Moonpig – the One Stop Online Birthday Cards & Gift Shop – Review

Moonpig is known for it’s celebration cards, particulary the ability to personalise them online.  You can even send them straight to the recipient in time for their special day.  A very handy service in normal times but even more so during the Covid pandemic where we’ve been stuck at home.  Going back to high street shopping just isn’t the same anymore.

Who wants to queue outside shops waiting to go inside?  Then be sent on a one way system that rushes you around not being able to browse.  Not forgetting wearing a mask the whole time which I certainly don’t enjoy for more than a few minutes!

This is where Moonpig comes in super handy for all your celebration needs.  They sell not only cards, which can of course be personalised, but flowers, chocolates, sweets, balloons and a vast array of gifts to suit all ages.  In fact I was pleasantly surprised at the choice.  Thinking it would be just the usual box of chocolates or flower gifts but they actually do so much more besides that.  I was particually impressed with how well they catered for younger giftees.  It’s fantastic that you can order a card and present fromjust one website and have it delivered to someone just in time for their special day.

Moonpig kindly sent me over a selection of gifts suitable for my 10 year old who celebrated his first “double digits” year last week!  I do love personalised cards and both myself and my daughter had fun online creating some.  These rather fantastic Large size glossy cards come complete with name, age and photo’s incorporated into the design.

No birthday is complete without balloons and you can either choose various options.  We receive these rather fabulous ‘Let’s Party’ air filled balloons that you blow up yourself with the included straw.  It was actually really simple and far less effort then blowing up traditional balloons with the bonus of thembeingreusable.

I have to say Moonpig have a particularly impressive choice of sweet treats. Catering for all ages from retro sweet jars to posh chocolate boxes there is something for everyone.  My boy was very happy with this rather cool hamper of sweets and a particually impressive looking chocolate pizza.

Perfect for younger audiences are some of the game and activity gifts you can choose from.  My 10 year old loves playing Minecraft online so this Minecraft Builders & Biomes board game is fantastic and great for all the family to join in with.  I feel like I’ll become an expert in Minecraft after just one game!! lol  Endermen or Creepers anyone?

Any fan of Harry Potter will surely love the Harry Potter version of the classic game Cluedo.  We’ve played the original version many times, but this one certainly added interest to my kids who are big fans.  The Kitchen Science kit from KidzLabs looks like great fun too, you just need to add a few basic items and then have some kitchen science fun.

Overall I can’t fault Moonpig in any aspect of it’s service.  Personalised cards ordered late afternoon – arrived the next day.  We had balloons, sweet treats and birthday gifts, all perfect for my 10 year old.  All from one website and can be ordered altogether.  So if you are stuck at home, or don’t want to venture out in this during these difficult times – you know where to shop!!  Moonpig.com!!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews. Although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Clock it! Guess the card against the clock – Review

Clock it! is a new game from Ideal Games this year that is fast paced and fun for all the family. Aimed at ages 8+, although I think slightly younger could easily join in if they are keen, this is actually a game that is fun for all ages the family.  It’s basically a guessing game in which players have to guess what one player is either describing, drawing or miming – but remember you are against the clock – how many can you guess before the alarm sounds?

The game consists of:

  • 1 Clock It! light up alarm clock (this does require 3 AAA batteries)
  • 1 key
  • 80 double sided challenge cards
  • Clock It clock shaped board
  • 1 wipe clean drawing board
  • 1 wipe board pen

The first job is to put the batteries in the clock which does require a screwdriver, don’t they all these days!  And you obviously need to have the batteries but if you are a family household like mine, we have a permanent stash for any toy or gadget that enters the house and requires batteries.

The Clock it! clock although looks a little basic at first, is actually what adds all the fun to the game and is quite clever in the way that it works.  You can select various modes on the back using the key, either just drawing, just describing, just miming or a combo of all three.

You control it by pressing on the yellow handle at the top and the relevant action and number light up.

Onto the game play for Clock it! of which there are number of variants depending on how many players you have and whether you want to mime, draw, describe or do a combo of all three.

Decide on a number of rounds you wish to play and see which team or individual wins the most.  Firstly you need to set the cards out around the clock it board.  The cards are double sided, one side with a word of an item, the other with a picture of an item.  You can either stick to one or do a mix of both.  Then place twelve cards around the clock, one by each number.

One player is picked to be the first describer and they take control of the clock and need to hide the front from the other players so they don’t see what number the describer is performing.  A top tip in the instructions is that the describer and the people guessing are sat at opposite sides of the table – we found this worked really well!

Once you’ve guessed correctly, you take that card away from the clock and the describer presses the handle down to give them another number to describe.  Play continues until you have either guessed all twelve cards or the alarm bells sound so the quicker you are the more cards you can collect.

The timer clock with it’s ticking sounds and alarm bells really add excitement and fun to the game, keeping everyone on their toes during play.  Once the round has ended you move onto another player or team to be the describer until your desired amount of rounds has ended when you can declare the ultimate winner!

Our pro’s for the Clock it! game:

  • If you like charades style games then this is perfect for you whether you are acting, drawing or describing
  • The alarm clock adds so much excitement and tension to the game and keeps everyone on their toes.
  • The bright coloured cards are eye catching and engaging and with 160 different objects you rarely see a repeat within a round of games
  • There are many variants of the game to keep interest and change up the way you play
  • It’s a game for all ages and can be played with just 2-3 people or 2 larger teams
  • Perfect for Christmas, parties or just all round family weekend fun

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Kersplatt! – The Fun Family Board Game

Kersplatt! is a fun new game release from Paul Lamond Games and one that has been thoroughly enjoyed here with the exciting aspect of splatting other players dough pieces!  The game consists of a brightly coloured playing board, a deck of cards and four coloured pots of dough.  Requiring 2-4 players and a suggested age of 6+, my two children aged 7 and 10 were keen to play along with mummy and daddy and see if they could splat our pieces and win.

The board for Kersplatt! is well made and folds into quarters for storing in the box.   Each player needs to choose a colour, red, blue, yellow or green and the idea is to make yourself some dough characters and move these around the board without being splatted.  Once you get two onto your home space you are declared the winner. To play you take turns in turning a card over and this determines your move to a space of either the colour or number you turn over.  Or you may turn a card that allows you to Kersplatt! another persons playing piece.  The kids loved this element of the game and thought it was hilarious splatting another player on the board.  All of the squashed pieces remain on the board and those squares are out of action which means it makes it quicker to get your pieces around to the home spaces as the game goes on.

With two kids ready to play, we got started.  With four of us playing it made it fun and competitive and was actually a game we all really enjoyed and would happily play again (well we already have a few times!).  The kids thought it was great to create your own pieces and we ended up with some fancy creations that they were sad to see get Kersplatted! but that’s the nature of the game.  A great family friendly game that is simple to play but fun and keeps kids entertained on rainy days, evenings or just when you are looking for something exciting to play!

For your chance to win a copy of the board game Kersplatt!, just fill in the entry form below:

Kersplatt! game

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

i-SPY Books for Kids

i-SPY books for kids from Collins are a great way to entertain children especially when out and about, on long journeys or visiting new places. Pocket sized and packed with over sixty colour pages of things to spot along with useful facts, they are sure to keep children entertained.

With a lot of long journeys for us at this time of year I knew the children would love to try out the i-SPY On a car journey and i-SPY On a road trip books.  We will also be going on a ferry in a couple of months so I knew that the i-SPY On a ferry would be a hit with them then and keep them occupied.  They already been checking out the pages and seeing what they remember from the ferry last time and can’t wait to take it with them on our trip.

The books come with true to life photos of things to spot relevant to the theme of each book so it’s really easy to tell what you are looking for and tick it off once you’ve found it.   There’s even a points system where by each picture is worth a certain number of points which you can add up and apply online for a certificate when you reach 1000 points.  They’ll also send you a badge through the post – a nice little touch that gives that added bit of motivation to keep finding things!

My two children were excited when they caught sight of the new i-SPY books having been fans after using them several times previously and before we had even left the house they were flicking through deciding which things they really wanted to spot when we were out and about.  Just a few days later we embarked on a 260 mile round journey to visit their cousins so this was the perfect road trip to check the books out on.  One had On a car journey, the other had On a road trip and it proved great fun listening to them spotting things and helping each other out along with describing signs for me to look out for in order to help them.

The i-SPY range of books have always been popular with us and we’ve had a combination of both travel and nature themed books which always create a buzz with the children that not only encourages them to learn but they have great fun at the same time.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Emojito Party Game from Tactic Games – Family Fun

Emojito party game from Tactic is a fun family game where you imitate emotions whilst the other players guess which one you are trying to be.  With a game board, set of full colour emotion cards and player pieces, it’s a fun, fast paced game that certainly brought smiles, giggles and lots of “Can we play again?” comments to our house.

Recommended for ages 7+ I knew my two children would enjoy Emojito.  My daughter is 9 and my son is 6 but he is very humourous, funny and enjoys things such as making faces so I knew he’d be able to join in and we could accommodate the game around him.  The children were eager to set the game up which consists of a game board, player pieces, a dial for each player to mark their guess on (this stops any cheating or people changing their mind) and a good sized deck of emotion cards.  The cards are really bright and colourful using animals to demonstrate each emotion. 

The idea of the game is to pick a card and that is the one the player has to try and imitate, and then you place that along with a further six cards around the board.  The other players then have to guess which of the seven cards you are trying to be and put the relevant number on to their dial.  Everyone then shows each other the number they have chosen and anyone that guesses correctly gets to move around the board.  Each time you pass the chequered line you collect a ‘trophy’ card (any card that is in play on that round) and the eventual winner is the first person to collect five trophy cards.

Once we got into play mode, the kids loved it.  Making and imitating faces was so funny and the other players were giggling away trying to guess which card they were trying to be.  We had lots of fun and ended up playing this many times over consecutive days and it’s now a regular game that comes out to play several times a week.

We found the Emojito game to be really fun, creating great interactions with each other and caused lots of laughter and enjoyment.  Both children loved creating different emotions and it was certainly a bit different from other games we already own which maintained interest and kept them engaged in the game play!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Join in to Win with National Board Games Week (May 8th-14th)

With National Board Games week coming up during 8th to 14th May 2017, it’s time to get all your family favourite games out of the cupboard and enjoy some fun, quality time together.  I know my children are fond of board games and it really is something that all ages and generations can enjoy together.  We’ve been trying out Boggle recently which the children have loved and made me giggle at some of the words they find!

If you are really into competing then The National Board Games Championships are being run by Pork Farms, in association with the Micropub Association and games supplied by Hasbro. You can get involved by attending heats at your nearest participating micropub, with winners moving through to semi-finals and grand finale during National Board Games Week (May 8th-14th) along with travel and accommodation provided by Pork Farms.

You can also join in the fun from your own home by hosting a board games night, using whatever board games you have in the cupboard . Just sign up and Pork Farms will email you a free games night pack nearer the time, which contains things like printable winners certificates. Then for a chance to win a stack of board games and a year’s supply of pork pies just share photos of your board games night with Pork Farms through social media and their website.

Boggle from Hasbro was a bit hit with us and I loved the way the children were learning words and spellings but having immense fun at the same time.  Board games are always a hit with every member of a family no matter what the ages and really brings people together for some quality time.  Dig out all your games, have some fun and join in with National Board Games Week!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received a game in order to write an honest review.

My Fairy Garden from Interplay Toys

My Fairy Garden website is a delightful place that children can visit and get to know the fairies that live in the various Fairy Garden toys.  From Belle who comes with Fairy Garden to Lily who comes with Lilypad Gardens, they all have their own style and personality to go with their houses.

As you can see with Lilypad Gardens above, the set is lovely and child friendly, perfect for introducing children to gardening as they can grow something in the pot and play with the accessories each time they water the plant.  I just love the large saucer for this set that excess water will go into, there are little lily pads to float in the water and the drawbridge comes down for the fairy to walk across – how cute!

Each set is different and features it’s own fairy, you can find out about them all on the website as well as lots of other activities.  There are printable colouring sheets, spot the differences, ideas of things to make such as a twig ladder for the fairies to use.  There are also fun online games and quizzes.  Well worth trying out the Which Fairy are you quiz? to see which fairy you are most like.  It’s a simple multiple choice quiz which will give you the answer in minutes.

We also love the Flower Puzzle game, with 10 levels to get through.  You have to match different pairs of flowers up without crossing the path of another pair.  Both my children have sat down playing this with much fun trying to get further through the levels each time.  Why not give it a try – great for rainy day fun!

If your child loves fairies then make sure you check out the My Fairy Garden website for lots of fun, games and more!

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Read and Play Dinosaur Activity Pack – Review

The Read and Play Dinosaur Activity Pack from Miles Kelly has been a huge hit here with 5yr old Mister B.  It really is packed full of activities that have fully engaged him and he has returned to the pack time after time.

miles-kelly-dinosaur

The box opens out to reveal a pile of contents including a story book, an activity book, a puzzle and two precut sheets of accessories.  What’s really clever about this box is that the flaps and the inside all contain things to do which you’ll see further down the review, but also the box is a great place to store everything at the end of play.

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We started reading the story book ‘Rex gets a Scare’ which is perfect for young children with full colour pages and lots to look at which also keeps my 5yr old entertained as he likes to tell me everything that he sees going on through the pictures.  The story follows Rex, a large green dinosaur who shouldn’t be scared of anything but finds he gets scared by flowers and bees.  He has lots of dinosaur friends around him though to support along the way.

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The activity book is packed full of puzzles and games that my little boy loved from mazes, dot to dot, spot the difference and even a fun ‘Scramble and Slide’ game that he loves to play.

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The box itself opens up to become a dinosaur play scene.  There are some press out sheets to create dinosaur models of Rex and his friends which we sat and made together.  My little boy could then play with his model dinosaurs on the play scene which he really enjoyed.miles-kelly-dinosaur-7

The flaps of the box fold over to reveal a couple of board games, ludo and draughts.  The counters for these can be popped out of one of the pre cut sheets and my little boy loved the dinosaur discs.  Prior to this my little boy wasn’t aware of the rules of draughts but it is now a game he enjoys and happily plays.

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One of his favourite parts of this set was the puzzle.  I think because it was round it had extra appeal, but it is also a really good thickness that will last unlike a lot of puzzles in book sets like this.

Overall I think that the Read and Play Dinosaur set is excellent and has been thoroughly enjoyed here along with being packed with good quality pieces that have been well thought out and are perfect for young dinosaur fans.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

 

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Chrono Bomb Game Review & Giveaway

Chrono Bomb is an exciting game from IMC Toys that creates excitement and fun for children as they weave their way through the unique combination of strings that you set up in order to reach the end before the bomb goes off.  With numerous set ups possible it really is down to your imagination on creating a mission ready for the game to begin.

chrono bomb imageThe box contains a bomb unit with timer, six clamps, of which one attachs to the sensor and another has the reel of string on.  There are also 8 object cards and two special cards which are used to pick up as you make your way through the course, although there is also an app that can be downloaded with a couple of further variations of the game on it for extended play.  The bomb unit does require 3 AAA batteries to play.

chrono bomb 1Each clamp needs to be set in place and although they are fairly flexible to move around, you do need to find the right thickness of furniture to attach them too.  We didn’t really have anywhere suitable so set up in the garden using garden chairs and this worked just fine.  The first two clamps have to be level in order to balance the sensor but after that you can zig zag the string up and down to create a varied course.  It does require an older person or parent to assist with this although my 8yr old soon got the hang of setting up a course.

chrono bomb 2There are two variations of the game plus the ones on the app, but my children occupied themselves in many ways with their own variations and it managed to keep them entertained for most of the afternoon trying to trick each other out!

Here’s our video of the game in action:

For you chance to win a Chrono Bomb game, just fill in the Gleam form below:

Chrono Bomb game

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Crazy Cafe Game by Tactic Games – Review

Crazy Cafe by Tactic Games is a new fast paced, fun game that young children will love.  The thought of pulling a tablecloth off a table is always something you dream of doing, but would get you into trouble in real life!

CRAZY CAFEThe game comes in a clever box, where the bottom tray of the box turns over to become the table.  Included are a red gingham table cloth and various pieces of plastic crockery to use in turns during the game.  There is also a spinner which determines your moves.

crazy cafe 2There are six options on the spinner which are either to add one or two objects to the table, stack one or two objects to the table, remove one item from the table or the ever elusive “Pull!!” the tablecloth off the table.

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The object is to manage to pull the tablecloth away leaving the items intact on the table, a total of three times to become the overall winner.  My children loved the concept of this and couldn’t wait to have a go at pulling the cloth away.  They did get a little disheartened at how hard it was to spin to have a go at pulling the tablecloth as most of the options are aimed at building up the items on the table and obviously the more items that are on there, the harder it is to pull it off.

crazy cafe 4Overall the game is fun and something my 5yr old loved and wanted to play again and again.  He absolutely loved pulling the tablecloth off when he got the chance, I just wonder if there should be two options on the spinner to pull the tablecloth as that is the aspect that keeps the children playing.

I think this game is great for younger children as they think it’s fun and it gets them used to turn taking and used to following instructions on the spinnner.  It was a hit with my 5yr old and he wants to play it all the time, so I’d say he’s in the perfect age range for this game.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.