• competition - Friends of Sylvanian Families - playing - toy review

    Fun with the Sylvanian Families

    For a long time Little Sis has been obsessed with Peppa Pig. Thankfully she’s recently become interested in other toys and has been building up a little collection of Sylvanian Families, or ‘Families’ as she calls them. I remember them from my own childhood so I’m pleased to see they’re still going strong. Created in Japan in 1985, Sylvanian Families is made up of woodland creatures, dolls houses and furniture sets. The Bramble Hedgehog Family were recently introduced and Little Sis was sent a set to review. With their soft bark-brown spines, wide eyes, and button noses, the Bramble Hedgehog…

  • playing - toy review

    Peppa Pig Colorino

    This week Little Sis has been having fun with a brand new product from Ravensburger called Peppa Pig Colorino. It is aimed at children aged 2+ and involves children learning about colours through matching coloured pegs onto a variety of Peppa pictures. Peppa Pig Colorino contains 4 colour pictures, 4 black and white pictures, 24 coloured pegs in 6 colours and a clear plastic board. The idea is you choose a picture to play with, slide it behind the plastic board and then ‘colour’ in with the pegs. It’s great for children learning their primary colours and Little Sis has…

  • playing - toy review

    Miniclara Doll and Ballerina Outfit Set review

    It’s probably no surprise that my 2 year old daughter loves her dolls. In her short little life she’s amassed quite a collection of dolls, vintage doll beds and of course doll quilts made by me! It’s not often she’s sent toys but she was the lucky recipient of a Great Gismos Miniclara Doll and Ballerina Outfit Set, which is part of the Wonderland range from NICI, to review. Miniclara Doll is a very sweet 30 cm plush doll, dressed in a leotard, ballet shoes, removable tutu, bag and Little Kitty.  She also received an additional outfit set consisting of…

  • parenting - potty training

    Operation Big Girl

    Little Sis is almost two and a half and I find myself caught between wanting her to attend nursery for a few more hours a week (!) and not wanting her to grow up. She is very independent and hates being told what to do (not sure where she gets that from) and I need to let her grow up a little. We recently ditched the dummy which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and she barely wants a noo noo any more. She used to always have a dummy and noo noo (a muslin) but she…

  • Family Life - playing - toy review

    A classic tale brought to life

    I was delighted to tune in to CBeebies recently and see the Peter Rabbit animated series. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is one of the first books I remember from my childhood. The stories of Peter Rabbit and his friends are timeless and I think they have translated really well into a programme that my children love to sit and watch. My sister and I had a library of Beatrix Potter books when we were little and I’ve been buying them for my own children whenever I see them in charity shops. There’s something very comforting about reading these simple stories…

  • playing - toy review

    Gruffalo My First Puzzles Jigsaw set

    Little Sis kindly offered to review the new Gruffalo My First Puzzles Jigsaw set from Ravensburger, aimed at children aged 18 months plus. The puzzle is based on the story by Julia Donaldson and the wonderful illustrations by Axel Scheffler. As you can see she was very happy as she adores the Gruffalo. The box contains four bright and colourful puzzles specially designed for youngsters aged 18 months+. The puzzles feature images of the Gruffalo (2 piece), Snake (3 piece), Mouse (4 piece) and Owl and Snake (5 piece). Each puzzle has a different coloured border which is designed to…

  • toy review

    Pretty in pink

    My 2 year old daughter absolutely adores pink. Try as I might (and I’ve tried pretty hard) I can’t do anything about it. So I’ve decided to just let her get on with it, fingers crossed she’ll grow out of it one day. Just before Christmas Big Game hunters sent her the Twinkle Tower from Le Toy Van to review, one of many toy castles and houses they sell. It was pink. Building toys is not my strong point so I was pretty pleased that the Twinkle Tower came straight out of the box and could be played with immediately.…

  • Christmas - Dunelm Mill Blogger

    Decorating for Christmas with Dunelm Mill

    Last week we popped into our local Dunelm Mill to get some inspiration for our Christmas decorations. My Facebook timeline has been full of friends putting up their trees and decorations and it feels as though we’re in the minority as we haven’t put anything up yet – except for our Advent calendars and candles. We’re undecided about buying a real or fake tree so went looking for decorations as we know our colour scheme will be red and white this year. They had a brilliant range of festive bedding, tableware and decorations so there was plenty of choice. Little…

  • Christmas - days out - Local Review - London

    Our Christmas Day out at Westfield

    This afternoon Little Sis and I visited Westfield London to get ourselves into the Christmas spirit. It’s quite easy for us to get to Westfield London so we hopped on the tube and soon emerged into the shopping centre. I love to plan so had a list of things to see and do. First up was to check out the Christmas lights and decorations which were so pretty. There’s a fantastic indoor ice-rink so we spent a good 10 minutes watching people ice skate. There’s a minimum age requirement of 4 so we’ll be trying it out next year. There…