Easter egg hunt tips & ideas!

Easter Egg Hunt

It's a long-standing Easter tradition - and for most children, the highlight of the day (once all of the chocolate eggs have been eaten) - but making an awesome Easter Egg hunt is a lot harder than just finding good hiding spots! If you've got a group of little ones headed to your house for The Big Search, consider spicing up the hunt with these handy tips.

Pre-hide the eggs

When it's time to start the hunt, no one wants to hit the pause button while the host searches the garden for good hiding spots. More importantly, hiding the eggs before your guests arrive gives you a chance to optimize the hunt. Also, factor in the age of the searchers. If they're merely toddlers, the eggs should be fairly easy to spot, but if you're dealing with a group of 10 or 11 year-olds, try to add some challenge by hiding a few eggs in the low-hanging branches of a tree.

Think plastic

Plastic eggs not only allow you to push the hunt back as long as you'd like, they give you the chance to offer prizes to all of the participants. They could be filled with small toys or sweets.

Colour coding

Expecting a group of children that cover a wide age range? Separate them by egg colour. Blue eggs could be for under 5s and hidden in fairly obvious spots, while yellow eggs could be for children aged 5-8 and hidden a bit more thoughtfully. This not only prevents the older children from spoiling the fun for little ones, but it encourages the egg hunters to help each other out when they see someone who's down on their luck.

Puzzle it out

Easter egg hunts are all about finding treasure, so why not take that a little more literally and turn the party into a pirate treasure hunt? Draw up a treasure map, tear it up into a few or so pieces, then put those pieces into your hidden eggs. The children will have to work together to piece it together, which has the added benefit of turning the typically competitive day into a co-operative experience.

Jack's top 10 iPod games!

1. Jetpack Joyride

Suit up with a selection of the coolest jetpacks ever made and take to the skies as Barry Steakfries, the loveable hero on a one-way trip to adventure!

Jetpack Joyride

2. Toca Train
All aboard? Time to get on Toca Train! Your kids are the train driver in this fun and friendly train simulator. The controls are intuitive and there are no written instructions. Just pull the leavers, push the buttons and start exploring the island with your train. Toca Train is suitable for kids between 3-7 years old.

Toca Train

3. Chuggington Traintastic Adventures Free

Traintastic Adventures await in this ultimate train set and railway adventure app for kids! This app includes railway adventures, exciting episode clips, a train set collection activity, and lots more! Fun for kids of all ages. Play exciting adventures, watch episode clips and build your very own Chuggington!

Chuggington Traintastic Adventures

4. Thomas & Friends: Diesels and Steamies
It's Steamies and Diesels in this brand-new interactive adventure starring Thomas, Percy, and all of your favorite engines. Read, watch, listen and play with multi-touch animation, CGI video, painting, puzzles and games. With hours of playful interactivity, Thomas & Friends; Day of the Diesels provides a unique, immersive reading experience the whole family will enjoy!

Thomas & Friends: Diesels and Steamies

5. Helicopter Taxi
Need a ride? Call Helicopter Taxi and we'll come and pick you up! Let your kids fly around their bedroom while getting calls from Senor Fox and his friends that need help to get home. Helicopter Taxi uses the camera on your iPod/iPhone so that it looks like it's really flying next to you! A digital toy for kids age 3 and above.

Helicopter Taxi

6. Thomas Tilt and Go
Race against the clock on the Island of Sodor with your favourite engines - Thomas, Percy and Toby. Explore new destinations like Misty Island! Travel through the countryside, exploring mines and tunnels, collecting objects to score points while completing four unique missions. To be a Really Useful Engine, listen carefully yo Sir Topham Hatt's instructions and follow the arrow signs. Choose the right path to successfully finish a level.

Thomas Tilt and Go

7. Little Charley Bear
Are you there Charley Bear? Select your favourite adventures and join Little Charley Bear in his amazing imaginary worlds with 'Match and Play' a FREE and easy-to-use new game that's great fun for preschoolers! To use, simply double tap to select an adventure, watch the clip, drag and drop Little Charley Bear's props, then play the scene and see Charley's imagination come to life.

Little Charley Bear

8. Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities
Tap into the fn of Thomas & Friends with this interactive activity app! Little engineers will be entertained for hours as they play with come-alive puzzles, creativity-boosting colouring pages, and brain-building matching games. Extend the play even further by purchasing additional packs with new puzzles, colouring pages and collectible match cards. With so much to do, Thomas & friends: Engine Activities guarantees an endless supply of fun and adventure!

Thomas & Friends: Engine Activities

9. Toca Robot Lab
Want to make a cool robot? With Toca Robot Lab you and your kids can build your own robot from pieces of scrap and see it fly straight away! The robot you built is now in a testing area where it can pick up stars and knock over balls and blocks as it zooms around. When it's done, fly up to the magnet and get your Toca Robot Lab Test Report! Endless different robot combinations are possible to make. A creative toy for kids age 3 and up!

Toca Robot Lab

10. Humf

Especially designed for pre-school children, Humf is a collection of 9 mini-games and activities inspired by the original TV show. Both fun and engaging all games have been designed so they are prefect for children to simply pick up and play! A great variety of activities featuring all the characters, music and sounds from their favourite TV show that will keep them entertained for hours.

Humf

Check out last years Jack's Top 5 apps!

Jack's Next Big Milestone; SWIMMING!

I have enrolled Jack in swimming lessons. 

His first lesson he was over confident and went under twice. Since then he has been very nervous while in the water. 

The swimming teacher he has is fabulous. She is in the pool with him and doesn't push him to do anything he isn't comfortable with. I am looking into different swimming aids and I love the Shark Fin floats! 

Jack's confidence has improved over the last 6 weeks as he has began to enjoy being in the pool. He has a number of friends he chats to and splashes water at.

My little baby is now growing into a confident little boy; who is now trying to swim!

Below is a short video of his first lesson.

Mother's Day; YPlan's The Word App

YPlan's the Word

With Mother's Day fast approaching and a raft of events available in the capital, it may seem quite daunting to find the best way of spoiling the special lady in your life. Fortunately, YPlan, tonight's going out app has teamed up with Mothers Meeting, the coolest Parenting Events network to cherry pick the top 5 events around London for mums of all tastes.

YPlan is the daily go-to app for all the capital's best events, allowing Londoners to book nights out in just two taps whilst Mothers Meeting brings all the best events to mums who are interested in more than just changing nappies by hosting events in fashion, food, culture and design.  

Jenny Scott, founder of Mothers Meeting said: "As a parent, you constantly have to plan exciting activities for your kids; whether they are babies or teenagers, they all need to be entertained. YPlan takes the stress out of scouring the Internet for hours looking for fun days out. It's easy, slick, fun to use and their suggested events are all cherry picked, so you can guarantee you'll end up doing something cool in the capital!"

Street Art London Tour

A first hand experience into East London's street art scene by an insider tour guide; perfect for urban mums and cool kids with a penchant for graffiti art.

10^th March at 11am, £12 (down from £15)

The Chocolate Tour of London

Any mum with a sweet tooth will happily be taken on a tour across London to sample some of the finest chocolates. The one occasion where mum can't hide the chocolates.

10^th March at 3pm, £15 (down from £30)

Harry Potter London Locations Walk

The book series for all ages brings you a guided tour of all the infamous destinations, from Platform 9 3Ž4 to the Leaky Cauldron.

10^th March at 2pm, £9 (down from £20)

Central London Bike Tour

Saddle up for a vintage-themed tour of the best city in the world, taking you to all the favourite hot spots including the London eye and St. James' Park

10^th March at 10.30am, £18 (down from £20), over-18s only

Magic Cavern at Barons Court Theatre

Watch the magic happen in front of your eyes at this intimate venue. A Family friendly show, full of impossible tricks and illusions that will have you guessing all day.

10^th March at 3pm, £8 (down from £12)

To book the above events and many more, download the YPlan app

www.yplanapp.com/download

SANDS Charity: ATTENTION ALL COMPANIES AND PR AGENCIES

 

 ATTENTION ALL COMPANIES AND PR AGENCIES 

I am posting this message on behalf of a friend to help generate raffle/auction prizes.

Below is a message Kellie has written. If you would like to contact her; please mail me and I can forward on her contact details.

My name is Kellie.
I am contacting you to see if I can get some help if possible?  

I have quite possibly experienced something that a lot of people can only imagine, on 21st April 2011 my baby boy Harvey was stillborn. I could sit at home crying all day but it isn’t going to change anything, so instead I have been doing positive things and using the awful experience to try to help other people. 

The charity Sands have really helped me and my partner since Harvey was born, so I have decided that I want to try and raise as much money for them as possible! They do a lot of research into stillbirths and prevention etc. After an awful experience with the NHS, a charity called the Cedar Tree has also offered me counselling on a weekly basis free of charge. I can’t begin to explain what the Cedar Tree has done for me, but we want to help them as much as possible, they are a local based charity that relies purely on donations.  

In April this year it will have been two long hard years since Harvey was born. Last year we held our first “Charity Ball” it was a huge success, beyond what we had imagined, so much so that we decided to make it an annual event. I am now in the process of organising this years and we are having it on Saturday 10th August at Evesham Football Club and once again it is set to be a successful evening. I am contacting you to see if you can help in any way?  

I would really appreciate it if you could help me by donating a prize that I can use in the raffle/auction. I cannot explain how much this would mean to us, without these charities I don’t know where I would be now.  

Thank you in advance and best wishes,
Kellie

Just a few images of last years successful ball.