Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Last month, Lottie celebrated her two year anniversary having made her appearance in 2012 as the first ever ‘pro-girl’ doll. They are designed for girls aged 3 – 9. Lottie was developed with scientific expertise from leading British academics, alongside consumer research, to address parental concerns over negative body image, an increased perception of premature sexualisation, as well as a desire for a return to good old-fashioned creative and imaginative play.
Two months ago, I was invited to attend a My Friend Cayla tea party hosted by Vivid at Hamleys with Ms C. We were introduced to My Friend Cayla. She is the first ‘live’ interactive doll designed to sync with an online smart device (iOS and Android) to recognise a child’s speech. She is aided by Google’s speech-to-text technology.
Mega Bloks have recently launched a range of new toys from SpongeBob SquarePants. We have received the Micro Action Figure (RRP £1.99), Boat Racer (RRP £9.99) and Invisible Boatmobile Rescue (RRP £19.99).
Micro Action Figure pack
These are the Mega Bloks SpongeBob SquarePants series 1 with eight collectable figures like Nerd Spongebob, Surfer Fish, Karatay Spongebob, Strangler Fish, Cowboy Patrick, Jail Fish, Caveman Squidward, and a secret rare mystery figure!
We are so lucky to get Strangler Fish which is rare to find! The pack is easy to piece together but the arms might be a bit tricky to insert. Each figure comes with a clear brick to stand on for display.
Need a happy and cute pet for your child that does not require much care? Flair have launched the Happy’s Pets and there are four adorable pets to collect (RRP £19.99), each with their own loveable personality; Bentley the Retriever, Chance the Beagle, Sport the Goldendoodle and Mittens the White Cat. They are suitable for aged 4 onwards.
This is a brand new Ben & Holly Thistle Castle playset from Character Online. I am impressed with the superb quality of the playset. It is very sturdy and robust, and the castle is very colourful too. Ms C was so happy when she saw it and wanted me to open it up immediately!
Sylvanian Families have been available for well over 20 years now and it is strong as ever. Ms C first saw Sylvanian Families while she was in a friend’s house and immediately fell in love with them. I can see why as each character and design of the buildings are carefully made and thought through with great attention to detail.
We first bought Ms C her first Sylvanian Families house three years ago around Christmas time and she has been playing with it ever since and it has lasted well. They are very durable with intricate details on the house. We are fortunate to receive the retro style turquoise campervan along with the adorable Chocolate Rabbit Family.
Bloom Pops flower design studio is an easy way to get your children to be creative and make gorgeous 3D flowers to wow their friends.
No time for pets? Hate cleaning? Maybe you could get your child a toy pet instead. Character Online have a range of little live pets – birds and butterflies. We have received Angelic Angela bird. There are eight to collect in this range. They are suitable for ages 5 and onwards.
Character Online have just launched the Zelfs Zelicious Series 3 in July 2014. They come in various sizes and I have received the medium size zelfs. They are all scented with familiar sweet smells such as bubble gum, mint, strawberry, cupcake, berry and chocolate. Each cute zelf comes with a zelfcessory to match their scent.
Want to own the most disgusting and ugly hound? Now Character Online had added a new range of The Ugglys includes Rudey the Pug, Barf the St Bernard and Belcher the Dalmatian.
Explore the wonderful world of butterflies with this Interplay’s My Living World Range, Butterfly World. This is a hands-on nature study kit that contains all the equipment required to observe and study the fascinating life cycle of butterflies.
Explore nature on your doorstep with Bug Safari! This is Interplay’s My Living World Range, Bug Safari kit which provides children with easy to use, professional quality equipment to enable them to catch, study and identify common mini-beasts in their gardens, in parks or in the countryside.
A couple of months ago, I was debating with my husband whether we should get the Minecraft app for Mr K. He had been begging for days. We both knew very little about Minecraft and what the objective of the game is. I’ve since learnt that Minecraft is a Lego style adventure game which puts players in a randomly-generated world where they can create their own structures and contraptions out of textured cubes.
The TOMY John Deere pre-school range is perfect for engaging pre-school (18 months to 3 years old) children in farm play. This collection of non-scale, tactile soft-touch plastic toys comes packed with many features such as lights, sounds or special rubber finish. The durable chunky models are ideal for small hands and the cute characters are sure to be a huge hit with toddlers.
Although both my children are too old, they are still great for farm role play or even you could ask the children a few questions about the toys.
Suggested questions:
