"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

"He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future."

I've been sneaking in lots of spelling and phonics games into mine and Opeie's afternoons recently and he seems to be picking things up very quickly now. We've started playing a game each morning with Opeie's wooden Bigjigs Chunky Alphabet Puzzle which always has us laughing. I pick a letter from the board and Opeie gives me a word beginning with that letter. Before he gives me the word he's actually thinking of he laughs and gives me a word ending in 'at', he thinks this is hilarious especially when it comes to the words that don't make sense, 'Jat', 'Wat' and 'Zat' etc.

We've had some great words during our games and for a three year old he's come a long way, Dog has been replaced with 'disappointed' (which I thought was great) and words like question, Rhinoserous and Unicorn are becoming more frequent, he seems to have a great vocabulary for his age.

Last week when we were playing I picked up the letter 'N' and after the initial 'Nat' with a giggle Opeie very confidently said 'Nazi'. I was a little shocked but just took it as one of those odd times when kids are experimenting with their words. Like one time when we were driving to Nanny and Grandads, Opeie was sitting in the back saying Rock, sock, dock, Lock... Inevitably it was going to get to two of the words we didn't want him repeating to Grandad, and then "Fock". Stupid me said "don't say that Opeie" which was a bad move as the remainder of the journey to see my lovely in laws included an awkward 10 minutes of "fock, fock, fock" resonating from the back of the car.

Anyway back to our alphabet game and a few days later we reached 'N' again, 'Nat' passed with a chuckle and again I was greeted with an awkward 'Nazi'. I couldn't shake an image of a Hitler youth poster I had seen many years ago that had freaked me out and half expecting 'H for Hitler' or 'G for Goebbels' to be next, I asked Opeie where he had got Nazi from? In an adorable and very innocent way he just smiled and said "you know! Nazi, like in the bake off!" (he loves the bake off). I will get round to telling Opeie all about our history but for now his mispronunciation of 'Nancy' is so much more entertaining.

"Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it."

I am all about great quality sustainable toys that can be packed away when they have been outgrown, ready for the next generation of tiny feet and it's one of the things I love about writing for Bigjigs toys.  When it comes to children's play things, youngsters will always see the appeal for classic wooden toys.

This month we were sent the Wooden Wrecking ball to review, taken from their selection of wooden vehicles. Opeie wanted to make sure he had some friends with him to witness what he had planned. You can't fully appreciate a wrecking ball unless you have something to destroy and this was the basis for Opeie's plans to build a house.

With a large chunky structure and bright vibrant colours you can see why their products are so popular with children. I don't remember having any wooden toys when I was younger and it would have been nice to still have a classic wooden toy that I had played with to pass on. I'm sure the boys will have plenty to pass on when they are ready.

The house didn't go down to well so he built a wall instead in hope it would come down a little easier. With the wall built it was time for Opeie to put the wrecking ball to the test as his cuddly audience watched on...

If your children are anything like I was when I was younger then this toy would have gone straight outside in the dirt, which is another great advantage to good quality wooden toys. Opeie would have played with this none stop a year or so ago but sadly I think it's a little too young for him now to keep him interested. It's definitely something to pack away for future generations of our pirate family though.

As always it was a great quality toy from the Bigjigs ever expanding selection of fantastic eco friendly toys, for more vehicles to accompany the range click here.

"It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life."

I love it when a toy inspires the boys to do something creative, which is what happened this week. The postman played his lovely tune on our letter box and me and Opeie rushed to the door excited. It was a package we have become quite accustomed to over the last 12 months and each package as exciting as the next, but this one a little more exciting as it was the final stage of this years Play patrol applicants. Opeie did what he does best and destroyed the outer packaging to get inside, 'Bigjigs' he shouted, he knows that packaging and logo better than anything.

Inside was the Wooden Safari Animal Building Blocks And Opeie's initial response put a huge smile on my face "ooooh... a Gilaffe". Opeie pronounces all his words so clearly but I can't bring myself to correct him with giraffe as it's so cute, I'm still gutted he no longer pronounces dinosaur 'Di Si Yur'.

So the 'Gilaffe' came out with all his friends and we built some lovely creations. The quality as always is exactly what you would expect from Bigjigstoys, the fact that they are made of soft wood means they are perfect for a long life with enthusiastic children. The colours and design are timeless and classic and one of the great things with them being wooden is that if you child moves on to the Bigjigs rail products you can have a zoo built along side the track, the toy can grow with your child's development.

As I said at the start of the post the Wooden Safari Animal Building Blocks Inspired Opeie to get his craft box out as he said he wanted to look like the lion. So our afternoon was than taken up by making Bigjigs inspired masks which was great as the toys had Also helped Opeie to be creative and use his imagination.

Good luck to all the other bloggers 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.

"Shouldn't a great museum foster serious seeing before all else?"

Ive been trying to get out and go somewhere fun with Opeie since our trip to the air museum but there always seems to be something that gets in the way. Yesterday although the weather wasn't great it was the perfect chance for us to do something together. Last year one of the moms at Seth's school mentioned there was a toy museum not to far from where we live (well a 45min drive) but I completely forgot about it until Seth brought a letter home from school saying they were going on a school trip there in a few weeks. So I decided that's where we were going.

Mrs M had work and then the gym and I didn't need to get Seth from school so it all worked out quite well. I phoned ahead to make sure that it was suitable for Opeie's age and after packing a lunch we got in the car and began our journey. Opeie wasn't interested in a sing song, a dance or any interaction at all and decided to fall asleep. At least i had the Satnav to talk at me.

I pulled up in the car park and Opeie woke up five minutes later eager to get out the car and look at sheep?? not sure where that came from but that was what he was requesting. Sadly even super dad couldn't magic up sheep today so he headed in to the museum instead. I was a bit disappointed to find out that it wasn't a toy museum but was a museum with a small toy section. As im not really in to coalmines and sport history we headed straight up to the toys, Opeie's little face lit up.

There were some vintage toys but there were also plenty that i didn't think warranted being in a 'museum'. The first room was a series of glass cabinets displaying toys from all era's. It kind of reminded me of the boys great great nanny Robson's lounge, she has a glass cabinet full of fun little treasures from her adventures. Opeie was instantly drawn in by the Teletubbies, I'm not sure they really should have made it in to a toy museum but they were making Opeie smile and that was the main objective of the day.

The visit made it even more clear that we need to get Opeie some sort of play kitchen as he is getting a little more in to role play at the moment. There was a play fruit shop in the second room and Opeie was more than happy sitting there passing me different fruit and veg and messing with the till. I love watching him play he gets so excited, i don't want him to grow up.

I was quite excited (because I'm a big kid) when i found a box of stickle bricks in one of the units there, i used to have some when i was little and it was great to be able to play with them again. In celebration i made a Mrs M, anatomically correct of course (yes I'm very childish).

 

Even though there were only two rooms of toys in the museum there was plenty to do while we were there. We even got to play giant connect 4 and Snakes and ladders.

The clear winner of the day though was the large dolls house, Opeie was blown away by it and its got us thinking maybe we should get one for the house. He loved rearranging the furniture and putting the little wooden people in bed and got really excited putting the little wooden lady on the toilet, i also found it funny as it was actually a bathroom sink.

We had loads of fun at the museum, It was a great way to spend 2 hours but i wouldn't recommend it for a day out as you would run out of things to do pretty quickly. I hope they've got something fun organised for Seth's trip. Now to start looking for some fun things to do next week.