Share your picnic faves and Win a beautiful Minene picnic blanket and bag...

 

So the Sun is shining and I'm in the mood for a picnic! We've had quite a few yummy picnics over the Easter holidays... from rainy day 'living room picnics' to rather windy al fresco dining on the beach (whilst wrapped up in jumpers!) and even a couple of pleasant sunny picnics in the park!

It's a fun low cost activity that the little ones never seem to get bored of!

Where ever you're having your picnic, whether it's on grass, carpet or sand you just have to have a picnic blanket and I love the new range of funky picnic blankets & bags from Minene...



The Minene picnic/activity mat is versatile for both indoor and outdoor use.The blanket is made of 100% Cotton canvas and the underside is waterproof and each to clean. It is padded and colourful with an attached soft toy. It comes in its own vibrant bag, ideal for family picnics and all trips with children.Machine Washable

MINENE (meaning my child in Spanish) was established in 2005 by three mothers with a vision to create innovative, well designed and practical yet stylish products for parents, babies and toddlers.

They design and manufacture high-end innovative quality textile products from changing bags to bedding, baby clothes to playmats and much, much more in-between... Check out there website to see the amazing selection... .www.minene.co.uk



We were sent one of their lovely booster cushions to review last year, see what we thought of it here...


   Minene Booster Cushion Review



The lovely folks at Minene have offered Mymummyspennies readers the chance to win this fab picnic blanket & bag worth £36...

There's just something about a picnic that makes food taste better wherever you're having it!

My four year old Ben loves helping to prepare the picnic just as much as he likes eating it! So we're always looking for new picnic food ideas!

For your chance to win this fantastic prize simply comment below with your favourite picnic food ideas or recipes...

(please ensure you leave a way of contacting you such as email or twitter id in your comment or your entry will not be valid!)

For extra entries...

- share this competition on facebook, twitter or forums and leave a separate comments for each share

(you can copy and paste this... ' #Win a fabulous Minene picnic blanket & bag with @mymummyspennies.. http://bit.ly/HWpjXE ' if you like )

- like Minene on facebook and let them know mymummyspennies sent you

- subscribe to follow this blog by email using the box in the top right hand corner (please leave a separate comment to let me know you have done this)

T’s and C’s

· winner will be selected by random draw

· open to residents of UK only.
· Facebook is no way affiliated with this competition.
· If the winner does not contact me within 3 days of their name being chosen another winner will be drawn.
· Competition will close 9pm 29th April 2012 and will be announced on here shortly afterwards
· The prize is as stated and no cash alternative will be offered

Puzzle Fun with Octonauts….

This month we received the Octonauts 4 in a box Jigsaw set from Ravensburger  for Ben to review! Ben is puzzle mad and this was his first puzzle for the Ravensburger Puzzle club so when it arrived he was very excited!

Jigsaws are a great rainy day activity, and we’ve had a lot of that recently! I think it’s great that Ben is such a big fan of puzzles as they are a fantastic way of developing co-ordination and lateral thinking at a young age!

The box shows images of the four different puzzles which each have a different coloured border. Three of these feature characters from the popular Cbeebies animated show, Captain Barnacles, Peso Penguin and Kwazii Kitten, and the fourth shows the three of them together. Ben couldn’t wait to get into the box and get started!

As usual he tipped the contents  into a big pile on the floor with a cheeky grin! Luckily as the edges of each piece were colour co-ordinated it was easy for us to pick out the pieces we wanted for each puzzle. He began with the ‘easiest’ one with just 12 pieces, this was also the one that featured Captain Barnacles his favourite Octonauts character! Ben found the corner pieces first and was able to complete the whole outer edge without any help from Mummy! After I helped him find out the middle pieces and put them in their own little pile he was able to put them all in place! Declaring ‘Octonauts to the Rescue’ as he completed it he then let me a quick photo before breaking it all up again and moving on to the Green one!  We were able to complete all four and he kept them all together to proudly show daddy when he came home fro work!

I really like this set. The four separate scenes have increasing numbers of pieces to encourage development. The set is aimed at ages 3+ which I think is ideal. Ben is four and after a few plays with this is now able put all of the first two scences together himself and only needs a little bit of Mummy’s help with the other two. The familiar characters keep his attention focused and I was rather surprised at how long he was able to sit and play with these at a time as he can sometimes be easily distracted! The pieces themselves are great quality, really sturdy and fit together smoothly, and the box is robust and ideal for storing the pieces in! Over the last few weeks this has become a firm favourite and is the first jigsaw he will choose from the shelf!   

Read more reviews over on the Ravensburger Puzzle club blog...