We were given the opportunity to review one of their photobooks, which in itself would have been great.

However not only that, we were also able to choose an attraction we would like to visit, so we could make some wonderful memories with which to fill said photobook!

Thomas has been literally begging me for months to take him to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay. So this was the perfect place to visit and get some amazing photographs.

I have to admit to being very lax in the photo department. I love taking photos when we are out and about, but very rarely get around to printing them.

I have all 400 photos from our recent Florida holiday still sitting on the computer. Plus the last holiday 2 years ago. I was even scolded by the health visitor once for not having enough pictures hanging on the walls.

It’s not that I don’t like photographs, I just love looking back at my gorgeous boys. I suppose I’m just plain lazy and never seem to get around to printing them.

I was interested to find out whether having a photobook of our day out would prompt me to change my ways, and get some physical copies of all those treasured memories.

We had an incredible time at the Doctor Who Experience. Thomas had the time of his life running around and snapping absolutely everything.

I’m not a fan of Doctor Who at all, but I was brimming with joy watching my little boy with such a big grin on his face.

Knowing that we were going to be reviewing the photobook I asked Thomas to take along his iPod so we could both get snap happy and share the results in the book. It was a going to be a real joint effort.

When we got home Thomas was still buzzing with excitement and wanted to immediately start on the Photobook. Tallying up the photos taken, in the two hours we were there I’d snapped 83, and Thomas somehow had 243!

To create our Photobook we used the free Vistaprint Photo Book Desktop app. You can also use the online editor is you wish, but we went for the downloadable one.

It was incredibly easy to use, and extremely intuitive. Thomas sat with me during the whole process and had just as much fun creating the book, as going to the actual exhibit I think. It was a great mum and son project.

The desktop application automatically finds all the photos on your computer, and shows them on the left-hand side. You simply drag and place your photos in the spaces, It’s that simple.

Everything is customisable, and you can have the layout exactly as you’d like. There are templates to help you if you know how many photos you want to fit on a page, or you can just drag and drop them down and use the guide lines to straighten it all up. We used a mixture of both methods and our turned out great.

You can add text if you’d like on your photos or underneath them. Thomas decided we didn’t need the text as he just wanted to look at the pictures. We decided to forgo any text on the cover as well. He’d taken an amazing picture of the front doors of the exhibition which we spread across the front and back page. Text would have spoiled the effect we felt.

As you can see from the picture above we found a really cool feature where you can place a photo behind the others as a background image. We only used it twice to make those pages stand out, but it looks so good in the book.

I was a bit concerned that some of the photos might not look so great blown up. With Thomas only having a basic Ipod touch camera, plus the haste with which he was snapping. The photobook editor did flag up a few of his photos as not being the best quality. However we went ahead anyway as we wanted it to be a collaborative effort.

I was so pleased when the finished article arrived in the post that his pictures came out wonderfully. You can definately see the difference in quality between my photos and his, but he was just so pleased to see his work printed.

We completed our work on the photobook over 2 nights, taking around 2 hours in total to perfect our masterpiece. Once we submitted our order it said that the standard delivery option was 14 days, however ours came exactly 1 week later

The Vistaprint photobooks start from £11.99 and go up from there depending on the size you choose, how many pages you have etc. We went for the XL Square photo book, with Glossy paper printing, and Lay flat binding as extras.

Both the Glossy paper printing and Lay flat binding are well worth the extra money. You obviously want your pictures to look their best, and the glossy finish really makes them pop.

Knowing my son would be using this photobook the most, we went for the lay flat binding aswell, and it was a great choice. He always gets frustrated having to keep a big book open whilst he’s looking at it, so this was perfect for him.

Having the photos produced into a photobook has really opened up me eyes, and made me feel very differently about my pictures. Not only that, me and Thomas spending quality time working together on the book makes the memories all the  more special.

Our next project is to put all our holiday photos into another book. Thomas also had the idea to make a photobook of the school summer holidays this year, ready to take with him to Year 3 in September.

Thanks so much to Vistaprint for giving us the opportunity to review their photobook, and for family entry to the Doctor Who Experience

Tatty Teddy doesn’t actually feature in this game though, it’s all about Tatty Puppy and his friends.

We tested out the new app on the iPad.

The App starts with Tatty Puppy jumping through Tatty Teddy’s wardrobe and going to see all his Blue Nose friends. It’s made up of 6 mini-games, each hosted by one of the Blue Nose gang.

When you click on one of the friends you’ll be taken to their game page. There is also a jigsaw puzzle on each page, and you unlock pieces as you play their game. When completed the jigsaw will tell the story of Tatty Teddy meeting that Blue Nose Friend, both in pictures and being read out loud by the narrator.

Each game is very different, and I loved the variety in gameplay. The App has been really well done.

The 6 games are as follows:

Blossom’s Skip and Jump – Help Blossom jump over the skipping rope by tapping the screen at the right time. Double tap to make Blossom jump higher and collect treats. A simple but effective little game.

Coco’s Beach Band –  Make some funky music with Coco the Monkey and his seaside pals. Add and take away instruments as you please to see how the music changes. Steel Drums, Violins, Harps, Maracas and much more available to play with.  This is Jacob’s favourite of the games.

Passion’s Magical Garden - Help Passion the Butterfly tend to the garden. Get creative as you first plant and water the seeds, then decide which colours you want your flowers to grow.

Cottonsock’s Card Match - Remember where the cards are, all featuring your favourite Blue Nose Friends. It’s a game for either 1 or 2 players, and has 3 different difficulty levels. Harder levels mean more cards – 12 cards being the most. If you play with 2 players you get to choose a Blue Nose Friend to be your player icon.

Blinky’s Hide and Seek –  This one is my pick of the bunch. Even I think this one is pretty cool to play. In this game you play hide and seek with Blinky, and have to find her by moving the iPad around and tapping various places where she may be hiding. You actually have to move the iPad around quite a bit, very much like Face Raiders on the 3DS. If you’ve ever played that you’ll know what I mean. Very fun.

Peanut’s Biscuit Bake - Another brilliant little game. Help Peanut in the kitchen create some gorgeous biscuits. Roll the dough, cut the pattern out, and then wait as they bake. Once cooked you decorate your biscuit with icing and sprinkles as you wish.

When you’ve finished your culinary masterpiece you can take a photo of your creation. This was the first biscuit we made, a Passion one.

The most important feature of the App is that there is absolutely no in app purchases or adverts. So parents can happily let their child sit down and play, safe in the knowledge that no large bills are going to be racked up. Also just as importantly there wont be any inappropriate content to view, which can sometimes happen by clicking on ads and travelling outside of the app.

Blue Nose Friends Tatty Puppy is a brilliant all round app for little ones. Containing 6 games that in my opinion would be worthy of 6 individual Apps of their own, such is the quality of the games.

Blue Nose Friends Tatty Puppy is available from the App store for the iPhone and iPad as a free game containing Peanut’s Biscuit Bake, or the full version containing all 6 games for £1.99.

An Android version is due to be released in July.

Ever since I first downloaded FarFaria it’s been in nightly use. It’s become invaluable.

FarFaria is a play on “Far Far Away”, and is a collection of story books for young children to read.

I initially downloaded it as I was looking for more stories for Thomas my 7-year-old to read, that he could read himself. I was totally and utterly fed up with the Biff/Chip and Magic Key stories that kept coming home from school, and you can’t find time to go to the library all the time. So when I found FarFaria I thought I’d give it a go.

It’s free to download from the App store, and you get a 14 day free trial to check out whether FarFaria is for you. After the trial period it’s £2.49 or $3.99 a month subscription.

The great thing about having my subscription is knowing that there is always a new story to read every night. Currently there are over 400 stories, with new ones added daily.

It’s like having a library at your fingertips whenever you need it. It worked wonders when we went to the US on holiday, as the boys could still get their bedtime story without having to take along any books with us.

One of the best things about FarFaria is the incredibly child friendly layout. The boys both pick out their own stories every night, and enjoy having the choice and being able to scroll through and pick out what takes their fancy.

The way it works is that when you start-up the app a box with the latest additions will pop up. So if one of those appeals you can jump right in and start reading. If you’re in a particular mood then you can go to the map of FarFaria view.

Each of the stories are categorised into the 10 lands. You will find some stories will pop up in multiple lands though, as they may fit into multiple categories.

The Categories are Classics Grove , Fable Hills , Sing Along City, Good Land, Picture Point, Fairytale Forest, Looney Lagoon, Bedtimes Bluffs, Adventure Island, Animal Kingdom.

The boys and I love the variety of stories we get to enjoy every night. As well as classics like The Wizard of Oz and Peter Rabbit, there are also factual stories like The Christa McAuliffe story which Thomas recently read.

The thing I love the most about FarFaria is that both my 7 year old and my 5 year old can enjoy it. There are books for a variety of different reading levels. Thomas reads the level 4 stories. However Jacob is only 5 and just learning to read, so is working his way up from Picture Point up to stage 1.

Jacob also loves taking the iPad to his room for a bit of quiet time, and having FarFaria read one of the stories to him. All of the stories on FarFaria have an option for the story to be read aloud to you.

Have you ever had a bad day and ended up forgoing the bedtime story as you know it’ll go on and on and you just want the day to end? I hope that’s not just me. Well another big boon for FarFaria is that all the stories are a reasonable bedtime story size. Not too long that you’re the one who ends up falling asleep, or little one loses intrest in reading it., but not too small that your youngster feels short-changed. I would call them perfectly formed.

The only slight drawback of FarFaria that I can think of, is that it’s US orientated. So in some of the picture point books you will have the american words for objects, and American spellings for colours etc. For me it’s not a big deal, but I know some people don’t like that so I would say give the free trial a go and see how you get on.

For us FarFaria is indispensable. It doesn’t mean that we never read anything else, or that we don’t visit the library any more. We just love always knowing that a new story is only a tap away.

FarFaria is available to download from the App Store here

As you may recall, our last delivery was all about the Chi! With tons of Lego Legends of Chima Goodies.

Today I’ll be reviewing the remaining three sets

70104 – Jungle Gates, 70105 – Nest Dive and 70106 – Ice Tower.

Initially I thought I would review all the sets separately  but then after playing with them I realised they could all be used in conjunction with one another, so decided on a collective review.

Firstly we sat down and made the Nest Dive.

All of the Speedorz sets reviewed here come with a Minifigure and their Speedor, 6 Chi, 5 Game Cards, 2 weapons, and one piece of equipment.

The Nest Dive came with Eglor, and the aforementioned Nest Dive obstacle.

It was a fairly easy build for me, but Thomas did struggle a bit as it’s slightly fiddly, so I did most of the work on this one.

It didn’t take long at all to get fully set up, 10 minutes max.

Every one of the Speedorz have a unique part on the rear, and we all liked Eglor’s as he has very cool wings.

The object of the Nest Dive is to charge your Speedor into the middle of the nest. To do this you need to negotiate it up one of the branches, before it will land in the nest.

It’s not an easy task. It’s fun, and everyone will enjoy practicing and taking it in turns to perfect their skills, but it’s very hard to master.

Next up we put together the Ice Tower set.

Winzar of the Wolves is the character bundled with the Ice Tower. Winzar’s Special part on his Speedor are two saw type blades, one for each side.

This is the most traditional Lego style of the Chima Speedorz sets I’ve tested. It felt like I was putting together a Lego build, rather than a random set of pieces as some of the others sets have.

All the pieces fit together perfectly, and look brilliant when assembled.

It’s a fun game where you have to blast your race your Speedorz full speed into opposite sides of the ice tower. When you both crash, the top will fall off and the ball of Chi will roll to the ground. The winner is whoever grabs the Chi first.

The Ice Tower is beyond a doubt the easiest to master of the Speedorz sets. Whenever we’ve raced the Chi always falls out easily, so it makes for a lively game of catch the Chi at the end.

In terms of both build and playability, the Ice Tower Speedrorz set has been the most popular with my boys.

Lastly we set about building the Jungle Gates.

This is the one that Thomas was excited about the most, as it comes with Lennox the Lion. He’s fully on The lion’s side in the battle for Chima, so was exited to get another Lion tribe minifigure.

We now have Longtooth and Lennox. A Laval is next on the wishlist.

Lennox’s Speedor is very interesting. His unique piece is an extra set of wheels on the back. They are described on the pack as power wheels, “for the ultimate straight line performance!”.

We’ve found that the special wheels slow the Speedor down significantly, but that does make it much easier to control, and it does travel straighter more easily than the other Speedorz.

You don’t have to use the Power wheels, but it makes for a different challenge and is particularly useful for negotiating the Jungle gates.

The gates are basically just two arches, which you have to travel your speedor through. It’s not the most exciting of sets, but the gates have some intricate Lego Bricks in the shape of Lion Heads which are interesting.

The real fun from the Jungle gates comes when you combine it with the Ice Tower and Jungle Nest sets to make the ultimate Speedorz obstacle course.

If you can manage to traverse your Speedor through the Jungle Gates, straight over the nest dive and into the Ice Tower, then you are truly a Speedorz champion worthy of the power of the Chi.

As for us? We’re nowhere near that level at the moment, but we’re having fun practicing.

Being the longest serving manager in the premier league has some advantages, namely being getting yourself on the most Match Attax cards.

I just love this nostalgia filled image, and just had to share it with you all. Not just for the changing clothes and ever receding hairline, but also for the changing style of the actual Match Attax cards and premier league stickers. I do wish I had some of those retro early ones.

So how many of these Sir Alex Ferguson stickers and Cards did you have?

With the 50th Anniversary of the series happening this year, every things gone a bit Doctor Who mad, and he’s certainly picked a good time to start obsessing over it.

So my ears pricked up this week when I heard about some new sets of Doctor Who Figures from Character Options that Toys ‘R’ Us are exclusively releasing to celebrate the 50 year milestone.

All one of the eleven Doctors will be released in a special commemorative set, alongside with one of their most dreaded enemies – The Daleks. So each set will be a twin pack featuring a Doctor, plus one Dalek that he faced from a famous episode.

The sets are being released in batches, with the first 3 available for pre-order now at the Toys R Us Website.

Tenth Doctor and the Bronze Dalek, Second Doctor and the Silver and Blue Dalek, and the Sixth Doctor and the White and Gold Dalek are the first sets collectors and fans can get their hands on.

All of the sets will only be available for a limited time, so grab them whilst you can. The first 3 will be retired when the next sets of 3 are released.

Each set will retail at £19.99, so not cheap, but not exorbitantly priced. £10 a figure sounds reasonably really for a collector’s item.

Thomas is going to have some serious saving to do if he wants the complete set. Which he obviously will!

Mini Ninjas is a running iOS game from Square Enix, and I’ve been playing it whenever I can for a week now.

Endless runners are my thing, and I love this game. The only downside being is it’s quite hard. Much harder especially initially than any of the others runners I’ve played, but I like that. I’m enjoying the challenge.

As you run and defeat the ninjas, you set free cuddly animals trapped inside a bit like in the old Sonic games.

Whilst running, jumping over fire, Ninjas, boulders and wall running, you also have to collect flowers. These are used to craft potions back at the Dojo, to help you progress through the game.

Playable animal characters can now be unlocked in the Dojo. Theres Panda, Fox and Crane.

It’s very Kung Fu Panda in style, so if your children love that film they would enjoy this game.

Even at the tender ages of 7 and 5, Thomas and Jacob are both pretty advanced ios gamers. Jetpack Joyride, Chase the Train, they love all of these.

Mini Ninjas was a bit too difficult for Jacob. I think it’s the initial level of difficulty being so high, rather than the usual ease you in which they he never quite got used to. Thomas is that bit older so was prepared to persevere and hone his Ninja skills. Mini Ninjas has really tapped into his imagination, and he’s now saving up his koins for one of the new in-game animal friends.

As for me, I love it. It took me a while to get into it, but now I’m getting the hang of crafting potions and the way the enemies work I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve just unlocked the Fox character, which means I can double jump finally. Panda is next on my Dojo wishlist.

In my opinion Mini Ninjas is one for the adults and older children to really sink their teeth into. So if your after a bit more of a challenge, give it a try.

Apparently there is a cartoon series based around the Mini Ninjas planned. So we will be seeing a lot more from Hiro and co in the future.

Mini Ninjas is available now for £0.69/€0,79/$0.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch:https://itunes.apple.com/app/mini-ninjas/id577106023?mt=8

I stumbled upon this great offer from Attraction Tickets Direct this morning  and thought i’d pass it on and hopefully save some of you some spending money.

For all bookings made in May containing Disney, Universal or SeaWorld Tickets, Attraction Tickets Direct will give a free 14 day unlimited Legoland Florida Ticket for every person in the booking.

Bookings must be made in May, but the tickets are valid for the whole for 2013.

Double check on the website which tickets are covered in the offer

This is a great offer if your planning on visiting Legoland anyway. We were hoping to get there on our last trip but the spends didn’t end up getting us that far. If this offer had been available then I would have jumped at it!

Another great reason to visit Legoland Florida this summer is the opening of the brand new World Of Chima, which looks absolutely amazing. If your children are fans of Chima (or possibly you are if your daft like me) then the World of Chima is not to be missed. I can’t wait to see what the floating Mount Cavora looks like when it opens.

For more information on tickets and this offer visit the Attraction Tickets Direct website

He wasn’t up to tv or flashy lights and sounds for the first day or so, and these simple toys provided some much-needed relief whilst Jacob was getting over his poorly tummy

The sets are all aimed more for the younger end of the market – From 1 1/2 years and are lovely and chunky, which is perfect for the little ones.

The John Deere Fun on the Farm Playset is a gorgeous set of 4 different farm vehicles, and would make an ideal first farm toy. It comes beautifully packaged, and looks great in the box. I have put it on my list to buy for younger nieces and nephews as it looks so wonderful packaged up it would make an amazing gift.

Thankfully once you get it out of the packaging it plays just as well as it looks in the box. Although if you’ve ever heard of frustration free packaging – This is not it! It took me at least 10 minutes and a lot of deep breaths to get all the pieces out. Its wonderful when out, but I wouldn’t attempt it with an anxious toddler looking over your shoulder.

All the farm vehicles have some sort of working element to them . The combine harvester has a spinning thresher, and the corn moves from side to side as you push it along. The Tractor has a hood which opens for fixing, the front loader has a moveable claw for picking up the hay bale, and the trailer can perform a tipping action to unload its contents.

As well as the large amount of vehicles, the set also includes 4 animals, 2 farmers, 3 hooked trailers, a hay bale, crate of tomatoes, a triangular lump of coal I think and a small fence.

The fence is nice as an added extra, however a bit more pieces would have been nice. You can only fit one animal in the enclosed fence at a time.

All of the figures have a circular bottom with a protruding end, which helps them to click into place in the vehicles. This works great with the farmers, but I’m not sure why the animals also have them. It makes them a tad unstable, so they tend to wobble and fall over easily. It’s not the biggest of issues, and Jacob didn’t seem to find it a problem, but it was something I noticed.

All in all the John Deere Fun on The Farm set is a brilliant toy which a toddler is simply bound to love. It has a few small down points, but for the amount of play that will be got out of the set, they are well worth overlooking.

Next up is the Johnny Tractor and Friends Mini Vehicles. Personally I always had a stash of small toys when the boys were younger and we were out and about. These 2 cheeky cheery vehicles would make excellent handbag and pushchair toys for Farm Mad toddlers.

The wheels are really zippy, and they really fly when you let them go on a shiny surface.

They are described on the packaging as squeezable, but I’m not sure why as they are not at all squeezable. They might have a slight bit of give after a while, but are not what I would call squeezable.

Lastly we have the John Deere Lights and Sounds Monster Treads Tractor

This tractor is one big chunky monkey. It definitely lives up to the Monster Treads name. If your youngster has a thing for Monster Trucks then they would love this.

This one was Jacob’s top pick by far. He spent ages rolling it back and for around the Fun on the Farm set, loving the groovy way the wheels move.

I’m not saying groovy to be cute or different, it does actually groove as it moves! The Monster Treads Tractor has front and rear suspension, so it moves from side to side as you push it along.

The huge wheels and suspension also mean it can tackle any terrain, and would be excellent outdoors toy in the garden.

On the top it has three buttons to activate the lights and sounds. One button gives you a realistic engine noise and turns the headlights on, The next is the reverse beeping sound.

Lastly a voiceover man from an advert saying “nothing runs like a deere”. This must be from an american advert as i’ve never heard it before, but it’s a bit of fun and the boys enjoyed pressing it to listen to the funny voice.

Jacob really enjoyed having the farm toys to play with whilst he was getting over his stomach bug. Even though he’s older than the recommended age for them, it was lovely for him to have some simpler toys to enjoy. I also think it’s great that Tomy have produced some beautiful Farm toys suitable for the younger end of the market.

Thanks Tomy for sending us the John Deere Fun on the Farm Playset, Johnny Tractor and Friends Mini Vehicles and John Deere Lights and Sounds Monster Treads Tractor to review.

All over the world Star Wars fans will be gathering for events, and toy shops seem the perfect place to me for events to be held.

I actually thought that more of the big toy shops would have something going on, especially as the day is a Saturday. So this little post is just to promote the stores that are getting in the spirit and celebrating May the Fourth!

I am not connected with any of the below events. I just wanted to list a few toy related Star Wars Day events in the UK. If i’ve missed any that are local to you, please contact me and I’ll add them to the list.

Ducklings Toy Shop Marlborough, Wiltshire will be hosting a range of Star Wars Day activities, as well as their Lego Minifigure and Moshi Monsters swap day

Forbidden Planet

As well as Star Wars Day, May the 4th also happens to be Free Comic Book Day. Check the website for details of store participation and opening times. The website says that they will have goody bags suitable for all ages, and you might even be lucky enough to bag a Star Wars comic.

Hamleys

If you’re looking for Star Wars Days events and you have a Hamleys near you, then I think you’re in luck. Hamleys definitely seem to be putting the most effort in, and have a really strong lineup of events in all of their stores.

Were lucky enough to have the brand new Cardiff store just down the road, so if you’re looking for us May 4th. This is where we’ll be

Hamleys Cardiff will see Boba Fett running a craft workshop, and a special green screen installed for you to transport yourself into the Star Wars universe (additional cost)

Princess Leia, some Stormtroopers and possibly a Jedi Knight will be popping over to Hamleys Regent Street. 

Hamleys Glasgow are pushing the boat out with nearly everyone from Star Wars attending.

“Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, Gamorrean Guard Sandtrooper, Imperial Gunner, TIE Pilot, Tusken Raider, Tarfful the Wookie, Jedi Knight and a Biker Scout…. and a very special appearance by R2-D2 on Sunday May 5th!

The Hamleys Entertainment Team will also be dressing up and joining in the Galactic Fun! So you might even get to meet Princess Leia and even Yoda. “An amazing weekend this will be”!

And Hamleys Dublin are running several Star Wars workshops and a Facebook competition where you can win 100Euros worth of Star Wars Goodies

I love that Hamleys have got so into Star Wars day, and have even made this video.

Legoland Windsor

Although not a free event as you obviously have to pay the entrance fee, I wanted to give the Legoland Windsor Star Wars weekend a mention as it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun. You can download the leaflet all about it here: Legoland Star Wars Weekend