The Final TRU Review

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At the start of the Toys R Us Toyology 2011 programme, I said that I wanted to donate some of the toys we were given to review and I have done this as and where possible with appropriate toys; to playgroups, to friends, etc.

At the end of the programme, The Boy and Me (ha, see what I did) have been given the chance to donate an entire box of toys to a cause that we feel would benefit from it, and is close to our heart. The very generous companies who are involved in the Toyology programme have put together this fantastic box of toys for the children who benefit from Tŷ Hafan Hospice's respite care for children suffering from life-limiting and terminal illnesses.

 

The box includes:

 The 400+ families whose children that benefit from the care of the staff at Tŷ Hafan since 1999, live with the dreadful reality that their children with life-limiting conditions may not reach the age of 19. These precious children suffer from various conditions, such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Cystic Fibrosis and Celebral Palsy. Tŷ Hafan is not part of the health service and therefore any donations, monetary or other items, are always helpful to make the children's lives better. One of the facilities that Tŷ Hafan offers is play therapy sessions and it is to one of these that we are taking the above box of toys on Saturday morning.

If you would like to donate to Tŷ Hafan, then please click this link.

Gosh: Click 'n' Conceal (Review & Competition)

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I often look at my mum's face and wonder how as the age of 68 she has minimal wrinkles? But then I realise that the cursed combination skin (and tendency to be on the overweight side) that we share means that we don't tend to not wrinkle or sag. However, since going back to work after The Boy I have developed shadows. Deep and dark, purple shadows. And no amount of foundation can help me; I'm not sure anything ever will!

That was until about a month ago when I discovered that on Buyapowa they had a deal on Touche Éclat which saw me buying a tube of it for £13! I'm not sure that I'll find another deal like that in the future before I run out, and so I've been using is sparingly. However my shadows are beginning to creep through the wonder-cover-up and so I need to find an alternative.

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Fireman Sam (A Review)

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I'm often on the lookout for new apps for The Boy to play, an app that is centred around a CBeebies character, or other well-known character, is always a success. I've discovered though that you need to be more direct with the iTunes search though, a broad search term either brings back a plethora of hits or nothing.

We were recently given the opportunity to review the Fireman Sam: Junior Cadet app which is designed for iPad and iPhones, which of course means it works on an iPod Touch (our chosen Apple device). Released in mid-December 2011 by P2 games, this is the first official Fireman Sam app and features a good selection of games with a special bonus virtual sticker album once they're completed.

  • HOSE PRACTICE – Learn how to use the hose with Elvis by filling buckets with water.  This activity can also be played against the clock, which provides an extra challenge! And you can accidentally soak Elvis, which is quite amusing.
  • HIDE ‘N’ SEEK – Norman is up to his old tricks and has hidden lots of objects around the fire station.  Help Fireman Sam to find them. Watch out for Norman, bonus points available for catching him.
  • LOAD JUPITER – Fireman Sam needs your help to load Jupiter.  Find the correct items by matching the shadows.  This activity can also be played as a memory game, which provides a challenge for older players.
  • SKY HIGH RESCUE – The cats have escaped and Fireman Sam needs some help catching them.  A great chance to practice rescuing skills!
  • FIRE FIGHTER – Finally: a call out to the first fire!  Use hose targeting skills to put out all the fires!  Good luck!

The Fireman Sam app on the AppStore is a really nice little find with plenty of different activities to suit children of different ages and abilities. The Boy particularly likes the Hose Practise and Hide 'n' seek activities. At £1.99, this is a good app and I'd recommend you download it for fun and logical development.

I was given a code to download this for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Rosie-Tinted Glasses

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Five years ago I could often be heard in the shower singing the latest Keane or Kaiser Chiefs song.

Today?

Today I sang about "Raggles and Blue Bird, Big Bear and O-o-o-ak-l-e-e-y!" The last time this happened, the theme tune was in my head for weeks. I'd be driving home from work singing it! It's just one of those tunes that gets into your head and happily stays there.

And I am happy for it to stay there because it's such a lovely programme. Everything about the programme, including Rosie, is friendly, happy and attractive.

My personal favourites are Raggles and Oakley, The Boy is very fond of Big Bear and Blue Bird, and of course we both adore Rosie! I hate it when CBeebies move the programming around because it's one of those shows that we prefer not to miss, the morals and stories told in it are excellent resources to help The Boy understand how to be kind to his friends.

On 6th February, will be the first Everything's Rosie DVD release date, and we've been very lucky to have previewed the disc. Everything's Rosie: ‘The Greatest Show In The Garden And Other Stories’ has over two hours of fun, and features thirteen episodes from the show, including:

  • Raggles and the Reporter
  • The Mystery of the Four Feathers
  • How to Teach a Bear to Meet the Queen
  • Little Bear
  • How Rosie Mislaid Her Raggles

and many more!

Over the past four days, there has been much television watching in this house thanks to the lovely bug we've all had. Everything's Rosie: The Greatest Show in the Garden has been a saving grace and a welcome distraction from a certain Mr. Fletcher in his various guises. A really lovely DVD for all pre-schoolers, it is available for pre-order through Amazon here (released 6th February 2012).

Keep your eyes peeled though over the next few days as I will have a competition for two of you to win a copy of this DVD!

I was sent a check-disc of the series for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Getting Snowy With Charley

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It's snowing today here in south Wales. Not proper snow you understand though. Yes, it's cold and white and fluffy, but it's the wrong side of wet to be settling, so it's just making the world look that little bit dreary today. We need to immerse ourselves in proper snow, although not literally! With The Boy having been poorly over the past few days, we need a little quiet and creative time, and I think we'll be making a snow-den and watching some Antarctic explorers this afternoon.

There's another fan of snow who has been pretending he's an explorer lately; that loveable character with the big imagination, Little Charley Bear. Antarctic Charley is a new release today (30th January) which features six episodes narrated by James Corden, someone who I think has got a brilliant voice for narration. Charley loves pretending he's building a snow-house as much as the next little one, and regardless of the time of year, he manages to dive into his imagination to play with penguins and climb snowy mountains.

It's a captivating DVD with simple and beautiful stories. At just under an hour long, it's going to be perfect to watch in the car this weekend when we head down to Bluestone for our own Winter wonderland adventure. Priced at £12.99.

For more Charley Bear fun, visit the Facebook page or the Little Charley Bear homepage.

We were sent a check-disc for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Keeping Warm With SIGG

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A couple of months ago, I was pleasantly surprised one day to receive a parcel from one of my favourite companies: SIGG. They make stunningly beautiful, resuable and practical water bottles, and in this parcel were a few essentials for the Winter.

They were to prove to come in very useful during one of our favourite excursions in October: our first football match!

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Anchors Away! (Competition)

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I like cakes, they make me happy. I also like baking as this too makes me happy.

When Anchor asked me if I'd like to share my favourite elevenses snack as a part of their campaign to bring back the mid-morning goodness, I jumped at the chance to indulge!

Go on admit it, your mouth is watering isn't it?

Strictly speaking, this should be for an afternoon tea. Also strictly speaking, it should be a scone. However, it is neither a scone, nor am I that bothered about whether I eat it at 3 o'clock. I tend to find that leading up to 11 o'clock my blood-sugar levels are dropping and I need a pick me up to get through to (an often non-existent) lunchtime. I have a snack at half past ten on a working day, so why not at home with The Boy?

The reason this is not a scone is because I have bad memories of trying to make them. My grandmother only once tried to teach me how to cook and failed miserably on her part. She read the recipe incorrectly and told me to put a tablespoon of salt in and consequently, and to no-one's surprise, the scones were disgusting! Shop-bought scones always taste chemically and leave me with an after-taste.

Therefore I give you an easy elevenses recipe (adapted from my own blog-post), to be eaten with clotted cream and strawberry jam or not.

  • 60g caster sugar
  • 300g self raising flour, sifted
  • 85g Anchor butter, cubed
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 150g Low Fat Natural Bio Live Yogurt
  1. Sift the flour, butter, baking powder and the sugar into a bowl, and using a food processor or mixer whizz together until fine crumbs form.
  2. Add the milk and yogurt and mix until a soft dough forms .
  3. (I decided to add a handful of raisins at this point).
  4. Bake the not-scones for 25 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

Let me just remind you of the simple beauty of my Elevenses:

I have one of these special edition Anchor aprons to give away to one of the readers who comments below telling me their favourite elevenses snack.

Sorry, did I say one? I meant ten! Yes that's right: ten! Anchor are feeling generous and therefore providing ten of you lucky souls with one of these gorgeous aprons, and you just have to do the three really simple things listed on the rafflecopter form (Facebook 'like' & comment are mandatory, tweeting is a bonus entry).

What are you waiting for? Get entering!

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Sweeping Clean! (A GTech Review & Competition)

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About a week before Christmas, when Mr. TheBoyandMe was completely and utterly sick of the sight of strands of tinsel all over the floor, he asked if we could get a swiffer. I gasped at him and told him that in no uncertain terms, we would not be getting such an antiquated, useless and unhygienic contraption, to just get the vacuum cleaner out and stop complaining! (He doesn't even do the vacuuming, so I have no idea what he's complaining about.)

My reticence at agreeing to one was based on traumatic flashbacks to my childhood in the early 1990s which involved one of these items:

My nan had one in '70s brown, and we had one in '70s blue and I hated them! They were noisy, awkward, dirty, didn't pick up the bits and, if you tipped it at a certain angle, they emptied the few bits that they had picked up all over your still dirty floor.

My husband slunk away having realised it was a no-go, and retrieved our cumbersome vaccum cleaner out of the understairs cupboard. Upon I realised the point he was making, but was determined not to back down!

Then I had an e-mail asking me if I'd like to review a cordless electric-powered floor cleaners. Curiosity sent me to the site, and I realised that the GTech SW20 was the 2012 version of what my mother had used, but with added extras. I giggled to myself at Mr. TBAM's reaction when I showed him and agreed to test it quite happily.

I did not realise just how clever this little device was going to be. The SW20 is a floor sweeper in the conventional sense, but with the added bonus of being electric and cordless. To charge the sweeper, it is placed onto the small, charging platform and left for up to five hours. From that, it gives an hour's worth of run time. That might not sound a lot, however I charged it three weeks ago and have used it every other day without recharging it once. It's designed so that you can leave it on the charging platform as it has an auto cut off device which allows you also to safely leave it on the stand to maintain full charge, however we didn't have a plug at the right height and out of the reach of The Boy.

"A conventional vacuum cleaner (2000 watt) used for 2 hours a week on a 0.30 tariff, will cost £300 over 5 years. Using a Gtech sweeper for the same period and tariff costs £7.80 and an energy saving of 55.5 KWh per year, per home."

So it's cheaper to use as well then?

As for my concerns about how unhygienic they are? Unfounded. The GTech SW20 has Germguard built into the handle and bin. Germguard action traps and kills over 99.9 of bacteria including MRSA, Salmomella, Listeria and E-Coli. It is also incredibly easy to clean; there's a pull out 'bin' which neatly collects all the dirt (and it gets up a lot) allowing for easy emptying and cleaning.

I did vacuum yesterday, I promise! And I had been wondering where that jigsaw piece had gone.

The other thing that I really like about the GTech is how easy it is to use. The extendable handle has a swivel motion when attached to the sweeper which allows for excellent manoeuvrability. It's so easy, even a two year old could use it:

At £69.95 it is slightly more expensive than the conventional carpet cleaner, but then there's nothing conventional about the GTech SW20 and I do think that with the money it saves, along with the time and effort, that it is worth it.

And thanks to the kind folk at GTech, I've got one for you to win!

Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was given a GTech SW20 for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Toy Genius: Cows On The Farm Jigsaw (A Review)

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Surely by now, even complete strangers know how much I adore the wooden toy shop, ToyJeanius?

We've been incredibly fortunate to have been sent a wide variety of toys by my favourite independent toy shop to review, and just before Christmas The Boy was lucky enough to be sent this beautiful jigsaw puzzle:

Les vaches à la ferme (or 'The Cows on the Farm' to you and me) is a beautifully illustrated and colourful jigsaw by the brilliant Djeco, who make traditional and timeless puzzles with a modern spin on them. This puzzle is no different, as the box is in the shape of a Daisy moo-cow containing the sturdy 24-piece puzzle inside.

The puzzle is 16"x12" in size, with each of the pieces measuring approximately 2.5" across. The chunky size of the pieces means that they are easy to handle and manipulate, and are able to contain a significant section of the final picture on it, making it easier to complete.

The high-gloss, colourful puzzle contains a farmyard scene, not just of the titular cows but also pigs, ducks, chickens, birds, a cat and a dog. Most of the animals are grouped together which makes it easy to find the pieces and join them up, plus it makes discussion afterwards a lot easier. And we do discuss it, a lot. There's so much going on in the picture that it would be hard not to! The Boy's favourite part of this puzzle is counting the animals afterwards, and as there are different and increasing amounts of the various animals it allows for his numerical skills to be developed with ease.

Develops:

  • Co-ordination
  • Problem-solving and logical thinking
  • Numeracy
  • Literacy (positional language and oracy)
  • Fun!

At £9.95 this is a quality jigsaw to stand the test of time, and would make a beautiful gift for someone.

I'm a Toyjeanius toy genius

Readers of TheBoyandMe can get a 10% discount by entering the code 'TheBoyandMe' at the checkout.

We were sent this jigsaw for the purpose of the review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

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