Party In A Box: Gruffalo

Oscar has turned 4 this year (he's beginning to call me "Mum", instead of "Mummy" and it makes me feel VERY old!) and we throw him a little party every year to celebrate. This year we knew would be tough because he has his own tastes in things now and knows what he wants and more importantly what he doesn't want! So it was hard to try and think up ideas for his 4th. 

 I had vaguely heard of Party In a Box from their big brother company, Timeless Toys. I had seen various things up on facebook which had me intrigued, as it's not really something I'd heard of before, so when I was asked to review a Gruffalo themed party, who could say no?! 

Oscar loves books, in particular The Gruffalo so I knew this would be a fun thing for him. 

Party in a Box create the perfect party package for various ages, with various themes, so I know it's something I could use time and time again as Oscar gets older and as his tastes change.

The first thing we received  was some invitations to send out. Unfortunately they arrived quite late in the week, so I was unable to send half of them out and could only hand deliver the rest in case the mail was slow, which was a shame because Oscar had great fun writing in them!

Then, three days before the party, the BIG box arrived. I was so excited, I had to make sure I opened things carefully in case anything broke! All in all, there was three huge boxes in the one mahoosive box!

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The first thing out of the box was a polystyrene and marzipan cake! Unfortunately Party In A Box had had some troubles with sending out the cakes previously and they ended up in their final destination, smushed to smithereens. Their genius idea was to send "cake pops". Aka, cake on a stick! And then stick them into the big polystyrene cake. I thought it was a great idea and it looked good too as it was very unique.The cakes were only slightly damaged on arrival, but no so much that you would notice if you were about to bite into it. (It was just my scrutinising eyes -.- ) They were personalised too with "Oscar", "4" or Gruffalo pictures which I thought added an excellent touch. (The cake is not included price per guest.)

The cakes tasted okay. I wasn't overly impressed as it was mostly very sweet marzipan and only a little bit of sponge so not many of them were eaten, and because of the hot weather, the cakes started falling off the sticks! Luckily I had bought another cake for the adults which a couple of the kids tucked into so they didn't miss out. 

The next box out was of the accessories. This included, *takes a big breath* Gruffalo themed; cups, plates, napkins, tablecloth, banner, balloons, a packet of party games, thank you cards, and a pre-wrapped Pass the Parcel game! 

The accessories were all very good quality and included everything I would need to decorate the party. I have an awful memory and I'm pretty much guaranteed every year to have forgotten something, but being sent everything in one box just put my mind at rest, knowing I didn't need to remember anything else! The only thing I had to remember to bring was the party food, so it made life much simpler. 

Last out of the big box, was the party loot bags. As we had one cancellation late in the week, I nicked one for myself to have a peek at. The loot bags included, sweets, a wooden pop up animal, a wooden game, a Gruffalo biscuit and a gruffalo badge. Oscar enjoyed opening his and still plays around with his little wooden animal.(despite the fact we bought him a BIKE!)

But the piece de resistance, was Pass the parcel. The only downside was there was a party game included where you had to put little dares on paper such as "walk like a Gruffalo" in between each layer, but as it came pre-wrapped we weren't able to play that part of the game. However, everyone enjoyed themselves anyway, with one of the daddies playing the music, the kids (and a couple adults!) sat in the circle and every time the music stopped, everybody cheered and got really excited.

At the end, the birthday boy got to open the final layer to find a really cool 24 piece Gruffalo puzzle. He was very excited! Him and his best friend got onto it quick smart!

Party in a Box sets are available in different quantities with the prices depending on the number of guests. Ours was for 8 guests and equalled £8 per person. The price per person decreases as the number of guests increases with the cake pops are an optional extra.
All in all it's a very good package which made my life a lot easier and included everything I'd need and everything Oscar wanted.



*some children not photographed due to not wanting pictures posted online*


*I received no financial reward for this post, although I did receive the Gruffalo package box for review purposes. All opinions are my own and have been in no way influenced because of this*


** These photos curtosy of Party In The Box.

Hair Hair Too Much Bloomin Hair

Oscar has always had such lovely thick hair and it grows very quickly (just like his Daddy!) I end up having to cut their hair at least once a month or they end up looking like big girls.

 It takes me an extra week to convince them they need it cutting, then I have to try to keep Oscar still because he loathes having his hair or nails cut. 

He'll not be happy unless every inch of his body is protected then the whole time he'll have his hands up by his neck as if i'm going to lop his head off or something.

I've tried to take Ozzy to hairdressers before but I've not met one stylist who can keep him still long enough.

The problem I have with my boys is they look ridiculous if I just took the clippers to them because their heads are so BIG!

When Oz was born, the first thing the midwife said to me was "Oh my, that's a big head!"...*cough*...yes love I know..

Anyway, last night after much bribery and corruption I managed to get him to sit still and managed to get his hair cut completely instead of getting half his head done then him whimping out.

Here's a picture of him with the longest his hairs been and what he looks like now!

HUGE difference! I think if it was any shorter than that though he'd probably look silly.

Anyone else have any hair cutting problems with their children?

"Dinosaurs eat sandwiches"

"Dinosaurs eat sandwiches", my son said to me the other day.
"oh yes? what do they like in their sandwiches?" I reply.
"Chocolate spread!"
Of course, I thought. Like it could be anything else.
Chocolate spread is the only thing allowed in his sandwiches. In fact his entire personal menu consists of about 15things, half of them of course junk food.
For a long time now, we've been having a battle with food in our house. Because I work evenings, I'm not around for dinnertime so it's hard for me to enforce the household rules (daddy is a pushover). And for a while perhaps I wasn't helping either, being the worried mother thinking he might starve. But the other day a friend kindly pointed out, he won't let himself starve. So I've been trying to be a bit more strict at dinner when I am around.

"Eat your numbergetti." I say to him sternly one evening.
"No!", he replies,  "it's yukky!"
"If you eat your numbergetti, you can have a sticker and a sweetie!" I bargain with him. I can see him thinking it over. Just one numbergetti for a sweetie?bargain!
He lifts his face up to the spoon slightly, is lips almost touching the spoon with the magic number '8' on it.
yes! I think, we're going to breakthrough!
"YUKKY!" he shouts and leaps down from his chair.
sigh...I knew it were too good to be true. I slink back in my chair, defeated.
"No sticker or sweetie for you then if you don't eat your dinner!"
"okay".
and the battle continues...


The thing is, he wasn't always like this. I was relieved when he was 6 months to start weaning him onto proper food,as he was a very hungry baby. He used to eat anything I put in front of him. Potato, leek and noodles was his favourite. But somewhere along the line, he just decided to stop eating my lovely healthy foods. And he's no small child as you can see in the pictures. He's managing to grow fine even without his greens. (which I know will one day be used against me ("I was fine without green growing up,mother!")Is it too much to ask for my son to have a healthy varied diet?! Hopefully, when he starts pre-school in September, he'll want to eat what the other kids are eating, and it'll make my life a hell-of-lot easier!

 --and I said I wasn't going to be "one of those" parents--