August 23rd 2015 - Tubes

August 23rd 2015 - Tubes

A few years ago I picked up these plastic tubes in a charity shop for few pence.  They each have a wide and narrow end so can be connected together.  Some are straight, some are curved, some are cross and some are "T" shaped.  This is so that you can make various things.

I gave them to the boys to play with and lil man absolutely loved them, he makes loads of things but moans that he needs more.  Well I hunted high and low with no luck, I posted on facebook asking my friends and a few said they thought they were called ...... or ........ etc.  I searched the net under the names given and still hit a blank. 

After months of searching I found some from a company based in Croatia who would ship to the UK, so I ordered them.  Only to be very disapointed when they arrived - yes they were the same thing as my tubes, all different shapes etc BUT (and a big but) they were about 10x bigger than the ones I had.  So I was still no nearer getting lil man some more.  But I did find a lot of "things to make with them" in images on google.

Then a few weeks back I happened to be on the works website and guess what I found - Yep Smart Buliders Puzzle set.  Identical to what I have.  So I ordered 2 boxes.  When they arrived they were the same size and colours as to what we had, so they got put up for lil mans birthday.  Well his birthday isn't until friday but as we are seeing his godmother thursday (who they are from) we have let him have them today.  He is sooooo Happy that he has more tubes to build with.

March 24th 2015 - Bedlam cube

March 24th 2015 - Bedlam cube

I had to got to town today to see if I could get my middle son some jumpers as he only has 1 that fits and my friend is on the hunt for some travel games to take on holiday but hasn't been able to find any so I said would have a look whilst in town.

Well it wasn't a particularly good trip, none of the charity shops had any jumpers in my sons age nor did any have mini travel games, well thats not quite true I had a game called the Bedlam cube.  Now my friends children are younger than mine so sadly I didn't think it would be of use to her but ok for mine.  It says it has 19,186 ways to make it - I took it out of its case and after 10minutes couldn't get it back as a cube. lol!  So I passed it to hubby and he spent a further 10minutes trying to do it and neither of us have managed to re-build the cube to put it away.  I think it may make the kids very annoyed as they will want to do it but may not be able to.

I have looked online and most of the solutions to the bedlam cube are via youtube, nothing you can print off and stick in the box!

However, all was not lost for my friend as I nipped into home bargains as they had games at 49p last week - they had none but they did have travel snakes & ladders for £1.49 and a 4-in-1 kids card game for 99p, plus I got a noughts  crosses for £1.00 from £1 shop.  So I have 3 games to post to her this afternoon ready for going away at weekend.