Imagine the Possibilities

Before motherhood, I always thought I would be the sort of Mum who would naturally divert my children away from Barbie dolls - they seemed to embody the outrageous girliness that I didn't want my daughters to to grow up thinking was expected of them.  However, motherhood changes a lot of things and these days I see the world a little differently.  I don't like to put boundaries on my daughter's play.  If they want to hammer pretend nails into wooden DIY workbenches then I shall encourage that... and if they want to play "sisters" with their Barbie dolls, then so be it.

So why the change of tune?  Well, motherhood has taught me that imaginative play is incredibly valuable for children to learn about the world and to form their own ideas of the way society works.  Our children aren't constrained by the boundaries that many adults think are placed on them by society.  When they play, children can be anything they want to be, and do anything they want to do.  Imagine the possibilities.

As a successful working woman in a male-dominated business (software), I'm keen to encourage my girls to think big.  I thought this video from Barbie was very clever.

Those clever beans at Barbie HQ are of course right.  When the girls are immersed in their imaginary Barbie world they think up stories and new ideas.  They plan, they succeed, they think big.  Of course, there are also days when the extent of their role play goes no further than Barbie and her friends going to the shops to buy cakes... but that's cool too!

I guess my big concern is that thinking big doesn't have to stop when the role play fizzles out.  When my girls stop playing and start "being", I want them to understand that there are no boundaries. They can be anything.

Barbie Spin 'n Ride Review

In our house, Barbie has now become a firm favourite with both of my girls, aged 3 and 6.  The girls quite regularly will role play and make games up with their Barbie dolls as an occasional game, but it isn't very often that a Barbie toy becomes the primary focus for a few days in a row.  the Barbie Spin 'n Ride set is a bit of a change to this, in that both Lara and Holly seem to return to this play set each evening to play - I think it has a bit more of a "toy" appeal than a "I'm another Barbie doll in my set of role play dolls" appeal.

The Barbie Spin 'n Ride doll is a little bit different from most Barbie dolls in that Barbie has a fixed outfit (a pair of blue jeans) and movable limbs with rotating knee joints.  Barbie sits on her own bike which steers and moves just as a real bike does.  Alongside her ride her two puppies on their own skateboards, one of them even spins around and around as Barbie pedals.

Both girls enjoy attaching and detaching the puppies and their skateboards from the main bike and there also seems to be a strange fascination with taking Barbie's cycle helmet on and off!  I think its a little disappointing that the bike won't stand alone without the puppies riding alongside (you have to hold it to balance it... or else whoosh it REALLY hard across the floor) but to be honest, most of the time the girls want Barbie to be accompanied by her pet pals!

Holly struggles to grasp why her other Barbie dolls can't use the bike and also keeps trying to take off Barbie's special boots.  But despite this, she has formed an attachment to this doll - I think this is something to do with her big sister having recently learned to ride and having received a new bike for her birthday.

Barbie can be taken off the bike and played with, as any other Barbie doll would be, but I think this doll is a little bit special.  OK, she's not wearing sparkly glam clothing, but her appeal is very different and it has hit all the right notes with my two girls.

The Barbie Spin 'n Ride Pups set costs around £24.99 and is available from Smyths Toys.

Colour Me Cute Barbie Review

Barbie holds a certain fascination with both of my girls right now.  When Lara first started showing an interest in Barbie, a few years ago, I was worried that it would become an overly girly obsession but actually I find that when Lara and Holly are in a Barbie phase, they are their most mature, considered and thoughtful when playing.

The Barbie Colour Me Cute puppy playset has been one of the most popular additions to our playroom for many many months.  Barbie and her colourful dress and pup have been the topic of conversation at school, and the very first thing to be shown off by Lara and Holly when we have visitors.  They're obviously both very taken with this Barbie doll.

Barbie Colour Me Cute features a little puppy pamper table with a pillow and the space for a puppy bath-tub.  When the white puppy is washed with icy cold water it changes colour into a combination of garish pinks, blues and purples.  Using Barbie's handy little grooming tool you can selectively turn part of the puppy brightly coloured to make silly styles and designs!  Having watched the TV advert and followed the instructions Lara and I were a bit stumped - our puppy came coloured and we didn't know how to make it white!  I tried rubbing it with ice cubes... I even tried putting it in the freezer!  In a moment of inspiration while making myself a cup of tea I decided to try dipping the puppy into hot water and hey-presto, it turned white!  Phew.

So now I know how to reset the puppy to white so that Lara and Holly can start doodling little designed on the poor dog with the soft pamper tool!  As it is a water toy, things do tend to get a bit messy when Holly is around!

Barbie herself comes dressed in a fashionable, yet understated dress and shoes.  At first glance, the dress is fairly plain but when you apply the cool water to the bodice of the dress it reveals colourful patterns.  You can draw onto the top with water to make different designs each time - a little bit like an Aquadoodle mat!  It doesn't take very long for the top to dry so within a few minutes the girls can be creating a totally different design of outfit.

I like the simplicity of Barbie Colour Me Cute - such a small addition to a doll seems to make it stand out from the other dolls that the girls have.  The puppy grooming table looks great alongside our other Barbie playsets and it fits right in.  My only worry is how long it will be before one of the girls mislays the grooming tool - it does come with a loop to attach it to Barbie's hand but it is a very small piece - perhaps a drawer in the table would have been a good place to store it?

The Barbie Colour Me Cute puppy playset costs around £23.99 and is suitable for ages 3 upwards.

Barbie Chelsea Flippin' Pup Pool Playset Review

Barbie and her friends and family have recently become THE BIG THING in the Mellow Household what with the recent arrival of the Malibu house and a number of new and exciting Barbies that the girls have received as presents from various people over the summer.  The Chelesa Flippin' Pup Pool set is a great addition to our Barbie play house and we have been reviewing it for a few weeks with much hilarity from both girls whenever they play with it.

Chelsea, for those who don't already know, is Barbie's younger sister.  Chelsea and her three (count them) puppies have a fun paddling pool complete with diving board and slide.  You can choose to fill it with water but, on the whole, we don't as it would mean we were less likely to play with it other than on special occasions.  The slide and diving board clip to the side of the pool and then the three pups can bounce and jump into the pool.

Chelsea herself is modelled in much the same way as you would expect from Barbie's younger sister.  She comes with a swimsuit and rubber ring for when playing with water.  The girls love having another family member to play with and it really encourages roll play and imagination to have a new person, of a different age, for them to interact with when playing "Barbies".

One of Chelsea's puppies (Taffy) has springy legs that fold as they slide down and, thanks to a nifty little clip at the bottom of the slide, this causes the puppies to catapult into the sky with dramatic effects.  I have, on occasion, seen this particular puppy loop the loop before landing in the pool - but more often than not they just sort of plop off the end of the slide of catapult in a totally different direction... hence the unstoppable giggles from Holly and Lara.

The two other puppies are soft and squidgy (they act like squirters in the water) and can either slide down the slide themselves, or you can place them in their own little sliding vehicle for them to slide more smoothly down.  These two puppies work really well on the flipping diving board which is simply finger-operated to plop the puppies down into the water.

This is such a simple Barbie playset and, when we were first sent it to review, my immediate thought was that it was a bit gimmicky, but I think the simplicity has lasting power and I've been really pleasantly surprised by the amount of play that this Chelsea Flippin' Pup Pool set has seen.  The set costs around £23 and requires a small amount of construction before use (probably no need to pre-construct it before the big day though if you are giving it as a gift).

   

Barbie Malibu House Review

As a child, the Barbie Malibu House would have been the thing of my dreams.  The ultimate Barbie playset.  My girls were very kindly offered the chance to test out the latest Barbie mansion - the Barbie Malibu House for it's family-friendliness and gift suitability this Christmas.

Barbie : Life in the Dreamhouse is the inspiration for the Barbie Malibu House - a relaxed, glamorous escape for Barbie and her friends.  Lara likes to bring along all of her dolls including Barbie of all shapes and sizes as well as princesses and mermaids.  Lara places them all on the semi-circle couch in front of the TV for their chill-out time!

The Barbie Malibu house comes with plenty of furniture - a dressing table with two chairs, a TV chair, toilet, bed, dining table and lots more.  There are also lots of tiny accessories including cute little details such as Barbie's own tablet (!), toothbrushes, cosmetics and plenty of cutlery, crockery and food for the kitchen.  Admittedly, this means lots and lots of tiny pieces so this toy isn't really suitable for a family with tiny members (I think Holly is just about old enough to be trusted with them) but the great thing is that all of the pieces of furniture in the house come with little push-in holes into which you place the accessories so that they stay in place and don't rattle around all over the place.

The Malibu house comes in four parts which either fold together to form a closed house, or open up to make a wide playset.  The house is over two floors with an open-plan space downstairs and more targeted rooms upstairs.  It really is a great way to let little imaginations run riot and both Holly and Lara enjoy playing alone, or together for quite some time, in their own little fantasy world.

At one end of the Malibu house there is a spiral staircase with a "lift" mechanism in which Barbie can stand while you winch her up or down the stairs.  Gosh, it's a hard life for Barbie!  Although this part of the house, with it's floor-to-ceiling aquarium looks very glam, actually I find that this is the one area of weakness in the toy - the clasp for the lift that holds Barbie in place has already broken and Lara finds it almost impossible to winch the thread up and down without help.

One of Lara's favourite parts of the Barbie Malibu house is the bedroom which comes with lots of space for Barbie's massive shoe collection and coat hangers for her to hang her dresses.  Next door is a shower cubicle and the whole piece of furniture flips down to form a bed with pillows and a sheet.

In the TV room next door there is space for a big-screen TV (aka your iphone).  I can't believe the luxuries that Barbie gets these days.

The Barbie Malibu house has been a big hit with both of my girls.  It seems to take up a large amount of space in my living room but at least we can fold it up to make it more compact during the evenings.

The Barbie Malibu mansion costs around £99.99 and would be the Christmas present of many little girl's dreams! If you do plan to buy it for Christmas, I recommend constructing it before the big day as it took Mr. B. quite some time to fit all the pieces together around two over-excited little girls. There are also several stickers which need to be applied throughout the house.

Barbie and the Secret Door

I will admit that I secretly quite enjoy watching Barbie DVDs with the girls.  There is something absolutely spot on about a Barbie movie - the target them so well at little girls of about Lara's age without them being unecessarily naff (which lots of kids TV is!).  The new Barbie and the Secret Door DVD is released today and I think they've got it just right again - an animation that ticks every box on ever little girl's list of movie must-haves.

In this latest Barbie musical, Barbie stars as Princess Alexa, a young girl who daydreams of having magical powers.  One day she stumbles across a magical kingdom and makes new friends, a mermaid and a fairy, who need her help to save all of the magic in the kingdom from the hands of an over-zealous ruler.

We loved the funny magical creatures with crazy noses and lively bright colours.  We loved the synchronised fairy dancing, pop musical numbers and glittery magic wands.  I can well imagine, after a few viewings, Lara trying to sing along and re-enact the songs and dancers with her friends.  If you buy the DVD I believe there is an in-pack song book to help them on their way!!!

Barbie and the Secret Door opens up a fun world of imagination - what would you do if you suddenly discovered that you had magical powers?  What parts of your world do you take for granted that others might not know about?

Barbie and the Secret Door is available to own on DVD from today.

  

Barbie and her Sisters in a Pony Tale Review

Lara and I often enjoy watching a movie together on a Sunday afternoon.  Lara is into all sorts of things at present, but Barbie is a relatively recent discovery for her so she was over the moon when we were asked to review the new Barbie movie - Barbie and her Sisters in A Pony Tale.  Ponies don't feature highly on my list of top things to look for in a movie but Lara seems to be interested right now (I'm not going to question this in a 4 year old girl!) and very honestly, I had previously quite enjoyed the Barbie movies we had watched together.  Barbie and Her Sisters in a Pony Tale didn't disappoint - even for grown-ups, it is a very watchable movie!

Lara sat quietly and watched the whole movie with me; I think this may be a record.  The story obviously made an impression on her because she rushed straight into school the following morning to tell her teacher all about Majesty the mysterious wild horse who comes to Barbie's rescue when she needs a horse for the all-important horse show.

Barbie's sisters cover all sorts of ages and tastes.  I was particularly taken with Skipper who seems more interested in her tech and her blog than with the ponies.  I thought it was interesting that the movie just began to touch on her relationship with... boys (although this was totally lost on Lara).  Lara most likes Barbie's youngest sister who thinks it is unfair that she only gets to ride a tiny pony... but then she is quite tiny herself.  There were several points in the movie that Lara laughed out loud at her antics.

Because the movie is based in Europe (in the bright sunny setting of the alps) there are lots of European accents.  I didn't find any of the movie to make me cringe, which to me is very important if I am going to watch a film with my daughters.

Barbie and her Sisters in a Pony Tale is a celebration of all things girly - ponies, pinks and Barbie all rolled into one.  It comes out on DVD and Blu Ray next Monday the 28th October.

 

Barbie Design and Dress Studio Doll Review

Lara was a very lucky girl this year - Idealo sent her a birthday gift, the Barbie Design and Dress Studio doll and fashion kit as part of their research into top toys for 2013.  This was Lara's first Barbie doll and I think it was a great introduction because it appeals to her strong creative side.  Lara spends most evenings tucked away in our dining room drawing, cutting, sticking and generally creating works of art and the Barbie Design and Dress studio encourages that.

The Barbie Design and Dress Studio features one Barbie doll (with a very impressive pair of heels that make me cringe simply looking at them) and a removable necklace.  She comes with one plain pink dress and a kit of 4 more different coloured dresses for you to design and decorate as you wish.

Each dress has a very simple shape and is encased in a small paper packet that makes you think of fashion drawings.  The kit includes two stencils for drawing patterns on the fabric, three different coloured pens.  There are also a few sparkly stickers for the finishing touches to a dress.  When your child has finished designing and decorating the dress, they simply slot it out of the paper packet and dress up Barbie.  They can make different dress designs for different occasions!

I think the concept is great; originally I was worried that once those 5 dresses had been designed then all you really had left was a simple Barbie doll but I've found out now that I can buy top-up sets of dresses and stickers to give the set a new lease of life in the future, should we need it.  I would say that I found the pens to 'bleed' a little on the fabric so it was quite hard for Lara to get a very accurate design but it may just be that she is a bit young to get the most from the stencils and pens (the set is recommended for age 5+).

The Barbie Design and Dress Studio has been a perfect introduction to Barbie for Lara because it it a lot more than just a doll or dress-up toy.