Sunday, 4 December 2011
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Grandpa Chocolates and Pink Silky Dresses
This year is the first one that Freddy's had a real handle on what's going on. So I was really looking forward to him joining in with Christmas preparations, such as making our annual family Christmas card. Last year in the January sale I bought the sweetest shepherd's costume which came with a crook and fluffy sheep. I had visions of my gorgeous boy looking like the angelic Little Shepherd who had 'nothing to give but love' to the baby Jesus. Awww!! So I prepared for my photo shoot full of the festive joys, anticipating the smiles on the grandparent's faces as they saw their grandson looking so cute.
However Fred had other ideas. As I was getting the outfit out Freddy saw Kizzy's age 9-10 pink silk witch oufit and that was it. No amount of cajoling or coaxing could convince him to put on the cute Shepherd's outfit when faced with the flamboyant pink dress with black net underskirt. Even in his dress of choice, he did not want to co-operate at all, being more intersted in his new discovery....Grandpa Chocolates! He has his first advent calendar this year and the picture of Santa is in Fred's words a Grandpa. The concept of only having one Grandpa Chocolate a day is something that he is finding tricky to come to terms with.
So for my Christmas 2011 cards I give you my son, the Christmas Angel with his Grandpa Chocolates and pink silky dress.
However Fred had other ideas. As I was getting the outfit out Freddy saw Kizzy's age 9-10 pink silk witch oufit and that was it. No amount of cajoling or coaxing could convince him to put on the cute Shepherd's outfit when faced with the flamboyant pink dress with black net underskirt. Even in his dress of choice, he did not want to co-operate at all, being more intersted in his new discovery....Grandpa Chocolates! He has his first advent calendar this year and the picture of Santa is in Fred's words a Grandpa. The concept of only having one Grandpa Chocolate a day is something that he is finding tricky to come to terms with.
So for my Christmas 2011 cards I give you my son, the Christmas Angel with his Grandpa Chocolates and pink silky dress.
Friday, 2 December 2011
*CLOSED*Win a Fantastic Christmas Toy Bundle for Your Little Ones!
This time of year can be very costly as we throw ourselves into the frenzy of Christmas Shopping. Deciding exactly what to buy our loved ones can be tricky with so many wonderful products gracing the festive shelves of every high street shop, tempting us with their fantastic features and promises. It is a serious business!
To help you out further Inside the Wendy House (thanks to UKMums.TV) has got an amazing bundle of toys to give away to one very lucky reader!! This should help out by giving you some exciting extra gifts for the kids to enjoy.
I feel like Santa giving away such a lovely load of this year's favourite toys! There is something for everyone in this bundle!
Check out what is on offer:
Zhu Zhu Hamster Princess Snowcup from Character
Rastamouse Plush Toy with sounds from Character
Club Penguin Puffle Key Ring
Club Penguin Fire Sensei 7" plush
Ravensburger 3D Globe Puzzleball from Ravensburger
Mould & Paint Christmas craft set from Bright Sparks Toys
Fireman Sam's Helicopter from Character
Solar Rainbow Maker from Interplay
Sylvanian Families Father at Home set from Flair
I'm keeping this competition open for 12 days (of Christmas!) Please share it among your friends! The lucky winner will be announced and contacted directly and has 48 hours to respond. After this time I reserve the right to redraw.
It's easy to enter...just fill in the Rafflecopter entry form completing as many of the "I Did This!" entries as you like. The more you do, the greater your chance of winning these yuletide goodies!! I'll be posting the prize out myself (on a 3-5 day delivery service) so I can't guarantee pre-Christmas delivery, but I'll do my best! If not it can be a lovely post Christmas treat for your littlies to enjoy to keep the festive fun going for a little bit longer! Good luck to all!
To help you out further Inside the Wendy House (thanks to UKMums.TV) has got an amazing bundle of toys to give away to one very lucky reader!! This should help out by giving you some exciting extra gifts for the kids to enjoy.
I feel like Santa giving away such a lovely load of this year's favourite toys! There is something for everyone in this bundle!
Check out what is on offer:
Zhu Zhu Hamster Princess Snowcup from Character
It's easy to enter...just fill in the Rafflecopter entry form completing as many of the "I Did This!" entries as you like. The more you do, the greater your chance of winning these yuletide goodies!! I'll be posting the prize out myself (on a 3-5 day delivery service) so I can't guarantee pre-Christmas delivery, but I'll do my best! If not it can be a lovely post Christmas treat for your littlies to enjoy to keep the festive fun going for a little bit longer! Good luck to all!
Just Dance Kids
Since we've got ourselves an XBox Kinect we have been far more active as a family, jumping around in front of our TV and having fun! What I really love is how 2 year old Freddy can join in with us without us worrying about him flinging an expensive controller across the room...or worse still through the TV! He has got the idea of what he needs to do to play the games and his favourite genre is definitely Dance games, but they can be quite tricky to follow.
It is good to see Ubisoft coming up with a Dance Game that is aimed specifically at young children and their love of dancing. Some of the adult games have complicated choreography that a child may struggle to do (heck...I struggle to do some of the moves!!) So Just Dance Kids is a game designed just for them!
Featuring fun and simple routines with colourful backgrounds, children can dance along to pop hits, tunes from their favourite TV shows and classic nursery songs. The moves are safe and easy, designed with kids in mind. The game itself is simple to navigate with easy to use icons. Kids get to dance along with fellow children on screen which is a cute touch. A parent's section allows grown ups to choose the playlist and keep check on their child's progress, if they want to keep tabs on what their child is doing. (Personally I prefer to join in too!!)
Just Dance Kids is available for XBox Kinect, PS3 Move and Wii. The XBox allows 2 players head to head or in co-op mode, Move and Wii allow up to 4 players if you have enough controllers!
The whole family can join in and boogie to 40 favourite tunes such as Whip My Hair by Willow Smith, Accidentally in Love from The Shrek movie, Jingle Bells, Jump Up! from The Imagination Movers and Song 2 by Blur! It's a mixed bag of music that will appeal to kids of all ages as they strut their funky stuff! It is very current and relevant to youngsters' tastes.
Kids can have fun and get exercise while playing on their favourite games consoles. No more couch potato kids! I applaud Ubisoft for creating a game that will get this younger generation up and moving from a very young age, rather than playing on a sedentary game. It also teaches them a few moves to impress their mates at the school disco!
Just Dance Kids is available to buy at Amazon currently for £22.49 on Wii and Kinect and £37.39 on PS3. Perfect as a Christmas present for a little one which will provide hours of fun!
It is good to see Ubisoft coming up with a Dance Game that is aimed specifically at young children and their love of dancing. Some of the adult games have complicated choreography that a child may struggle to do (heck...I struggle to do some of the moves!!) So Just Dance Kids is a game designed just for them!
Featuring fun and simple routines with colourful backgrounds, children can dance along to pop hits, tunes from their favourite TV shows and classic nursery songs. The moves are safe and easy, designed with kids in mind. The game itself is simple to navigate with easy to use icons. Kids get to dance along with fellow children on screen which is a cute touch. A parent's section allows grown ups to choose the playlist and keep check on their child's progress, if they want to keep tabs on what their child is doing. (Personally I prefer to join in too!!)
Just Dance Kids is available for XBox Kinect, PS3 Move and Wii. The XBox allows 2 players head to head or in co-op mode, Move and Wii allow up to 4 players if you have enough controllers!
The whole family can join in and boogie to 40 favourite tunes such as Whip My Hair by Willow Smith, Accidentally in Love from The Shrek movie, Jingle Bells, Jump Up! from The Imagination Movers and Song 2 by Blur! It's a mixed bag of music that will appeal to kids of all ages as they strut their funky stuff! It is very current and relevant to youngsters' tastes.
Kids can have fun and get exercise while playing on their favourite games consoles. No more couch potato kids! I applaud Ubisoft for creating a game that will get this younger generation up and moving from a very young age, rather than playing on a sedentary game. It also teaches them a few moves to impress their mates at the school disco!
Are You Giving Doggie Doo This Christmas?
Anyone who knows me will know how much I love toilet humour. So when I received a Doggie Doo game a few weeks back as a prize I was suitably delighted! The pooping dog seemed like the perfect toy to satisfy my warped sense of fun! Others obviously agree because it features highly in this year's most wanted Christmas presents!
The sheepish expression on the doggy's face brought such promise of the rude fun that was to come. You feed the special food to the dog, push it in with his bone, then pump the handle on the lead to get the poo moving. Eventually with a satisfying squelch it is eliminated from his rear end to be shovelled up by a willing pooper scooper!
First few times we were in hysterics. From 2 year old Freddy to the older kids to myself, we laughed as we willed the next pump to be the one to expel the day-glo yellow poop! The kids were peeping up the business end waiting to see the doggie doo crown. It was so funny!
Within a few days, the consistency of the dog food became so sticky that it clung to everything...clothes, hands, furniture...and it wouldn't go through the dog's innards at all. Very quickly, doggy's digestive system failed to cope. We resorted to blowing down his mouth hole to jet propel the poop (hilarious first few times!) to sticking a bamboo skewer up his bum to ease out the motion! I felt like a canine proctologist. The residue building up inside made the toy impossible to use. Also, the pumping handle started to fall off after a few uses and eventually a spring inside came loose.
At this point Ian decided to give the unusable toy an exploratory operation and took it apart. The mechanism was completely unfixable and a plastic component had snapped inside, leaving a plastic dog, sticky poop and no pump!
All in all this is a five minute wonder. It is hugely funny at first but the novelty soon wears off as it very quickly stops working and ends up completely broken. Is £22.99 worth paying for such a short lived toy? Probably not. If you're one of the people who have this for your kids this year, enjoy it while it lasts. Ours is now in the bin after 8 weeks. Shame because this is almost genius. The early laughs however were priceless...but that is easy to say when I didn't pay £22.99 of my hard earned cash for it!!
The sheepish expression on the doggy's face brought such promise of the rude fun that was to come. You feed the special food to the dog, push it in with his bone, then pump the handle on the lead to get the poo moving. Eventually with a satisfying squelch it is eliminated from his rear end to be shovelled up by a willing pooper scooper!
First few times we were in hysterics. From 2 year old Freddy to the older kids to myself, we laughed as we willed the next pump to be the one to expel the day-glo yellow poop! The kids were peeping up the business end waiting to see the doggie doo crown. It was so funny!
Within a few days, the consistency of the dog food became so sticky that it clung to everything...clothes, hands, furniture...and it wouldn't go through the dog's innards at all. Very quickly, doggy's digestive system failed to cope. We resorted to blowing down his mouth hole to jet propel the poop (hilarious first few times!) to sticking a bamboo skewer up his bum to ease out the motion! I felt like a canine proctologist. The residue building up inside made the toy impossible to use. Also, the pumping handle started to fall off after a few uses and eventually a spring inside came loose.
At this point Ian decided to give the unusable toy an exploratory operation and took it apart. The mechanism was completely unfixable and a plastic component had snapped inside, leaving a plastic dog, sticky poop and no pump!
All in all this is a five minute wonder. It is hugely funny at first but the novelty soon wears off as it very quickly stops working and ends up completely broken. Is £22.99 worth paying for such a short lived toy? Probably not. If you're one of the people who have this for your kids this year, enjoy it while it lasts. Ours is now in the bin after 8 weeks. Shame because this is almost genius. The early laughs however were priceless...but that is easy to say when I didn't pay £22.99 of my hard earned cash for it!!
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Feeding the Hordes this Christmas
I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Morrison's Tester to host a Christmas Party! Receiving a box of goodies, vouchers and a shopping list (adapted as the majority of us are vegetarian), we set about preparing a little soiree for my parents to attend, in order to test a selection of buffet food, cakes, wine, decorations, crackers, party poppers and gifts.
Morrisons have a huge range of Christmas goodies instore and available to pre-order. My parents were impressed by the Mini Fish and Chips which are little potato slices, topped with minty, mushy peas and finished with a piece of battered fish. They were good quality and quite impressive to look at! But at a pack of 8 for £4 or two packs for £7, they aren't cheap as chips! The cheesy bites, fingers and mini pizzas were good for us vegetarians and the kids really liked them. They made a nice change to the stock veggie buffet offering of Indian snacks. Morrisons have quite a few veggie bits this year which is nice! We sampled The Best Chocolate Cluster Cake which was a rich fruit cake topped with chocolate pieces and chocolate covered dried fruit and nuts. It was a great alternative to the usual marzipan and icing topped seasonal cake and everyone who ate it said it was moist, packed with fruit and delicious. It costs £8 but it went a long way as it was so rich.
Morrisons also have cards, gift wrap, decorations, crackers, party poppers and tableware for all your festive needs. They also stock a great range of toiletry gifts for him, her and the kids which are a bargain at 3 for a tenner. Definitely worth popping a few under the tree for any unexpected guests!
We enjoyed having an early taste test of the Morrisons festive party foods. Definitely a few items in the range that will be purchased for our Christmas and New Year parties this year. Take a look in store or check out the website for more details of their festive food.
Morrisons have a huge range of Christmas goodies instore and available to pre-order. My parents were impressed by the Mini Fish and Chips which are little potato slices, topped with minty, mushy peas and finished with a piece of battered fish. They were good quality and quite impressive to look at! But at a pack of 8 for £4 or two packs for £7, they aren't cheap as chips! The cheesy bites, fingers and mini pizzas were good for us vegetarians and the kids really liked them. They made a nice change to the stock veggie buffet offering of Indian snacks. Morrisons have quite a few veggie bits this year which is nice! We sampled The Best Chocolate Cluster Cake which was a rich fruit cake topped with chocolate pieces and chocolate covered dried fruit and nuts. It was a great alternative to the usual marzipan and icing topped seasonal cake and everyone who ate it said it was moist, packed with fruit and delicious. It costs £8 but it went a long way as it was so rich.
Morrisons also have cards, gift wrap, decorations, crackers, party poppers and tableware for all your festive needs. They also stock a great range of toiletry gifts for him, her and the kids which are a bargain at 3 for a tenner. Definitely worth popping a few under the tree for any unexpected guests!
We enjoyed having an early taste test of the Morrisons festive party foods. Definitely a few items in the range that will be purchased for our Christmas and New Year parties this year. Take a look in store or check out the website for more details of their festive food.
Cars 2 Drive and Talk McQueen
We are huge fans of Disney. We are complete suckers for the films, the songs, the characters and the merchandise. We can't get enough of Disney.
We were very excited to receive a Disney Pixar Cars 2 Drive and Talk McQueen plush toy in our final Toyologist consignment. The cute and cuddly Lightning McQueen toy comes with a cuddly key to start the engine, it makes engine sounds and says catch phrases and moves with a vroooom!!
You have to push down on Lightning's bonnet or stick the magnetic key to the roof to activate the sounds and motion.
Sounds great?? So why then does this just not quite do it for me? I just fail to understand the concept of an electronic cuddly car!! Lightning is a mean machine, built for speed. It does not translate to a soft, puffy toy with wheels that don't spin and absolutely no aerodynamics at all. The loud roaring of the engine and the Ka-Chow catchphrase doesn't quite fit the new softer image. It also only says a couple of phrases which just repeat and get old quickly. There are two wheels in a heavy plastic base underneath which allows the car to move, but it only goes a short distance and very slowly. It actually waddles which isn't very race car-like!
Freddy wasn't overly impressed with the toy. He kept pushing it to try and make it go faster and further. He liked the sounds, but as Lightning was neither a cuddly toy that you could snuggle with due to the plastic base, or a speedy vehicle that whizzed around the floor, I'm not sure Freddy really knew what to do with him. He tried to use it as a sit n ride at one point!! He lost interest quite quickly.
I am sad to not be singing the praises of my favourite franchise, but this just didn't quite do it for us. We want our cars whizzy and our soft toys cuddly. Trying to mix it just isn't a good combination. We still love Disney and we still love Lightning McQueen and Cars 2 toys....just not in this format.
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