We were delighted that Brainbox sent us there new Bounce Animals card game to test and review. We're a huge 'Family Games' family and just love all sitting down together to play games. We have played brainbox games before which we thoroughly enjoyed playing. Needless to say we were very excited to play Bounce Animals from Brainbox!


I just want to talk about the packaging for a moment. The cards come in a thick plastic case. Which is so much better than a paper case because the packaging is strong and sturdy, it'll last! The cards are easy to take out of the packaging and put back in, too! There are instructions on the back of the case (And also instruction cards on 'how to play' included). Bounce animals is aimed at aged 7+.
Bounce Animals contains 52 picture cards and 2 rule cards.



There are two ways to play Brainbox bounce. First up we played the memory game. We shuffled the cards and put the cards in a pile and all picked a card. We studied our cards and remembered which each picture contained. The cards contain scenes of animals in there natural habitats which we have to try and memorise. After we'd studied our cards, we then passed our cards along to next player. On the opposite side of each cards are questions. The person we passed our cards along to then asked a question on the card. The questions varied like "How many animals are in the picture?" And "can you see three or four birds flying?". The cards themselves are beautifully illustrated. The pictures are bright and colourful and certainly held my children's attention! Ellie loved the pictures and thought they were very cute indeed.

The front of the card.

The back of the card.

 Each card also has a 'Did you know?' fact on the bottom of each card, below the picture.



The game moves around each player, taking it in turns to ask and answer the questions on each card. The game moves quite fast depending on how many players and how many questions you chose to ask from each card. My children loved this game a lot! We played many rounds and we each all won a game! Charlie (10 years old) was like "This game is SO cool, I don't think I'd ever get bored of this game"
(I wish my boys would let me take there photos!)

The second game that can be played with these cards is spot the difference. There are two of each card that are very similar with eight slight differences. This is a really good game to play as a family or can be played alone. Ellie (aged 8) quite enjoys sitting at the table and spotting the differences on each card, by herself.


Overall, we really enjoyed playing this game as a family. We've had hours of fun playing the above two games. Priced at just £5.99, this game is more than worth the money. It's great fun, educational and suits all ages above 7 years old. Even my (almost) teenager joined in! This would make a perfect gift, too! Brainbox sell a wide range of childrens games for all ages.
You can also follow Brainbox on twitter.

What games do you like enjoying as a family? What were your favourite games to play as a child?

Sarah xXx



We received a sample of this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own, honest, personal opinions. I was not paid for this post. All photographs are taking by myself.

Hobbycraft sell all kinds of art supplies, from kits crafts to kitchen crafts!

We were sent this my first pottery to try.
It's a lovely pottery kit that you can build your very own pottery pots with!



'Contents include 1.2kg air drying clay rolling pin modelling tool 12 x 2.3ml ceramic paints paintbrush and guide.'




My children couldn't wait to get stuck into this.

We laid out our newspaper to cover the table.

First rolled out our clay using the plastic rolling pin and then made a round pot shape. We smoothed the clay out using our fingers. Ellie thought that was great fun, hehe. Charlie wanted to add a bit of pattern to his pot using the plastic knife that's provided in the kit.
Harry and I made a 'coil pot' (instructions are included in the pottery kit)



I had to give the kids a bit of help cutting out the lid.

We also made a coil pot. We rolled out out 'snakes' (long sasuage shapes lol) and then stuck them together by pressing them gently into each other.

We left them to dry over night. After they are dry, it's time to paint them! We painted our pots using the the paints supplied in the kit. There's a lovely selection of colours, the kids couldn't decide which colours to use, so we painted out pots multicolored. A bit of each.


The kit itself is well worth £11:00, there's more than enough clay to make at least 4 medium sized pots. I really like the fact that not only instructions were included but picture instructions, too making it easy for the kids to follow! Overall this is a really brilliant arts and crafts activity for children. It's something different and unique and a wonderful introduction to clay. We had a fun afternoon making our pots! These are also a really cool keepsake.

"Not suitable for children under 36 months due to small component parts.
WARNING For children over 5 years only. For use under adult supervision"

Sarah xXx

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. This review is my own, honest opinion.

Many of my regular readers and followers know how much my little ones love arts and crafts.
We were sent this lovely sand art sample to review from Kids Bee Happy.

The pack contained  -
Ten sand art pens
A4 picture to colour in with sand
A4 picture to colour in with sand
Two plastic sleeves (to hold the pictures in once finished)
Two plastic sticky hooks (That stick onto the sleeves, making it easier to hang the finished pictures)
A stick (to peel off the paper)
Instructions.

The pictures are made on good quality card, which means the pictures will last and it also makes it easier to peel off the (yellow) paper in each section. Once the paper is peeled off, it is sticky underneath so that the sand can stick to it! Awesome!!


We got all of the sand pens and pictures together and put them on a tray to keep everything contained and handy!

We used the little stick to peel off the yellow paper.

Peeling the yellow paper off.

We sprinkled on the sand and shook the card so that sand could spread out and stick to the card.

sprinkling sand on the pictures.

Ellie & Charlie really, really enjoyed it! It took them a while to do, Ellie was amazed how bright the different coloured sands were! Charlie really liked the 'texture' once the sand was on the card!

There was more than enough sand to finish both pictures and we still have some left over.
This is certainly something a bit different, unique and very good fun! I'm sure we will be doing more of this in the very near future. It's a great activity all the children can enjoy and even do together.

Not only is this good fun but it's educational too. We talked about the colours & what colour each section should be. The little ones decided the train should be multi-coloured. What a great idea!!

Finished pictures in the sleeves and with hooks on ready to hang up.

These sand art kits are perfect for presents, stocking fillers, rainy days and even birthday parties! There are many packs to choose from, for girls and boys. They come in small packs and large packs. Sand art packs start from just £5. You can find out more here.

You can also follow Kids Bee Happy on Twitter & Facebook.

Sarah xXx

We were sent this pack of sand art for the purpose of this review.

My children are HUGE Shrek fans. They have seen every Shrek movie and know all of the songs. My eight year old can not get enough of Shrek and I just knew that all three of my children would love Shrek the musical.


Shrek the musical was available from 2nd December on Blu-Ray DVD and DVD & digital HD 18th November 2013 from twentieth century fox home entertainment. 

Featuring 17 new songs, 'Shrek The Musical' was filmed live on stage with 10 cameras that captures the magic of a Broadway performance starring an amazing cast. The cast includes Brian d'Arcy James who plays the famous Shrek, Sutton Foster, who plays Fiona, Christopher Seiber who plays Lord Farquaad, Daniel Breaker plays donkey and John Tartaglia who plays Pinocchio.

As a bonus this DVD comes with a Sing-A-Long song book so that the whole family can sing along to seven songs from the musical.

The musical is based on the story and characters from William Steig's book 'Shrek', as well as the Dreamworks animation film.

"The greatest fairy tale never told comes to life as never before in Shrek The Musical, the Tony Award-winning (2009, Best Costume Design) Broadway musical based on the smash-hit movie! Featuring a fantastic score of 17 all-new songs, along with unforgettable characters and outrageous humour, Shrek The Musical is ogre-sized fun for the whole family!"

When I put the DVD on, I'll be honest - The kids were a bit confused! It wasn't what they were expecting, lol. Once the characters came out and started singing and dancing, they were glued to it! Ellie (aged 6) now wants to learn all the songs, awww. I think the costumes, the colours, the songs and everything else is fantastic and I know that my little ones thought so, too! They giggled all the way thru the movie and thought it was hilarious. My daughter especially loved Donkey. The boys just loved Shrek. And I just loved everyone and all of the songs. The whole performance is amazing. I know that this will now be a family favourite for years to come. We really enjoyed this musical. 'Shrek the musical' kept us all entertained from beginning to end!
I would love to take my little's to see 'Shrek The Musical' live on stage. 

I highly recommend you watch this musical, it really is very entertaining for the whole family.

You can buy 'Shrek the musical' on Blu-Ray for £24.99, DVD for £19.99 and Digital HD for £9.99.

Sarah xXx 

Disclosure: I received this DVD for the purpose of this review.

1) Autumn Art - We love arts and crafts and Autumn is such a fun time to do that! Things like

• Leaf art. When you go out for a walk, look out for some different size leaves in different colours. Take them home, dip them in some paint (reds, browns, yellows etc) and print them onto some plain paper. Awesome!! 
• Decorate pine cones. Again, when you're out and about this Autumn look out for some pine cones. You could paint them all different Autumn colours. Or decorate them into Christmas tree's by painting them green and adding on little dots of colour (to represent lights/baubles etc), they make lovely home made Christmas ornaments. You could even tie on some ribbon or string and hang them on the Christmas tree. 
• Paint, colour and/or draw a fall picture using Autumn colours such as reds, yellows, orange and brown. 
• Sticking and gluing leaves etc - Stick some leaves and twigs to a piece of card (we use the back of a cereal box) and make an autumn picture. Such fun ;D My kiddies like to make "bonfire" and "firework" pictures. 

2) Splash in the puddles. This is one of my favourite things to do with the kids! They love it, too! You're never too old to splash in the puddles, hehe.

3) Go blackberry or apple picking. And make something with the fruit you pick. Crumble is a big favourite. Yummy, blackberry crumble. Mmmm. Get the kids involved, too!

4) Pumpkins - Yay! It's pumpkin season. Ha! We loveeee pumpkins. We love carving them and we really love decorating them, too! The kids usually draw a scary face and then get me to carve. Last year we carved a cat pumpkin. They also really like painting and drawing funny pictures on pumpkins. Great fun!

5) Go for a nice Autumn walk - See how many animals/wildlife you can spot! We spotted a squirrel the other day & a huge big spider spinning a rather large web (eek!) It's also a good time of year for a bug hunt because there are lots of insects around...

I really do love this time of year. I love the colours and the smells! We've made an Autumn bucket list.What do  you like most about Autumn?

Sarah xXx

Spaghetti With The Yetti is a new children's book by Adam and Charlotte Guillian & illustrated by Lee Wildish. We were lucky enough to receive a copy to review from Eggmont. We LOVE books in our house, all my kiddies love to read.