Talking Cloudbabies Baba Blue Review

Our favourite giraffe Geoffrey had sent us a talking Cloudbabies Talking Baba Blue to love and review. I thought this toy might be aimed at younger age groups but my daughter is hanging on to him and there's no chance of her passing him on to one of her little friends!!

Baba is going to look after elephant at night!

I haven't really seen a lot of Cloudbabies on the television but Squiggle knew who he was instantly. He has a lovely little face and then a cuddly body, perfect for snuggling up to in bed. He's easy to squeeze and when you do squish his little tummy he says a variety of 12 phrases. He is very easy to use and so is perfect for little ones, my little girl was quite smitten which you'll see from our video!

Somebody loves him!

If you know any little Cloudbabies fans then I imagine this would be a great gift and a much loved toy. I remember when Squiggle was younger she had a squeezable talking toy from a certain other popular CBeebies programme and she loved him to tatters!!

You can collect the other colours and it looks as though they also do glowing versions of the characters which I imagine would make lovely night-time companions!

A big hit in our house, I might have to sit down and watch an episode with my new friend Baba blue now!

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!!!)

Organix 'Veg & Oat Bars' review

We are huge fans of Organix snacks in our house, my daughter's favourites have to be the fruit bars, so I was really interested to find out what their new savoury versions were like.

It's a great idea, I never leave the house unless armed with some kind of snack (bribe) but I don't always want to be giving S something sweet - the savoury options are a lot more limited! Organix very kindly sent us two boxes of their Veg & Oat bars to sample and here is what we thought...

First up was tomato and carrot:

Squiggle recognised the packaging straight away and was very excited, I explained to her what flavour they were and she said "yum I like carrots"... Her review was... "They taste nice, they taste like tomatoes, the smell like tomatoes, I like tomatoes..."

And that pretty much sums it up! She did like them but she also said I could have the other half. She does quite like sharing food with mummy, but she would NEVER share her fruit bars!! I had some too and they do have quite a strong tomato flavour. I think she would have liked them even more when she was younger and was a real fan if those strong flavours, she is almost 3 now and knows what she likes!

Our second box were sweetcorn and red pepper flavour:

Again these are both flavours that she loves so she was excited and these went down even better. The texture and quality of the bars is up to the Organix brand's usual high standards and of course they have the no junk promise to put your mind at ease!! I think the bars are well worth a try, some kids will love them. I remember being at the earlier stages with squiggle when I was trying to avoid sweet treats, I would have stocked up on these. In bribery terms I have to confess I'll probably still reach for the Organix carrot cake bars instead. She really enjoyed the savoury bars but she begs and pleas for the fruit ones!

Has anyone else tried them? I'd love to hear what your little ones thought? Well worth a try I'd say!

Please not we were sent these to review but my thoughts are my own.

Some creative gift ideas from 'Find Me a Gift'

Well our girly luck was in last week as we received two fantastic products from Find Me a Gift to review.

All parents know that having children brings with it the inevitable influx of children's parties and before you know it their social lives are better than yours! I love all the parties but with the invitations comes the dilemma of what gift to buy... I always want to get something useful but fun and that wont take up too much room in Mum's house, it can be a tricky one! Thanks to Find Me a Gift I now have a couple of great ideas for you.

First up is the fabulous 'Super Craft Kit for Girls'. When I was offered this product to review I just knew Squiggle would love it. She gets very over excited about pom poms and wobbly eyes and it this set had both, perfect! It is actually quite a large box when you see it which gives a great wow factor for a gift. When I pulled it out from behind my back my daughters eyes lit up immediately. "Can we do it now pleeeease mummy" she begged. She got really excited looking at the box and listing all the different things we could make.

She quickly decided that what she really wanted to make was a caterpillar... He turned out to be a monster caterpillar which she thought was hilarious. It doesn't come with any instructions which allows creativity to flow like this and actually turned out to be a really fun positive.

Monsterpillar

Squiggle enjoyed taking inspiration from the pictures on the box and so my only negative was that there wasn't much variety in size of the pom poms provided. This meant if you did want to copy, for example, the rabbit on the box, you didn't have all the equipment. This didn't bother my little one in the slightest though... we just improvised and he turned out pretty cute don't you think?!

I would definitely get this as a gift for a girl's birthday, it's the kind of gift that won't matter if you have duplicates and you know it will get definitely get used. It's a sure hit with parents and kids alike and the box looks really fun and glittery and girly. At £5.99 I think it's fantastic value and it's just around the right party of stocking filler price mark for me. As parties get more and more frequent sadly you just have to reign in the budget a bit! I'm so pleased we were sent this it brought us so much fun and lots of giggles.

The next item they were kind enough to send us was a very cute Pillowhead Chubbie. I was so pleased to be sent this as I had been thinking about getting Squiggle some kind of animal cushion but hadn't seen a design I really liked. I had never seen the Chubbies before, they are really sweet! 

I don't think his picture online (or my picture) really does him justice as he is very very lovable in real life. He is soooo soft that you really do just want to snuggle into him and it's this super softness that really wins the day. Perfect for snuggling on the sofa in the evening or on our early morning car journeys we often have to do. The ultimate cosy gift, and a fun original pressie too... oh and my daughter also seems to find it hilarious to throw him about the place due to his roundness, poor little piggy! He costs just under £10 so another great value buy!


Please note I was sent these items to review but my review is honest and all my own, I hope you have found it helpful xx

TinyTigs – Monthly kids crafts to your door

This weekend my little girl received a lovely treat through the post – a craft pack from TinyTigs for us to test out and review. The parcel was personalised to my daughter which was a lovely touch and she was really excited to get some post just for her!

TinyTigs is a really great idea, started by Caroline, a mum of 2 girls, who loves crafting and understands that for some people it can be a tiny bit daunting! For a monthly fee TinyTigs  send you a craft pack every month which includes everything you need for a minimum of three projects (except the glue, but that's something most people have about the house anyway). She has tried to make the packs as accessible and un-daunting as possible and after trying them out I can confirm that they are not at all scary!

It is perfect for parents who enjoy arts and crafts with the kids but struggle come up with ideas of what to do next, or for time strapped mums like myself! I like to try and do one crafty thing with my daughter on my days off and I really try to maximise our time together, which is always hard when there's shopping and housework to be done! This just makes it all so easy, the packs contain instruction and all the craft bits you'll need, so there's no hunting about for things... just straight into the fun!

Here's what we discovered when we opened our parcel:



















Our surprise crafts to make were: a gold paper crown, tissue paper flowers in a wall vase, and some union jack flag bunting. Squiggle immediately picked up the crown pack and very excitedly wanted to make it straight away... I think it was the sparkly gems that did it!

It was very easy to pop the crown shapes out and the craft was nice and simple so she could get creative with all the decorations that had been given to her. I have to say also that it contained the best glitter I have ever seen, nice and chunky so it wasn't everywhere and was easy to tidy up! There was a second crown in the pack and we have plenty of decorations and glitter left, so we are going to make that one next week! I would say this was great fun for her age to do with mummy or daddy but it would also be enjoyable for an older child too, who could get creative by themselves.



There are some reasonable price packages and what I thought was great is the option to cancel at any time, there is more information on their website: www.tinytigs.co.uk

They also run a monthly TinyTigs kid's competition to inspire the little ones which sounds great fun and if you are quick new subscriptions gets a free PVC painting coat.

I'm really looking forward to us making the flowers together and I am saving the bunting for our jubilee decorations. I'll post the pictures when we make them! 

I love the fact that the May pack activities are really relevant to the month, it means we'll get lots of value out of the crafts after we make them. Squiggle with be wearing her crown and waving her bunting come jubilee weekend!

Stress free, happy crafting – hurrah!

You can also keep up to date with TinyTigs news on twitter @Tinytigs

The Gruffalo LIVE

On Friday we went to see the Gruffalo live at our local theater. I had ummed and aaahed about wether to get tickets after looking at the website but then my mum brought us some as a treat so it was decided! My reservations had been that I had an idea from seeing photos it wasn't going to be what you may expect, with no cute cuddly costumes, I thought it was probably going to be a bit of a dramatic representation, and perhaps not what a 2 year old might expect from her beloved book.

I was pleasantly surprised though, it was a really entertaining and good fun production. There was audience interaction, plenty of singing and a bit if good old slapstick. Squiggle took her Gruffalo toy with her and he was happily dancing along to his song at the end. She was glued to the show until about the last 15 minutes when she started to get restless but she said she really enjoyed it. 

Of the character she was most taken in by the mouse (perhaps the most realistic animal) and her liked songs the best. Some of the jokes we felt were aimed more at adults, which, while entertaining, seemed a bit wasted... the best result for the adult is always seeing a smile on your child's face!

A good portion of the audience was school trips, including my 6 year old neice who loved it. Her review was: 


It was really funny... there were only three people on it... the Gruffalo looked like he was made of leaves... and the snake had a funny moustache.

Six year olds should review everything!

The school children behind us were finding it really funny too and I think it is really aimed at their age group. The book is loved by children of such a range of ages though I think it would have been nice to have made the animal costumes a little more recognisable, I don't think it would have detracted from what they were trying to do, and would have draw in all the toddlers in the audience too.


Whilst watching fox, owl and snake sing their songs I was honestly imagining it was Noel Fielding up there, and they were the Mighty Boosch's latest characters... Was that just me?

We had a great morning out and it was A lovely chance to take Squiggle to the theater which was an adventure and great experience in itself!


Has anyone else been to see it? I'd love to hear what you thought!

Our garden favourite

Last summer I brought a foam hopscotch set in the Early Learning Centre sale. If you're looking for some outdoor toy ideas I have to say this was such a great buy. 


Squiggle still can't hop (bless) but it hasn't stopped her having fun with it! She was about 1 and a half when we first got the set and she loved running up and down the squares and helping me puzzle the pieces together. I was completely taken aback one day when I realised she had started recognising the numbers. I said aloud that I needed the 8 and she got it for me. It shows you they are learning all the time even when you're not thinking about it, little ones are amazing little sponges! 


Now at 2 and a half we have a new game. We've started hiding the numbers round the garden and she collects them in order. I've also been trying to place the numbers in rhyming scenarios... number 4 on the door, number 8 on the gate (I struggle with 7!) She lives this and is always asking to play it, it's all she wants to do in the garden!


We love it!


Anyone else got any great garden toys they can recommend?
Can anyone think of anything in the garden that rhymes with 7?! xx

Book Marks: Tiddler the Story Telling Fish

Tiddler the Story Telling Fish
Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler


I had walked past this in book shops so many times. When Squiggle was really small I had a quick look at the board book and the writing was so tiny I was put off without even reading it. I hadn't considered it since until my sister brought her the larger version of the book when she visited the other week. And that was it. We have been completely Tiddler mad ever since! 


It is a really charming story, just about the right length for my 2 year old, and entertaining enough for both of us. It tells the story of an imaginative little fish who is always making up stories to excuse being late for school, until he finds himself in a real life scrape and lost at sea. He finds his stories have travelled across the sea and he's able to follow his story home. It's really captured Squiggle's imagination, she's been making up wonderfully silly stories ever since! 


The rhymes are a little more sophisticated than some of her other books which is great for her language. Trying to put my finger on why she loves it so much, I think it must be down to Tiddlers slightly mischievous personality, the appearance of all her favourite ocean creatures, and the fact he gets 'stuck'. She loves things getting stuck and having to escape or be rescued, it's so funny! Is this a running theme with all toddlers or just mine?!


Whatever the reason she has absolutely fallen hook line and sinker for this tale (check me and my punns out). Our book came with a CD and I'd really recommend this version, we've listened to it lots in the car and she's enjoyed swimming around pretending to be Tiddler when listening to the game. Heck, we've even made the fish tank with the characters supplied in the back and it has given her a ridiculous amount of fun. Now that's a book that really delivers it's moneys worth!

Doing the happy food dance with Organix

Organix very kindly sent us some of their new 'Mini Cheese Crackers' to try out. I love the Goodies range, we never leave home without a snack to hand and their no junk promise really fills you with confidence that you are not giving your little one anything that's bad for them. Plus they taste good!

Here is what they have to say about their latest product:

"Our tasty organic cheese crackers are a great savoury snack - made with real organic cheese, they are yummy on their own or scrumptious with a dip.  And of course they come with our No Junk Promise, which means they only contain simple, organic ingredients and absolutely zero junk!  Each box contains 4 handy bags for little hands and the RRP is £1.99 per box."


And here's what Squiggle had to say... (um hope it works for you, this is my first attempt at doing a video and it has been getting the better of me!)

The crackers are a nice small size for little ones, so they can easily help themselves. My little girl loved them, she did the happy food dance and made all the right mm mm mmm noises. I put a couple on a plate for her and she soon tipped the rest out of the packet to finish them off. I think they would be quite filling too which a lot of handbag sized snacks don't tend to be. I obviously and happily had to try a couple myself and they taste great. They're not too cheesey and don't taste salty like a lot of cheese biscuits so shouldn't leave your little one thirsty. The packs are just the right size to pop in your bag but also for independent little ones to hold themselves. We took them on our day out to the theme park at the weekend, when the rain came down I was able to use these as a bribe to get her in her pushchair and under the rain cover, hurray! A big hit with both of us!! 



They are available to buy on the Organix online shop, Waitrose and Boots stores and are coming to Asda next month so well worth popping in the trolley.