28/07/201231/03/2018 by jo

App Time – Peppa Pig’s Sports Day

It’s impossible to avoid The Olympics (especially if you live in London right now), and here’s another fab addition to sporty-themed merch that’s been released to coincide.

Peppa Pig’s Sports Day came out on July 20th 2012, and is available in the App Store for £2.99 and is compatible with the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone.

What’s more is, we love it. So many games are single player – whereas this one has multiplayer options which make it so much more competitive (especially difficult when you want your almost-three-year-old to win).

Firstly, after the Peppa Theme you’re greeted with this screen with your options

That’s Obstacle Race, Long Jump, Ice Cream Maker, Bicycle Race, Tug Of War, Rosette Making and finally a selection of scenes to place your reward stickers.

We’ve had several games on the multiplayer options (Obstacle Race, Long Jump, Bicycle Race, Tug of War) which was fun – you can play up to four people, though I’m not sure how well it would work on an iPhone or iPod.

The multiplayer mode looks like this :

Simply drag your character into the relevant ring.

H loves making pictures on the iPad and we were impressed with the rosette making, as once you’ve finished and click that final tickbox, it will auto-save it to your pictures folder. Nice!

Finally, the sticker scene – what I really liked about this was each sticker can be made smaller or larger – though right now all H wants to do is put all of them onto the scene. I suspect we may run out of stickers soon – I haven’t done a count, but it’d be nice if there were more – though the option to reset a profile is really straightforward so you could start collecting again that way.

As previously said, it’s a fun game, and it’s perfectly timed. At £2.99 it’s not cheap, and you’d expect to get a fair amount of use from it – which we have. I love that we can join in with the games as we’ve found most games we try don’t have that as a feature.

Available now at the App Store

We reviewed and paid for this app. All opinions are our own.

26/07/201205/06/2016 by jo

Llama’s Baked Bites Review

Okay, so now I’ve got your attention, allow me to draw your attention further to some new snacks launched recently, Llamas!

They’re made from whole-wheat and are oven baked for plenty of crunch – then finished off by being a llama shape, which amused the toddlers no end.

There’s three flavours – BBQ, tangy cheese and sweet chilli. We really liked all of them – there wasn’t one that stood out over the other (the BBQ and Sweet Chili ones go nice with wine, btw) – and they come in handy 150g bags.

What appealed to me the most is that it’s a snack you can share with your little ones – plus of course you can persuade them to help you put the llamas in places around the garden for a photo shoot…

A Llama on a motorbike, H giving that “don’t touch my llama” stare, two llama’s on the seesaw and one llama thinking about a swim…

I like snacks that I can share, and don’t have to hide (like say, chocolate) – and this is perfect. They were tested by three mums and three toddlers plus one almost-toddler, and everyone gave them a big thumbs up.

Llama’s available from Tesco stores nationwide, priced at £1.69 for a 150g bag.

Aside from all this, check out the Llama’s YouTube channel where you can see some football predictions – I can only hope the Llama is back in action for Team GB soon…. we may need him/her!

For more information on Llama’s plans for taking over the snacking world, read his crunch time blog at www.llamasnacks.com or join the herd @llamasnacks on Twitter or on Facebook.

We were sent a pack of each flavour to try, all opinions are our own.

24/07/201226/03/2018 by jo

We Love itti bitti nappies!

Itti Bitti the Australian cloth nappy has recently launched in the UK.

Tracy was sent the Itti Bitti All in One to review for us at Mum Friendly, testing it out on her almost-three year old boy. She’s no stranger to the brand, and is a cloth nappy user for both her boys.

Itti Bitti ‘dlish is the ultimate dad friendly nappy,
no inners or snaps to forget before tossing in the nappy bucket.
We have a very decent stash of reusables with all kinds of funky prints and materials,
but the Itti Bitti All in One is the first choice.
Because it is as easy as a disposable and fits so well under clothing,
and really never leaks, I am confident even to send my son to pre-school in these.
The designs are awesome, functionality better than other nappies making these
great nappies pretty Mum Friendly too.

They’re designed to fit just like a disposable and offer families the best in modern cloth, luxurious fabrics and superior quality. To see their wide range of colours, styles, sizes and material options visit www.ittibitti.co.uk

Why choose itti bitti?
• Superior fabrics and quality
• 12 month workmanship guarantee
• Excellent product range
• Fantastic customer service
• Innovative designs
• Globally recognised cloth brand

The collection comprises bitti d’lish, (All in One and Snap in One in a rainbow of nine bright fun colours),
bitti brites (limited edition prints in the bitti d’lish range),
bitti boo, (ultra trim, luxuriously cuddly, highly absorbent and super soft with bamboo and organic cotton velour),
bitti tutto, (a one size nappy that fits neat and slim from birth onwards and comes in a rainbow of 18 gorgeous colours and seasonal prints).
There is also a full range of accessories including Wet bags and Ultimate Wipes and Blankees & Change Mats.

The number of families with new babies choosing to use cloth nappies has substantially grown in recent years with the development of advanced, affordable and attractive designs.
Using cloth nappies for one child’s time in nappies can save as much as two tonnes of waste from entering landfills; lessening the effect that hard-to-break down disposable nappies has on the environment for years to come.

Cloth nappies are an effective choice to reduce your baby’s environmental footprint. With their signature ultra trim fit and luxurious fabrics; itti bitti will definitely change the way you think about cloth nappies!
Facebook @ittibitti.uk
Twitter: @itti_bitti

17/07/2012 by jo

We Love Books – So We Made A Playlist

We’ve already done it with music, then it hit me the other night – there’s so many audiobooks or even just readings of books on YouTube which we keep stumbling across – so we’ve created a playlist to share the goodness.

Every day we’re devoting at least twenty minutes to look for any good quirkly YouTube videos – and that includes some trailers for books we’ve featured like Clara Vulliamy’s ‘Martha and the Bunny Brothers – I Love School’ and ‘The Hueys in the New Jumper’ book by Oliver Jeffers (as read by Jarvis Cocker, excellent!) – the only rule is that it has to be a book we’ve read (and if you’ve seen the size of H’s bookcase, then there’s a lot to get through) and it doesn’t matter if it’s read or sung as long as it stays faithful to the book.

Up until an hour or so ago I never even realised you could sing ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ by Julia Donaldson. We all do now, though. There’s going to be so much more out there that we’ll find, and it’s all shared below. Oh, and yes, there’s Topsy and Tim in there too…

11/07/201226/03/2018 by jo

We Love Books – Topsy & Tim Have Their Eyes Tested

I suspect this one is no longer in print in any way – I picked one up at Amazon, but if your child is set to wear glasses or get an eye test, then after just one read I can see this will be a positive addition to our Topsy & Tim collection – and that’s the beauty of these books – it’s regular things that happen to them (I’ve still never found any other books about headlice or safety incidents that set it out as plain as this).

For that reason alone, I love Topsy & Tim. H really relates to them and the things they do.

Topsy & Tim Have Their Eyes Tested was first published in 1990, and I suspect this is that very edition, so already 22 years old. Yikes.

Topsy & Tim Have Their Eyes Tested

The story starts with the school medical check, Topsy and Stevie both fail their eye tests, so are referred to the optometrist which becomes a very odd word when you repeat it a lot. Topsy passes the tests at the optometrist (the same tests H had so that’s good!), but Stevie has to wear glasses; he’s not happy about it (fortunately H was!), but sees things the others don’t spot so actually quite likes having them in the end.

You can pick up the book for around 1p with shipping extra on Amazon Marketplace – if your toddler is set to have glasses and you want something that spells it out simply, this may well be your book.

06/07/201205/06/2016 by jo

Deluxe LED Fogless Mirror – Review

We rent our home so we’re really limited with what we can do, especially fastening things on walls, and so on.

When the opportunity came up to review this mirror, it hadn’t hit me how perfect this would be for us – it was only sitting on the train and having a moment of horror – our bathroom steams up horribly (and the landlady wont install a fan) – had I left a line around my chin where my face pack had been?!

Deluxe LED Fogless Mirror by ToiletTree This is a 7.30am train kind of thought where you’re still half asleep, and I only remembered I’d had that thought by 10am and commented to my workmates. “You need one of those mist-free mirrors!” quipped one, and she was right too.

It arrived, and it’s small – it almost looks like a computer monitor! It fixes to the wall using silicone sealer which is easy to remove (ideal for renters like us), and the best bit, it’s really easy to use. All you do is put hot water down the back of the mirror, and voila! One mist-free mirror. There’s also two light settings which are handy for those areas you can’t quite see.

There’s a small shelf which fits razors – and underneath a small squeegee slides in which can be used to keep the screen mist free.

If my husband shaved, then he’d get good use from this, so at the moment it’s mainly me – but oh my, it’s made the things I do in the shower much easier to do – AND I’ll never have that face pack moment again!

I was initially worried about how secure it would be attached to the wall, but actually it’s stayed well put – we’re both really impressed with it.

You can buy the ToiletTree Deluxe LED Fogless Mirror on Amazon for £22.95 (at the moment!)

I received one to review from ToiletTree, and all opinions are my own.

05/07/201226/03/2018 by jo

Graze Box

On December 13th 2008, I received my first one of these. Look at this healthy goodness!

You got a lot in the box – and I had good reason to. I’d just found out I was pregnant, and I wanted healthy snacks. So I set up a subscription to my work. I was impressed they could post fresh fruit and vegetables – though eventually that became the reason I cancelled – sometimes a box due on a Friday wouldn’t arrive until the following Monday and it’d be mushy – THEN I developed diabetes while pregnant. Most of the snacks had things I wasn’t sure about GI wise, so I eventually cancelled my subscription.

I’m currently doing a SlimPod, and I know I’m a terrible snacker – so this week I restarted my Graze subscription. I was pleased to see it hadn’t changed too much – though the fresh fruit has gone – but there’s lots of yummy things in there which is good. The boxes are the smaller size (ie, not like above), but there’s more variety.

Here’s what I got today (excuse messy work desk stuff around it)

Graze box 2012

So it’s a little bit smaller, but actually I found the food to be better. The SlimPod seems to be working and I’m not thinking about chocolate as much (and when you’re doing as data heavy a job as I do, you dream of chocolate a lot when the spreadsheets all blur into one) – so we’ll see how we get on. So far I’m quietly confident that it’s a good move to have made! Also, huge bonus this time, I get a link to see exactly what I’m getting – look! (I know before you had to log on but it was possible) Also, dietary information is a lot clearer on each snack which is a huge help to me. I don’t have a lot of time to read up on things, so need information that’s easily available.

As with every Graze box, I get a code to pass on if you want a free box. Being the generous sort, here it is: Z35VR5LC – you just enter it at www.graze.com. For every friend I feed, I can get £1 off my next box or donate £1 to the graze school of farming in Uganda.

04/07/201206/01/2015 by jo

We Love Books – Oliver Jeffers – The Hueys in The New Jumper

This book is excellent – but most of all it has a message in there – and all of a sudden we find ourselves hoping that the message in the book rubs off on H – as tomorrow she’ll be collecting her first pair of glasses. We’ve no idea how the other kids will react towards her at nursery – hopefully nobody will really notice, and quite possibly they may all want to be like her – which is where this book fits in.

The Hueys all look the same. They all wear the same things and you can’t really tell them apart. One day one Huey (Rupert) knits himself a jumper, and they all look at him oddly as he’s different, until eventually they all want a jumper too. That’s the simple message – which you could quite easily put into as similar a scenario as a first pair of glasses and being the only one who wears them.

The Hueys is really simply illustrated, but you know it’s an Oliver Jeffers book, he has a distinctive style!

The Hueys in The New Jumper is available in hardback, and also e-book read by Jarvis Cocker.

Oliver Jeffers has written and illustrated many fantastic books, including ‘Lost and Found’ and the follow-up ‘Up and Down’ – this is the first in a new series for him. The name is inspired by Oliver’s grandfather who could never remember the names of his grandchildren so called them all Huey, regardless of gender. Funnily enough, H’s grandad in Australia is also nicknamed Huey!

We were sent a copy of the book by HarperCollins to review. All opinions are our own.

14/06/201206/01/2015 by jo

Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom – a New Series is Coming!!

We love Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom – it fits perfectly into our morning routine – the episodes are on Nick Jr at 7.15am which is just enough time to get H’s shoes on and her bag packed for nursery while we do all our grown up stuff in the background. Each episode is approximately ten minutes long.

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom

Having said that, we found we were watching a lot of the same episodes – no major problem there, but we were looking forward to some new ones, and had heard a rumour something was imminent.

Well, the wait is no more – the new series starts on Nick Jr. on the 2nd July 2012 at 7.15am and repeated later that day at 5.30pm on Monday to Thursday.

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom

We were sent a preview DVD, and while we’ve only seen two of the episodes so far, it has to be said that ‘Daisy & Poppy Go to Nursery’ is possibly the most surreal and hilarious episode yet! You can expect more of the usual – jelly floods (which goes without saying – but not from who you’d expect), magic that doesn’t quite do as it’s meant to, and all your favourite characters returning for more fun.

There’ll be 52 episodes, with the first 13 being shown from this date.

Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom returns to Nick Jr. 2nd July 2012 at 7.15am and 5.30pm, Monday to Thursday. I’ve just spotted a Ben & Holly stage show too, coming to loads of venues around the UK….

14/06/201206/01/2015 by jo

We Love Books – The Somethingosaur

The Somethingosaur is a new book by Tony Mitton, which was released on the 6th June 2012.

It’s the story of an adorable little creature (The Somethingosaur) who hatches from his egg and finds he’s separated from his mummy, but actually he has no idea who his mummy is.

You know the story by now; it’s an old familiar tale; told in many ways – but what makes this great is the rhyming – it felt like the really good nice simple sentences structured not a million miles from a Julia Donaldson book – and was really enjoyable to read (and if you’ve a keen reader then it’s possible that by the second read they’ll already be finishing your sentences for you).

The pictures are lovely too – and make me want to make a Somethingosaur doll… it’d be too cute!

There’s a happy ending of course, it’s a lovely book which was a delight to read and look at. Tony Mitton (the author) and Russel Ayto (the illustrator) have done a marvellous job!

The Somethingosaur is a HarperCollins Children’s Book, available now with a rrp of £10.99, hardback only.

I received a copy to review, all opinions are mine.

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