"Your diet is a bank account. Good food choices are good investments."

It's business as usual and Opeie's Diner and yesterday lunch time I decided to drop in for my usual 'block of chocolate sandwich'. It seems that the ever learning manager has been doing his research into food groups and the effect and importance it has on our diets. So as he took my order he told me all about what was on offer that lunch time.

His latest food delivery from the mighty wooden food Giants Bigjigs toys was the Healthy eating dairy food set. First off I didn't explain to Opeie what the product was from the label. Our dietary issues and choices mean that Dairy is not part of our daily food intake, but it's always interesting for Opeie to learn things about food through our views. Despite this, the look of the product is great, and Opeie's diner needs to be able to accommodate all customers. We love the crates that the food are stored in, they are so cute, and Opeie loved being able to stack them up in his cupboard space.

We spent some time learning about the food groups and what they do for your body. Opeie made me chuckle when he said 'can we get a picture of a coconut to go over the cow please?". Thankfully these days there a great selection of dairy alternatives so even if you have vegan or dairy intolerant children the product still works (apart from maybe the cow picture on the milk).

When we first opened the package Opeie went straight for the vibrant coloured fruit. I am a huge fan of wooden toys they always make me think of a time i would have loved to have been brought up in, when things were simple, and toys were hard wearing and respected by their owners. Don't get me wrong i love plastic and electronic toys but wooden toys are timeless. I know when the boys have outgrown these, unlike many of their other toys these will be packed away for future generations of our family (i can be safe in the knowledge these will remain in fantastic condition).

After going through all the foods, included in the set we had lots of fun chopping the food and using for toppings on our Bigjigs Cutting Pizza. I want to get Opeie involved more in the kitchen and role playing with play food has been a great starting block for learning about how food is prepared and the different ways of cooking each item. Mrs M is extremely creative in the kitchen so I'm sure Opeie will be knocking up some interesting dishes in no time at all.

Shift over and all that was left to do according to the manager was throw ones cap in the air and tuck into a tasty snack he had prepared himself, another great role playing, food related activity. Thanks Bigjigs Toys. x

"The road to success is always under construction."

We had a lovely surprise yesterday when there was a knock at the door and there stood the postie holding a package with Bigjigs Toys written all over it. Our second mission had arrived and we couldn't wait to get stuck in. We opened the package and was really excited about what we had been sent. Opeie was really eager to start playing but we decided to wait until Seth came out of school to get it out because I had a plan. The weather was lush and were always taking pictures of our reviews at home or in the garden so i thought a change of scenery would be nice. A Picnic tea was packed for the Bigjiggers and off we went to Lilleshall abbey to play in the sun. Taking the lovely wooden toys back outside where they came from.

Bigjigs Toys had sent us the Figure of Eight Roadway Set and it was probably one of the best products they could have sent us to review. We have a huge amount of the wooden train track but only 3 pieces of road (and i have no idea where that has come from??). Seth has been saying for a while now that he would like some road so his eyes lit up when he saw what we had to play with.

The set comes with everything you need to make a great track, straight pieces, curves, bridges, trees, buildings, people and most importantly three cars for racing around the track. Bigjigs toys rail and road sets are great for both Seth and Opeie's ages which is great because I love watching them play together. The parts easily connect and being made of wood each piece is obviously sturdy. The track is smooth with a nice finish and the accessories are well painted and obviously safe for children. We will always love wooden toys from Bigjigs Toys as they are so Eco friendly and are the sort of toys that will be played with for many generations.

Bigjigs toys road sets complement many of the other vehicle ranges they have for sale. When mixed with the rail sets you can build life like set ups with rail tracks running alongside motorways and trains travelling under roads. The set has also been great for teaching the boys about the Highway Code using the characters to simulate how dangerous it is to play by roads and to always have an adult with you when crossing the road. We would definitely recommend buying these sorts of sets to anyone as they are so versatile, The tracks can be changed round to suit your mood making it the perfect toy for keeping children interested, also with the option of being able to buy extra track and accessories separately you can add and build a huge set over time without breaking the bank.

To buy this set and many others to compliment it head over to http://www.bigjigstoys.co.uk/

"P for pneumonia, pterodactyl and psychosis"

When we became play patrol agents for Bigjigs Toys one of the wooden toys I really hoped we would be lucky enough to review was the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle as we're teaching Opeie his letters. He's been able to say his alphabet for months but he doesn't understand which letter is which so you can imagine our excitement when we opened our recent mission and found the item inside. We took the Alphabet puzzle with us on our travels yesterday and enlisted the help of an outside agent, auntie Lottie.

I knew that Opeie would like it and its already been played with a lot. I'm really hoping that it will help his understanding of letters over the coming weeks. We've been working on Opeies colours too over the last two weeks so I was pleased to see that Bigjigs Toys had colour coded the wooden blocks to go with the spaces in the alphabet board, on the board they had also included the lower case letters in each slot which I thought was a great touch.

As much as we loved the toy there was one or should I say two issues. Not with the toy on the whole but with the letters 'K' and 'Z', both of these letters only fit one way Round which probably seems like an I significant issue but for a two year old learning his letters via a wooden puzzle it can be quite frustrating when he is expecting each piece to fit. Opeie knew that he had the right letters for the slots but they just wouldn't go in which ended up confusing for him.

Apart from this though the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle is a great toy and I wouldn't let that put me off buying something that I know would benefit Opeie's development. This item is going to become very useful as Opeie is learning and anything that keeps him motivated to learn and entertained at the same time will always be a fantastic toy in our eyes. A definite thumbs up from Gifts From the Pirates.