a party, but I want something suitable for a wedding. I want to make a special effort. I'm not the sort of person to put their children in bow ties and waistcoats, it just isn't me (or them) so I've been looking for something semi-formal for them to wear.

alexandalexa sell some of the most gorgeous designer children's clothes. They have clothes from all kinds of designer ranges including Chloe, Boss, Burberry, Fendi and Paul Smith. From casual and sportswear through to formal you can find something for every occasion all in one place.


This pale blue Armani Junior pinstripe patterned cuff shirt at £77, or the Junior Gaultier white shirt with tie stitch at £80 are both ideal for an important wedding. I love the idea I could get boy no.3 and boy no.4 into crisp light shirts - and hopefully keep them clean at least long enough to get through the service and the photo's!

I do love little boys in shorts and the Il Gufo navy chino shorts at £53 are really smart and would look lovely while remaining slightly casual. If it's not at all warm then these Tom & Drew smart dress trousers are half price at the moment at only £30 and would really look great on my little boys.

Of course I couldn't resist looking at girls clothes and while there are heaps of beautiful dresses for little girls I did finally remember my teenagers.


I absolutely adore this Monnalisa polka dot cotton dress at £142, but sadly while 2 years ago my girls would have worn it, I think now they'd prefer something more 'teenage'.

The Dino e Lucia cream sequin dress is available for half price at the moment at £86 and the US Angels dropwaist chiffon dress is also half price at an unbelievable £27. Both of these would be really dressy and make the girls feel special without being too 'cute'.

On the website home page they are showcasing the Autumn/Winter 2013 collections which will be available to order later in the year. I'm hoping someone else decides they want to get married later in the year to give me an excuse to treat everyone again!

Alexandalexa offers free postage on orders over £30 and free returns. In addition to designer children's clothing they also stock school and home accessories, children's toys and designer baby gifts.

Fifteen year olds are not meant to stand on toddler toilet steps.

Six foot tall hairy adult sized young men can't stand on a toilet step and jump about, not even if it's making their little brothers laugh, because it breaks into a bazillion pieces - and has a big foot hole where the bit for standing used to be.

We need a toilet step. Boy no.3 and boy no.4 can't quite reach to pee without it, and taking off their trousers so that they can climb up onto the loo is not ideal, especially not at 3am, so boy no.2 had to replace it - immediately. With his own money.

Off he went, head down and annoyed to the nearest shop likely to sell a toilet step, and returned with something beyond our wildest expectations.


The King of all toilet steps, in a beautiful blue with a big smiley face and 2 huge foot-controlled buttons. It plays music! It has a button for teeth cleaning which plays a 2 minute tune, and a button for hand washing which plays a 30 second tune. The boys think it's fantastic, they love it, it's amazing, it was even "awesun". It's also incredibly loud at 1am when everyone else is asleep and I (being only 5 feet tall with little short legs) put my foot on it when I go to have a wee before bed. Techno it may be, but it's lacking a 24 hour clock....


Obviously I have the guilt now because I'd expected it to cost him about £3, and he had to use all of his hard earned £10. But there's a big lesson learned there, not only for him, but for all of our lot.....

Still.....I might let him sweep the drive later for a fiver if he's lucky......

Finally boy no.3 has caught chicken pox. It's taken years of trying and of course it happens exactly when we have outings and parties planned, it's the last week of pre-school before Easter and there is loads of fun stuff to do....and it's 3 days before his little brother's 3rd birthday.

Last night ~ Day 2

I don't really want boy no.4 to have chicken pox on his birthday, but that is kind of outweighed by a desire to get it over and done with......

It would be really handy if they both caught it from the same source and it's only a matter of hours before boy no.4 joins his brother on the sofa not wanting to touch anything. What's more likely however is that he'll continue to be fine and want to play fight four times every fifteen minutes and will spend the next six days leaping on his sore brother and removing the tops from his spots via the power of friction, scraping every available inch of skin as he jumps up and slides down him, grabbing at his arms and anywhere else that is already acutely painful.
He'll want to play and go do loud things, and his ill brother will mainly want to read books and watch movies and we'll have a week of trying to keep 2 little boys busy at both ends of the table.

This morning ~ Day 3

Boy no.3 is being the stroppiest, whiniest, grumpiest and mardiest he's ever been, which is standard for Chicken Pox, and combined with his brother wanting to invent another 15 wrestling moves before lunch isn't going too well, but thankfully he's not really very ill, just a bit hot and tired and feeling very sorry for himself  (Calpol and Piriton are doing a great job).

I've never had to look after a chicken pox child while I have another at home who wants to harass them the entire time. I wouldn't recommend it.

This afternoon ~ Day 3 ~ Lets hope his brother leaves him be for an hour

Obviously in order to draw out the agony to it's fullest extent boy no.3 will just get better and we'll have a couple of days of normality, but not quite enough to get back into the swing of things before boy no.4 develops spots and then I'll have the entire thing in reverse......