by jo

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club by Emma Barnes

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club is the first in a new series of books from author Emma Barnes.

Chloe's Secret Princess Club with H

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club is an easy read, and an enjoyable one too. H didn’t put it down, and by the end had demanded that we make some Princess jam tarts. There’s a recipe as well as some other cool bits at the back of the book.

So what is the story about? Chloe is a normal girl in Year 5, so nine or ten. Her mum tells her she can be anything she wants to be. She decides with her friends Aisha and Eliza to start a Secret Princess Club after school one night.

So what is a Secret Princess Club? It has a few rules: Princesses must stick up for each other, Princesses must call each other by their princess names (e.g. Princess Clarinda (Chloe), Princess Araminta (Aisha) and Princess Elisabetta (Eliza)). The Princess Club is SECRET.

Chloe's Secret Princess Club

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club is a fun story with the girls acting like princesses and making plans to make jam tarts (which they do). The girls set themselves Princess Challenges which involve kissing frogs! They also do ultra-important stuff like saving kittens too.

In the book Eliza wishes that they could learn about princesses during Tudor times, as they wear lovely dresses!

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club is quite a girly book, says H. The girls try to be princesses and do quite well. I like that at the back there’s a little section ‘The Secret Princess Club Notebook’ which has all the kind of things I could see H plotting with her friends if they had their own secret club. There’s also a ‘Which Princess are you?’ quiz too (H came up as Chloe).

H enjoyed reading it – and loved making the jam tarts afterwards. I loved that the book inspired her to make them (and they were delicious too!)

Chloe’s Secret Princess Club has a rrp of £4.99 (affiliate link) and is published by Scholastic in the UK. Emma Barnes website is over here. We received the book for review, all opinions are our own.  We’re part of the Chloe’s Secret Princess Club blog tour – check out the other reviewers on here!

Chloe's Secret Princess Club Blog Tour

by jo

Star Wars Rogue One Toys are Coming!

This December a new Star Wars standalone story hits cinemas. Disney are releasing some Star Wars Rogue One toys to go with it!

The Star Wars Rogue One toys are pretty ace too. At the moment we’re not familiar with the characters, give it time and we’ll know them as well as Rey or Finn. Can you believe that was less than a year ago?

H as Rey with lightsaber and BB8 drinking cup, Star Wars Rogue One Toys

The first Star Wars film was in 1977, when I was seven. Here’s H at seven now and talk about a great time to enjoy the films. She got a Rey costume for her birthday which she wore for Jedi Training Academy at Disneyland Paris. (A writeup is coming of it – it was awesome!) On her birthday we were in the Walt Disney Studios where you could build your own lightsaber! She was all dressed up in an Elsa dress at the time – two Disney extremes…

So having Star Wars Rogue One toys coming in time for Christmas… well, it’s a no-brainer. We’ll be going to watch it in the cinemas when it’s out and we’ll be buying some of the toys too.

Check out this stop motion video – it has been created by some Star Wars superfans at Tongal. There will be a series of them on the official YouTube channel. “Chapter 1 – The Empire has misplaced the building instructions to the LEGO Death Star. Jyn Erso has followed an Imperial search team to the markets of Jedha hoping to recover the instructions first.”

Eep! LEGO Death Star. Oh yes! But you’ll have to watch the video to find out what happens next. There’ll be more instalments through September so get subscribing to the official Star Wars channel.

The stories will feature Star Wars Rogue One toys from Hasbro, Lego, Funko, Jakks Pacific, Mattel and Disney Store. The toys will be trying to track down the building instructions for the Lego Star Wars Death Star which have been misplaced by the Empire.

Fans can order some of the toys from these videos from tomorrow, 2nd September at Argos, Amazon, Smyths, Disney Store and Disneystore.co.uk

The full range of new Star Wars Rogue One toys and products will be available globally on September 30 2016.

Tongal can be found at this link.

by jo

Summer of Bratz is Here! We’ve been having fun.

Bratz have a new campaign, Summer of Bratz. H has a Bratz doll, Yasmin who she has been having lots of adventures with.
summer of bratz park shot

Summer of Bratz is just that. Take some photos of your Bratz doll this summer – on holiday, in the park, wherever you happen to be. Had we been organised, she would have come to Paris with us.  I was so nervous about letting slip to H that we were going to Disneyland Paris that we forgot. But we did remember once we were there, if that counts?

So summer is here and despite a few rainy days it has been a pretty good one. We’ve had two holidays this summer, Cornwall and Paris. While our Bratz doll didn’t arrive in time for Cornwall, she was here by the time we got home. She’s been doing some fun stuff too.

summer of bratz h and doll

Actually, this is where I was puzzled. Bratz dolls have rather big feet – so how do you get them out of the trousers and into say, a pair of shorts? I needn’t have thought about it for too long as her legs pop off at the ankle – so you can remove the feet at the ankles and put them back on.

We were sent a Yasmin Festival Vibes doll. She has two outfits inspired by her favourite seventies bands, and comes with extras too. You get a bag to put all your day-to-day things in, some feather earrings and a hairband, some shades and of course a wristband for the festival.  You also get a hairbrush and a wristband for H to wear.  We’re ready for the Summer of Bratz!

Summer of Bratz Yasmin Music Festival Vibes

There are four dolls in the new Festival Vibes range, and they have a change of clothes too.  So all that’s left now is for us to show you our favourite parts of summer that Yasmin got to share with us!

Sitting outside post-holiday club with an ice cream!

Summer of Bratz Ice Cream

Going to the park and just having fun!

Summer of Bratz Nature Trail

The Bratz Festival Vibes dolls are available now, you can buy here from Amazon.

We were sent the Bratz doll to review. All opinions are our own. 

by jo

Disneyland Paris – Auberge de Cendrillon

We’re back from Disneyland Paris having managed to surprise H. She had no idea she was going either! For H’s birthday we visited Auberge de Cendrillon – a Disney Princess dining experience.
auberge de cendrillon

Auberge de Cendrillon is behind the Disney castle, and is a restaurant where you can meet Disney Princesses. It’s quite pricey, but as a birthday treat it was worth it. Plus we didn’t have to queue to meet the characters.

We booked H in on her birthday, but had one problem – all her Disney Princess dresses were too small for her. Oh, and she had gone off Frozen. Luckily I had a beautiful Elsa dress sent from Disney which was ideal! H saw it and immediately forgot that she had gone off Frozen, and felt like a princess when she wore it. It is an impressive dress too which captures the spirit of Elsa’s dress.

H in front of the Disneyland Castle

There are two problems with the dress – not major ones, but ones to be aware of. The brooch on the front plays ‘Let It Go’ when you press it, though is difficult to remove. You can do it by unscrewing it, which is a bit of a faff but it means the brooch stays on. Then there’s the glitter which features all over the dress. Glitter is the bane of my life when it comes to crafting – you can’t remove the stuff, it gets everywhere. But then when at Disneyland it’s just magic dust, right?

The dress packed down small which was good, so we were able to hide it in our suitcases. Once we had done our big reveal, we told H what we had planned – including Auberge de Cendrillon. “But I don’t have a princess dress to wear!” she said – and we proved her wrong.

On her birthday morning it was hot – in the mid-30s. Maybe not the best day to wear a gorgeous princess dress – but H did. We kept her hydrated, but brought a change of clothes for afterwards which worked.

menus at Auberge de CendrillonThe main test was how princessy she would feel at Auberge de Cendrillon. There’s the menu. It’s pretty special for younger kids, and fine for adults too. You can use hotel meal vouchers to lower the cost as well which helped. Add to that we had ordered her a birthday cake, and we knew we were going to be well fed. The menu changes a lot, so it may be worth checking online beforehand.

H meets the Disney Princesses at Auberge de Cendrillon

We also didn’t know which princesses she would meet! First up was Belle who was friendly and chatty, but H was a bit shy, a bit overwhelmed and hadn’t warmed up. Our meal started with some Amuse-bouche, delicious cheese puffs. Our drink was a juice, the Princes Cocktail.

By the time Cinderella made it to our table H was far more chatty – and felt quite special. I felt pretty full by now, despite not eating that much… and it was going to get worse!

Auberge de Cendrillon dining and cake and dancing

Auberge de Cendrillon is a lovely restaurant, with space for the characters to visit. Every hour or so they also do a little dance on the main floor space. This was just around the corner from our table, but wasn’t a problem.

Aurora and Prince Philip were the last Disney Princess/Prince to visit us, and H was chatty by now! Suzy and Perla, the two mice from Cinderella popped by too. H loved it!

Suzy and Perla at Auberge de Cendrillon

We had a salad before our main course, and finally the dessert. H’s food was served on a Mickey Mouse plate which she thought was pretty cool.

We had ordered a birthday cake for our meal which is suitable for up to 8 people. There was just the three of us… let’s just say we were completely stuffed! Having the desserts in addition to the cake was a bit too much for us – so be prepared to come out of Auberge de Cendrillon extremely full.

I loved H’s dessert, a white chocolate shoe with chocolate cream piped into it, but she had to leave it. We couldn’t take it with us as it would have melted!

Being as stuffed as we were, there was only one way to finish the meal, with a nice peppermint tea. It helped – I didn’t need to eat anything else that day! In all, we spent two hours at Auberge de Cendrillon, and after meal vouchers it cost us around £130. Bear in mind, the Disney birthday cake cost about £30 of that.

H loved the experience too – and it was good to get away from the heat outside when it was at its highest. The food was delicious, the vegetarian option was good, and there was enough to keep H busy. I’d recommend Auberge de Cendrillon to anyone considering it when visiting Disneyland Paris.

The Elsa dress from Disney Stores is this one and it currently retails for £34.99. It made H feel like a princess, and indeed the amount of detail that it has makes it something worth purchasing. It is ideal for a special occasion.

by jo

Disneyland Paris to Lille via the Eurostar – Going Home

I tried to find information for taking the Eurostar from Disneyland Paris to Lille. We weren’t getting a direct train back to London, but there wasn’t a lot out there. So here’s what we’ve experienced.

Disneyland Paris to Lille via the Eurostar is a simple journey. You just turn up at Marne la Vallée in time for your train. At this point it doesn’t involve passport checks as you’re travelling within France. You’re not even travelling on a Eurostar train.

Our SNCF train arrived on time (take note, Southern) and we had allocated seats. We stopped at the station earlier to get our tickets printed, as we didn’t get them at St Pancras. This took 25 minutes with queues – the machines weren’t playing ball with our booking. Around an hour later we arrived at Lille. I think the train was going on to Brussels afterwards!

Just exit the train, go up the escalator and you’ll find yourself in the main part of Lille Station. There didn’t seem to be any signs for the Eurostar. Then I spotted a sign for a British lounge (with a Union Jack on it), so headed that way. It was at the opposite end of the station and is the right place to go.

Once you’re there you’ll find yourself at the passports/security barrier area. The Eurostar tickets got scanned in and our bags and suitcases x-rayed. Then it was passport clearance, leaving France and then entering the UK. After that you’re in an area with food and drink where you can wait for your train to arrive.

We had a 35 minute wait and had at least 15 minutes time, getting through passport control in no time at all.

Disneyland Paris to Lille via the Eurostar is a straightforward journey. It was much easier than us going back into Paris from Disneyland and going via Gare du Nord!

by jo

Christmas at Coombe Mill – Our Competition Entry

Coombe Mill has always been on my to-do list, and as if by magic, up pops this year’s Christmas at Coombe Mill competition. So I’m going to give it a go.
Coombe Mill Scandinavian Lodges, Coombe Mill at Christmas

Christmas at Coombe Mill sounds amazing. I know what Coombe Mill is like now – while we didn’t stay there when we visited Cornwall, The Boy and Me gang did and invited us over. We all made friends – and that is the first thing about the place. You make friends. I like to think I can make friends easily, and indeed, get me chatting and you might wish I’d shut up… and what I loved the most about our two visits was how social the place is.

We’d be sat outside TBaM’s lodge and people would come past saying ‘hello’. You really have to get out of that London frame of mind where nobody speaks to anyone. We’re all escaping somewhere people don’t look you in the eye and going somewhere that opens up new opportunities, new friendships and happiness.

I love that outside the Scandinavian Lodges is a large grass area where children can play. Get them dressed up in the right gear and it’s all-weather play there too.

Coombe Mill BBQ Hut, Coombe Mill at Christmas

The thing I will always go on about is the BBQ Hut – what a brilliant idea. A hut which can seat plenty of adults and you can set your BBQ going and it’s cosy. How flipping brilliant would it be to have a BBQ in December? Toasting marshmallows on Christmas Eve? Yep, I’m dreaming now…

H gets confident at Coombe Mill, Christmas at Coombe Mill

Of course, there’s the morning feed run – H loved it, and got stuck in after running around and looking a bit cross. The animals ran away from her (err, that’s what they do… you need to pick them up with a sense of purpose rather than hope they’ll come to you). Once she had picked up her first there was no stopping her and her confidence grew. Feeding the animals and wandering around with Farmer Nick and the other kids was a brilliant experience for her. She loved picking branches from the trees and feeding them to the donkeys. I loved that she did it without a second glance back to Shaun or I, apart from when she proudly showed us what she had done.

H feeding donkeys at Coombe Mill, Christmas at Coombe Mill

I think that’s another important Coombe Mill thing. It’s brilliantly geared for children to do things and adults to take a bit of time out (while still casting a watchful eye over them of course), that you can switch off from it all. Add that Cornwall thing of a patchy mobile signal, and you can really get away from your phone. You have to when there’s no signal! Talking  of signals, H loved operating the one on the train line which runs every weekday. This service is way more reliable than Southern Railways and probably runs over Christmas too!

H working the signal on the railway at Coombe Mill, Christmas at Coombe Mill

My overall impression of Coombe Mill was having the space to breathe again. Every Christmas we tend to stay at home and slob out… and if I’m to be honest it’s a lovely family thing, but not a special moment for H. She knows no different. I remember at her age having a pillowcase at the bottom of my bed and checking all the time to see if Santa had been. Christmas Day was a big family occasion with grandparents, aunties and more. Sadly that’s impossible with her surviving grandparents living in York and Australia!  She’s also reaching that age where she could stop believing in the next year or two. I want her to have one big magical Christmas before things change.

Coombe Mill Fairy Garden

This is why I think Christmas at Coombe Mill would be just that. We’d all switch off and enjoy some quality time together as a family and as part of the Coombe Mill celebrations. I’m hoping the BBQ Hut will feature too, of course!

This is my entry for the Christmas at Coombe Mill competition over here.  Even if I don’t win, we’re going next August and I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!

OMG We're Staying at Coombe Mill next year face

by jo

Yurt Life! Our stay at Kingsmead Centre

We recently had our first summer holiday of the year (yep, we’re greedy, we’re having two), and headed to Cornwall. We had a wonderful week there and as usual didn’t have enough time to do everything. Every time we venture to Cornwall or Devon I like to break up the journey a bit and stay overnight somewhere. On the way back this time we stopped at Kingsmead Centre near Taunton for two nights in a yurt.

Yurt Life at Kingsdown Centre - wonderful setting!

I had no idea what to take for our first camping break – though let’s be fair, it’s glamping rather than camping. All we needed was towels and food and toiletries – bedding is included, as is wood for the fire. We didn’t need to use the fire in the end as it was so warm and cosy, though did use some for the BBQ outside which is included in the price – made from an old washing machine tub! What a brilliant idea!

campfire

You’re provided with a cool box to keep anything you’d normally put in a fridge – and within the shower block area there are more fridges, though they’re popular. You can refill your cool box with specially marked Kingsmead frozen blocks when they thaw.

yurt food area

You get your cups, plates, cutlery, cooking tools all neatly stored in the chest next to the cooking area – heck, there’s even a small gas stove inside, perfect for filling up the kettle first thing. You really are spoilt!

double bed in the yurt

Sleep-wise, there’s a comfy double bed with a super warm duvet on it, as well as a fold out futon and bedding stored in a chest at the bottom of the bed.

H on her futon in the yurt

So what else is there in the yurt? A bookcase, a chess set, a table and chairs for sitting down and doing civilised stuff (like play chess – Shaun taught H). It’s a lot of space well laid out.

Playing Chess in the yurt

The Woodland Yurt at Kingsmead Farm is made from local materials too, which I thought was pretty cool.

Outside of the yurt, you’ve got important things like a shop in the reception area (a slightly longer walk) which is open until late most nights with all essentials. There’s a laundry room near there too which we didn’t need to use. The toilets and showers are brilliant – with one electric shower and one wonderful one that is tap operated. It was easily the best shower I had on my whole trip! I was able to share the cubicle with H and have loads of space too, but take some shoes which are good for walking on wet floors (like crocs, flip flops). The toilets are fine too – there were two of them in each room. Between the toilets is the previously mentioned room with fridges, which has a wonderful memory tree – I left a note there!

Kingsdown Memory Tree

Kingsmead has a strict no noise policy after 9pm, and 10pm at weekends which everyone stuck to apart from the idiots who pitched their tent next to us. They stayed up talking LOUDLY until 4am… which was annoying. We should have reported them to the owners of the campsite really. I would say as long as you have considerate neighbours you’ll have a wonderful time. Noisy neighbours aren’t the campsite’s fault, so I have no problems there.

We paid £85 per night with extra for H – and I’d happily stay in the yurt again (although they have a gorgeous looking bell tent now too). It’s a good location for exploring some of Somerset and North Devon, or if you fancy just chilling around the campfire, doing just that. H went off to make friends and it felt like a safe place where she could – although be aware there are roads for cars to get to the tents, with a 5mph speed limit. H’s road sense isn’t quite there yet, but we’re working on it.

In summary, what did I think of our stay? Were it not for the noisy neighbours it would have been perfect, wonderful. The location is fantastic and it is somewhere I would happily book again. We don’t have any camping gear, so this is ideal – especially as we had a car full of things with us, so no room for extra things. H thought it was brilliant too!

Kingsmead Centre’s page for the yurt can be found here. It looks as lovely as that too – I can only hope we’ve done it justice!

by jo

Hidden Valley Discovery Park – A Wonderful Day Out!

It was a lovely sunny day when we were in Cornwall and we’d arranged to visit the Hidden Valley Discovery Park with The Boy and Me gang – two six/seven year olds and four adults who like solving puzzles and like quirky things. Read on to find out what we thought!

Welcome to Hidden Valley Discovery Park

Hidden Valley Discovery Park and I stumbled upon each other via TripAdvisor. I was looking up theme parks in Cornwall to see if there was anything that felt a little bit different – we have Merlin passes so don’t want another Chessington/Legoland-a-like. The reviews were brilliant – and it seemed to tick so many boxes. We HAD to go. The Boy and Me gang were well up for it too!

Hidden Valley Discovery Park was created back in the 1994 by Pete Jones, an engineering graduate who took much inspiration from the famous British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It wasn’t until recently that the park has changed into what it is now – but what we found was an exciting, enchanting, quirky place which kept us occupied for the whole day, with plenty left to do.

Hidden Valley has a main building which houses a small shop with loads of interesting things in, a reasonably priced cafe, and the main entrance. You can get £1 off your entry fee if you have a voucher in some Cornwall discount books, or just install App for Cornwall on your phone. Once you’ve paid your entry fee, you’re handed a map of the park, some questions to solve in the Forbidden Mansion, and a credit card which is loaded up with some time to solve Crystal Maze style puzzles (Moriarty’s Missions) inside the mansion. You can buy additional time if you run out. The main objective is to complete the puzzles in the quickest time possible, to then light up the most lightbulbs in the main building at the end. Each puzzle has a three minute limit.

Hidden Valley Discovery Park quiz and trail and badges

Step outside of the main building and you’re greeted with a weird and wonderful world. To the left is a new  Cottage Garden which we didn’t have the time to explore. To the right is the Forbidden Mansion, the place we were looking forward to the most. Straight on is the station with the Portserswick Junction Light Railway – a mile of track which goes around the grounds.

Hidden Valley Discovery Park outside

At this point I’d tell you to look on Google Maps at the area the Hidden Valley Discovery Park exists in – it looks pretty small. You’d be surprised how much gets packed into that space!

We headed straight into the Forbidden Mansion. You enter via the main front doors, into a room and immediately we tried to find the answer to our first clue. Actually, we were probably trying too hard – the questions were all observational ones, things on pictures, things around the place – and there’s plenty of things. The questions are frequently changed too, so if you go back you can almost certainly guarantee it’ll be different. If you’re like us and can’t get it done in one day, then you can purchase a second day pass for £6 – but you need to be on-site to do it, you can’t do it online.

Hidden Valley Discovery Park Forbidden Mansion

You enter the main part of the mansion via a corridor, and it took me a few hours for the penny to drop – the main rooms aren’t inside the tiny house, they’re in the main building where the shop and cafe are! D’oh! I mean, it’s obvious when you realise. There is only one way around the mansion, and within each room there are doors which may lead to a puzzle, passageways only small children (and hopeful adults) can crawl though, and quirky rooms like the fabulous upside down room. Honestly, each room was a delight – there was something in each one which kept the kids occupied while us adults tried to solve the clues. This isn’t a place just for kids, it’s for everyone. I don’t want to show off too many photos from inside the house, as the surprise element is the best bit.

Which is why it is awesome.

After the mansion we headed to get some food, where there’s a good selection of hot and cold food, and all reasonably priced.

Once we had eaten we headed to the railway and travelled to the other side of the Hidden Valley Discovery Park where a Japanese landscape garden is being built. This is also where the two outdoor trails, the Indiana trail and the Sherlock Holmes one start – as well as there being a maze.

Hidden Valley Discovery Park mazeWe opted for the maze first – after all, they’re fun, Shaun gets smug when he makes it to the middle first, and I am resigned to getting lost somewhere in it all. As it was, us ladies got to the middle first, Shaun came second, and the kids came third with Mr TBaM bringing up the rear. It’s a fun maze too – you’re mid way and think you’re in the middle, but you need to keep going to get into the hut in the very middle.

Afterwards we did the trails – and went for the harder Sherlock Holmes one. On the map you’re given at the start is a grid, this isn’t geocaching, this is proper old school orienteering. Get the question wrong and you might be sent to a grid reference which has nothing in – so I’m glad there were four of us (plus the two youngsters who loved trying to find the clues – and I loved sending them climbing up hills to find them, saving my legs!). Some questions involved them being solved in a curious fashion…

Hidden Valley Discovery Park Sherlock Trail

I don’t know how long we spent there, but it was fun – exhausting fun!

We found all kinds of things on the way. The Hobbit House. A hut which has switches and things which might have been the end of the puzzle, though we’re still querying the answer to the last question.

Hidden Valley Discovery Park hobbit house

By the end of the trail we had almost run out of time, the park was set to close. The dads went back into the Forbidden Mansion to finish the last few Moriarty’s Missions and the kids went to have a play on the outdoor play area (because even though they were tired they still had energy for climbing frames) and an ice cream. We didn’t have time for the Indiana trail in the end – and we were at Hidden Valley Discovery Park for over 5 hours! In the end, this was our final score – not too bad I reckon!

Hidden Valley Discovery Park lightbulbs

The Hidden Valley Discovery Park website is over here. We will definitely be back next year after having had a fabulous day with fabulous company. You should go too!

Hidden Valley Discovery Park isn’t open all year, so please check their website before going. It looks like it’s open for school holidays though!

by jo

Minnie Mouse Tea Pot Playset Review

We were sent a Minnie Mouse Tea Pot playset to review, read on to find out our thoughts!

Minnie Mouse tea pot playsetHow do you keep a BIG secret from a six year old? Like, a really big secret? Like, you will be going to Disneyland Paris on her birthday and she doesn’t have a clue? Especially when she says things like “well, hopefully I’ll like Disney next year” when we said we might be able to do it then.

I like to think I’m a clever mummy, I try not to state the obvious as much as I can (which probably means I do), and will often buy things so H can get to the conclusion I want her to in her own time. It seems to work… I am a master of puppetry controlling my girl from afar. Or maybe not. So when Disney offered us a Minnie Mouse Tea Pot Playset to review I jumped at the chance – as H doesn’t have a tea set – and she loves Minnie Mouse (and eek, she’s going to meet her VERY SOON!)

Minnie Mouse tea pot playset

When I was nine I went to play at a schoolfriends house, and his sister had a teddy bear’s tea party. I thought it was babyish… shame on me. But it made me realise H has never had one herself, which is I think, an even bigger shame on me. Doesn’t every child need a tea set to have pretend tea parties with their toys? This Minnie Mouse Tea Pot Playset does the trick.

Minnie Mouse tea pot playset

I really like the Minnie Mouse Tea Pot playset – mainly because it all packs inside a giant teapot for easy storage. H enjoys tidying up! When we received the tea pot she hand-wrote invites to two of her friends inviting them over for a Teddy Bear’s Tea Party which was awesome, even if she hadn’t bothered to ask me if it was do-able (it wasn’t). But nonetheless, it has got her thinking creatively.

You get one giant teapot, then four cups with matching heart shaped saucers, really cute little matching spoons and a more manageable teapot and sugar bowl. Then it’s about letting your imagination go – and it worked a treat with H.

Minnie Mouse tea pot playset

Which brings me back to this Disneyland Paris thing. We’ve never grown out of Disney, and I know she won’t. Getting cute little things like this Minnie Mouse Tea Pot playset keep her love of Disney alive – and keeps me relieved! Oh, and even though this is a Minnie Mouse set, two of the designs feature Daisy Duck – and they’re really cute.

The Minnie Mouse Tea Pot playset is available from the Disney Store now, priced at £12.95. We were sent one for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

by jo

The BFG – Our Review of Disney’s New Film

We’ve just been to see The BFG at the cinema, and I thought it’d be a good time to do a quick review.

The BFG logo

The BFG needs very little introduction – Roald Dahl’s 1982 is a classic, and one I know I will have read. H at almost seven is massively into Roald Dahl, and has been looking forward to seeing the film.

It follows the book closely, and is a Very Long Film. I say this, as you need to be prepared. It comes in at just under two hours – so make sure you go to a cinema with comfy seats!

Sophie is played wonderfully by Ruby Barnhill, and in some ways reminded me of the actress who plays Matilda in the film of the same name – very spirited and knows her own mind. The BFG is played by Mark Rylance, and is put together so wonderfully – you’re not quite sure if he’s the good guy or not (and the first trailer that came out was REALLY scary), but when you know he is, you can really feel the goodness in him.


The BFG captures dreams, and Sophie catches him doing just that, so he has to take her away from the orphanage she lives in, so she doesn’t tell anyone he exists. She’s pretty happy about that as she hated it there anyway.

Once Sophie is in Giant Country, she realises escaping isn’t an option, especially when she discovers some human-eating giants. (I would say the parts where the human-eating giants are the mild peril parts, they’re not pleasant types!).

The BFG is able to hide Sophie from the other giants, and eventually she persuades him to take her to Dream Country, where he captures dreams in jars (if you’re in London check the BFG Dream Jar trail running until the end of August). Unfortunately he captures a bad dream.

They head back to London though Sophie loses her blanket around now. The BFG realises that the other giants will know she exists, and it’s too dangerous for her to head back to Giant Country. Sophie is dropped off at the orphanage once more, and eventually persuades the BFG to let her go back.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but let’s just say the rest of the story involves the Queen, snozzcumbers, whizzpopping (even the Queen does), frobscottle (which causes you to do a spot of whizzpopping), and a golden phizzwizard and much more. Oh, and plenty of Giant speak.

It’s a Steven Spielberg film, and much as he succeeded with ET, it’s a similar formula on The BFG. Quentin Blake’s illustrations are a massive inspiration for the film, and I’m glad it has stayed faithful to the story and the images children will have grown up with. Oh, and it’s yet another fabulous Disney film!

It gets a BIG thumbs up from us!

The BFG is in cinemas now – and we’re also pretty excited as we got to see the new ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ trailer – roll on November!!