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Easter Holidays

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With the Easter long weekend only days away it doesn’t matter whether you’re planning a visit to the grandparents or escaping on a family getaway – travelling with kids can often be challenging. Think limited packing space, long hours in the car, queues at airports, impatient children and holiday traffic.

To ensure a happy ‘crew’- Hasbro, one of the world’s largest toy, game and entertainment experience companies, has a few tips to offer weary would-be travellers:

Pack light on non-essential items. Whatever the occasion, once you leave the house there’s no reason to weigh yourself down with heavy bags. Keep a ziplock bag filled with wipes and a basic change of clothes handy for any accidental spills along the way and consider travel sized toiletries to save space.

Snack Time – stock up on a variety of healthier, on the go snacks like fresh vegetable sticks, dried fruit, mixed nuts, homemade popcorn and biltong to keep energy levels high (without all the processed sugar). Don’t forget the importance of hydration so keep bottles of water handy at all times. A packed easy-to-get-to lunch can also help keep the costs down and provide a nice picnic break along the journey. Consider simple finger foods such as chicken drumsticks, vegetable skewers and pre-cut sandwiches/rolls.

Board games provide great entertainment for the whole family. The portable Grab & Go selection from Hasbro Gaming is ideal for convenient, on-the-go fun and includes classics such as Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, Connect 4 and Guess Who? and the latest addition to the range Hungry Hippo.

Theme your trip with the game chosen to add excitement for the destination ahead. If you are heading to the bush give Hungry Hippo a go or if you are seaside bound Battleship it is.

The easy to store, affordable Grab & Go selection allows you to keep a range of games on-hand with options suited to the whole family. If you’re hunkering down at home for the long weekend, this provides a great opportunity to enjoy some fun family time with activities everyone can participate in.

Car Karaoke is a great way to keep the troops engaged, and immerse them in the music you love. Create a playlist before leaving home with options the whole family will enjoy and encourage all to join in a sing-a-long during the trip.

Countdowns help pass the time and a countdown to your destination is a fun way to keep everyone involved. Use visual aids that the kids can decorate in order to mark off time, keep them occupied and get them excited for the destination.

Get to Know the Grab & Go range:

Battleship Grab & Go is the classic game of naval combat that brings together competition, strategy, and excitement. In head-to-head battle, players search for the enemy’s fleet of ships and destroy them one by one. No ship is safe in this game of stealth and suspense.

In Connect 4 Grab & Go challenge a friend to rule the grid and be the first player to get four of your colour counters in a row. The game where strategy drives the competition – line ‘em up and go for the win.

There’s a mystery that needs solving, and you’re just the detective to do it on the go with this Grab & Go version of the classic Clue game. Who killed the host of the fancy party? Where were they, and what weapon did they use? When the case is solved, you can store all the cards and parts in the all-in-one game unit – until the next mystery.

Get ready for classic Monopoly play in a portable way. This mobile Monopoly Grab & Go game lets you trade your way to success while you roll with whatever comes your way from the Chance and Community Chest cards. It’s the perfect, compact way to have Monopoly fun anytime, anywhere!

Chomp, chomp – you’ve got some hungry hippos on your hands. This Grab & Go version of the classic Hungry Hippos game has two chomping hippos and a whole bunch of marbles for munching. With a plastic cover to keep the marbles from rolling out, this compact game lets you have hippo-feeding fun anytime, anywhere.

Who’s the champion guesser? Maybe it’s you in this Guess Who? Grab & Go version. Every time you ask your opponent a yes or no question, the answer gets you closer to who’s on their Mystery Card. But you better watch out, because they’ll be asking you questions too.

The Grab & Go range from Hasbro Gaming is available from Toys R Us, ToyZone, Toy Kingdom, Hamleys, Lilliputs, Takealot.com and other major retailers.

Visit www.hasbro.co.za.

 

The Easter holidays are around the corner and usually means cooking up a feast, enjoying time with family and friends and hopefully taking a break. Along with the celebrations and festivities, mess is an inevitable part… and we have the perfect helper for you – CHUX®. New to South Africa, CHUX®, a leading global cleaning brand, helps make the big chores smaller.

For whatever life CHUX® at you!

CHUX® Heavy Duty Scourer Scrubs have a tough scourer for difficult kitchen cleaning jobs such as scrubbing away baked on dirt and grime from pots and pans. The unique angled shape is great for reaching deep into corners and hard to clean areas plus makes it comfortable to hold, while you’re scrubbing grime away and washing the dishes. The convenient hang hole feature allows the scourer to be stored easily by hanging it on to kitchen taps. This allows the kitchen scrub to dry quickly, keeping it hygienically ready to use.

CHUX® Heavy Duty Scourer Scrub Tips

  • Cleaning non-sensitive dishes
  • Cleaning ovens and microwaves
  • Remove baked on dirt and grime on baking trays

Enjoy a fabulous Easter and invite CHUX® into your home, for whatever life ‘chux’ at you!

For more information on CHUX® visit www.facebook.com/ChuxSA. CHUX® can be found at selected Spar stores nationwide.

Big chores made easy this Easter with CHUX®

The Easter Holidays have arrived. Children across the country are celebrating, no more school for two whole weeks. Meanwhile, moms across the country are waking up in a cold sweat. No more school for two whole weeks.

Whether you work full time, work from home, or stay at home; if you’re a mom, the common childhood complaint of boredom will haunt you these holidays unless you plan ahead.

Blue Horizon Licensing, exclusive representatives of Mattel Consumer Products in South Africa for over 15 years, has pooled its brainpower to bring you five easy Easter holiday hacks to help keep the kids busy.

1) Host a Barbie picnic

Summer is drawing to a close, so take full advantage of a sunny day by hosting a Barbie-themed Easter picnic. Let your little girls invite a couple of friends over, tell them to dress in Barbie pink, and bring their favourite Barbie dolls to join in the fun. Spread a blanket on the lawn, bring out the Barbie tea set, and roll in the Barbie Food Truck. Complete the picture with a couple of jugs of water (or pink milk, if you’re feeling brave!) and a selection of real biscuits.

This picnic combines imaginative play, allowing the kids to order their ‘food’ from the truck – select from hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza slices and a variety of ice creams – with water play, as they pour and drink their ‘tea’. Water play is especially good for toddlers, helping to develop fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. It is also regarded as one of the best starting blocks for building Maths and Science skills, introducing them to concepts such as empty, full, half full, and – most likely – spillage (As a bonus, give them some cloths, maybe they will learn to clean up after themselves too!)

When the picnic draws to a close, surprise them with an impromtu Easter Egg hunt in the garden. You’ll be the most popular mom on the block!

2) Build a Hot Wheels rally track

Nothing entertains children quite like toy cars, so why not host an outdoor Hot Wheels rally championship? This season’s hottest Hot Wheels includes a selection of bikes, monster trucks, drift cars and mini quads – perfect for outdoor terrain.

Build a traditional track using the Hot Wheels track builder, but encourage the kids to expand their play into the garden, using sand and mud to create their own rally courses. Up the ante by introducing Hot Wheels Light and Sound Master Blaster or Hyper Racer, or blast into turbo speed with the remote control Nitro Charger.

Sand and mud play is widely recognised as one of the joys of childhood, not only because the kids are actually encouraged to get dirty, but also for its open-endedness – there really is no limit to what kids can build, no right and wrong, and no end to the entertainment. While some kids simply enjoy the sensation of playing with mud, others will relish the opportunity to build intricate tracks, with obstacles constructed of sticks, leaves and stones. Just remember to dress the kids in old clothing – this game is bound to get dirty!

3) Throw a Slumber party

Chickens aren’t the only animals that lay eggs this Easter – Dinosaurs do too! So why not throw a Barney-themed slumber party? If the kids are too young to sleep over, suggest a ‘sleep under’ – where they come for early evening dinner and fun, but go home to sleep in their own beds. Tell the kids to bring their own Barney, you supply some Barney colouring books and colouring crayons, plus a couple of Barney floor puzzles that they can all do together. End off the evening with a selection of Barney DVDs, filled with music and fun that kids simply can’t resist. Love him or hate him, Barney holds a special place in the hearts of all children, teaching them kindness, manners and the value of good old fashioned fun.

4) Ten Pin Bowling: Barbie vs Barney

Ten pin bowling is all the rage these holidays, perfect for either indoor or outdoor play. And with the Barney Bowling set and Barbie’s Pinktastic Bowling set, you’re all set for a nail-biting Ten Pin tournament. Purple vs Pink. Barney vs Barbie.

Ball skills are another vital building block in childhood development, teaching hand eye co-ordination, motor skills and timing. Hosting a friendly tournament is also a great way to introduce young children to competitive play, teaching them the joy of winning, but also the inevitability of losing, and the importance of being a good sport, win or lose.

5) Take the kids shopping

When all else fails, it’s time to get out the house! Shopping with toddlers always sounds like a bad idea, but this Easter Toy Kingdom stores across the country are hosting a series of Easter Egg hunts. Kicking off on March 31, stores at the East Rand Mall, Gateway, Sandton, Menlyn, V&A Waterfront and Canal Walk, will host a series of eggciting Easter Egg hunts, allowing kids the freedom to run through their favourite Toy Kingdom stores and join in the search for hundreds of chocolate eggs, plus the chance to find one of 2 golden eggs per store – and win an eggstra eggciting prize! The hunt promises to keep kids busy for at least 30 minutes, just enough time for mom to grab a cup of coffee, which is sometimes all you need to restore your sanity. Follow the Toy Kingdom South Africa Facebook Page for more details.