Great Disney Princess Stocking Fillers!

Isla's weekend has mostly comprised of walking round with a little pink drawstring bag with all her new 'treasures' in it. They are in and out of the bag all day long, they all come out, get lined up on the table then they all go back in. I've found that Isla loves having collections of lots of little things, and if they're Princess 'things' then all the better! Yesterday morning I surprised her with some Disney Princess gift sets and that's what I'm referring to here. 

The stuff that was within these gift sets was enough to make Isla say 'WOW' a lot. With every new discovery of a lip balm or hair glitter or hair slides there was extreme excitement. Here she is getting stuck in to the Cinderella Lip balm. This needed to be surgically removed from her lips by the end of the day.... I'm joking but she must have the softest lips in Surrey! This is what we received and what we thought.....

Shimmer and Sparkle Set

This super value box set includes a clear shimmer lip balm, a glitter hair mascara wand, a heart ring and a mini diamante tiara. A mix of three designs and colours are available featuring your favourite Disney Princess characters, Ariel, Cinderella and Rapunzel. Available from October at Asda, Boots, Sainsbury’s and Superdrug, RRP £4.00.

We had the Rapunzel gift set. The hair glitter and lip balm were the real hits in this pack - we all had to have hair glitter - mummy, daddy, Noah and Nanny Helen! At first the hair glitter wand caused a little bit of confusion as it looks like a mascara brush and Isla often sees me applying this to my eyes so I did have to do a bit of a pep talk about not putting it near her eyes, after that we were good to go though.

Shimmer Lip Balm with Clips

Available in three Disney Princess-inspired designs including Cinderella, Ariel and Rapunzel. The set features a moisturising shimmer lip balm available in three fragrances including berry crush, blueberry and honey peach along with two pink sparkle heart hair slides. Available from October at Asda and Boots, RRP £2.50.

We had the Cinderella version of this. As you can see from the photo, she loved the Lip Balm, she was smothered in it! She also got me to put the hair clips in straight away.

Ballroom Beauty Essentials

Available in three Disney Princess-inspired designs including Cinderella, Ariel and Rapunzel, each bag contains a signature Disney Princess hand mirror, a plastic heart shaped ring, either berry crush, blueberry or honey peach fragranced bath bubbles and a glitter hair mascara wand. Available from October at Asda, Boots and Sainsbury’s, RRP £7.00.

We received the Ariel version of this gift set. This was a big favourite - the bag now contains the goodies from all the gift sets. She also loves rings and I think we have hundreds of them all over the house, so it's always good to have a few more to replace the mislaid ones.

Bath time Pamper set

The Princess Bathtime Pamper Set contains everything your Princess will need to pamper herself. The set includes a summer fruits fragranced bubble bath, two glitter bath fizzers, bath confetti, a mini tiara, a heart shaped ring and two heart gem hair bobbles! Available in Asda this Christmas | RRP £6.00

We received the Ariel version of this gift set. We had to use the bubble bath this morning (as well as the bath fizzers in the set below) - the bottles are really cute - because it was Isla's gift she insisted on putting it in the bath and getting her to have her bath was no problem at all.

Cinderella’s Bathtime Dressing-Up Set

Spend bath time creating the perfect outfit for Cinderella with her Bathtime Dressing up set. With 3 interchangeable wet and stick dresses there is an outfit for every princess occasion. This set also includes three glittering Fizzy Bath Hearts which create a sweet smelling aroma when dropped into the bath.

Available in Boots this Christmas | RRP £5.00

This has been a real hit! But....it did cause problems in the bath because Noah kept taking the dressing up pieces when Isla was trying to do them. He's in a real 'mine' and snatchy phase, so she got a bit fed up, but once he got out she played with them for ages, making all 3 Cinderella's in no time, sticking them to the side of the bath. The Fizzy Bath Hearts had to be used in one bath, I couldn't refuse her happy face as she kept plopping them in. 

Most of these bits and pieces are sold in Boots, which means that they're in the brilliant Christmas 3 for 2 offer that Boots run at Christmas time, and you also get to earn advantage points. All items are appropriate for children aged 2 - 5 years and I think would be a real hit as stocking fillers on Christmas Day judging by the reaction from Isla to all the loot this weekend....she's currently badgering me to have ANOTHER bath with her new bath fizzers....so see you later.


For further information on H&A’s tried, tested and trusted toiletries, cosmetics and gifts, including stockists, please visit www.handa-uk.com


We were sent all these items free of charge, but all opinions are my own and honest.

Cbeebies The Album - Great Stocking Filler!

We've been listening to this in the car the last few weeks and the kids aren't tiring of it yet. It's a collection of all the theme tunes from the Cbeebies shows. It also includes all the Cbeebies presenters songs - which happen to my preferred choice as I do like all the seasonal songs! Noah's favourite is Baby Jake and Isla is partial to Woolly and Tig and Timmy Time! Our only complaint is that it doesn't have 'Get Well Soon', which is Noah's favourite theme song - he's constantly going ' happy, happy, 'et ell ooo' but it was probably pressed before that show came out so I'll forgive them! I think this is perfect for kids as they are familiar with all the tunes and also being theme tunes they are pretty short. I also love that there are some old favourites on there like Postman Pat which I'm often singing along to in the morning!

It would make a great Christmas Stocking filler this Christmas for your little ones. You can buy it here from Amazon 

We were sent the Cbeebies Album for free in order to write this post. 

Soft Talking Poppy Cat Review - Great Christmas Stocking Filler

I was recently sent a Soft Talking Poppy Cat for the kids to try out and for the first time since I started my blog I had a dilemma about what to do when it arrived as Noah is now a lot older and takes an interest in everything, especially things Isla is playing with. He has also developed quite a soft spot for Poppy Cat as for the last few months we've been reading a pop up Poppy Cat book at bedtime. He's not quite into TV yet so he doesn't really know her from the TV programme. I knew that Isla would assume it was hers, so I just decided to tell them they had to share. Obviously this means zilch to Noah, he doesn't understand sharing, but Isla does so I was interested to see how this went! It went something like this: 
"I'll play with it first mummy and then Noah can have it", I had to remind her after a long while that her turn was up and it was his turn now, this led to a bit of snatching on Noah's part, but on the whole I think she got the idea that it wasn't solely hers.

Back to the toy. This is part of a new small collection of Poppy Cat toys that have sprung out of the popularity of the fab animated show that's on Nick Jnr. The series is great for pre-schoolers we reviewed it here when it first came out and Isla loved it. It's based on an award winning book series by Lara Jones that has sold more than 2.5 million copies.  We were sent a 22cm plush talking Poppy Cat. She says 5 different phrases when you squeeze her tummy and is of course voiced by Joanna Page. Since Poppy Cat arrived she has mostly spent her time in Isla's clutches but when Noah does get his hands on her he loves hearing the phrases. He really does love talking toys - but funnily enough now I think about it I don't think they make many talking toys aimed at boys - he's always loved Isla's talking Dee-Li from Waybuloo and her Princess Holly talking toy.....

This Soft Talking Poppy Cat retails at £9.99 and would make an excellent stocking filler for any PC fan! Also in the range are Poppy Cat dominoes, five piece figure sets and a wind up Poppy Cat amongst other things.

For more information on the pre-school series, please visit www.poppycat.com, or become a fan of Poppy Cat on Facebook (www.facebook.com/officialpoppycat) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/PoppyCat_).

We were sent the talking Poppy Cat to review, all views are our own

Christmas Stocking Filler - Talking Princess Holly Soft Toy - Review

Isla was recently very lucky to be sent a Talking Princess Holly by Entertainment One to try. She was at nursery when it arrived, so I unwrapped it and left it on the table for when she came home. I didn't even get a chance to give it to her, she spotted it as soon as she got through the door and was so excited! Along with Peppa Pig, she is a massive Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom fan and she already had a Ben Elf, so she was so pleased to have Ben's partner in crime! She pressed her tummy and heard all the phrases, she loved that she had a wand and she started running round the room 'flying' Princess Holly around. She is now one of Isla's current favourite toys and is definitely fuelling her new obsession with Princesses. Much to Isla's annoyance Noah also seems to like toys that talk and has taken great pleasure in cuddling and dribbling all over Holly too!

You can squeeze Princess Holly's tummy to hear 5 fun phrases including, "I'm Princess Holly", "Come on let's play", "Now wand, what shall we do today?" Made from soft and cuddly fabrics she's ideal to hug and hold.

Talking Princess Holly retails at £12.99, from all good retailers and would make a great pressie for any budding little Princess!

RIO - New Release on DVD and Blu-Ray

Recently Isla and I had a fab girls day out to London Zoo to watch RIO, the new movie about two Macaws! I was really looking forward to the day and I'd told her what we were going to do and she was looking forward to it too - especially about getting her face painted!

The morning took a bit of a turn when I had to decide to ditch nappies for the first time at Isla's request and I felt that this new development could marr our day but it didn't, and we did have a fab time!

We arrived at London Zoo and went to the mummy blogger private showing, where there was a face painter - Isla asked to have a goat (yes, she's quite stuck on goats since our farm holiday!) but was very satisfied with the beautiful Blue Macaw. She was also really enamoured with the plush toys of Blu and Jewel that she received! And now on to the film....

RIO is a high-flying animated comedy for the whole family. Blu is an exotic pet bird who believes he's the last of his kind. But when his owner learns about Jewel, Blu's female counterpart in Rio de Janeiro, they set out on the adventure of a lifetime. Even though he's never learned to fly, Blu befriends a group of wise-cracking city birds who help him find the courage to spread his wings and follow his destiny!

I loved it because I'm lucky enough to have been to Rio on holiday a few years before we had the children and the film really captures the spirit of such a fantastic city - I particularly loved the scenes in the Sambadrome - we had an amazing time there at Carnival!

Isla was brilliant - she loved the film and was riveted to the chair while it was on (only one trip to the loo!) and she was dancing to the samba soundtrack at the end. My worries about her not being able to sit in a cinema set up were upfounded! The final treat was when Roberta the Macaw came to see everyone. What amazing birds they are - such beautiful colours and brilliantly behaved considering she was faced with a room of excitable children.

We reckon this movie would make a fab Christmas Stocking filler!

Rio is released on 24th October and "Angry Birds Rio" has joined the home entertainment release celebration and is adding to the fun! Consumers who purchase the Rio Blu-ray and DVD can download 15 all-new exclusive levels of this most popular application of all time. These new levels are all PC, MAC, tablet and mobile phone (Apple/Android) compatible.

In addition to the Blu-ray Triple Play (£24.99), Rio is available to purchase on DVD with Digital Copy (£19.99) and Blu-ray 3D (£29.99).

Here are a couple of fun Rio related games for your enjoyment:
http://www.birds-vs-monkeys.co.uk/
http://www.rio-in-a-row.co.uk/

Click to View some RIO Activity sheets and games