Moomins and the Winter Wonderland (animation)

"The valley was enveloped in a kind of grey twilight. It also wasn't green any longer, it was white. Everything that had once moved had become immobile. There were no living sounds. Everything angular was now rounded.
"This is snow," Moomintroll whispered to himself. "I've heard about it from Mother, and it's called snow." (Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter)

I loved Moomins as a child, and they still hold a very special place in my heart. I first encountered them as a 7-year-old, and have been reading and rereading this wonderful series since then, finding new wisdom and joy.
Philip Pullman once described Moomins as "they seem to grow in wisdom and delight every time I read them".

I was excited to read that Signature Entertainment presents a new feature reworking of the 1980s animation - Moomins & The Winter Wonderland (available from 2 December on Digital HD).

If you're familiar with lovable Moomins, you probably know, that in winter they are sleeping deeply. They go to hibernate in their cozy beds in November to wake up in April, as the nature awakes with them.
As snow covers the Moomin valley, the streak of moonlight wakes up Moomintroll.
He is curious to discover what awaits him outside, while his family is in deep slumber. There is nothing to eat and no one to talk to at home, so off he wanders into his first snowdrift.

At first he feels like an outsider in this cold new world, but he meets creatures of the forest and makes new friends including Too-ticky who lives in their summer bathing house, Hemulen who loves outdoors, and even his own ancestor.

And when Little My, full of mischief as always, is woken up by a squirrel, she discovers that Christmas is coming. She's astonished: Presents? Guests? I'd better wake them up for Christmas.

The Moomin family is rudely awoken, to get ready for the mysterious guest, decorate the tree and cook delicious food. Not knowing who or what Christmas is, they are rather alarmed.
As they work together, decorating the Christmas tree, cooking a feast and cleaning the house, they discover the true meaning of Christmas.

Children will be enchanted by this lovely story, while grown-ups might chuckle at wise sayings like "Family is family, you don't get to choose it", or "Relatives have a tendency to stay longer than you want them to..."

The animation features the voices of Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) and father-and-son duo Stellan Skarsgård (Mamma Mia) and Bill Skarsgård.

The animation has a nostalgic, almost vintage feel about it. The characters are made of different fabrics and materials. Their mouths do not move, when they talk.
In some way, it reminded me of the original Snowman animation, as it has a similar old-style pace and a kind message. It's not an action film, not much is really happening.

It is a sweet, charming magical story to warm the cockles of your heart.

Hey Duggee: The Wedding Badge and 10 other stories DVD (review + giveaway E: 10 July 2018)

If you are a parent of a preschooler or primary school child, you are surely familiar with Hey Duggee. This charming cartoon has become something of a world-wide phenomenon and has acquired a huge following.
It's based on a simplistic repetitive formula including five animal kids who go to a pre-school playgroup named The Squirrel Club. It is run by an oversized dog called Duggee. There is always a big group hug at the end of each episode.

The animation is stylised, bright and imaginative. And it's genuinely funny, you'll find yourself giggling and laughing aloud.

If you happened to watch TV in the early hours on the day of the Royal Wedding, you might have watched a different kind of wedding - King Tiger met his perfect partner and was getting married on May the 19th in a brand new episode called Hey Duggee: The Wedding Badge.
This event was anticipated almost as much as the Royal Wedding, and the bride's identity was kept secret until then.
As it happens, the bride is nothing like Meghan, she is a more traditionally built lady, with a dirty laugh and a huge appetite.

The squirrels play at the clubhouse, when the wedding invitation arrives for Duggee and his wards.
As the ceremony begins, the bride is nowhere to be seen. What's happened? Did she have second thoughts and ran away?
The squirrels go on a mission to find the bride and save the day.

There are some rather grown-up jokes popping in, with double entendre, for example, King Tiger is saying to his bride: "My darling, you look so fruity!"

The Wedding Badge is available from 9 July on a DVD.

The other episodes in the latest DVD include: The Voice Badge, The Island Badge, The Sleeping Badge, The Brave Banana Badge, The Water Badge, The Traffic Badge, The Dressing Up Badge, The Getting On Badge, The Grandparents Badge and The Organising Badge.
The full running time of the DVD is 70 minutes.
That's 70 minutes of jolliness and happiness.

If you like the sound of Hey Duggee: The Wedding Badge and 10 other stories, here is your chance to win one of 3 copies of  the DVD. Lovely people from CBeebies have offered 3 copies of the DVD as a giveaway prize for my blog readers.


To be in with a chance of winning, please enter via Rafflecopter form.

T&Cs:

T&C
The giveaway is open to the UK residents only.
Once the Rafflecopter picks the winners, I will contact them regarding address details, if they do not reply within 28 days, the prize will be allocated to another person.

It might be pretty obvious but under new GDPR regulations you must accept that if you win the giveaway, you agree to have your details shared with the brand PR who will dispatch the prize. No other data will be passed or shared. 

Please don't forget to leave a comment, as it is the only mandatory step, I will make sure the winners selected by Rafflecopter have complied with T&Cs.
The prize will be posted by BBC.
Giveaway ends on 10 July 2018 (midnight).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Brand new Kazoops adventures are back! Just imagine...

If you have a pre-schooler or a primary age child in your family, I bet you have heard of Kazoops! animation show from CBeebies. It's a fun entertaining programme about a 6-year-old boy called Monty Kazoop and his best friend Jimmy Jones who just happens to be a pig (as in oink-oink, not because he has no manners). They have imaginative adventures together and travel to different times and places. Each episode comes with a unique song.
The styles and genres of music in the show vary from episode to episode.

Monty and Jimmy Jones look at the world with fresh eyes, they challenge the grown-ups' preconceptions about the earth and all things around them. Their imaginary adventures help them explore the concepts and ideas, for example, discovering the different ways the music makes you feel or finding out why everyone cannot be happy all the time and why fun things have to come to an end - all those questions that your children have probably asked you, expecting you to know the answers.

And now the cheeky duo are back with brand new episodes, which you can watch on weekdays at 3.45pm on CBeebies.

Today's episode no.63 is called "Fun with clouds":
Monty's family are all frustrated by the grey clouds ruining their plans, and wish they'd go away, but Monty and Jimmy Jones set out to show them that the sky wouldn't be nearly as interesting without clouds.

This episode could be a start of an interesting discussion on what clouds are, looking at the shapes of different clouds and their characteristics. Try to spot clouds which are coming in forms of rolls, ripples or patches.
And of course, use your imagination. Eddie and I love looking at the clouds and spotting all kinds of fantastic creatures. For example, this cloud reminded us of a dinosaur.

I love it when children's animation combines fun with educational elements.

Will you be tuning in at 3.45pm?

If you've ever missed an episode, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

You can also find out about Kazoops on different social channels - like Kazoops on Facebook, Instagram - @kazoops_official and Twitter @_Kazoops

Super Geek Heroes Animated Series (review + competition E: 31 May 2017)

Image credits: Super Geek Heroes

Geek is the new cool nowadays. Meet the super smart team called Super Geek Heroes!



Who are these new children's heroes? They are seven super kids with amazing learning powers.
Jake Jotter, Millie Maths, Ronnie Rock, Vicky Voice, Suzi Smiles, Peter Planet and Ant Active are showing children that education could be a source of great fun.
Their motto is "Having fun in turn with a mission to learn!"

Their super powers originate in three prime and four specific development areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
The development areas and resulting characters are:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development - Suzi Smiles
Understanding the World - Peter Planet
Communication & Language - Vicky Voice
Literacy - Jake Jotter
Numeracy - Millie Maths
Physical Development - Ant Active
Creative Arts & Design - Ronnie Rock

Super Geek Heroes reminded us of another educational TV programme for younger children - animated superhero numbers Numberjacks. And wasn't there a Go Jetters show, where four explorers were going on a world-round adventure?!

We have watched a couple of episodes together with Eddie, as I also wanted to find out what this new show is about. I liked the fact that all the names of geographical locations were sounded for an easier understanding.
These videos are educational and entertaining, with an engaging content.

They cover a variety of topics, from learning about morning routines to facts about rainbows and weather, from keeping fit to telling the time, from sight words to eating healthy food.

The characters are easy to relate to, as they are all young children. Even their names relate to the school curriculum. Eddie's school uses a system of the so called learning muscles (for example, Buzzy the Bee represents Creativity).

For more information, visit Super Geek Heroes. Information for parents and carers could be found at Super Geek Heroes/Parents (all links are removed as expired).

If you like the sound of this excellent new show for children, you might like to enter a competition to win a 6-months' subscription to KidsCast APP, where you can download and view Super Geek Heroes on the go or cast to your TV (among many other programmes for children).

To be in with a chance of winning please watch the video above and answer the following question:
In the first video on the playlist - which continent is number 7 in Peter Planet's lesson?

T&Cs:
The competition is open to the UK residents only.
If you login as Anon, please leave your Twitter handle or some way of getting in touch with you if you win.
If the winner does not get back to me in 28 days, the prize will be allocated to another person.
The competition ends on 31 May 2017 at midnight.

Good luck!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many thanks, everyone!
The winner selected randomly from all correct answers was Leila B! Big well done!

LEGO Disney Moana's Ocean Voyage

You have probably seen the meme doing rounds on social media which says "It's been a long three years but I'm glad "Let it go" is finally out of my head. - You're Welcome". I'm sure many parents nodded their heads in agreement. You're Welcome is one of the most popular earworms these days (I'm humming it as I'm writing this post. Sigh.)
Eddie and I enjoyed the film, we've seen it both in the cinema and on DVD at home (don't ask how many times). We love the plot and the main characters. The animation is wonderful, and there are a couple of "really cool" songs. Apart from "You're welcome", there's a catchy tune "I'm so shiny".
To coincide with the release of the latest Disney blockbuster, LEGO has produced two Moana sets.

Just before Easter I saw that LEGO Disney Moana's Ocean Voyage was offered at 40% off. There is no way I would have paid the full price of £39.99, but the offer looked very tempting, and knowing how much my son loves LEGO, I couldn't resist buying it.

This play set includes a big outrigger sailing canoe with minifigures of Moana, Maui and chicken Heihei, an island of Te Fiti and a little raft with two aggressive coconut warriors.
Moana holds a little printed tile with a fish hook constellation map.
Chicken Heihei looks grumpy, according to my son. Don't know if it's a slightly "off" chicken that we got, or whether that was an original design, but it does look cross rather than just silly.

Maui is pretty huge for a minifigure. He doesn't have as many tattoos as the character in the animation, so that's a bit of a disappointment. He holds his magic hook, which is plain white and again not quite the same as you see in the film. Perhaps a couple of stickers would have helped.

The canoe is well-designed, with two parts. I don't know any sailing lingo, so won't offend you by naming its parts. There is a small trapdoor with space for food storage and hiding Heihei.

You will find the "kind of cute" and scary Kakamora, nasty coconuts whom Moana and Maui encounter during their voyage. Their raft is tiny, it might be the remains of their big vessels. The Kakamora's raft has a small catapult to launch the attack.

I think a Kakamora ship could make a splendid separate LEGO set.

Te Fiti is a goddess who has powers to create life. When Maui has stolen her heart, she turned into a demon Te Ka, a creature of fire and magma, a symbol of destruction, the opposite of what she used to be. To take revenge on Maui, she is seeking to punish the humans by turning their world into a dark and inhabitable place.

The island of Te Fiti is smaller in size than the canoe, but it is well designed. It is easy to build, with bits of greenery and tiles for the beach.
The main part of the island has two faces to spin around. One is the dark side - Te Ka, the other is Te Fiti with a green heart and pure soul. The heart of Te Fiti is a small printed round tile.

This colourful creative playset will amuse all the fans of Moana. Eddie now asks me to buy the second set in the range. Well, we'll have to see...

Fun with Rusty Rivets

Did you happen to visit Twitter last Thursday between 4.30 and 6pm? Have you joined the Rusty Rivets Twitter party run by ukmumstv and hosted by a number of parenting bloggers? The party coincided with the launch of the first episode of Rusty Rivets on NickJr.
We don't have NickJr channel, and watched Rusty Rivets on Youtube, on big screen TV.

Rusty Rivets is an animation series, aired daily at 5.30pm on NickJr. It follows adventures of a young chap named Rusty who's into all things engineering and inventing. He has a dedicated team of customised robots who help him. Rusty is pretty clever at engineering and upcycling machine parts into new inventive gadgets.
Rusty lives in a town called Sparkton Hills, along with his friend Ruby, a robotic T-rex Botasaur and smaller robots who are known as the Bits.
The animation is showcasing a series of basic scientific concepts and techno-ideas.

To tune in with the engineering theme of the show we received a box with several activities which challenged us to use our grey cells and create technical stuff.

We sent out the invitations to the Rusty Rivets party.

And waited for Thursday with eagerness.
We started with a memory game, taking turns to pick two cards to reveal the pictures beneath. If the pictures match, you keep the pair.

The most anticipated activity involved building a robot. Who wouldn't want to build a robot?!
Have a look at the materials which were in the first activity pack. As you can see, we had lots of cool things, just like the Rusty Rivets team has in their junkyard. We had a couple of flat cardboard boxes, paper cups for arms and legs, stickers and lots of colourful bits.

It was a team effort, but I think our robot is super. What do you think?

We had colouring sheets and crayons, but engineers wanted to keep building, so rather than do the colouring the guys have chosen a Rusty Rivets construction course. This cool activity lets kids be creative with the shapes. We had a selection of wooden skewers, polysterene balls, plasticine, as well as sweets - marshmallows and gum drops.

The boys first started working with gumdrops, but it wasn't easy to skewer them, and the fingers were getting too sticky. The joint decision was to eat the gumdrops and proceed with the polysterene balls.

The shapes kept being changed.

It was a fun educational activity. Edgar told us that they did something similar recently in his class, building tunnels with dried spaghetti and marshmallows.

Afterwards it was time for a noisy Rusty Rivets treasure hunt. Cards were hidden around the house with the clues. When our guests went home, they left with a goodie bag each.

Visit nickjr.co.uk for fun Rusty Rivets activities and games.

Disclosure: We received a box of Rusty Rivets-themed goodies and crafts materials for the purposes of hosting a party.

Join Rusty Rivets Twitter Party on 16 March

- Eddie, we are going to have a Twitter party with your friends!
- Mummy, you are amazing!

Save the date for the forthcoming Rusty Rivets Twitter party - on 16 March, from 4.30pm to 6pm @UKMumsTV will be running a Rusty Rivets Twitter party, and you're cordially invited to join in.
During the party there will be online spot competitions and more fun and games to take part in, so make sure your laptop or gadgety thing is ready to join in.
The hashtag to follow is #RustyRivetsUK

We will be there, taking part along the other bloggers-hosts. It is always very chaotic, but great fun.

I can't wait to show Eddie the big parcel which was delivered this morning, with all the activity packs (four of them), Rusty Rivets invitations and goodie bags.

It takes a lot of organising and planning, but my son Eddie and I enjoy creative challenges.

This party is celebrating the brand new Rusty Rivets episodes on Nick Jr.
Visit nickjr.co.uk for more fun Rusty Rivets activities and games.

Disclosure: We received a parcel of Rusty Rivets goodies to host a party.

Our #BearHunt Twitter Party

If you were on Twitter yesterday, you might have seen a hashtag #BearHunt trending and wondering what it was all about. Perhaps you even joined in with the activities and competitions run by @UKMumsTV. Several bloggers were hosting We're Going on a Bear Hunt Twitter parties and tweeting-tweeting-tweeting.
With Twitter parties, it's all about the organisation and planning, everything has to be prepared in advance for it to go smoothly.
Eddie loves having his friends over, and if they have activities to do and a film to watch, he is very happy.
Days before the party we received a big box of party goodies with invitations, colouring sheets and pencils, tasty snacks, bear-ears making sheets, toys, books and DVDs.

"We're going on a bear hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury has delighted several generations of children and parents alike since 1989. Our old copy, from the days when my 14-year-old son was a toddler, is quite battered and has chewed corners.
I remember reading this story hundreds of times, when he was little and enjoyed the rhythm and repetition. He was delighted when I made all those Squelch squerch, Splash splosh sounds. We definitely knew the book off by heart.
The plot is quite simple:
Children are led on a challenging adventure by their big brother. They have to go through the high grass, a river, a thick oozy mud, dark forest, snowstorm until they reach a bear cave. The bear is startled to see them. Terrified, the kids flee back home, in reverse order, before finally hiding under the duvet in their big bed. They vow never to go on a bear hunt again. The poor bear who was woken up from hibernation in his cave, looks sad and desolate.
This children's classic appeared on the screens last Christmas as an enchanting animation (see my full review - We're Going on a Bear Hunt DVD review)

To celebrate the release of the DVD of We're going on a bear hunt, selected bloggers were invited to host a Twitter party.

We managed to pack in a lot of activities in those two hours of the party.
First, Eddie and his friends watched the film. I was a bit anxious about the story, as it has been changed from the original book, made darker and more poignant. But nobody was particularly distressed or affected by the sad parts. If anything, it was I who felt my eyes were brimming when the girl put her late Grandpa's scarf on the bear's neck. It made me think of my own Dad who died many years ago, and who never met his grandchildren. But I digress.

As soon as the film has finished, the quiz sheets were out. Eddie got all of his answers right except one, he forgot the name of the dog.

Decorate a Bear Hunt Biscuit activity was great fun. We had a packet of digestives, two bags of chocolate buttons and chocolate-flavoured icing pens.

Eddie always enjoys decorating cupcakes and biscuits, but doing bear biscuits proved to be quite a challenge. I also had to remind the guys that chocolate buttons were for decoration, as they kept sneakily eating them, one after another.

Eddie's bear was an Angry Birds hybrid, with bushy eyebrows, but he was proud of his creation.
I had a quick go too, though my bear wouldn't win me any prizes. Well, my excuse is I had to entertain and tweet at the same time.

Some of the icing ended up on the sleeves, but it didn't really matter. It was great fun.

Some of the biscuits were promptly eaten as soon as I have taken photos.

Bear Hunt Treasure Trail was another great activity. Who doesn't like the idea of looking for treasures - DVD, book, toys and sweeties.

By then I was a bit exhausted, running up and down the house, shouting Hot or Cold to give a hint how far they are from the next prize.

And then there was a turn of Pin the tail on the bear. We used scarves as blindfolds. The poster on the wall showed the bear from the animation. You had to stick a fluffy pom pom tail as close as possible to the bear's bum.

We were supposed to make our own Bear Hunt ears, but by that time our company was in such high spirits and way too giggly to do anything sensible, they were getting sillier and sillier, so the Bear Ears activity sheets went into the goodie bags to take home together with colouring sheets, pencils, toys and other gifts.
You know how it is with kids, sweets and fun games.
I was in need of a cup of tea (or perhaps something stronger) and some peace and quiet.

Our party was a big success, and Eddie can't wait for us to host a new Twitter party.

Disclosure: As mentioned in a pre-party post, we received a big box of party goodies. All opinions are our own.