Saturday 20 April 2013

Pirate Party Arghhhh !!!!!





Ahoy Me Hearties!!

Today we set our sights on the Interplay Craft Pirate Party box, a perfect way to while away a couple of hours shore-leave for you and your little landlubbers! Whether you are having a party or just looking to entertain this set is sure to amuse any future pirate wannabes.

The bounty aka what's in the box:
  • 6 Pirate Treasure Chests (ready to paint)
  • 6 Pirate Hats
  • 6 Adjustable Headbands (for the Pirate Hats)
  • 6 Stickers of Skull and Crossbones (to stick on the hats)
  • 6 Pirate Eye Patches 
  • 6 Elastic strings (for the Eyepatches)
  • 12 Pots Of paint in four Colours
  • 6 Paint Brushes
  • 24 Gold Pirate Doubloons
  • 1 Set of instructions and fun game ideas




So with the box pillaged my little pirates were all geared up ready to get to work! Whilst the Interplay Craft Pirate Party pack is aimed towards kids from ages 5-8 according to the box my 10 year old  daughter had a go as well as she loves to participate in craft activities. I didn’t in anyway feel the product was aimed beneath her and in fact I even joined in - painting a treasure chest and wearing a skull and crossbones hat! We also had a few stowaways at our gathering as you can see from the picture below...


So we got to work adding colour to arr (pirate joke) plastic treasure chests with the small pots of paints provided and I was instantly surprised at how good the quality of the paint was. It covered the plastic really well and the colours were vibrant and opaque. Perhaps the only downside was that it might work better if the pots were pre-sorted in rows of varying colours so that they could be easily distributed amongst the crew instead of being attached together in several rows of the same colour. Whilst you can just as easily separate each pot from the row with scissors we found this somewhat fiddly as the individual pots didn’t balance well after they were ‘separated from the main ship’ so to speak! In the end we propped them up against DVD cases to ensure no blood paint was spilled and to avoid mum having to swab the deck! It’s a minor quibble though and hardly call for a mutiny against this fun and very engaging product which is almost worth it’s weight in gold!


Making there Pirate hats 

Some time later we had finished painting our treasure chests and were ready for some grub and grog (food and drink to those of ye who haven’t yet sailed the seven seas!) and then played some pirate games while we waited for the paint to dry (this took about 30 minutes).







Peg Leg Pirate
The aim of this game was to see who could stand on one leg the longest. Of course mummy was no good at this one and to make it even more tricky we even tried the recommended blindfolded variation!
The Captain Says
This next game was just like ‘Simon Says’. We all had a turn and playing this was great fun as we had to think up pirate themed ideas like ‘the Captain says sing a pirate shanty‘ or ‘the captain says squawk like a Parrot’. But be warned if the Captain does not say ‘the captain says’ then you could be made to walk the plank for disobeying orders!

There are plenty more games to play including Musical Pirate Ships which is a bit like musical chairs only the chairs form a boat and the boat is sinking as well as X Marks the Spot which is a pirate version of pin the tale on the donkey which sees a crew member place a X on the floor for a blindfolded shipmates to locate. Whomever places their treasure chest nearest the X wins!





By the time we had finished following the instructions of the pirate games from our set we found our treasure chests were dry. We were all really pleased with the results. They all looked very colourful and quite authentic which helped us feel we were well on our way to earning our pirate stripes. With this decorative work now completed we had just one more game to play that involved using our treasure chests and our pirate golden doubloons. The doubloons are excellent quality by the way and perhaps surprisingly made of metal. The look a little like actual £1 coins although I'm not sure they’d be accepted at your local supermarket!


Our Treasure Chests



The Treasure Hunt

No Pirate Party would be complete without a good old pirate treasure hunt, The aim of this game was to hide the golden doubloons around the house and then your little pirates had to find the booty. We decided to add some chocolate coins and sweets to ours as well to extend the adventure. WARNING: this game might make your house look like it had been attacked by the legendary sea beast the Kraken! Once the house was thoroughly ransacked and the kids had found all the captain’s treasure and the game was complete.

Phew... it was over and we all had a fab time playing with the Pirate Party box. Obviously we can now play the games at anytime and the treasure boxes, doubloons, hats and eye patches are of a good quality and a great keepsake so there will no doubt be further adventures to come. It’s a brilliant idea for a themed children’s party (although more sets would be required for groups of more than 6) and with them all making there own Treasure chest its like a party bag in itself.  My own kids had such a good time they are already asking about the other party boxes that Interplay produce so whether you have a pirate or a princess these are a great way to amuse the kids at any time.
The Pirate Party box from Interplay is arr-ty, active and engaging long-term fun for all the family and gets a big thumbs up in my house. Just remember were you hide all your doubloons!





Interplay Craft Pirate Party box is available from there site or places like amazon starting at £19.99 ......

Tomato's Oh my !!!



Well hello readers so sorry been very quiet been busy getting grips with windows 8 aghhhh finding it very hard ... but getting there slowly ... so not been able to blog as much as i wanted so today i have a few things to post and a  pirate party review going on today too ....... so watch this blog !!!

But anyway just a quick heads up of a future review coming very soon of this Fab new Game Indigo from Ravensburger  looks really good too cant wait to get to grips with the rules and get playing  this very soon.

In the mean time let me know of any fun games you like to play with your kids ....

Also a quick update on our Tomato plants that me and Robert planted together in February here is the link on the day we planted them ..... well they have grown and wow have they grown it was finally time to replant the pots and get them outside ...


So seeing as it was a gorgeous day outside we decided today was the day to get that done so off we went with our plant pots and our compost and got re-potting which did not take very long  and after a quick brush up and tidy it was done and we all agree they look fab ..... 



Just cant wait to post some pics of the tomato's flowering and growing next ......

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Well whats to come this week ....



Got a fab few reviews to do this week ..... so watch this space we are going all arghhhh for the pirate treasure party pack ...... my little buccaneers canny wait to have a go and painting there treasure ....

If you fancy this yourself you can find out more info here ..... but we will be posting this review later this week .... with some fab pictures and hopefully some video footage too ....

Also had a fun day of parcels arriving today got my brand new Pushchair from Britax today .... which is going into the loft for another day hopefully .... it looks super lush ... cant wait to get to use that one day we shall see ...





Also had a few more deliveries today too for the kids they had some new toys arrive today from mummy and daddy ... for there amazing reports at school ... Robert choose the Batman costume he loves dressing up 



Thomas had a new Lego train set ... which looks really good Thomas and daddy are building it now .....



And Amy got a Brave Bow and arrow set .... and has been shooting at the windows all day as they have suction cups on them ..... so the house is very busy today and me well nothing for me other then i am trying out windows 8 and not having much fun .... finding the things i could do before not so easy now .... but getting there .... just need to get microsoft office going again when i can afford a new license ... as i prefer using that any day of the week lol ...

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Cooking with the Kids



Well what a great comp always loved the Rangemaster range of cookers and these fab guys are doing a great comp over on there site which is all about getting into cooking with your kids as you all know I love cooking and I love getting my three kids involved where i can ...

So here is a few pictures of a few of our creations that me and the kids have made starting with the kids Easter Bonnet Cake .... its not as well finished as i normally do but it is well put together by the kids ... we used two cakes and layered them together using a butter-cream and then i helped with the icing but left it up to the kids to decorate how they would like it .....



Another one of the kids favorite has to be the rainbow cake look here for detail on how to make this great cake .... me and my daughter even went to London and cooked with Paul Hollywood in a cook off where we made this Cake and he even liked it we Came second and had a fab time while we where there.....



During the last Half term I tried to keep the kids occupied by doing things around the house from planting tomato seeds to getting creative but we even had a go and some bits to cook and here are the blog posts about these fab ideas ... this one is the Croissants me and my daughter made from a pre-mix but it still cooking and then all the kids helped making the crunchy biscuits here ....

So why not have a go and get the kids cooking this Easter let me know what you make .... and why not enter the Rangemaster Comp
where you could be lucky enough to win a top of the range cooker then you would have no excuse getting the apron on with the kids ...... i know i would love a new cooker as mine is now out in the garden and i am in desperate need of a new one ......see pic if you don't believe me and as i love cooking i miss not having one right now .... but then is what going to my mums is for ... and she has a rangecooker and they are fab ......

so you have until 3/04/2013 to enter and good luck ..... details here .....


here is a selection of other cakes we have made hope you like them ...... one was made with M&M's and kitkats and the other was made using butter-cream flakes and ice-cream cones with a cupcake filling in the middle the kids love these one the best and we make these quite alot .....


And at Christmas time we even get in on the act and get some yule logs on the go too !! and Christmas cake