Ever since Erin started back at school in September she has regularly asked if she can stay up late. Like it’s some kind of exciting treat to be like a grown up and stay up until it’s properly dark outside. Most days during the week her requests (of which there are many) are met with a no, and generally my response is “not on a school night”. As soon as Friday hits, Erin likes to clarify that it is indeed the start of the weekend, and as such, we occasionally let her stay up a little later than normal if she’s been good.
The team at Num Noms recently got in touch to see if we’d be interested in having a Num Noms Smoothie Movie Night to celebrate the release of the new Num Noms Snackables Silly Shakes Maker, and it straight away sounded like something that would be right up Erin’s street. As well as the Silly Shakes Maker set itself, we were send a bundle of goodies to help create our very own home movie feel, including a special drinks bottle for Erin, a soft and cosy blanket, a sweetie cone and a cuddly Num Nom teddy as well as a film voucher so that Erin could select her film of choice.
When the weekend arrived last week, we snuggled down on the sofa to watch Moana, after Erin had deliberated for quite some time between School of Rock, Trolls and Coco. With the latter being likely to end up with me in floods of tears, and my attempts at trying to encourage the first falling on deaf ears, Moana felt like the safest option. We got her sister to sleep, and then we had some quality time just the three of us.
Before the film started we decided to check out the Num Noms Shaker Maker, and create a few smoothie slime concoctions of our own! The Num Noms Snackables Silly Shakes Maker is a fun lab which allows children to make their very own smoothie style pots filled with colourful glittery or confetti based slime, using the mixing bowl, strawberry and raspberry colouring, glitter and confetti, and the shaker maker lab itself, to bring the creations to life. Having had one of the Num Noms maker sets last Christmas, I was aware that they can be a little on the messy side, so we made sure we had some wipes handy to avoid sticky fingers getting all over the floor (something to bear in mind!)
Erin is a big fan of slime products, and is also going through a really independent phase where she wants to do everything herself, so we decided for this challenge, I would read the instructions out, and she would follow the steps unassisted in order to create her own shakers of pink and blue.
As a parent, I have to admit there was a part of me that felt slightly nervous the whole way through, particularly watching her gouge out a lump of clear slime from the spatula and transfer it into a tub in order to get started. There was a massive part of me that wanted to step in and damage control how much stringed from one container to the next but I sat on my hands, because she absolutely loved it!
Erin loved adding the drops of colouring to the clear slime mixture, and deciding between confetti and glitter, the latter of which came out a little faster than she was expecting!
The mixing part was really good fun, popping the bowl underneath the whisk and then turning the handle at the top. The clear mixture almost immediately started to change colour, which Erin was really chuffed about.
The latter part is a little more complicated, as it involves transferring the now coloured mix into another tube like container, before inserting it into the rotating tube holders at the top of the lab (which strangely has to be done from the rear which kind of goes against what you might expect). There are little caps securing the contents, so you need to remember to remove these, otherwise nothing will come out no matter how hard you try!
When the smoothie cup is placed underneath and the top removed, Erin then used the large pusher to push down the slime, watching it slowly spiral into the cup below, a little like a soft Mr Whippy Ice cream. The slime can then be added in different coloured layers to the same pots if you wish.
The texture of the slime is quite ‘wet’ and sticky if you try and play with it straight away (the stuff of parent’s nightmares!) but left for a little bit and given some subtle working it soon becomes more like the slime texture I was expecting, and can be popped back into the shaker pots so it can be played with as and when Erin wishes.
After all that slime making, Erin was getting a little tired, so we only got half way through Moana before she started to get a bit fidgety, and finally admitted that she was tired and should probably go to bed. She fell asleep in minutes, clinging on to her Nom Nom plush for dear life.
We had a great evening as part of our #NumNomsSmoothieMovieNight and I have a feeling I might be getting another request for a late night next week too! 🙂
The Num Noms Silly Shakes Maker is available to buy from Amazon and has an RRP of £39.99.
Disclosure – We were sent the Num Noms Silly Shakes Maker and some goodies for our movie night in exchange for this post however all thoughts and opinions are my own.*
