"Your heaviest artillery will be your will to live. Keep that big gun going."

having two young children, me and Mrs M never get to do anything together. We have not been out in almost 5 years which is a little crazy when I think about it. Over the last month or so though the boys have been taken out a few times by Laura's folks and sister and they have had so much fun, making me and Mrs M realise we need to occasionally do things for ourselves. It is important to do things as a couple every now and again. I feel lucky that our relationship is so solid. Had it not have been i can imagine the stresses of not having that 'us time' could become quite a strain.

While we were at auntie Lottie's cottage on boxing day I was asked whether I was interested in going clay pigeon shooting, having never fired a gun I jumped at the chance and Mrs M seemed game too so a few days later Lottie and Opeie hung out while me and Mrs M donned some Harris Tweed and went on a mission up to their friends farm to meet up with Lottie's chap Aaron and our friend Aub.

Mrs M didn't like the look or sound of the gun but eventually intrigue got the better of her and she was soon shooting at the sky. Her face was priceless when she hit one of the disks.

I'm not much of a mans man and was convinced I was going to miss them all and expected everyone to have a chuckle at me but i managed to hit a few and the boys were great in showing us how to use the guns etc. We were only out for an hour or so but it was lots of fun and was really lovely doing something with Mrs M and not having to worry about the boys. Saying that though Seth would have loved to sit and watch from a safe spot, maybe next time.

Me and Mrs M have got a few plans for some things to do together and we are lucky to have some great family and friends to spend time with the boys so we can fully embrace our 'us time'.

"It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle."

I love it when a new product is released that changes the balance of things in the market or makes it clear that they are there to topple their big named rivals. After being asked to review the new BOOMco Twisted Spinner and giving it a try Ive a feeling that Nerf are in panic mode. Having two boys the need for running about and shooting things at each other was bound to come up at some point. We had always bought Nerf because they monopolised the market. That was until we bought one of the larger guns last year and all it did was chew up and destroy the darts. Absolutely no fear of this happening though with BOOMco.

This product is AMAZING! I knew it from the moment we opened the packaging and fired the first dart as it's got so much power that the dart vanished and we've not seen it since, despite looking Everywhere. The push pull handle to load and fire is far superior to anything else we've played with from a blaster. As I said before the power in the blaster really shocked us so goggles whilst playing is a must. It wasn't until we got outside and played though that we realised the true potential of this great new product.

Last weekend we decided to take the blaster out with us on a picnic with friends and having a huge amount of space meant that we could really see what the blaster was capable of. I'd love to say the boys really enjoyed playing with it but play seemed to be dominated by us over excited adults, especially our friends Chris and Katie who were really getting in to playing with the boys.

The range on the box says up to 70ft and honestly I don't think that was far off the distance we fired it so clearly we were all very impressed. 

I'd have loved to have had another three that day as the quick loading and speedy multiple fire would be great for battle. But while one of us took aim the rest of us waited patiently for a chance to attack.

If blasters and play combat are your thing there really is no product better or at least not one that we've found. Even though the design, load/reload speed and smooth firing are exceptional the thing that really blew me away but is also still confusing me is the stickiness of the smart stick darts to the targets provided. The darts arnt sticky at all yet there is some extreme attraction to whatever material the targets are made from which has been awesome for target practise, again I would love to try out a few of these in a play combat kind of environment to see the targets on the side of the blaster put to their full use.

BOOMco seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment and are at the front of the store in all of our local toy stores and supermarket toy aisles. Clearly the marketing team are doing a great job with this exciting new release and all though many new products come and go once these blasters are played with you're hooked. Effortless and fun play, you won't hear a single negative word said by us. BOOMco are here to stay.

Sadly the boys were left thinking 'when is it our go?'