Bigjigs Toys ~ and why it's said you should never work with children ~ they're animals!

We saw the e-mail and Facebook posts from Bigjigs Toys asking for people to apply to join their Play Patrol, and crikey would we love to do that! The whole Bigjigs range and ethos is one that appeals, and whenever boy no.3 and boy no.4 read the catalogue, they have the same look that I have browsing my Brad Pitt calendar...

I decided I'd do a video, we've done loads, we know what we're doing. It'll be brilliant and concise and we can introduce ourselves and say how great we are at toy testing and giving opinions and they'll be dead impressed......

Erm....yeah. What I hadn't considered is that my boys are used to actually doing something when they're filmed, as opposed to just standing talking without props. As soon as my other half got the camera out they were running over with jigsaws and models.

They're small children, they couldn't stand stock still and talk for even 5 seconds without fidgeting - after 3 attempts we had to stop for 5 minutes to let boy no.4 recover from an injury sustained whilst jumping onto the table and falling off the back.

Boy no.4 is learning to count, so simply remembering one number to say is beyond him at the moment. The longer he thinks of '2', the more he needs to say '3' (or something completely different).

We had to put away the Orchard Toys Jungle Express jigsaw about 8 times, and if I'm wincing in the film, that's because I knelt on, and destroyed, a very important spaceship made out of part of the Lego Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Headquarters - a crime for which I was severely chastened. For at least 4 minutes I was mortified* that "you are not going to be allowed to come to my number 5 birthday party"......


(*secretly delighted at the idea)

It didn't quite match the plan I had in my head when we started, but it was hilarious, and what we've ended up with is actually much more 'us'.....I've posted it to Bigjigs Facebook page and we shall be keeping our fingers crossed that they are specifically looking for a blogging family who can't remember how old they are, can nod in iambic pentameter, and like bikes because they 'come with a helmet'.....

you never know...