Back before Christmas I was one of those parents desperately trying to get my hands on a Hatchimal without having to remortgage the house to do so. Unfortunately Father Christmas didn't come up trumps on this one and Little Miss C hasn't let me forget it. That's why, for her recent birthday, I made sure that I bought her a pack of Hatchimals CollEGGtibles which she loved. She was beyond thrilled when a few days later I produced a brand new Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzle for her to help me review. The way these Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzles work is that you get a 48 ... read more
The Minions return to Specsavers
I know it won't have escaped your attention that the Minions are back soon with Despicable Me 3, and the kids and I are so excited about going to see the new film when it comes out at the end of June. Specsavers are celebrating the release with adding four new frames to its exclusive Minions range. Master C and I were invited along to the Specsavers store in St Albans to see the range when it launched on 31 May, and to choose some glasses for him from the range. The frames in the range are priced at £64 each and are free for under 16s with an NHS optical voucher. The Despicable Me 3 ... read more
Blue Skies Campsite – Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk
I briefly mentioned our latest family camping trip in a recent review post on here (the Discovery Kids Digital Walkie Talkies, if you're interested), but it is a trip that deserves more than one blog post if I'm honest. We'd been meaning to return to Norfolk for ages, and were determined that this time we'd be taking our tent with us. Our last trip to the area was a last minute stay in a holiday cottage and we'd loved the area so much that we were keen to return. Wells-Next-The-Sea is a lovely little place and we wanted to go back and spend more time there so we set out to look for a campsite ... read more
Taking to the road with Young Driver
On Sunday morning I found myself being driven around the roof top of a shopping centre car park by six year old Little Miss C. Yes you did read that correctly, and no you don't need to be calling social services at this point. I guess I'd better explain... I'm pretty sure that most of you have heard about driving lessons for children that are not yet old enough to be legally driving on the road. It makes complete and utter sense to me that if you can start teaching children to drive earlier in a safe way then when they get to be actually on the road with other road users they can ... read more
Animating with StikBot #StikBot
Things were different when I was a kid... I know that is such a cliche, but as I come to write a review of StikBot Zanimation Studio it's a phrase that keeps going over and over in my head. When I was a child animation was those little flick books that you drew and Morph on the telly. That's as sophisticated as it got. And the though of ever managing to do something yourself that was anywhere near as good as Morph was just unimaginable. Fast forward twenty plus years and my kids now have StikBot to take their animations to a whole new level. Now I've been aware of StikBot for a while, ... read more
Discovery Kids Digital Walkie Talkies
With a year's family camping experience under our belt now we've learnt quite a bit about what sorts of things we should take with us on camping trips. Everything from a dust pan and brush to washing pegs. We've also learnt a fair bit about camping with children and in particular how the kids want to go and explore as much of the campsite as possible, yet it can at times be a bit hard to keep tabs on where they are, especially if on a large campsite. What we had spotted was lots of children having walkie talkies, either to talk to each other, or for their parents to be able to summon them back ... read more
Ginny Moon – Benjamin Ludwig
If I'm honest I don't think I knew that the word "blurb", when describing that bit written on the back of a book, was an official term until my daughter started school and they started learning all about the different things that make up a book. I obviously knew about authors, titles, contents pages, indexes etc etc, but I hadn't realised blurb was an official name. It was always just that "bit on the back cover". The thing you read when browsing in a bookshop and looking for something for a bit of escapism. When someone sent me the blurb for Ginny Moon (purchase here from Amazon UK) there was ... read more
How to buy toys cheaply with The Amazing Mystery Box
As a parent I'm always looking at thrifty ways to live life and provide for my kids. The truth is that family life is expensive and there always seem to be things that need buying. One area where I try really hard to save money though is when it comes to gifts - both for my own kids and for others - and hence I'm always after ways to buy toys cheaply. I'm often trying to pick up things that I know my kids wants for birthday and Christmas in advance when I see them in a sale or promotion, and I also have a "present cupboard" where I pop things that I pick up over the year that can then be used ... read more
Ravensburger Despicable Me 3 Jigsaw Puzzles
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only parent that is quite excited about the the new Despicable Me 3 film coming out this summer. The trailer seems to have been playing in the cinema for ages now, but you know the release must be approaching soon when you start seeing all the film merchandise in the shops. Little Miss C and Master C have been busy this last couple of weeks helping me review these Ravensuburger Despicable Me 3 Jigsaw puzzles. Like many Ravensburger puzzles this Despicable Me 3 one contains four separate puzzles: one with 12 pieces, one with 16, one with 20 and one with 24 pieces. ... read more
Personalised Leather Pencil Case from Hope House Press
As daft as it may sound, the current school year is actually drawing to an end. I know we're not quite at half term yet, but it is only days away, and once that's over there are only six weeks until school is out for summer. It means that the more organised parents and class reps are starting to think about gifts for teachers and it's very much with this in mind that Liz from Hope House Press asked me to review their new personalised leather pencil case. Now I should admit that I already am totally in love with Hope House Press and their products. Last year I was sent one of their ... read more