The Little Theatre Box - party drama packs

The Little Theatre Box  recently sent us a fabulous Pirates and Fairies drama pack which we intend to use for Betty's fifth birthday party in November.


'A gang of unruly pirates is searching in vain for lost treasure. Eventually, they have to resort to using their secret weapon to help them grow rich – their Fairy Godmothers! This is a lovely, simple story with plenty of scope for humour and opportunities for the children to create individual characters.

Suitable for: any number of girls and boys aged between 4 and 7 years old. There can be any number of Pirates and/or Fairies, provided there is at least one of each'.


The drama pack comes in a beautifully packaged box with all you need for your party, including:

• a fully annotated Pirates and Fairies script for the director/narrator
• a guide booklet for parents with instructions on how to host the party, stage the play and organise props and costumes
• 12 themed party invitations
• 12 thank you letters for you to personalise with photographs and send out to the guests after the event
• 12 blank treasure maps for your guests to personalise
• A game of ‘Pin the Patch on the Pirate’
• Two sheets of cardboard pop out gold coins to use either for a treasure hunt or as a prop in the performance
• Suggestions for other themed games to play at the party
• a sheet of Little Theatre Box stickers to distribute to your cast after the play

Other packs include: The Princess and the Dragon, and The Dancing Princesses, and there are more in the making!

These packs look absolutely fantastic - a perfect way to throw a kids birthday party with a difference! 

Safety swimwear from Splash About

Splash About recently sent us a couple of gorgeous FloatSuits from their limited edition 'Dotty' range.

They are pretty swimming costumes with floats sewn into the middle.

Although we haven't  had a chance to go swimming in them yet, this hasn't stopped my girls from stripping off and parading around in them whenever the mood takes them.

They love them, and cannot wait to try them out in water!

Splash About offer a whole range of stylish and fun safety swimming aids and suits - please do go and check out their website!

Skip Hop Zoo BackPacks from Nubie

We recently received a couple of gorgeous backpacks, one dog (pictured) and one bumblebee, from Nubie - a cool and contemporary boutique for kids.

My kids absolutely love their new backpacks - they are fun, colourful and functional.  They have a roomy main compartment with an insulated pouch for snacks, adjustable mesh bottle pocket, padded adjustable straps, a write-on name-tag inside, and easy to clean lining.  They retail at £21.00.

Kidoo.co.uk is a new family group buying site and they are offering a £30 voucher to spend on Nubie products for just £15.  Go check it out!

You can follow Kidoo on Twitter and on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news.

Canvas print, from Print My Image

I saw the postman through our window, trudging up our driveway carrying a huge flat parcel - and I knew that it must be the much anticipated canvas print very kindly sent by Print My Image.

I sent in a black and white picture of the four of us (me, my husbsand and our two girls) sitting in a Bluebell field, taken a few months ago.

As I opened up the parcel I was slightly nervous about what my face would look like blown up to A1 size - which is HUGE! 

But I was absolutely thrilled with the canvas, and bearing in mind it had been blown up to such a large size, the quality is just incredible. And it had the added bonus of having the hanging wire already attached to the back, all ready to hang!  So it now hangs proudly in our office and boldly faces us every time we enter the room.  I cannot wait to show it off to friends and visitors!

Print My Image offer high quality canvas prints, acrylics and photo blocks.  For an A1 canvas it costs £95, which I think is very reasonable indeed.

 

My First Ladybird Dictionary and other books

We recently recieved a lovely collection of Ladybird books for Betty, my four year old. 
Included in the collection was My First Ladybird Dictionary, Read it Yourself The Enormous Turnip (level 1), and Wipe Clean First Numbers, and First Writing with Topsy and Tim.

All four of these books came at the perfect time, as Betty has just started school and is desperate to practice her reading and writing. 

The Numbers and Writing books are colourful and clear, with fun pictures, and Betty will sit happily for ages and trace the letters and do the counting exercises.

The Dictionary is really great too, with its colourful and fun illustrations, and clear easy-to-understand meanings of over 1000 words - sometimes I find it really hard to answer Betty's questions on what such and such means - so I too have a good reference to use now!  There are also some lovely sections in the back of the book with pages dedicated to fruit, vegetables, the body, animals, opposites, shapes, colours, seasons, months, compass points, to name but a few! 

I am really impressed with these books, but more importantly Betty really enjoys using them.

Visit http://www.ladybird.com/ to find out more about the Ladybird collection.

Happyland Zoo and Ferris Wheel - ELC

We have always been big fans of Happyland, and so when this new Musical Ferris Wheel came to us we were pretty excited.  It plays traditional fairground music, which is rather soothing, and even my husband doesn't mind listening to it.  The girls love loading up the carriages with their vast array of Happyland figures, and being all about fair rides and candy floss and goldfish (in real life) they love playing fairgrounds.  This product comes with three figures and an icecream cart, and costs £22.00.

We were also lucky enough to receive the Happyland Zoo, which is pretty substantial, and fabulous!  It includes a safari style zoo and train, African land, polar zone, nine animals and two keepers.  Happyland have got it so right, because (like most children) my kids are all about zoos too.  My girls have spent literally hours happily playing with this set TOGETHER (as opposed to trying to poke each others eyes out) and it has been a big hit in this house.  It retails at £60.

Our Happyland collection just gets bigger and bigger, and as new items get added to old favourites, whole new adventures emerge.

Wooden Rescue Station by ELC

I have never seen anything quite like this three-storey police and fire station!  For me it seems like the perfect alternative to a girly doll's house, and was designed with boys in mind (if I dare say that?)

Having said that though, my daughter Dolly absolutely loves this toy, and with this rescue station and her doll's house sitting side by side, she will choose to play with the station every time.

The product comes with a helicopter, fire engine, police bike, a policeman and fireman, a pole, a dog and loads of furniture such as bunkbed, treadmill, tables and chairs etc.

Dolly is obsessed with fire engines and so she is often seen with this fabulous wooden fire engine nee-nah-ing off into the distance with the helicopter in hot pursuit.  She impressively put out a fire in the doll's house yesterday aternoon. The helicopter has a landing pad on top of the station which has also brought much entertainment.

The station neatly closes up when not in use.  It costs £140 - this may sound like quite a lot of money, but because it comes with all the furniture, and the recsue vehicles are really rather substantial, I think it is definitely worth it.

Shelves from Vertbaudet

We recently received this set of shelves from Vertbaudet's nursery furniture department.

I opted for light blue (pictured) but these shelves also come in white, pink or green.  They were easy to assemble, and once up they feel very solid and stable.  They are well made and look really good in the kids bedroom.  All the cuddly toys, that once littered my kids bedroom floor, now live on these shelves.  They could be used for anything, such as toys and books etc.  You can also place wooden or fabric boxes (which are sold separately) onto fixed shelves.

They are a lovely design, and cost £39, which I think is reasonable.

Vertbaudet specialise in gorgeous baby and children’s clothing, but also stock a great range of maternity clothes.