Celebrating #NationalTeddyBearDay with Build-A-Bear Workshop

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As it is #NationalTeddyBearDay this week it got me thinking about big and little J and their favourite teddies. Both boys love teddies, big J when he was younger had so many and little J is just the same. For me there is something special about teddies and I too had a few favourites. They are always there for you when you need them whether its to comfort you when you are sad, to take on special days out or to snuggle at night.

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Win £100 Build-A-Bear Workshop Gift Card Giveaway

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To help celebrate #NationalTeddyBearDay I have teamed up with Build-A-Bear Workshop for a very exciting giveaway. You may have read here that Build-A-Bear Workshop are offering visitors to their store on Sept 9th the chance to purchase a limited edition teddy bear for just £5. Two additional bears will also be available for £5 each, Lil’ Vanilla Bean Cub and Lil’ Hazelnut Cub.

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100 Years Of Colour Crayola Giveaway

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Like most of us we have grown up loving Crayola. I remember every year before the start of a new school year I would pack my pencil case with Crayola pens and crayons and now my boys are doing the same. They love Crayola and our art drawer is packed with Crayola supplies to last us a lifetime.

If you haven't already heard Crayola are celebrating 100 Years of colour and are touring the country with a Crayola Bus Tour. Set to ‘draw’ in the crowds across the UK this Summer, Crayola will be visiting stores between 10am and 4pm with a fabulous Crayola themed double decker bus filled with Crayola interactive play zones.

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Paw Patrol Weebles Pull & Play Seal Island Playset Review

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When we heard Paw Patrol were adding to the Weebles collection we knew little J would be very excited. We are huge fans of Weebles and have reviewed a few of the playsets on Mummy 2 Monkeys already. Little J absolutely loves Paw Patrol so we looking forward to receiving the Paw Patrol Weebles Pull and Play Seal Island Playset and Weebles figures.

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Baby Annabell Brother Doll Review and Giveaway

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I like little J to be exposed to all types of toys. Sometimes, even though we try to encourage him to play with other things he will just sit happily with his cars. I've now learnt that that's okay and eventually he will come round to other things and find new toys he likes. Little J was recently sent Baby Annabell's Train Andy Dog and he absolutely loves it. Now that the weather is warmer he has been playing outside a lot more and Andy has too. We recently received another Baby Annabell product this time it was Baby Annabell's Brother. I knew little J would love this as he likes anything that he can push around in his pram or play doctors with.

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Cartamundi Disney Cars Racing and Action Game Box Review

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Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

Little J has become a huge Disney Cars fan over the past few months, it's all he is interested in so when we received the Cartamundi Disney Cars game I knew it would be a hit. Playing games is something we have always enjoyed as a family but until recently little J was too young so he never got involved.

There are two games to play

The Racing Game

Race your car across the city using the crazy changing roads and be the first to cross  the finish line.

To play this game you need to assemble the 4 x 3D cars that are included in the box. Little J loved helping with this and went and got his diecast cars to join in too.

The rules for the racing game are very simple, you place a 5x5 grid of cars and each player has to put their chosen car on the start line.

The remaining cars are placed in a pile near the grid. On you turn you pick a card and place it on the grid to create a pathway for your car to pass through.

You can race your car as long as

The road is joined together

You do not pass through a roadworks sign

There are no other cars in the way

The player who creates a clear road to get to the finish line wins.

The Action Game

This was a little too complicated for little J although the rest of us loved this game.

It's very similar to the card game Uno so if you are familiar with the game then you will already know how to play. If not then the object of the game is to get rid of all your cards.

Each player gets 5 cars and the remaining cards are placed in a pile. You turn one card over from the pile and place it in the middle. The first player must put down a card from their 5 cards that either match the colour or number of the face up card.  Play continues round but to make things a little harder there are 5 action cards.

Skip a turn 

Pick up another card from the pack

Pick up two cards from the pack 

Change the direction of play

Wild Card - you can change the colour of the play

Once you have got rid of all your cards you shout 'CARS' and you have won the game

The Cartamundi Disney Cars game is suitable from 4 years plus and for 2 to 4 players. Now little J has just turned 3 and he enjoyed one of the games included but the other we may have to wait a while.

You can visit Amazon to buy the Disney Cars game or to view the range.

Michelle

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Wiplii Cardboard Toy Review and Giveaway

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Whether we are playing inside or out little J always has to have a tent or den set up. He loves to have a space were he can go and chill or play on his iPad. We have a pop up tent and I am always trying to jazz it up a little with cushions and stickers to make it look more appealing. When I fist heard about Wiplii and their range of cardboard toys I was really interested as I hadn't seen or heard anything like this before.

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Num Noms Giveaway

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I recently came across Num Noms at our local Tesco. They were new in and seemed very popular as most of the stock on the shelves had gone. They looked fun and I am sure the kids will go crazy for these, wanting to collect all the different characters.

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Sshh! Don't Wake Dad Electronic Board Game Review

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Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

When big J was younger this was one of our favourite games to play. We would spend hours playing and I genuinely mean hours. He would make us sit and play it again and again and again. It is probably still in the loft somewhere as little J isn't in to games just yet as I thought he was a little too young for them but I was wrong.

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Drumond Park LOGO Prize Bundle Giveaway

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 You all know that I am a big fan of board games. It's a great way to spend time together and have lots of fun. We have a huge collection of games and I am always on the lookout for new ones. You can never have too many. 

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Teletubbies Toys Review

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Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

You may have read last week that a very special and exciting box turned up. Inside was a selection of the new Teletubbies toys range and we were chosen to try them out. Teletubbies was such a big part of big J life when he was growing up and I am so pleased they are back now that little J is a toddler. When it came to opening the box we were so excited to find out what was inside. Little J was jumping around when he saw all the coloured tissue paper inside the box, it was like Christmas.

Inside the beautiful and very colourful tissue paper were 6 Teletubbies toys for little J. He was so pleased when he saw Po, she is his favourite. 

Teletubbies Tickle And Giggle Po

Tickle and Giggle Po is very cute and likes to be tickled. She is made from supersoft plush and when you tickle her tummy she will giggle and say "eh-oh" "Big Hugs" "Po" "Again Again"

Little J loves interactive toys and really enjoys tickling her tummy. Little J also enjoys pushing her around in the pram too.

Teletubbies Supersoft Plush

Dipsy and Laa Laa are supersoft plushes. They are a perfect size for little J to hold and cuddle. He likes to take them to bed and they are perfect for snuggles.

Dipsy and Laa Laa are regulars at our carpet picnics and we play a game were they can only eat pretend food that matches their colours. Dipsy enjoys green pears and Laa Laa likes yellow lemons.

Teletubbies Talking Po Soft Toy

This is probably little J's favourite toy out of the plushes. Talking Po is again made of a supersoft plush. 

Press her tummy and she will say a variety of phrases including

"Po"

"Eh Oh"

"Again, Again"

"Big Hugs"

"Hooray, Hooray, Hooray"

"ooh," followed by a giggle 

"Very Happy"

Tubby Phone

A cute phone with just 4 coloured buttons representing each of the Teletubbies. Press the colour of your choice and the Teletubbie will come on the mirrored screen. Press it once and a voice will say "Hello (name of teletubbie chosen)" press again and the voice will say "Hello Teletubbies" press a third time and it will say "Tubby Phone Party" and play a song. Unfortunately all four buttons do and say exactly the same.

Little J seems to like chatting away to the Teletubbies.

Tinky Winky Figure

We haven't found a home for our Tinky Winky figure just yet as we are hoping little J will be a good boy over the next few months and maybe he will get the Teletubbies Superdome for his birthday and also some more figures. 

I have popped down the RRP of the toys above for you but the full range will be available to see over at Character Toys

Tickle and Giggle Po - RRP £19.99

Talking Po - RRP £9.99

Supersoft Plush - RRP £6.99

Tubby Phone - RRP £9.99

Figure - £3.99

As you can see little J was thrilled with all his new Teletubbies toys and I know our collection will grow over the next few months. I am going to dig out all of big J's old Teletubbies toys as we had the dome, a Noo Noo and all the talking Teletubbies too. Little J will love them. 

Michelle

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Teletubbies Toy Delivery

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When big J was growing up Teletubbies dominated our TV and also big J's toy box. He absolutely loved Teletubbies and had lots of Teletubbies toys including talking ones, a phone, books, even a Noo Noo that moved along the floor. When I heard that Teletubbies were making a comeback I was so excited because little J is just at the age now were he enjoys watching a little TV and I know he will love Teletubbies just like his big brother did. On Christmas Eve we received a huge white box, it was our Teletubbies toy delivery.

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UNO Extreme Review

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You may already know that we love board and card games. This time of the year we usually buy a few new ones to keep us entertained through the cold winter nights. This week we have been playing UNO Extreme by Mattel. We already love UNO and have done since big J was little. His first ever UNO was Winnie the Pooh, I think we still have it somewhere.

The idea of UNO Extreme is basically an Extreme version of the popular game. The game features a card shooter which adds some more excitement to the original game and also is very unpredictable too.

Playing the game is very similar to the original although there are a few new cards. Three special Extreme hit command cards change game play from the original UNO game. 

Discard all allows players to play all cards that match the card’s colour

 Hit 2 forces the next player to hit the UNO Extreme Card Launcher button not once, but twice.

The Extreme Hit card lets the player hit any player they want by aiming the shooter at them and pressing the UNO Extreme Card Launcher button twice.

If you have to press the launcher you may get lucky and nothing happens or it could shoot out a stream of UNO Cards.

*****

What We Loved

The launcher does provide excitement and makes the game more fun. When you hit it and no cards shoot out you do feel quite proud of yourself even though it's random.

When another player hits the launcher and lots of cards shoot out.

The actual card game hasn't changed to much.

What Could Improve

The launcher needs 3 x C Batteries. These are not included and we didn't have any so we did have to make a special trip to buy some. Worth remembering if buying as a Christmas present.

*****

Currently the RRP is £24.99 which is reasonable and I think it would make a perfect present for an UNO fan. It is available from High Street Stores and also online at Amazon

I am always a little unsure of new versions of games I already love as sometimes they seem pointless, however this is fun, fast and exciting and we love it.

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Fisher-Price Silly Wheelie Mickey Review

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I don't know who was more excited this week when Silly Wheelie Mickey arrived for us to review, Me or little J. I love Disney toys and we had actually seen this on TV last week and both thought it looked lots of fun. Made by Fisher-Price, Silly Wheelie Mickey Mouse Toy will bring a smile to your face no matter how old you. Check out our review.

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Bratz #FierceFitness Yasmin Doll Giveaway

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To celebrate The Bratz life size Photobooth touring the UK and Ireland this October I have a Bratz #FierceFitness Yasmin Doll Giveaway. If you are a Bratz fan you will love the Photobooth as it is jam packed with cool props including pink moustaches, bunny ears, red lips and Sasha's famous bunny boo beanie hat. 

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Our Day At Toytopia

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When we were asked to visit Toytopia I knew we would all love it. We love toys and having lots of different brands and toys under one roof is a our idea of heaven. With Christmas just a few months away it was a perfect chance for little J to try out some possible choices for his Christmas list. I have to say we have just got back from a fulfilled day - here is our day at Toytopia.

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Thomas And Friends Remote Control Thomas

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Little J has become a fan of Thomas The Tank Engine over the past few months. We enjoyed a lovely day at Thomas Land last weekend and little J is also enjoying his new Thomas and Friends books so when we were given the chance to review Thomas - Remote Control Train we jumped at the chance.

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Letting Your Child Choose New Toys

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I decided to take little J for some new toys recently. He loves toys and he hasn't really had any new ones since his birthday in March. When we arrived at Smyths I told him that he could buy some new toys and he could pick them himself. He was really excited and kept saying 'new toys for me'

Just outside the store was a huge Lego figure so he climbed on and posed for a photo.

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Bananagrams Wildtiles Review

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As soon as Autumn begins I get all the board games out. I love playing board games and as much as Daddy and big J may protest because they would rather play the xbox they always end up having great fun. We usually get a few new games for Christmas but last week we received Bananagrams Wild Tiles in the post. I have heard of the Bananagrams before but had no idea what it was.

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WOW Toys - Tow Truck Tim

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I am genuinely proud and honoured to be a WOW Toys Blogger Buddy and not because we get to try out cool toys but because its a brand that I really believe in. We have a few WOW toys now and little J loves playing with them. He is at the stage now were he is using his imagination to create little role play scenarios with his toys. His favourite is still cars and figures. It's very rare to see him without a car or a little man in his hand. He just loves toys and I could watch him play all day. When we received Tow Truck Tim to review he was so excited. He wanted it out the box and in his hands faster than I could get it there. He eagerly stood waiting for me to pop it out the box.

Tow Truck Tim is a motorised tow truck who comes to the aid of Rolling Ray. Ray is car that has broken down and needs help.

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