Beauty and the Beast Belle dolls review

Holly is totally enchanted by Disney princesses at present. She spends a lot of time in imaginary play upstairs in our playroom re-enacting scenes from movies. These two Belle dolls by Hasbro inspired by the new Disney Beauty and the Beast movie have been a total hit and they allow her to play two different roles in her make-believe world - that of Belle the villager and Belle the princess.

The Beauty and the Beast Village Dress Belle is dressed in a traditional blue checked and silk-style dress to match Belle as she leads her life in the village before she meets the Beast. She has a simple hairstyle that Holly likes to try and keep tidy and she comes with a pair of brown boots. I have caught Holly singing while playing, just like daydreamer Belle!

Enchanting Ball Gown Belle is dressed in her finest golden dress and is ready to be swept off her feet. She comes with a tiara, a golden necklace and a pair of golden slippers fit for a princess. This dolls arms and elbows move so that you can pose her into dance positions.  Holly likes to play with both dolls at once and swaps their shoes and dresses over until her heart's content!

I think Enchanting Ball Gown Belle looks very grown up and her simple face features remind me of the live action movie much more than a cartoon style doll would. Somehow the dolls give off a mature feeling which means that Holly's games don't seem quite so childish. Belle's hair, of course, has not stayed anywhere near as neat as it was when the doll first arrived, and I've had to pick that necklace up off the floor at least a million times in the last month!

Village Dress Belle costs around £17.99 at Argos and Enchanting Ball Gown Belle costs around £38.99. The difference in process is mainly due to the magical-looking dress but I guess also to do with the arms and movement. Holly definitely plays with this doll more than any other in her collection.  Both Belle dolls are inspired by the live action version of Beauty and the Beast.

Disney Princess Ariel Bath Styling Head Review

Holly was delighted to be asked to review the Disney Princess Ariel Bath Styling Head from Just Play as she is very much into princesses, hair styling and anything Disney right now. My interest dwindled soon after the epic 10+ minute struggle to remove her from her packaging - her hair was literally sewn into the packaging and was shaped to look "pretty" using some form of rigid glue-like-substance.

The Disney Princess Ariel Bath Styling Head is intended for use as a bath toy which is handy because the first thing we had to do was to wash her hair! She comes with a hollow sea shell that you can use to gently pour water over her hair and eyes to make them change colour. Ariel can stick to the side of the bath using three suckers but Holly finds it hard to brush or style her hair when she is attached to the side of the bath so in fact we have had more use of Ariel when she has been on dry land.

Ariel comes with a set of styling accessories such as hair combs, a selection of hair clips, a hairbrush and a necklace, all with a seaside theme. Because she is intended as a bath toy, she is a little smaller than many toy styling heads but that doesn't seem to reduce the opportunities for plaits, pony tails and clips! Holy is quite taken with her deep red hair which is instantly recognisable. I've never quite managed to get Ariel's hair to look quite as good as it did when it was plastered into the packaging, in fact she looks a little bald on top unless you give her a serious comb-over.

We weren't awfully impressed by the colour changing features. You can use ice-cold water to turn a sliver of Ariel's hair from light blue to dark blue (the change is noticeable but the effect would be more magical if it were to change from one colour to a significantly different colour). Ariel's eyes and lips also change colour with icy water, intending to give the impression of make-up but once again, the difference in the colour of the lips is so small that its almost instantly forgettable. The eye lids change from brown to pink. When you apply warm water, the colours change back. Given that this is a bath-toy, the use of water to change the colours is a good idea but most people don't have ice water on hand in their bathroom to change the colours too and from.

The Disney Princess Ariel Bath Styling Head costs around £24.99. I think there is play value in it, but we've found it more appealing as a regular styling head, rather than a colour-changing bath styling head. Find her at Argos and Amazon.

Tsum Tsum Squishies - Series 2 Coming Soon!

Tsum Tsum squishies are small collectible toys that feature all of your favourite Disney characters in a compact, collectible form. You can stack 'em, roll 'em and indeed squish 'em!

Lara is very much into collectibles at present - she has just turned 7 and is always on the lookout for little trinkets for her bedroom that she can show off to her friends.  Series 1 of the Tsum Tsum (pronounced zoom zoom, apparently!) is already available and features animals and friendly faces from Disney animations new and old. Lara was very taken by these little characters who are all recognisable (even though they're highly stylised).  Each set of Tsum Tsum squishes comes with a collector's checklist so you can see the other characters in the range and tick them off as you collect them.  In series 1 there are 50 characters to collect, including several ultra rare golden characters including Elsa and Mickey himself!

As you'd expect from the Disney name, Tsum Tsum toys are better quality than any other similar small collectors items currently targeted at kids.  They're made by Zuru - home of Robo-Fish and Go-Go Bubbles. Disney Tsum Tsum squishies come in packs of 2,4 and 5, each with a mystery character hidden inside which adds to the suspense of collecting them (and of course, the risk of buying one you already own).  Tsum Tsum even come with their own app but we haven't tried it yet. 

Fans of Disney Tsum Tsum will be pleased to know that this month series 2 of these collectible characters will be released.  A whole new set of Tsum Tsum characters but this time with a flocked, slightly fluffy coating to make them extra specially cute!

With packs from £2.99 I expect Lara to be saving her pennies and looking out for these sets of Tsum Tsum Series 2 squishies in Argos and Tesco when we pop in over the summer.  You will also find them in Debenhams, Asda, Toys R Us, Smyths, Morrisons and The Entertainer. They make great gifts for Disney fans (young or old) and would be lovely little additions to a party bag.

#DisneyBookWeek - Hardback Disney Movie Favourites from Parragon

Disney book week is coming to a close but there's still time to join in the magic. Until the 12th June, look out for special offers on Disney books from Parragon.

Parragon's exclusive Disney Movie Collection of over 20 Disney storybooks offers a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to relive your favourite Disney (and indeed Pixar) classic tales such as Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and Finding Nemo. You can find the full collection of beautiful story books on this special amazon page.

The special series of Disney storybooks is a set of collectible hard-backs with full-page colour images from each movie.  Each book is dedicated to the tale of a classic Disney movie and they make wonderful bedtime reading stories as you can share a familiar story and pictures - building on the love of a favourite movie is a great way of encouraging reading at Lara and Holly's age.  Lara has also enjoyed reading the books herself - they are full stories and Lara quite happily tucks herself up with one of them to read.

Our collection was started by Parragon with The Jungle Book, the story of Mowgli the man-cub, and Frozen (Holly's absolutely favourite Disney movie).  The books feel and look very special and its no wonder Lara enjoys them so much.

If you check out this Disney microsite, dedicated to Disney Book Week you'll even find a competition to win bedtime reading bundles.

Disney Princess Art Therapy Colouring Books

There are very few things in life quite as fine as finding the time to sit and doodle or colour in pictures.  Grown-up colouring has become very popular as a way of zoning out from the world and helping the mind settle.  Trust me, with the past few weeks I've had at work, I've needed a way of zoning out from the world!  Parragon books have just released two Disney Art Therapy books which I love and Lara loves (and even Holly will give them a try too).

Lara is a colouring machine.  When she goes to after school club, or holiday club, she comes home with mountains of colouring designs that she has filled in.  This week I'm sending her to holiday club with her Disney Princess Art Therapy book which features pages of beautiful Disney Princess inspired patterns to colour in.  You'd be mistaken to think that a Disney Princess colouring book would be filled with pictures of princesses and castles; these designs are far more grown up and really are "inspired by" rather than images from movies.  Each picture features a recognisable motif or small image from your favourite Disney movies including Tangled, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella and Snow White.

The Art Therapy books are designed for older children as well as adults.  The designs are striking and do require a lot of time and attention to colour in - Lara adores the books for this very reason.  On several pages you have to search hard for the Disney reference but all the designs are beautiful and Lara will very much enjoy filling in this colouring book.

 

Parragon also have an entire colouring book dedicated to designs inspired by the movie Frozen.  These pages feature symbols of love, ice and snowflakes as well as patterns that appear on dresses and clothing in the movie.  I think Holly was a little disappointed when she realised that the colouring book wasn't a series of pictures of Anna and Else and Olaf but for me the book is perfect.  Now all I need is a set of grown-up colouring pens and pencils to get my creative juices flowing.

You can follow Parragon Books on twitter and as @parragonbooks on instagram and pinterest to find out more about their new releases.

Disney Marvel Kids Interactive Review

At the weekends, I love to sit the girls down in the afternoon with a craft activity or a puzzle to do, as a bit of quiet time after lunch - this weekend Lara will be doing Spider-Man activity sheets that we have downloaded from the Disney Marvel Kids Interactive website where you'll find plenty of activity sheets for Spider-Man and Avengers fans.

Lara has been phenomenally keen to get started on the Spider-Man activity sheets and even asked me to print of a wordsearch that she could take up to bed with her!  Alongside word-searches you'll find anagram puzzles and sudoku too.  All of the activities are suited to children from about age 5 upwards - Lara finds them suitably challenging.

But Spider-Man isn't the only one of the Marvel characters that you'll find on the Disney Marvel Kids Interactive website.  You'll find games and activities featuring all of the Spider-Man villains as well as the full range of Avengers stars including Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, Loki and more - you're children can read a short biography of every character to find out a little about them all.  There are short videos to watch too - fun snippets for Avengers fans.

Lara and I have also been playing a couple of the Marvel games on the interactive website.  Lara is just beginning to show an interest in games for the pure challenge of gaming (rather than the very basic games for kids such as matching pairs or word games).

So far, Lara has tried the Spider-Man Web Slinger game on the iPad and I've been somwhat absorbed by The Avengers : Bunker Busters which is reminiscent of Angry Birds; you have to target your avengers at a bunker of baddies and time the use of their skills to break through the bunkers.  I may have accidentally spent an evening trying to move through the many different levels (there are plenty of levels to work through!).  Thankfully your progress through the levels is stored (presumably through website cookies) so you can return later on.

It is a little frustrating for a 6 year old to have to sit through an advert each time they choose to play a different game - I'd much rather the adverts weren't there but I do understand that without them, we probably wouldn't get a chance to play these games for free.

I'm actually really impressed by the quality of the games on the Disney Marvel Kids Interactive website - they are all great platform games with classic qualities and they're easily picked up.  I thought they worked really well on the iPad screen which was pleasantly surprising! On the laptop we've found they work best when the browser window is zoomed in to make the game fit more or less full-screen.  Lara find the iPad controls much more intuitive.  I find the keyboard on the laptop more so.  Either way, there's many hours of playing fun to be had here.

Explore the world of Marvel characters for yourself at marvelkids.disney.co.uk.

Disclosure: Lara and I have been asked to review the interactive features of the Marvel Kids website in return for a voucher. We regularly use Disney websites for games and activities and we're happy to provide feedback.

Fisher-Price Rainbow Dazzle Minnie Review

Holly is my little fashion diva at present and Fisher-Price Rainbow Dazzle Minnie is a fun toy to encourage her fashion creativity while learning about colours, matching and combinations.  Holly has always been a big Minnie Mouse fan; there's something about her high heels and collection of spotty bows that fascinates Holly who has now started her own collection of high heels and hair accessories!

Rainbow Dazzle Minnie Mouse is a free-standing hard light-up toy who speaks and sings.  Press her hand to start the process of choosing a new magical outfit for Minnie Mouse.  She will ask you to choose a colour for her bow, her dress and her skirt. Each time you touch her magical touchpoints, the colour of the light will change and Minnie will make a comment about the colour, or the combination of colours you have chosen.

Once you are happy with Minnie's outfit you can press her hand to finish the outfit and Minnie will sing "True Colours" to you.  The lights change through a range of colours - green, blue, yellow, white, purple, pink and red.

Rainbow Dazzle Minnie also comes with a little camera-shaped toy which, when you look through it, shows all of the rainbow-coloured lights in sparkly wonder.  Holly loves looking through the camera and even likes to look at other things around the house - even the television!

I was worried that the entertainment factor of Rainbow Dazzle Minnie Mouse was very limited as she doesn't move when she sings and the range of phrases and music is very limited.  However, Holly doesn't seem to mind the repetitive music and genuinely seems to enjoy the challenge of choosing a combination of three colours that offer a new fashion outlook for the day!  Minnie's arms are poseable and even when she is not lit up, her pink dress has a pearlescent shimmer so she looks very pretty as an ornament on the shelf in Holly's room, even when she isn't singing.

This  Minnie Mouse Toy is perfectly suited to children aged 2-5 who want to explore colours and shapes and sing along with Minnie Mouse.  Fisher-Price Rainbow Dazzle Minnie costs around £24.99.

Free Dining at Walt Disney World, Florida

We are still on a Mickey-Mouse high after our Disney experience this summer in Paris.  We made amazing memories together as a family.  While we were staying at Disney we made the most of our dining plan and the girls loved being able to choose their favourite meals in the resort restaurants.  This autumn, if you book a 2016 Walt Disney World Resort holiday, you could make the most of their 2016 Free Dine offer and, to celebrate, Walt Disney World sent the girls the wherewithall to make their most favourite meal of all - spaghetti bolognaise!

It doesn't matter where in the world we are, or how fussy the girls are feeling, both Lara and Holly will always opt for spaghetti bolognaise if it is on the menu!  Across Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, there are over 450 places to dine across a phenomenally wide range of cuisines so there is bound to be something to suit everyone's tastes.  To bring the Disney dining experience into our own home we cooked the girl's their favourite meal and served in some exclusive Disney Store cookware!

We sprinkled our spaghetti bolognaise with grated cheddar cheese.  But did you know that more than 89 varieties of cheese are used by Disney theme park and resort chefs to help serve up some of the 55 million meals that are served annually in the parks?

Our home Disney dining experience was great fun.  If you'd like to experience Walt Disney World Florida's food offering first hand then you can currently dine for free if you book before the 3rd November.  As part of the Walt Disney World Resort Free Dine Offer, a family of four people could save upto £1000 on a 7 day holiday.  Full terms and conditions are available at www.disneyworld.co.uk.

Disney Inspired Clothing Your Children Will Love

Children all over the world dream about being just like their favourite Disney characters, from little girls wishing to become Frozen’s Elsa to young boys who want to be Mr Incredible. Kids are fascinated by Disney’s heroes and princesses, and there are lots of different types of clothing available that will help them to transform into their favourite character.

Frozen Princess Clothing
Frozen is proving to be one of Disney’s most popular films with girls all over the world wanting to recreate scenes from the favourite princess movie. Children’s Frozen clothing is easy to find online and through companies such as Lamaloli and they are perfect for a wide range of occasions from playing dress-up with their friends through to attending a fancy dress party.

The Little Mermaid Outfits
The Little Mermaid is another popular Disney film and Ariel is a much-loved character little girls love to dress up as. Sebastian the lobster is another popular personality in the film and if you have a brother and sister of a similar age who enjoy playing together, you can buy Little Mermaid outfits that they can wear together, with the girl as Ariel and the boy as Sebastian – or even vice versa!

Toy Story Fancy Dress
Another immensely popular franchise is Toy Story and there are lots of popular characters to dress up as, from Woody and Buzz Lightyear to Slinky Dog and Bo Peep. All you need is a sheriff’s hat and Badge with a yellow chequered shirt to recreate Woody’s look or a bouffant pink and white dress with a hat for Bo Peep. Little girls and boys can have fun dressing up as different Toy Story characters and this can be just for fun playtimes with friends or to go to a birthday party.

The Incredibles Clothes
The Incredibles is all about an incredibly strong family with super powers and this is a great theme to go with if you have a themed party to go to and you have more than one child. You can dress up your son as Mr Incredible or The Dash and your daughter can go as Elastigirl or Violet. The outfits are easily recognisable, making them hugely popular at parties as the children all have fun working out who has come as what character.

Cinderella Getups
Everyone loves Cinderella’s storyline of the young girl who blossoms into a princess and this is why Cinderella themed clothes are always so popular. You can easily buy a wide range of Cinderella themed outfits, including accessories such as magic wands, tiaras and of course, plastic slippers.
All children love to dress up, whether it be for Halloween, a fancy dress party or just a regular playtime session with the neighbour’s children, so dressing them up like their favourite Disney princess or hero is a great way of treating them to something they will get endless use out of.

Disclosure: This post was written for Mellow Mummy by Sophie Hazan.

Top Tips for Travelling to Disneyland Paris

A couple of weeks ago, we took the girls on a very special surprise trip to Disneyland Paris.  We all ABSOLUTELY loved it and I'm so glad we took them.  Lara, who is 6, had a brilliant time on all of the rides and was in awe of some of the more adventurous roller-coasters (though not brave enough to try) - she still felt the Disney magic.  Her little sister, Holly, is 3 years old - she coped brilliantly well with the amount of walking and queuing we had to do.  Holly's big eyes for the entire trip showed how much she loved the Disneyland atmosphere.

A trip to Disneyland doesn't come cheap and lots of people have asked me, in the past couple of weeks, for my thoughts on various elements of the trip so I thought I would share my top tips for making the most of your time at Disneyland Paris.

For reference, we stayed for 3 nights at the Sequoia Lodge hotel which is on-site (around a 15 minute walk away from the parks).  We traveled from Heathrow by plane and took the bus from the airport.  We booked a half-board plus meal plan.

1. Take Water Bottles

We saved ourselves a lot of money on drinks by taking drinking bottles with us on our journey.  There are free water fountains at lots of places throughout the two parks where you can top-up.  Drinks aren't extortionately expensive in the parks, but over a series of days, the price of buying water or soft drinks could add up so we drank water during the day and saved ourselves for dinner time!

2. Use your Magic Hours

If you choose to stay in a Disney hotel your park tickets entitle you to two additional hours in the Disneyland park each morning before it opens to the general public.  We forced ourselves up out of bed early to make sure we could eat breakfast in time to head over to the park for 8am when the crowds were at their smallest and the queues at their shortest.  Not all areas of the park are open, and only limited rides are open but each morning we managed to get on more rides during those two hours than we did for the whole of the rest of the day!  Disney characters are also available in the park at these times for Meet and Greet experiences (but the queues are still quite long).

3. Avoid the crowds

We travelled to Disneyland Paris in August which is the busiest time of year. Ride queues were still bareable but the volume of people in the park was unbelievable!  I'm not good with crowds and the girls aren't good with queues so, during the late afternoons when the parks were at their busiest we chose to return to our hotel for a nap.  Not only did this give the girls a chance to rest and recoup but it meant that by the time we were ready to go out again, the crowds were beginning to leave.  We also found that the hotel pool was deserted during the day.

4. Rainy Days can be Fun Days

If you've spent thousands of pounds on a holiday to Disneyland you can't let poor weather ruin your trip.  We knew that our holiday was going to have mixed weather with incredibly hot days, and incredibly wet days.  Our one wet day was one of our best!  We were well prepared with full waterproof outfits (waterproof trousers are a must on outdoor rides!) but we forgot to take waterproof shoes!  The crowds were MUCH smaller on our wet day and we managed to get onto so many rides during the morning and evening.  We did also try to visit the hotel swimming pool which was fun, but very busy!

5. Think carefully about Meal Plans

There is absolutely no doubt that a meal plan is the cheapest way to eat at Disneyland Paris IF you intend to eat in the restaurants.  There are LOTS of places to eat both inside the parks and in the Disney Village, as well as each of the Disney hotels.  We chose a half-board meal plan which gives you a voucher each day that can be used in a fixed set of restaurants for either lunch or dinner.  We chose to pay a little extra for the 'plus' option which meant that we had a much bigger range of restaurants to choose from.  The hotel buffet was great but we chose to eat out at other places each night.  The food standards were good but the Meal Plan vouchers limited us to a fixed menu with only a little choice.  If you've got fussy eaters in your family, you could struggle.  Likewise, if you want to try a more adventurous menu, or one of the more well-known or popular restaurants, a Meal Plan might limit you.

The best thing about our meal plan was our additional daily voucher for a 'pause gourmande' which was a small free sugary snack and a soft drink each afternoon (between 3-6pm) in the parks.  For us, the total value of the snack each day would have been over 21 euros so this was a nice little perk to get us through until dinner time.

6. Book your own travel

My biggest money saving tip is to take a look at other travel options when you book.  Even if you book your tickets and accommodation through the Disneyland Paris website, do quickly check on the train and plane websites before defaulting to the travel options that Disney provide.  I got quotes for British Airways and Air France through the Disney website and then checked directly on each of their own websites - the difference in price was significant.  I saved around £1000 on flights by booking directly with BA.

A trip to Disneyland Paris is wonderful fun - we all thought it was fun and has given us some brilliant family memories.

Holiday of a lifetime aka "What I spend my money on"

We've just got back from a few days away on a truly magical family holiday to Disneyland Paris.  We have smiled, laughed, swum, sung, danced, hugged, rollercoastered (is that a word?) and eaten.  The girls smiled and giggled and their eyes were wide with wonder for the whole journey.  It was a wonderful family holiday and I'm so glad we decided to take Lara and Holly who were a brilliant age for their visit.  Our holiday to Disneyland Paris was a little bit of a last minute decision and a frivolous use of money but we knew that with a bit of sensible usage of our credit card, we could afford this holiday of a lifetime.

For us, a credit card isn't a way of creating money we don't really own.  We don't use it as a long term loan (there are far cheaper ways of borrowing money!)...Instead we use it to help us consolidate our monthly bills into one place AND, in this case, we use it to help us manoeuvre our big outgoings (such as holidays) so that we can pay them once we, ourselves, have been paid, or once we've managed to withdraw savings.

For our holiday of a lifetime, Mr. B. and I had been saving already for some months and had put some money aside for a bit of a summer holiday splurge.  We just weren't quite sure what we were going to splurge on, and only decided on Disneyland less than a week before we traveled.  Some of our savings accounts and investments require a little bit of time to get hold of the money (although instant-access is far more normal these days) so we didn't actually have all of the funds available when we purchased our holiday.  For this reason, we paid for our holiday on our credit card, knowing that by the time the bill has been generated, we'll have collated all the money we need to pay it off.

We also used our credit card a lot while we were on holiday.  We only took a few small notes of Euros with us for emergencies but in the end we actually used our credit card to pay for gifts and meals while were were away.  These days, most credit cards simply apply an exchange rate to your overseas transactions so in fact, it is an extremely stress-free way of shopping abroad (but check with your credit card provider before you travel to make sure you understand what types of overseas transactions you might be charged for).  

Being able to put our spending onto our credit card while we were away has meant that we didn't need to have cash available before we traveled - we can wait until we get paid before paying off our credit card in full.  It is also a comfort to have your card with you on holiday just in case of any unplanned spending in the event of an emergency; a hotel for the night or an alternative form of transport home!  For us, it was a complete new set of shoes after ours were all ruined from walking all the way around Disneyland in the pouring rain!

Using a credit card carefully and with a full understanding of your own spending limits can give you a lot of freedom for when and how you pay for things but it does require self-discipline.  

Disclosure: This post has been created in partnership with TSB

Pictopia - A Disney Board Game Review

The Mellow family tradition dictates new board games should be played on rainy evenings during the summer holidays and one of our new family board games is Pictopia, Disney edition.

Pictopia is a picture-trivia quiz game suitable for children from around 7 years old.  We've played it effectively with Lara who is 6 - she needed some help to be explained the rules but quickly picked it up.  I think the primary age limit is that your child needs to be a confident reader in order to be able to pose questions from the trivia cards.

Pictopia, Disney edition features a board where your Mickey-mouse shaped counters have to reach the Disney castle to win.  Along the way you land on spaces which determine the type of question you will face.  All players are asked all of the questions but sometimes you have to answer alone, other times you have to answer as a team.  Before each question you have to place your stakes to show how confident you are that you can get the question correct.

All of the questions in Pictopia are image-based and in this edition each of the 200 quiz cards features 4 Disney images.  There are 1000 questions in total to really stretch your Disney knowledge of movies and characters.

Lara very much enjoyed the game but I think she would still struggle to host the game herself with friends for some time because there are so many different elements to the game - different question types, placing wagers, playing alone or answering together.  It's a game which really requires a "manager" parent to play with them.

In general, I found the game over-complicated; the wagers and answer wheel seemed like distractions from what is actually a very fun and simple picture trivia quiz.  Trivia quiz questions about Disney movies based on recognisable fun pictures should be a game that is simple and fun; but somehow the magic seems to be lessened by all the other activities that are taking place.

Pictopia, Disney edition is suitable for 6 players and the questions really do span the depth and breadth of all things Disney.

Disney Frozen Craft Kits from Cool Create

Cool Create is a selection of fun craft activities for children from Flair.  The latest additions to the Cool Create Club range are Frozen craft activities and both Lara and Holly have had an absolute ball creating their own ornaments, lights, jewellery and decorations and have enjoyed sharing these craft activities with friends.  This weekend we had visitors on a rainy summer day and it was wonderful for the girls to be able to sit quietly in the front room creating their own Frozen jewellery.

Lara and Holly were sent three different craft activities from the Cool Create Frozen Range.  First up is the Frozen Shaker Maker which is a fun, mess-free way of making plaster of paris models.  Lara placed water and plaster mix into her Frozen shaker along with a mould of either Anna or Elsa and skoke the globe vigarously for about a minute.  The plaster takes just 90 minutes to harden, after which you can paint it with the paints supplied.  Lara hasn't yet quite mastered the art of mixing paints but she spent a long time concentrating hard on painting her creations.  The mould and shaker can be re-used if you can purchase some quick-drying plaster so you can create little Frozen plaques for all of your friends.

Our biggest hit was this Frozen Fun Tiles Jewellery box which Lara and her friend decorated using soft and hard stick-on jewels and decorations.  Inside the box you can store your own hand-made jewellery which the girls made from shrinky materials.  If you've never met a shrinky then you haven't lived.  The girls used coloured pencils to decorate the special plastic and then we cooked it in the oven for a couple of minutes to let the magic unfold.  Each tiny piece of plastic shrinks down to about a quarter of the original size, causing the colours to brighten and the plastic to harden into shiny, sturdy charms.  The kit comes with some ring mounts, a charm bracelet and a dangling brooch to which you can attach the hand-made Frozen charms.  There are lots of different designs suitable for both girls and boys to colour in and Lara spent nearly 2 hours with her friend making their shrinky jewellery.

The jewellery box itself is made from card and was hard for us to open (one of the handles fell off) but nevertheless, Lara loved decorating it with sparkly jewels.  Lara is someone who loves having a pattern to follow rather than making up a design herself.

I let Holly loose on this set of DIY Frozen Fairy Lights which we will put up in the play room.  The kit includes a set of battery powered LED lights and all of the materials you need to turn them into a string of decorated, sparkly fairy lights with a Frozen theme.  You curve the light covers around each bulb and then decorate with stickers and sparkles safe for use with the LEDs.  Holly needed a lot of help as the paperwork for the lanterns is quite delicate but she decorated them all herself and is quite unbelievably proud of her creation.

All of these Frozen craft kits have surpassed my expectations and have provided plenty of entertainment for the girls.  The Frozen Cool Create kits would make perfect gifts for 4-10 year olds.  You can find out more about the Cool Create club on Facebook and Twitter.

Disney on Ice Magical Ice Festival

Yesterday we took the girls to Wembley Arena to see Disney on Ice, Magical Ice Festival.  We've seen a few Disney on Ice performances in the past but I have to say I think this was our favourite to date.

75% of the show had very little to do with a Magical Ice Festival at all, but we didn't mind one bit.  The show featured some really nice long performances from The Little Mermaind, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast and, of course, Frozen.

We all really enjoyed the show, not just the girls.  Mr. B. and I most like the impressive group dances which feature amazing outfits, perfectly-choreographed ice dance routines and lots of people on the rink at any one time all dancing to a well-known Disney song.  The girls, of course, most enjoyed "Let it Go" which was one of the final masterpieces of the show featuring a sparkly snowflake centre-piece, fireworks and snow falling from the ceiling.

The show is popular with both boys and girls and there were lots of people dressed up as Olaf, Elsa and Anna.

If you've never been to a Disney on Ice performance before then I really recommend this one which features lots of stunning group dances and Frozen sing-along songs.  Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival is appearing across the UK in Cardiff from the 29th April - 3rd May, Nottingham from the 7th-10th May and Leeds from the 13th - 17th May. Click here for ticket details and show times. Tickets are on sale NOW.

Disney On Ice Magical Ice Festival Preview

This weekend we are taking the girls to Wembley Arena for a very special even - the 2015 Disney on Ice extravaganza which features Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  The latest Disney on Ice live show is the Magical Ice Festival - lots of icy fun with all of the magic, drama and theatre of Disney set on ice to add a magical feel and to make the Frozen story really come to life.

Lara and Holly are massive fans of the hit movie, Frozen and they are very much looking forward to dressing up in their own Anna and Elsa dresses for a magical evening at Wembley.  We have attended a couple of Disney on Ice shows and always find them truly breathtaking - the girls get totally swept away in the music and glamour and like to clap along and sing when they know the words.

The Disney on Ice Magical Ice Festival features lots of other favourite Disney characters as well as Frozen.  Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse guide fans through a wintery wonderland where they encounter Sebastian and the Daughters of Triton from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the rowdy pub thugs from Disney’s Tangled and the loyal enchanted servants from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

But I think that the special guest appearances of Anna and Elsa from Frozen are really going to steal the show. We are looking forward to a journey up the North Mountain with Olaf the snowman, Kristoff and his cuddly reindeer Sven.  If it is anything as good as the Disney on Ice retelling of Tangled in previous years, then I know it's going to be awesome.

Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival is appearing across the UK in London from the 23rd to 26th April, Cardiff from the 29th April - 3rd May, Nottingham from the 7th-10th May and Leeds from the 13th - 17th May. Click here for ticket details and show times. Tickets are on sale NOW.

Frozen Elsa's Magic Snow Sleeve Review - This is great fun!

If you have a little one who wants be be Elsa when they grow up, then trust me, they are going to "need" this new Frozen Magic Snow Sleeve from Flair.  Just when you thought a beautiful Elsa snowflake-adorned outfit was going to turn your little one into their dream princess, along comes a little piece of genius which can make them feel even more like the real deal - with the Frozen Magic Snow Sleeve they can shoot snow and ice at all and sundry as they 'Let it Go'.

Lara's beautiful Frozen Elsa outfit is from Rubies; it comes with a detachable snowflake cape.  To really finish off the outfit, Lara is wearing the Frozen Magic Snow Sleeve which comes as a blue fabric sleeve and a plastic armband which, with one clever movement, can shoot out "snow" or water.  This two-in-one snow sleeve has brought plenty of giggles both indoors and outdoors for my two massive Frozen fans.

The Frozen Magic Snow Sleeve costs around £30.  It comes with one can of magic "snow" (aka silly string) and a refillable bottle into which you can put water.  You place the can or bottle into the plastic armband, strap it onto the sleeve and you're ready to go.

It took Lara a little while to get the hang of the hand motion required to trigger the snow/water and we found she had to position the armband quite precisely on her arm to make it a fluid movement.  It is designed for children aged 5 upwards.  The can of Frozen magic ice was quickly used up.  My girls had never experienced silly string before and so they were wowed by the magical ice.  It has been quite some time since I last played with silly string and I had forgotten quite how weird it is.  We now have a house full of bits of "ice" and some greasy stains on the walls.  Woops.

We actually found the water bottle attachment for the Frozen Magic Snow Sleeve offered the most entertainment for both girls and it was great fun for playing in the garden.  Initially I thought that the snow sleeve was a bit of a gimmick and that the entertainment factor would be short lived, but now that I have seen the girls playing in the garden, I can see that yes, they will return to this toy many times again.

If you are a Frozen fan, or if your little people are, then don't forget to look out for Frozen Fever, a new short movie which is released on the 27th March.

Disney on Ice 100 Years of Magic, A Review

This weekend we took the girls for a very magical Christmas treat to see Disney on Ice, 100 Years of Magic at the O2 arena in London.  When Lara and Holly realised where we were taking them a great big smile broke out across their faces - Disney on Ice has now become a bit of a family tradition and we all love it, not just the girls.

The 100 years of magic show celebrates 100 years of Disney classic movies and features lots of favourite Disney characters.  From Aladdin & Pinocchio to Nemo & Mulan.  From Toy Story to Beauty and the Beast.  The show features loads of different family favourites so it has a wide appeal for adults and children and it was great to see a bit of excitement to balance the princess-factor!

As we have come to expect from Disney on Ice events, the souvenirs and food on offer are all very pricey but we did notice that the prices had dropped a little this year (and we came well prepared with our own snacks and drinks).  If you are planning a family visit and want to make it into a really magical affair then there is the opportunity to buy Disney princess dolls, plush toys, glow in the dark accessories and clothing featuring your favourite Disney characters.

The show features skaters performing beautiful routines and some cleverly choreographed group dances.  The costumes of the non-human characters such as Nemo and Dory from Finding Nemo are all stunning.  I loved watching Pinnocchio and Gepetto being eaten by the whale (though I'm not sure Holly would agree).

Lara most enjoyed watching Belle and the Beast which was certainly one of the most romantic and traditional ice skating routines in the show.  Holly most enjoyed watching Woody, Buzz and Jessie perform a Toy Story dance.  The middle part of the show featured a beautiful number set to "It's a small world after all" which may have been a bit lost on anybody who has never visited a Disney park but the dance included stylized costumes from all over the world - the blue and white outfits were all beautiful and we loved the sparkly Christmassy lights which reminded me of the traditional Disney parades I'd expect to see at a Disney park.

The exciting news is that this spring, the starts from Frozen will come to Disney on Ice.  From the 11th of March to the 17th May, Disney on Ice Magical Ice Festival will be touring the country from Aberdeen all the day down to London. Tickets are on sale now.

Disclosure: We were sent the tickets for the show so that we could conduct a review.