Handmade hair clips by Lollipop

Lollipop Boutique is owned by a mum (Colette) who started making hair clips for her daughter, and then went on to sell them to the other mums at her daughter's school, and now has her own website! Lollipop specialises in handmade clips for babies, toddlers and big girls.

Colette sent me a set of hair clips for both Betty and Dolly to try out, so that we could let her know what we thought.  We opted for some fuzzy flower clips for Dolly (specially for a toddler who doesn't yet have much hair!) and a fuzzy flower, and tutti frutti felt flower for Betty, which were slightly bigger.

The clips are beautifully made and very eye-catching and a welcome and unique change to the clips found in high street shops.  My children both love hair clips and were thrilled with these.

To see all the hair accessories available visit Colette's website: http://www.lollipopboutique.co.uk/ where there are many clips to choose from, from flowers, butterflies, cupcakes, bugs etc, as well as other hair accessories such as hairbands.

Thank you Colette, we love them, and good luck with your new venture!

Night lights for kids, by Pabobo

A company based in Paris who design lights specifically for children, called Pabobo, recently sent me two night lights for Betty and Dolly.  We were sent the Lumilove Penguin  and the Barbapapa chain light (both pictured below).

These lights are fab because they are designed to be handled by children, and so are safe.  They are also tasteful to look at, and create a really relaxed atmosphere just before bedtime (which is vital in this household as my kids go into hyper mode at this time).

I would totally recommend these products to anyone looking for a really lovely night light for their little ones.  To find out more visit their website: www.pabobo.com where they have lots of other lights to offer too.

Toys R Us: Old MacDonald Lotto game

This is a great lotto game which the whole family can play.  Well, I say the whole family - we made the mistake of trying to involve young Dolly (18 months) but she became a real hindrance and had to be banished to another room with her granny, whilst Betty, Tom and I continued the game in a civilised manner.

Betty loves this game.  It is a very simple idea, but very effective and lots of fun, and easy to grasp for little people. 

The game comes with four picture boards and you have to match the pictures on your playing board to the farm cards.  It's great for exercising memory, observation, and matching skills. 

This gets a big thumbs up from us.  The only thing I would say is that I think the boards should be magnetic.

Toys R Us: Sprayza Studio

Betty and I got the Sprayza out this morning for the first time, and we had such a fun time with it.  It is an airbrushing kit which comes with 15 different coloured pens.  You simply place a pen on the end of the airbrusher and then blow through it. The set comes with several different stencils (a lion, unicorn, fish, clown, kingfisher, dragonfly to name but a few) and once you have blown different colours over the stencil it looks really effective.  You can also be really imaginative with how you use this set, creating different effects.  The pens also double up as felt tips so that you can touch up your creation if you like.

The great thing is it is so so easy to use, and the sort of thing that your child can get on with by themselves. I think Betty surprised herself this morning when she produced a beautiful clown picture all by herself (pictured)

At £9.99 I think this set is a real bargain - it is unique, effective, and lots of fun, and I was very impressed with it.  WE LOVE IT!

ELC: Wooden trike 'n trailer

Since being presented with this trike a few days ago, Dolly has barely been apart from it - she loves it.  It is her very own little mode of transport, and it has the huge added bonus of a trailer that fits on the back.

Yesterday she merrily rode around all day, proudly dragging an old Chocolate Orange box that she found in the bin, behind her.  Today she was transporting Betty's slippers around the place.  In my experience most kids love trailers, and loading them up, and pulling them around, so this is a great little product.

The trike was easy to assemble, it looks good, with a fun and tasteful colour scheme, it has already provided much enjoyment to my darling daughter, and it is reasonably priced at £38.

Say it with Celebrations - personalised chooclate

Yesterday I got a lovely little surprise package in the post - it was box of chocolates from Celebrations.  Just receiving chocolate in the post is in itself pretty exciting for a chocolate fiend such as myself, but when I opened the box there was the added surprise of seeing my blog logo and a photo of Betty and Dolly (taken from my blog), and a personalised message which read 'We wanted to tell you how much we love reading Flower Fairies and Fairy Cakes by sending some yummy Celebrations to enjoy!'  Talk about making a girl smile!

They also stated that my readers can order these personalised chocolates and get 2 for 1 if the order is placed before 25th October.  If you are interested in surprising someone with these personalised chocolates go to: www.sayitwithcelebrations.co.uk/?promo and enter the promo code: FAIRY. 

Thank you Celebrations!

Toys R Us: Megabloks

Our first parcel arrived on the morning that we were leaving for our holiday in Pembrokeshire. We were frantically running around, throwing stuff into the car, pacifying a bored Dolly with cheese, and arguing about whether we needed to take the pushchair (Tom couldn't fit it into the car).

Despite the mayhem, I still had to open up the big cardboard box in the hallway and have a look inside. Dolly and Betty were safely out of the way and strapped into their carseats ready for the off. If they had witnessed the box-opening it would have delayed our departure probably by another three hours.

On top lay a bag of Megabloks in pretty colours; pink, purple, pale blue and white. Absolutely perfect I thought, for our holiday - something new to keep the kids entertained whilst we holidayed in wet Wales yet again (this time in a cottage rather than a tent I hasten to add). I threw it to Tom and told him to squeeze it in somewhere. He looked daggers at me.

I was just about to delve further into the box when I heard three Buttons either yelling, squawking or barking at me to hurry up so that we could be on our way. I did however spy some Moon Dough, a Peppa Pig game and a night light/torch before I scarpered out of the house, almost forgetting my handbag.

So I produced the new Megabloks set for my children during the first day of our holiday. I wasn't sure they would be that impressed, as we have always had Megabloks (of the red, blue, green and yellow variety) in the house, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They fought like chickens over the new toy (though they are fighting over pretty much everything at the moment) and seemingly loved the new girlie colours. I thought the novelty of pink and purple may wear off but it hasn't. Dolly is now 16 months and is so so into building towers at the moment and gives herself a clap every time she slots a new piece into place. Betty waits in the wings and when she thinks Dolly has had enough (of her own) claps she promptly comes along and bashes it to the ground.

                                                                   (Betty's dinosaur)

I personally was a little disappointed that there weren't more different shaped blocks in this set -there is one pointy roof-shaped piece but that is it. I was hoping for some interesting shapes, to set it apart from the set we bought about four years ago. That said, the girls do love it and have been playing with it ALL week - in fact it has been a bit of a life saver. As I said before it is not a new concept to them, so it must be the new colours that have enticed them.

I am now looking forward to unleashing the other items in the big cardboard box onto my kids, when we return from our hols...

Wooden post box - ELC

This wooden post box was given to Dolly for Christmas and although she is still too young to be able to post the wooden envelopes through the letter box, she happily chews on them instead and bashes them together. Betty however, enjoys pretending to be a postman and delivering the letters to Dolly. It is wonderful to watch them begin playing together, and for this, the postbox is a winner!

It looks good and is well made.