No messing, just fun! Princess Aquadoodle review

So we've opened possibly the most exciting box to ever land on our doorstep and it's time to start our Toyologist reviews!

I was delighted to be sent an Aquadoodle to review, and what could be even better, a Cinderella one! My little girl does have a very girly streak in her and loves a princess so I knew this would go down well. In her own words when I showed it to her she said... "my new toy is magnificent"... that's a bit of a tongue twister for a toddler. 

The set comes with an Aquadoodle mat, a Cinderella print maker and a water pen. You simply fill the pen with water and place Cinderella under the tap to get going, so simple! If you add water to the mat it turns pink, just like magic. Squiggle loved drawing her pictures and then watching them dry in the sun, ready to start again. She overloaded Cinderella with water the first time but when we got used to it you roll her along and she makes a little heart pattern.

The box says 'no mess' so I was interested to see if it was true. I've tried no mess arty options before and tried leaving her with a water colouring book once – it was a disaster as there was blue water everywhere. This is not the case with the Princess Aquadoodle, I can honestly say it is 100% mess free, hurrah, perfect for silly mums like me who have cream carpets! It also requires no batteries or assembling and won't run out, you just add more water... this is the kind of easy toy I love.

The fun continued with the Aquadoodle today – the sun was shining so we had the paddling pool out  – my little artist was dipping her toys in the water and then using them to make prints on the mat, this soon turned into footprints and was great fun. I think the only thing for us that could have made it even more fun would have been a larger mat, but saying that this smaller size makes it really neat to fold away and store.

My little girl loves her new Aquadoodle and very sweetly asked if she could keep it, it's a fantastic addition to the toy box. It also makes a great guilt free gift as you know your not sending any mess and chaos into anyone's house!

If you'd like to see the Aquadoodle at work take a look at our little video. I am so sorry it is on it's side but you get the idea... I promise future videos will be the right way up!!

From cot to bed and how to remove a head

We have finally plucked up the courage and turned Squiggle's cot into a bed and taken off the sides. She turns 3 in a few months and I know most people would be surprised we hadn't done it sooner! She has always been happy in her cot but it was getting to the point where she was becoming too heavy for me to lift in. Also when going away or staying at people's houses she is really a bit too big to sleep in a travel cot now so we wanted to get her used to beds.

She's been very excited about it all which has meant some long evenings for us! After about 5 minutes we usually hear the light turn on, then the door creaking, followed by footsteps and then a little face peeking round the door with the biggest pleased as punch grin you have ever seen. We are averaging about a 9pm sleep time at the moment, but we'll get there!

The biggest stress came last night... of all the bed related things I had worried about, this wasn't one. I heard her calling me at about 3am, weird I thought because she normally just jumps straight out of her room and shouts up the stairs if she wakes up. Maybe she's really tired and will just go back to sleep I thought. I decided I better check on her and thank goodness because the poor little thing had rolled out of bed, then half under it and got her head stuck. I had to twist it on its side and pull it out. I was surprised she wasn't a bit traumatised but she just told me quite matter of factly what had happened and happily got back in bed. I was really worried and couldn't sleep after that, what If I hadn't heard her and she'd been unable to breathe?

These things are so scary, the whole bed thing has scared me quite a lot in general, I go to sleep every night with that feeling that my little girl is vulnerable. Am I neurotic?

I stuffed some giant floor cushions under the bed last night which have jammed the gap but I'll have to come up with a better solution!

Has anyone else find the swap hard, everyone seemed to tell me it was easy peasey before we did it!!

Wedding styling

Next are running another amazing styling competition, this time with The Rock and Roll Bride blog... the challenge? To style wedding outfits using the Next range – ohhhhh I've had so much fun!!

As life rolls on and getting to the point now that I'm no longer the bridesmaid and my little girl is! I've styled outfits for us both where she is the gorgeous bridesmaid, and me a very happy guest. I've based it on a monochrome wedding theme as it's a big style trend at the moment and is so eye-catching. Plus even my 87 year old Nan agrees it is now fine to wear black to a wedding! I hope you like my choices, I am so in love with the dresses I have chosen.

All together the outfits for the two of us come to £190, well within the challenge budget of £500, I might have to head back to the Next site and pick out a suit for the other half with the rest of the (imaginary) money!

Here are the links to my chosen products in case anybody wants to locate them, Emily x

Girl's pumps: http://www.next.co.uk/x502670s10

Bridesmaid Dress: http://www.next.co.uk/g71138s1

Black and White Dress: http://www.next.co.uk/x50102s7

Sandals: http://www.next.co.uk/x50312s1

Clutch Bag: http://www.next.co.uk/x506368s2#791083x50

Necklace: http://www.next.co.uk/x505386s1#146118x50

We're part of the Toyologist team!

Well it's official! I'm delighted and proud to announce that I have been selected as a Toys R Us Toyologist. I'm one of 24 lucky families who, over the next few months, will be playing with and reviewing lots of toys. I'm part of the purple team which means I'll be reviewing toys for babies and toddlers age 0-36 months.

I'm hoping to write some helpful reviews to give everyone plenty of ideas in the run up to Christmas, so I hope you pop back and have a read! I'll be posting them here but also on the Toyologist Toy Box blog – there you'll find all the other reviews throughout the 3 age categories.

I'm so excited to get started and can't wait to be part of the community and share some fun reviews with everyone.

(YEY YEY YEY!!!)