Having an Easter Egg hunt with Ultra Dash game from Interplay

Looking for a fun idea for your kids Easter Egg hunt this year?  Then how about using the family fun game Ultra Dash from Interplay to add to the fun.  You can add chocolate treats to the targets for children to collect as they dash about following the flashing colours adding to their fun.  Also a great game during this stay at home isolation spell that we are having

The Ultra Dash game comes with five multicoloured targets that are bright and easy to see. This game is ideal for either indoors or outside in the garden if the weather is pleasant enough.  You simply place them on a flat surface either on the ground or on an easily reachable surface.

The Tagger is an ergonomic shaped stick that you hold and requires 3 AA batteries.  It then acts as your main tool in the game as from here you can control the number of players, timed countdowns and which game mode you wish to play.

It’s also is your main game controller that you hold during play and the top flashes various colours, each matching the colours of the targets and determines where you need to place the tagger.  It also records your score on how accurate you are in placing the tagger into the correct target.

There are three modes of game play:

  • Beat the Clock – A race to hit all five targets as fast as you can which you can either play alone or compete against others by taking turns and checking your scores.
  • Target Tally – Choose the length of your game whether it be 30 seconds or a minute and see how many targets you can hit in that time
  • Relay Race – split into teams and take turns of hitting five targets each before passing to the next player in your team.

As a fun idea for Easter we put chocolate bunnies into each target for the children to collect as they played – off course this was a hit and encouraged them to keep playing for longer!  I also found that by playing in the garden, the children were clearly keeping active by running between the targets and being competitive as they are, beat me in the the time challenges.

You can see the game in action in this short video clip we’ve made:

If you are looking for a fun game to keep the kids active then this would be great especially in the current climate.  It could be a long Summer if school remains closed until September to Ultra Dash is the idea way to have fun and keep fit!

You can also check out Interplay on their social channels to see Ultra Dash and other great play ideas that they have. They are on Instagram, Youtube and Twitter.

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.

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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Fairy Garden from Interplay – Review

Fairy Garden from Interplay is a really cute playset allowing for plenty of imagination creating a little world for your fairy to live in and then watch her garden grow.  The set begins as a craft kit and then turns into scene where you can watch the grass grow and play with various pieces moving them around.

WP_20160528_15_59_34_ProThe Fairy Garden comes with the pot, all the accessories and grass seeds, you just need to add a small amount of soil.  It is designed to be kept inside so you can watch it everyday, water it as necessary and cut the grass if desired.

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Miss M was eager to get started and used her little garden trowel to fill her shallow pot with soil.  The first job is then to construct the house which is made of glittery foam pieces which just attach together although she did require a little assistance to get it right but it did look pretty once built.

Fairy garden

Once you’ve put the house in it’s position on once side of the pot, there is a bag of brightly coloured stones to lay out in front of the house as it’s path and a large shell to bury on one side to be the fairy’s pond which you can later fill with water.  There’s a rather cute washing line to put up with a blanket and mini pegs, a toadstall and then a mouse who lives in the garden along with the fairy herself to place wherever you please.

Fairy garden 3Miss M really enjoyed putting the garden together, there are also some plastic flowers on stems to push into the soil and the last job is to sprinkle the uncovered soil in grass seed. As a twinkly final touch there are some glittery stars to make your garden sparkle.

Fairy garden 4With this set aimed at age 4+, you would need parental assistance to put this together.  Miss M is 8 and enjoyed it but did need me to guide her and assist in a few small areas like assembling the house and putting the washing line together.

She was thrilled just a few days later when she spotted the grass starting to grow and was surprised how tall it had got already.  She is hoping to give it a trim in a few more days.

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Overall we’ve enjoyed Fairy Garden from Interplay, it’s cute, it’s fun, it gives children something to create and look after and enjoy for more than just one day!

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

Triop World from Interplay – Review

Triop World from Interplay is a fascinating home kit where you can grow your own pond creatures known as Triops or alternatively Tadpole ShrimpsTriops first made an appearance in the Triassic period and have been around for over 300 millions years.  They tend to live in puddles and pools where they also deposit eggs ready for the next cycle to begin once they are no longer alive.

triop world box from interplayThe kit comes with practically everything you need to produce these little creatures, all you need to add is some bottled or rain water.  You get a water tank included to grow you Triops in along with a sachet of triop eggs, triop food, sand, pipette and a spoon.

WP_20160402_18_15_35_ProThe set is recommended for 7yrs plus and 8yr old Miss M was eager to try it out.  It is very simple to set up and simply requires the water to be added to the tank along with the detritus (dirt and eggs) sprinkled across the top.

triopsIt’s then a case of waiting…. and I have to admit after about 4 or 5 days I thought nothing was going to happen, but then about a week later I spotted some small white flutterings in the water.  We then all eagerly came down each morning to see how much they’d grown and loved seeing them swimming about in the tank.

triops 25 yr old Mister B loved their beady black eyes which are really quite prominent. Miss M loved the role of feeding them just a small shake from the food sachet provided every few days.  They have soon grown and we can see so much more detail on them.  We have three and they love swimming around together.  We have also added the little packet of sand to the bottom of the tank for them to scurry about in.

triops 3This has been a fascinating activity to have in the home and we are still enjoying them day to day and can’t wait to see how big the Triops finally grow to.  Apparently they lay eggs in the sand which you can dry out and reuse to hatch another batch of Triops, so that is something we may try again afterwards.  Triop World is a great way to get closer to nature and actually a bit different from the normal activities we have at home so I think this has been a great educational success and something I’d recommend trying out.

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

Interplay Butterfly World – Review

Interplay Butterfly World is a butterfly rearing kit for children allowing them to follow the life cycle of a butterfly from a caterpillar.  It contains all the equipment you need including an informative guide by Nick Baker.  This is a great way to introduce children to nature and something they can watch and see an amazing end result with.

interplay butterfly rearing 1The kit contains a small plastic lidded pot to collect your caterpillars in, a paint brush, a mesh jar cover and a pop up butterfly rearing cage.  There is also an order form should you wish to purchase caterpillar eggs.  It also suggests were to look for them in gardens, parks etc.

interplay butterfly rearing 2The children were delighted to see the kit and couldn’t wait to get exploring for a caterpillar.  I carried the handy little sample pot and paint brush in my handbag and we looked around wherever we went.  The paint brush is used to pick up the caterpillar once found so that you don’t damage it in any way.  After a few unsuccessful trips searching, I decided to head to a large park that must have lots of caterpillars where the children had lots of fun looking through bushes, turning over leaves to see what they could find.  And then we found her, hanging from a leave on a tree, Mister B named her Jasmine, our new pet caterpillar.

interplay butterfly rearing 3Jasmine the caterpillar has been very busy munching leaves and the children enjoy collecting fresh leaves for her on the way home from school.  The guide in the Interplay Butterfly kit explains how to care for your caterpillar by cleaning out the jar regularly and the importance of fresh leaves.  She has started spinning silk and it’s fascinating watching her hang down from the top of the jar from such a thin thread and then climb back up again.

Although our caterpillar is very active around the jar, she has yet to pupate ready to turn into a butterfly.  When she reaches this point we will transfer her to the pop up butterfly cage so that she has room to fly around.

I think the Interplay Butterfly set is a wonderful kit for young children and definitely brings a bit of nature inside.  We all love looking through the jar each day and be the first to spot her.  I really hope our caterpillar finally decides to pupate and become a butterfly as it will be a fascinating experience for the children to see and then we can have fun setting her free!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the Buttefly kit was sent to us in order to write the review.

Craft Party Kit’s by Interplay

Yesterday we held a children’s craft party with some fabulous kits from Interplay.  Miss M was very excited and invited five of her friends from school.  Of the four kits on offer we tried the Fairy Princess and Pirates boxes.

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Each Kit contains enough contents for six children aimed at ages 5-8.  In the Fairy Princess box the children can each make a tiara, wand and wings and they each get a sticker sheet with more than enough stickers to decorate the items, as well packs of stick on jewels to share and a bag of fluffy pink feathers.

The Pirate box had contents to make pirate hats, eye patches and a plastic treasure chest to paint with gold coins to go inside which I thought was a lovely touch.

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The girls started off decorating their Fairy Princess items.  I was amazed at how quiet the room was as they all got stuck in sticking on jewels, feathers and other bits being quite creative in some cases.  I was impressed with their designs and loved watching them totally engrossed in what they were doing.

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party2Once they had finished decorating their wings, I assisted them in threading the ribbon through so they could wear them.

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The princesses were so proud fo their new accessories, that they spent the next five minutes all dressed up running around the room shouting “I’m a fairy”, “I’m a princess” and even “I’m a queen”.  It was so cute watching them all especially as they had made the items themselves.

It was then time for some food, we had heart shaped pizza, heart shaped sandwiches, and jewel shaped cheesy snacks – perfect for my little princesses!!

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After some food it was time to become pirates, having had a pirate themed week at school a couple of weeks ago, they were very keen and knew all the phrases – “Shiver me timbers”, “Ooh arghh me hearties”.

This activity involved painting which they all loved and once again got stuck in.  They had a little plastic treasure chests to paint and also included in the party box was a bag of gold coins to put in the boxes.  There were also hats and eye patches to become a complete pirate.

party pirate 2

I was impressed with how carefully they all wanted to be in painting the boxes.  I had to monitor this activity a little more closely to help pass the coloured paints around the table and mop up any mess as they went along so they didn’t lean over into it.  They particularly loved trying to make their chests look old and even painted the insides too!

party pirate

Overall I have to say the Interplay craft party was a great success, the children loved making things and the parents thought it was a great concept.  We had a few games at the end which we got from the list found within each party box.  The ideas for the games are all theme based depending on the party but simple to play.  The Princess games include things like TinkerBell Says and Dancing Fairies, whereas the Pirates games include X Marks the Spot and Musical Pirate Ships.

I think the key success of the party is whether the children enjoyed it.  When I asked them what they liked best, they all shouted out everything they had made so it all was a hit with them.  Secondly I think party success is the effort for parents.  In this case I think the Interplay craft party boxes are great as they really do include everything you need to entertain the children, you just need to add food.  I found everything easy to set up and games easy to play.  The only thing I wished is that I had been a bit more prepared for the painting activity, but I know for next time.

If you want to find out more about or purchase one of Interplay’s craft party sets, check out the Interplay website.

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.

Craft Party Boxes by Interplay – join us for some twitter fun and win!! #haveacraftparty

Craft Party Boxes by Interplay are a great all in one party kit to entertain up to six guests with crafty things to make and party games ideas.  Join me and other party hosts this week on Twitter to find out what makes this a great choice for kids parties and win some spot prizes!!

Craft party logo

Thursday 25th July 4-6pm on Twitter using the hashtag #haveacraftparty

 Interplay offer four different party boxes:

  • Fairy Princess
  • Pirate
  • Treasure Boxes
  • Mad about Ponies

Each party kit contains enough to entertain six guests with a recommended age range of 5-8 years.

Each child gets to make items around the party theme then play games from a themed list included in the pack.

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We are lucky to have the Fairy Princess Party and the Pirate Party boxes.  5yr old Miss M is thrilled – she’s a huge craft fan and can always be found making something.  She loves to be a princess but is also a huge pirate fan – in fact last week in her class at school it was pirate week and parents attended a lovely assembly to listen to all their songs and see all the things they’d made.  Miss M has invited a bunch of girls from her class who are all very excited about the prospect of a crafting party so we’re hoping it’ll be a big success with everyone.

Pirate Maisy

So if you want to find out more don’t forget to join us this Thursday between 4 and 6pm!! You may even WIN a spot prize – so just look out for and use the #haveacraftparty hashtag.

See you there!

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