As soon as I saw that Tots 100 were looking for bloggers and their children to go on a review trip to the SEA LIFE London Aquarium I jumped at the chance. It's somewhere that I've wanted to take the kids for ages, and Mr C has been particularly keen to take Little Miss C but unfortunately he had to work on that day. Still - an opportunity too good to miss! I set off from St Albans with Claire from Being a Mummy and two of her little ones. It worked really well as all our kids are friends anyway and they all helped entertain each other on the train. Now that London Blackfriars station ... read more
Review: Bigjigs Road and Rail
Regular readers may well have had enough of me going on about how much I love Bigjigs (but just in case you haven't read this post from earlier in the week) so I'm going to keep this post just to the facts about the review items in question. Just before Little Miss C's birthday Bigjigs sent us our second Play Patrol review package - a wonderful selection of their Road and Rail accessories. This fitted in perfectly with the selection that we had already bought her as gifts and now she's lucky enough to have a fantastic selection with which to build a huge road and rail ... read more
Review and Competition: Cheekyshoes
I find it notoriously difficult to find shoes that fit me and feel comfortable. So difficult that I hate shoe shopping and tend to spend most of my life in trainers or flip flops as a result. so when I first heard about Cheekyshoes I just assumed that I would have the same problems as I do with most other shoes - how wrong I was! I didn't think it possible to buy a pair of shoes online and then be able to walk in them for a mile as soon as they arrived without any problems or discomfort, but that's exactly what I did. It is almost as if Cheekyshoes were made for me as the two guys who ... read more
Review: Curious George Swings Into Spring
With a George in the family I couldn't really refuse an offer to review a DVD of Curious George Swings Into Spring and I'm so glad that I didn't as he's already become a very firm favourite of Little Miss C's. If you're not in the know (and I wasn't a week ago) George is a monkey who seems to hang around with a man who dresses in a strange yellow hat that rather makes him look like a banana (and he's perfectly named The Man in The Yellow Hat). The characters originally came from the Curious George books that were written by Margret and H. A. Rey and the TV ... read more
Review: ChillFactor Squeeze Cup Slushy Maker
For so many people of my age there were two camps when they were children - those that had a Mr Frosty and those who didn't. Sadly I was in the group that didn't and all these years later I still remember how jealous I felt of school friend Rebecca who did have one. I loved slushys then and I still do now. The thought of being able to make them at home still excites me and I was therefore really pleased to be asked to review the ChillFactor Squeeze Cup Slushy Maker. The beauty of the ChillFactor is that it doesn't take up all the space that a Mr Frosty did - the magic is all in the ... read more
Review: Miffy at School
Compared to many others we were actually quite late to the iPad owning party and it was only at Christmas that I was lucky enough to get my hands on a mini as a gift from Mr C. As a result I've always been rather keen to hang on to it myself rather than let Little Miss C loose on it. Until now. She's off to nursery school in September and when we went to look round they pointed out how they have both iPads and laptops for the children to use. We're also travelling abroad next month for a wedding and I'm pretty sure that an iPad will come in very handy for keeping a three ... read more
Review: Bigjigs Garden Tools
Within two hours of our first Bigjigs Play Patrol parcel arriving it started raining. Not much of a surprise with this year's weather, but seeing as they sent Little Miss C some garden tools to review it has made reviewing them properly a bit challenging! I need to start by saying a few words about the Play Patrol scheme though. Not only did Master C enjoy his first testing assignment, but Little Miss C was amazed about the idea of toys being sent to the house by the "train jigsaw people" as she likes to call Bigjigs. And very excited to have a new bag to take to nursery and a "jigsaw ... read more
Review and Competition – Red Ted Art: The Book
I know I'm not the only person who let out a small squeal of delight when I heard that there was going to be a book version of Red Ted Art. Maggy Woodley's popular children's craft blog, Red Ted Art, has won awards and for many parents it is the first place they go when they are looking for craft projects to do with their children. Maggy's projects have also appeared elsewhere, both online and in print, and for her readers it seemed natural that the next step would be a book and finally the waiting is over. The subtitle of Red Ted Art the book is Cute and Easy Crafts for ... read more
Princess Evie’s Ponies: Confetti the Magic Wedding Pony
Simon and Schuster have sent me several Princess Evie books to review in the past and I have to admit that as I've not really liked the look of them much before (too much pink for my liking) I've not sat down and read them properly with Little Miss C and not reviewed them on here. This week Confetti the Magic Wedding Pony arrived and Little Miss C pounced on it as soon as she saw it. It seems she's got a bit of a pony obsession that I hadn't even realised - sorry! In each of the books (eight in total now) Princess Evie goes off on an adventure with one of her magical ... read more
Ping and Pong Are Best Friends (mostly) – Tim Hopgood
Who can resist a couple of penguins called Ping and Pong? Not me that's for sure! Basically, Ping and Pong are friends, best friends, but whenever Ping tries his hand at something he finds that Pong can already do it, but a million times better. Haven't we all had a friend like that? The question though is whether or not it is worth losing friends over. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I have to say that it's wonderful to see a children's book addressing both the good and bad things about friendships as it's something that is so important to children. Little Miss ... read more