Hello Kitty Sweet Treat Food Bar Review

Our family is full of girls (so far) and if there's one thing the little girls in our family love it's playing food shops. My daughter has 5 girl cousins ranging from 2 to 13 and when they are all over this is what tends to be the first game of choice (followed by schools and a dance show!) The minute we saw the Hello Kitty Sweet Treats Food Bar box it screamed girl heaven and my little girly girl was very excited!

We couldn't wait to open it, but I have to admit my heart sunk slightly when we did... there is a bit of assembly to do which is fine but there are stickers to stick on everything. This may not be a problem for everyone but it's always nicer when things are ready to go (mummy got a little stressed trying to stick things in a straight line).

Time to get sticking!

Once assembled it is full of delicious treats to make and pretend to sell and little ones will have lots of fun - maybe not a toy to promote healthy eating mind! There are a wide range of sweet treats – macaroons, chocolate, donuts and ice cream (oh if only they were real). It also comes with some great accessories – a sauce bottle, serving utensils and a grater.

Ta Dah!!

From mummy's point of view I love how compact it all is. A lot of food toys I have been put off buying as we just don't have the space. As all the parts are small this doesn't take up much room, it doesn't really pack away though and would be great if you could fold it up!

The smallness of it all is also attractive to my daughter as she just loves little tiny things. Now all her tiny animals and toys she has collected have a wonderful sweet shop to visit to help complete her play world!

It is robust and well made but I did have a couple of niggles with it. The foods selection doesn't really relate to any shop my daughter would visit in real life. The idea of the ice cream is great and she loved it but she was looking for a cone to put it in. They do give you some takeaway boxes but they are hard to put together and a bit small for the food. I don't think my little one has ever had ice cream in a box so just seemed an odd choice! I wish they had provided a couple of plastic cones and a couple of bags for selling the snacks and donuts, or maybe some little plates. We have some little plastic plates so we've been using those to play. There is a sign / menu which stands up which is a great idea but they have only provided a small amount of paper. Easily replaced but a bigger pad would have been nice!

I'm pretty certain most little girls (like mine) will really feel the wow factor when they see this toy – especially as it's Hello Kitty. There are just a few little things I would love to change/add to make it perfect so my daughter could get the most out of her role play games with it. Having said that she has been having lots of fun playing with the donut fryer, pretending she's at the fair and catering for her toys birthday parties.

Duplo Read & Build Review

Well I absolutely love this, I think it is such a fab idea! Basically the Read & Build set comes with a story book and enough Duplo bricks to be able to make the characters in the story. The set we received to review was 'Busy Farm' and the book is a simple rhyming farm story about a rooster waking up the farm and then falling asleep himself. From the packaging it looks like you can get other sets with different stories and I'm sure it would be lovely to collect a few but we really enjoyed this one.

Each page has a part of the story about one of the animals and a simple illustrative picture of how to make that animal from the bricks. They are just very simple (3 or 4 chunky bricks each) but great for little ones to get the idea of following instructions themselves. This is the part that made my little one pleased as punch, she could do it ALL BY HERSELF!!

At nearly 3 years old (and an experienced Duplo player) I expected my little girl to find it a bit too basic but she loved it. She always loves pretending to follow instructions (or constructions as she calls them) but this time she could actually do it. She was holding the pieces up to the book to check them and was really proud of herself when she made the animals. They were a bit back to front the first few times but that doesn't matter!

Although aimed at slightly younger children she enjoyed the story, and once she built the animals they were busy making all their sounds and reenacting the story.

It would be fantastic if they also did a slightly older version of this, I'm going to have to check as I would buy it for her for Christmas in a flash! I would say this set would make a perfect stocking filler for a one or early two year old. It's a great first step into the wonderful world of Lego.

The Duplo will be available at Toys R Is soon hurray!!

Mothers & Baby Play & Learn Toyologist Review

The Ravensburger Mothers & Babies learning game is a lovely, well made and well illustrated puzzle game which will help children learn while they play. There are 12 sets of mother animals and 12 sets of babies. You simply have to match the parent to their babies (for example the sheep to the lambs) to fit the tight pieces together. It's a lovely way for little ones to learn their animals and all the different baby names. 

My daughter really enjoyed playing it but the matching of the animal pieces was very easy for her. She is approaching 3 and so knows all the babies names and had no problem matching the animals and fitting the puzzles together. She wasn't all the happy about my suggestion we give it to her younger cousin though, "but I really like it" she protested!!

Then we decided to have a look at the games – there are four suggested games to go with it and this is where it becomes more suitable for my daughters age group.

We decided to play swaps where you deal the cards out, see how many pairs you already have, and then take turns to swap cards with each other to see who can match all their pairs first. This was much harder for her to get the idea of but she's catching on and it's good fun and great for her to learn! I think when other friends her age or a little older come round to play we will really enjoy playing the games together.

I think if I was buying it as a gift I would buy for roughly a 2 year old. That way they can get full enjoyment from the puzzle and learning the animals first, and then get even more fun from the games and start learning to play them as they get older. The game will be available soon from Toys R Us., have a look at our photos, they illustrations really are lovely for children aren't they?!

Melissa & Doug Doorbell House Toyologist Review

My eyes lit up when I saw this one, it's a great idea - basically a little street rolled up into one little box! And it's a pretty little wooden toy, us parents seem to have a thing for wooden toys don't we? Probably more so than the kids!!

It is basically a wooden box done up like a house with four doors and four working doorbells on each door. Each door bell makes a different sound and you will need to get some batteries to get them going! The feature that really sets this aside is that each little door has it's own dainty lock and key. They aren't chunky ones for little fingers and it has taken a little time for my almost 3 year old to get to grips with them. It is fantastic for her coordination though and although she wanted me to do the locks at first she is now learning that with a bit of patience she can do it herself. It is really good for her I think! I like the fact that the keys are more realistic to real keys rather than chunky plastic ones, I'm just worried she will get a bit too good at it and master our front door!! The keys have a subtle number engraved on them which match the numbers on the door and she picked this up straight away and they are attached to the handle of the house so they can't get lost!!

I would say children under 3 would struggle with the locks but you can leave them open and they will happily play with the dolls, doors and doorbells.

You get four dolls with the house, 2 girls and 2 boys which fit neatly behind the doors. I had thought there might be some decoration behind the doors but it's just plain wood. This didn't cause my little girl any disappointment though, she is happy playing house with the dolls. The general story line to her play being they all go round and ring on each others door bells to see if they want to play, they all announce they are too busy sleeping / playing / eating / watching telly, so they all have to go home again... then finally they all decide to go for a sleepover at one of the houses.

I love the imaginative play this little toy encourages, and I love the details in the pictures on the front if the houses. It's a great toy to take along with you if you are going away, you can lock all the dolls in their houses and then carry it easily by the handle. I took it as a surprise toy for my little girl on our camping trip and it worked a treat. We called it her doll's holiday home and she sat and played happily with it while we got things ready.

I would love to be able to buy this for friend's children as a gift as I don't think it's a toy people will have seen and it's such a great idea. It's a bit over my usual gift budget though from what I can gather so that would be my only area for improvement! Otherwise a fab toy and mummy's favourite from the toyologist box!

Watch out for it on Toys R Us shelves as it is coming to stores soon!

Ding dong! Hear a doorbell in action: