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This day I love.......

The product mentioned in this post has been provided for the purpose of a review. No other form of payment has been received. All words are my own honest opinion.


We love a family games night, especially on these cold evenings with the frost outside. On our latest games night we put our new game Staccups to the test. Staccups is a new game from University games and puts speed and hand eye coordination to the test. The rules are simple to follow, if the base colour of your cup, matches the top colour of one on the podium, then stack it, quickly. The winner is the one who clears all their cups!

The game needs minimal assembly before the first time it can be played. It took less than 5 minutes to place the colour disks on top of the cups. This only needs to be done for the first game, after this the game is ready to go. The instructions for the game and the way to place the colour on which cups are printed on the box itself. I like this as it means there is no separate piece of paper with instructions on, that often get lost.


The game starts with a press of the podium. This determines which colour cup starts the game. Players can place cups onto either podium, which is why speed comes into play. 


The game can be played with either 2, 3 or 4 players. Staccups really gets you to think. The girls have often said they cannot go because they are looking at the colour of the cup itself, when actually they need to look at the colour on the base of the cup as this determines what to play next.


Staccups is really quick and you do need good hand eye co ordination. You also need to be aware of both podiums and not just the one in front of you.


Staccups is aimed at ages 8 and over, my youngest at 6 years old can play the game but she does struggle a bit with the speed. Whereas my 8 year old absolutely loves the game and picked it up a lot quicker.


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Did you know you can create over 10,000 words from the element symbols on the periodic table?

FReNeTiC is a new board game suitable for ages 8+ and can be played as couples, teams or individuals. The idea of the game is to make words from the symbols on the Periodic Table you then score points based on the atomic number of the element used.


My eldest daughter and I sat down play together, with her younger sister taking charge of the timer. She went first and drew the first 8 tiles out of the bag. A tricky couple of letters lay before us and before we knew it her sister shouted that the timer had stopped.


The only word we could make was Vac, and my daughter picked up the points. It was my turn now to draw 4 tiles out of the bag and place on to the board.


The first few rounds were fairly tricky due to the limited letters. We seemed to draw all the Rb, Pb type elements, which are not too easy for making words from. It did however get us thinking and talking about the different letters that lay in front of us. 


I do like the periodic table element of this game as it has got my daughter asking questions about elements and the periodic table. I think it is good to encourage science at a young age and in such a fun and varied way. 

The game is very face paced, 45 seconds seem to go rather quickly. I think when we play again it also might work better in teams as the first few rounds can be quite tricky given the limited number of tiles. I like the extra challenge of trying to create the atomic elements themselves. FReNeTiC is a really fun, fast paced game and I cannot wait to play it with the whole family at Christmas.

We were sent the game in exchange for a review, all words are my own opinion 
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Last Wednesday we awoke to a snow day. School was cancelled and I had three children at home to entertain, something I had not planned for. I am slowly introducing the concept of potty training to Little Man and a snow day could not have come at a worse time. I put potty training on hold for the day and when Grandad made a surprise visit we went out to play in the snow.


We got the sledges out and made the most of a quite street. Something we have never managed to do before due to cars speeding up our street and the extra space plus the fact we lived on a hill made for some great fun. J wanted to get in on the action, he loves snow. He still cannot figure out where the snowball goes when you throw it and spends ages digging in the snow looking for it.


Once we had lost feeling in our fingers and toes we came inside to warm up. Little Mans birthday was on the Friday and the girls wanted to bake him a cake, or find an excuse to eat icing.


The girls, baked and decorated their cake for their brother. A true master piece of sugar and featuring every colour known to man. Still they were proud of their creation and I am pretty sure Little Man was just happy he could eat it.

That evening we got all cosy and decided to play a board game. The girls wanted to play Enchanted Forest. Enchanted Forest is a board game aimed at ages 4+, and tests a persons memory skills.


The girls began to move their pieces around the board according to the dice. Their aim to see what each tree was hiding. 


Underneath each tree, there are 13, is a picture from a fairy tale. The aim of the game is to find the tree which matches that of the card in the castle. It is then a race to the castle to uncover the tree and show to all the other players.


There was lots of sneaky tree peaking. My eldest worked out if she went to the castle we assumed she knew where the matching tree was and kept tricking us. My youngest kept the picture on the tree a secret and would use her whole body to shield us as she took a look. There was then a race to the castle as soon as one of the girls found the right treasure under the tree.

Once you have identified the right tree you turn the card over and the hunt begins again, unless of course you can remember which tree holds this treasure. 

The Enchanted Forest game continued into the evening. Snow was falling again outside and we had a feeling a second snow day would be on the cards. 

Enchanted Forest was sent to us for review, all words are my own opinion 
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I love to play games with the girls, especially those that help to get them thinking.  After Christmas dinner we play board games as a family, it is a wonderful way for us to all be together and enjoy each others company.  Crayola games 3-2-1 is one such game that has had us laughing and having a lot of fun. 


3-2-1 draw packs away neat and tidy.  The game consists of a drawing board and pen, which all store neatly together.  In the top of the drawing board, which is wipe clean, is the eraser and three dice.  A sand timer is also needed for the game which slots neatly on top of the pen.  I love this compact storage as it means it is easy to tidy away, and things then tend to be tidied away in our house so they do not get lost.


The game is aimed at 6 years and over but my four year old was able to play.  The great thing about the game is you can make it as complex or as simple as you like.  You can have as many players or teams as you like, or even test your drawing skills yourself.  The dice included give inspiration as to what to draw, or you can simply choose not to use them and think up your own.  You can use one dice or a combination of them.  Dice 1 contains letters, Dice 2 has categories like film, stars and books and Dice 3 has challenges like only draw half.


We stuck with playing with just the letter dice, as it got my youngest thinking about her phonics and it gave us all a basic starting point as to what was going to be drawn.  We had split into two teams to play, one person in the team drew and the others guessed the drawing and they kept drawing until the time ran out.  This meant we had a challenge of drawing and thinking of as many things as possible before the sand timer ran out.  We liked the timer fitted onto the end of the pen but found some people put the pen in their mouths to think and would tip the sand back the other way!


Crayola games 3-2-1 draw got the girls working together and thinking together about what they could draw.  It got them to play in teams and to also take turns, and share.  They did all of this without arguing and having fun. 


Both girls thought really hard about what they would draw and came up with some pretty imaginative ideas for letters.  Things I would not have thought they would think of like a basketball net for B.


My favourite drawing has to be one my youngest did.  She drew a circle with lines coming out of it, and it looked like a sun.  The letter was a S.  It was however not a sun.  I could not guess, I was really stuck.  In the end the timer ran out and we asked her what it was.  She had drawn a ball and the lines represented the air coming out of the ball making a 'sssssssssssssssssss' noise!


For 'R' she draw roller boots!


The most drawings in the time goes to my Mum also with 'R' who got a rabbit, rainbow and rain all guessed by my eldest daughter!


Crayola games 3-2-1 draw is incredibly good fun and perfect for the whole family!  It is one we will be playing a lot over the Christmas period and beyond.  I love the way it can adapt to be as complex or easy as you want to make it so that it grows with your child or can be played by adults as well!  


Crayola games 3-2-1 draw was provided for in exchange for this review, however all words are my own opinion and we really do love playing it!




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Christmas for me is the time of year when the family can all sit together and play the traditional board games. Winter is the perfect excuse for this, cold outside and a great way to unwind and have fun. With the children, galt toys have a wide range available to suit all ages.

We were kindly sent three to review and these are our thoughts on them.

Pirate pursuit

Pirate pursuits such a fun filled game that both my three year old and 19 month old enjoy and play together. It's a great way of encouraging talking about colours and counting money. There is the added fun of the wind up pirate ship! 



 Players add coins into their bags or take them away dependant on where they land on the board. The rules are very simple to understand and it has fast become a favourite.

winner!Pirate Frenzy

Farmyard frenzy

We played this game once but the concept was sort of lost of my 3 year old. The rules are very easy to understand, you take your tractor around the board and add or subtract animals dependant on the square you land on on the board. The idea is to fill the actor with animals. The game is very colourful and I think in a few months time my eldest will understand and be able to grasp the concept of addition and subtraction. A beautiful game to teach simple maths.

fill the tractorFarmyard Frenzy




counting animals

Fun to write

My eldest is wanting to practise writing more and more. I absolutely love this and really highly recommend it. The cards each feature how to form the different letters and using the pen you can write on the cards. The pen is wipe clean and the cards can simply be wiped to be used again. The pen will also come out of clothes, furniture and off carpet easily! There is a notepad to practise letters also once confidence has grown from the cards. This really is a great set to encourage children to write. My daughter loves it.


wipe cardsletter T


Practise letters






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About me

About Me

Welcome to This Day I love.

My name is Leyla, also known as Mum to my 3 humans and dog Mum to J. I have a passion for the outdoors and love to run. I can often be found off road exploring the trails and fells and covering distances all the way up to 50 miles. As a family we love travelling and discovering new adventures, as I try and run around the world!

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