Pancake day with Hartleys jam

The kids had some great fun last night decorating pancakes and making some portraits, who they are of I have no idea!

Hartleys jam sent us through some of their squeezy smooth jam which the kids thought was great. It is so much easier for a child to squirt jam on their toast/ crumpet/ pancake (insert whatever you fancy here) and then spread it rather than dipping buttery knives into the jam pot and potentially making the whole pot go bad! I've not bought the sqeezy jams before as they are about £1.69 for 340g whereas the no-bits jam in a jar is just £1.00 for the same amount. I do think they are fabulous for something like pancake day when you want to be creative though.

I'm a big fan of the Hartleys brand and often buy their no-bits strawberry jam and when it is on offer I'll splash out and enjoy the Best range too. Whilst Hartleys can be more expensive than the supermarket own brand it is really enjoyable and worth the little extra I think.

Thanks Hartleys, the kids had a great time.

Review: Pinkabella activity books

Parragon have launched a range of activity books, aimed at those little girls who just love pink. Miss E will gladly admit to you that pink is her favourite colour and I know she will go mad for these books.

We were sent copies of Pinkabella loves drawing and Pinkabella dress-up to try out. Miss E took a liking to the drawing one as she considers herself the artist of the family and Miss M liked the look of the sticker dress-up as she has a really great sense of style and loves to fashion new outfits.

The books are good quality and you can tell they are a premium brand. The cover is glossy and both come with little extras - the drawing one has tons of sweet little heart shaped erasers and the dress up has a pack of 3D bows with diamontes. My girls loved these little bits but really - what do you do with 20 tiny erasers? However it is obvious I do not have the imagination of a 6 year old as the girls used them as sweets in their pretend shop.

The pages inside are on good quality paper and both feature a lot of colour. With the dress-up book the stickers are easy to remove and Miss M enjoyed sticking them on to make outfits. It is a shame the other book did not have any stickers but the pages and the prompts they give for drawing are good - fill the shoe rack, draw some yummy cakes, decorate the biscuits etc.

I would say these books are suitable from about age 4 upwards and it is useful if you can read, so that you can find out what the task is, but saying that it does not matter if the child can't as I'm sure they would still have fun sticking and drawing.

These books have an RRP of £6.00 each. However I noticed they are selling on Amazon for anything upwards of £1.99 so there is a bargain to be had!

There are some free colouring and activity pages to try out here - http://www.parragon.com/pinkabella/uk.html

Disclosure: We were sent these 2 books free of charge for the purpose of this review, I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review and Giveaway: Where's my Cupcake?

Congratulations to @xxfluffywhitexx, you are the lucky winner.  Please email or DM me your name and address for me to pass on.  Well done, Mich x


I have realised that I am a bit of a nerd. But not the cool kind of techie nerd, but a Mum who really likes kids toys and specifically Orchard Toys.  I find myself telling the kids off repeatedly for not respecting the box or reminding them that the cupcakes are not real and stop nibbling the corners.  I may just have to take the Orchard toys games into my room to keep, you know for safe keeping.

Where's my Cupcake is a brand new game that has just been added to Orchard Toys extensive range of educational games.  In young children it encourages observation, matching and counting skills and with older children it is a wonderful reminder to use manners and to encourage sharing and mutual appreciation.  All good things, I am sure you will agree.

The game is visually beautiful and as always the actual pieces are well constructed and durable.  I love that Orchard Toys products last so well.  My girls still use the pieces from the Two by Two game that  bought for JJ over 7 years ago. Orchard Toys are certainly made to last.

The premise of this game is simple, you lay out a number of cupcakes and then taking turns the children remove a cupcake from the face down pile and they see if it matches with any of the face up ones in the middle, if it does they receive those cupcakes.  The winner is the one with the most cupcakes on their plate at the end.  What is good is that if the child cannot match their cupcake they need to offer it to another player who has a matching cupcake on their plate but they must use their best manners to do this, such good practise.

It is aimed at children 3 - 9 years but I have to be honest and say I think it is best suited to the younger age range.  My 8 year old deemed it babyish and my 5 year old twins most loved using the cupcakes as part of their home cooking game! There is nothing like being versatile.

This game retails for £7.50 and I think that is a fair price.

I would happily buy this game for friends with children turning ages 3 and 4, it will be perfect fun with the family.

How do you fancy winning Where's my Cupcake?
To enter-

• Mandatory - Leave a comment and let me know how to contact you if you are the lucky winner.
• Optional - Tweet 'I'm in to #win a great new @OrchardToys game with @MichelleTwinMum   #giveaway' and leave me a comment to say you have done so.
• Optional - Check out the Orchard Toys Facebook page and click like to follow all their super news and leave me a comment to say you have done so.

Terms and Conditions

• The winner will be chosen at random
• Open to UK and Ireland residents only
• Giveaway closes at 12 noon on Thursday 14th June 2012
• The winner will be contacted within 5 working days of the competition closing
• The winner needs to contact me within a week of my announcing the winner or I will draw again
• The prize is not transferable and there is no cash alternative
• The game will be sent direct from Orchard Toys.

Disclaimer:  We received this game free of charge for the purposes of this review.  I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.