LittleLife daysacks

LittleLife sell a range of outdoor and travel inspired products for children aged 6 months – 5 years.

They have three new animal toddler daysack designs coming out before Christmas; a giraffe, dinosaur (pictured) and a clownfish, which are aimed at children up to 3 years of age.

These bags are really well designed, with control and safety in mind, and are fun - the kids love wearing them!  They have a zipped main compartment for all the random bits and pieces my kids insist on carrying around with them, a grab handle (very useful for parents with a wayward child), and padded back and shoulder sections with chest strap to prevent slipping.  They also come with a parent's safety rein and weatherproof hood.  

Go and take a look at their website -  there are lots of lovely designs to choose from!

Schwartz slow cooker recipes

This week I was thrilled to receive a Morphy Richards slow cooker and some sachets of new Schwartz slow cooker recipes; sausage and bean casserole, and red wine chicken.

The morning that it all arrived, I immediately dashed out and bought 1lb of sausages for the sausage and bean casserole recipe.  I plugged in the slow cooker, worked out how to use it (which is the easiest thing in the world) and literally within 10 minutes, everything was in the pot and bubbling away.  To know that you have the evening meal in hand and cooking by midday is very satisfying indeed - and takes away that usual 4pm stress time when I am wondering what the heck to cook.

With the slow cooker you could set this recipe either on 'low' which would take 8 hours, or on 'high' which would take 4 hours - absolutely perfect for people who are at work all day and want to prepare supper in the morning, or for those who are out and about and busy all day.  And you can make anything in them, from curries, to soups, to casseroles.

So at 5pm, I served up our sausage and bean casserole with mashed potato, and EVERYONE heartily tucked in and loved it!  It was real winter comfort food, and incredibly tasty - an absolute winner in our household - so we can't wait to try the either Schwartz recipes!

I think the slow cooker may revolutionise the way I cook and plan meals!

Brambledale Farm - ELC

ELC do a fantastic realistic-looking farm, and everything you will need to go with the farm too; farm vehicles, animals, farmers (sold separately).

The farm comes with five buildings (slot-together barn, cowshed, chicken coop, stable, sty and pen) and a farmyard base which can be laid out as a square or an L shape.  And the buildings stack inside each other for easy storage.

My 2.5 year old daughter LOVES her farm, and is constantly making up her own intriguing little farming adventures - it is an absolute joy to watch!

If your little one is after a farm toy I would totally recommend Brambledale, it looks the part, has great attention to detail, and at the moment it is in the ELC half price sale and is only £22.50 - which I think is an absolute bargain!

Memo board and toy box from Vertbaudet

We recently received a gorgeous memo board and stackable storage box from Vertbaudet.  

With Betty, my 5 year old, having just started school, this memo board has come into its own.  We get countless letters, pieces of paper, and invitations all with important dates on them, from school, and now we have somewhere to pin them!  The memo board is really tasteful - it comes with 10 pretty pegs and 4 rows of cord to pin things from, and it costs £19.00.

The stackable storage box is a really lovely piece of nursery furniture, and makes a great addition to the girls' bedroom.  You can use it for anything - my 2 year old puts her teddies to bed in it at the moment.  The box has silk-screen printed motifs and a fabric lining which can be washed.  This product costs £23.00.

Vertbaudet sell a huge range of lovely products, inlcuding some gorgeous designer baby clothes.  Go and check them out!  

Happy Hopperz - The Handpicked Collection

The Handpicked Collection have just sent us a Happy Hopperz (pictured) to review.

I felt that this would be a perfect alternative, for my 2.5 year old, who is too little for a space hopper.  She is able to sit safely on the Happy Hopperz and bounce away to her heart's content.  And the added excitement for her is that it is in the shape of a cow!  It is great fun to watch her jumping up and down the path on her new toy.

The Happy Hopperz can be used inside or outside, it is really easy to inflate and deflate, it is a lot of fun, and it costs £22.95.

To see this product or view many other great gifts ideas for everyone, visit The Handpicked Collection website: www.handpickedcollection.com or call them on 0844 482 9707.

Rapide Ultra 2 Carpet Washer by Vax

I am now the proud owner of a Rapide Ultra 2 Carpet Washer.

After five years of children, our carpets were in a pretty sorry state, so when my new carpet washer arrived on the doorstep I couldn't wait to get started. 

At first I was a little scared of this brand new monster machine, having never owned such a thing.  But once I had read the very simple instruction manual I realised that it was actually extremely easy to use.

I performed a pre-wash with the pre-treatment kit and wand on the wine stains (ok, can't blame the kids for that), and other unidentifiable stains, and then whizzed across the carpet with the washer.  After going over the carpet just once the water that it collected turned black.  While this was rather satisfying to see it working so thoroughly I was also a bit disturbed at how dirty our carpets actually were.

This carpet washer successfully removed the stains and made the rest of the carpet look fresh and clean - and it also smelled really good too.  I also couldn't believe how dry the carpet was immediately after use.

I have never used anything like this before, and was really really impressed!  And I am excited to see that you can also use this product to clean car seats and upholstery.

This product costs £279.99 and comes with a two year guarantee.  For more information please do go and check it out on the Vax website.

LeapPad Explorer - ELC

ELC stock the much anticipated LeapPad Explorer - and wow, what a fantastic piece of kit this is! 

Betty, my four year old, often fights with her granny about who is going to play with granny's iPad.  Granny likes to play Scrabble and Betty likes to play some alphabet game.

LeapFrog have just brought out the LeapPad Explorer which is aimed at 4-9 year olds.  I personally think it should be aimed at 4- 37 year olds because I love this little gem of a toy.  From creating my own personalised stories, by adding my photos, drawings, audio, wallpaper and names, to manipulating photos and videos using the animation studio - it is INCREDIBLE!  And with its sleek, lightweight design and high-res colour touch screen, it does bear a resemblance to the iPad. 

So when I am not hogging the LeapPad, Betty and granny can now sit side-by-side with their tablets and play away in harmony.

I should point out, in case it appears that we are a disfunctional Pad-addicted family, that time spent on these things are limited, and we do talk to each other, and build nice dens etc. 

The LeapPad really is a fantastic product.  It comes with four fab apps, and there are over 100 more downloadable apps on the website, from games, e-books, videos and flashcards, which are all geared towards learning.  You can also download all your creations onto the computer and show them off to all and sundry, via Facebook and email - how cutting edge is that!

This product costs £79.99 at ELC, which considering the many incredible things that it can do, is definitely worth it.

GIVEAWAY! - Limited Edition Royal Wedding HappyLand set

Were you glued to the TV during the day of the Royal Wedding like we were?  My four year old daughter gave a fascinating wedding commentary throughout, and loved the whole thing!

ELC are kindly offering a couple of these special limited edition Royal Wedding sets to give away to two lucky readers!

The sets consists of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (which have been updated to feature colours worn on their wedding day), and they sit in a gold trimmed horse-drawn carriage. The Queen (who is in her primrose yellow outfit) is with Prince Phillip and their favourite Corgi and are protected by a Royal Cavalry soldier in full uniform and a foot soldier wearing a smart red jacket and bearskin helmet.  Just think, you could re-enact the whole wonderful day with these figures!

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these sets is leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what your favourite part of the royal celebrations were, if any?  My favourite part was when my daughter genuinely thought that The Queen was her great grandmother on the tv!  

The competition will close on Tuesday 18th October at 9pm when all entries will be placed into a draw and two winners picked out. Please remember to leave your contact details (either email or twitter id) so that we can contact you if you win.

Good luck!

UK residents only

Giant keyboard - ELC

We first saw this keyboard at the ELC Christmas in July event - which showcased loads of exciting new toys that are now available to buy.

This keyboard was a real attraction - at 2.5m long, it is very large!  It has 24 keys and seven different instrument sounds.

I fully intend to use this keyboard for my daughter's 5th birthday party next month - I think it will go down a treat.  You can even download your own music from your MP3 player to suit your child's tastes.  To my husband's horror, our daughter has followed in my footsteps and loves all eighties music - the girl has taste.

This keyboard saves and plays back performances - which means we can replay our version of Jive Bunny to my husband over and over again! (I caught him having a sneaky go the other day - tapping up and down the keyboard to Davie Bowie).

 This keyboard requires 4 x AA batteries, costs £40, and is a lot of fun!