Peppa Pig Summer Holiday Fun

We're getting ready for the long bank holiday weekend and trying to make the most of the last week of our school summer holidays with a sneaky trip abroad.  Holly, who is a big Peppa Pig fan is fully kitted out with Peppa Pig holiday gear to help her enjoy the sunshine.

Check out these fun Peppa and George passport covers and luggage tags to help bring a little bit of magic to the stresses of travelling abroad. Holly and Lara don't yet know we're going away on holiday so we're saving these as a surprise for our journey.

Holly loves her new sunglasses with Peppa on either side and they are perfectly finished off with this hard glasses case which has handles so that Holly can carry it around with her, a bit like a handbag or purse.

If your little one is a water baby then you'll find lots of new toys and accessories in the Peppa Pig range.  At Argos you can find the new Peppa "tweet" design on beach towels and this VERY CUTE hooded poncho towel - Peppa and George can be with you by the poolside.  Holly is very proud of her new goggles and can't wait to play with Peppa and George water squirters, water soakers, both from Zoggs; I think these toys are just as much fun in the bath, or a water tray as they are in the pool.

If you are looking for some frugal holiday activities to fill the bank holiday weekend, you can find lots of printables and craft ideas on the Peppa Pig website at www.peppapig.co.uk/make.

Holiday Fun with Peppa Pig and Friends

Half term feels like a distant memory.  We took the girls away to France for fun and frolics on the beach.  It was a blimming brilliant way to spend the half-term holidays but now we're back and on the downhill slope towards the long school summer holiday.

This spring there are lots of holiday inspired activities to be found on the Peppa Pig grown-ups website.  There are downloadable counting worksheets, i-spy travel kits, a recipe for homemade lemonade (perfect for sipping in the garden) as well as instructions for how to make your own paper kite.

Not only are there plenty of Peppa Pig activities for your family to take part in, but this summer sees the launch of some special holiday essentials from Peppa Pig.

First up is a new range of Peppa Pig toys with a holiday theme from theme parks to beaches, Peppa and George will be busy this summer.  This Peppa Pig Jumbo jet really struck a chord with Holly having arrived just after we had returned from our own holidays on an aeroplane.  Holly has enjoyed packing Peppa's suitcases into the hold of the plan and then letting Peppa take turns acting as a passenger, or as the pilot in the plane.  There are three seats in the plane so you can pair this Peppa Pig Jumbo jet with one of the two-packs of holiday themed collectible Peppa Pig figurines featuring your child's favourite stars in their swimming cossies!

Also new in the Peppa Pig holiday range are these great travel accessories.  This clever Peppa Pig travel pillow is reversible and turns into a soft cuddly toy.  You can use the pillow to support your little one's head when on a plane or a long car journey.  It is available in Peppa colours or George colours.  Holly is just at the age now when she wakes from a sleep when travelling with an awfully sore neck so this will be perfect for our long drive up from Berkshire to Cumbria during the summer holidays.  It has the added bonus that it can be used at bedtimes as a cuddly toy once you reach your destination!

Also in the travel range is a handy car seat organiser.  I've wanted a car seat organiser for some time because I know (having taken a fair few epic road trips over the last few summers) that my car normally fills up with food and drink debris, crayons, leapfrog games and i-spy cards.  This Peppa Pig brightly coloured car seat organiser straps over one of the front seats of the car and straps in place.  It has one large pocket with a transparent lining which could house a DVD player or a magazine or larger items such as tablets or games.  Lower down there are pockets of several different sizes which can house pencils, paper, drinks and snacks to help you make it through your journey!

And finally, to provide a little bit of in-flight entertainment, or an evening distraction when you are on your travels, these Peppa Pig travel colouring and re-usable stickers sets are a simple, light weight solution that you can put in your suitcase or hand baggage and use to keep the peace when you are travelling!

Ideas for Peppa Pig Easter Holiday Fun

Today has been a lovely day.  The girls have, of course, gone to bed on a massive sugar high but Easter Sunday was a wonderful day for exploring, egg-hunting and enjoying a family roast with the girls' Grandparents.  Our Easter Egg Hunt this morning saw the girls discovering their Peppa Pig Easter Eggs hidden inside a mini-green house!

Tomorrow we have a quiet day planned and I'm sure we'll get up to some Easter crafts and just chill out in front of the television.  As a working family, our Easter Holiday can't span the whole two week school break so we have to make the most of the mellow family days when we get a chance.  We have a short break planned later in the school holidays but for now we will enjoy the Bank Holiday and relax... we don't often get a chance to relax!

If, like my two girls, your children are still eager to prolong the Easter activities then you can find some fun Peppa Pig themed craft activities for the school holidays that can be downloaded and printed from the Peppa Pig website.  Right now there are Easter activities such as an Easter hat, Peppa Pig bunting and egg painting as well as puzzle games to play and competitions to enter. During the half-term holidays and the long summer-holiday there will be lots more fun family activity ideas to be found, all with a Peppa theme.

On the Peppa Pig website you can also find out whether Peppa will be visiting anywhere near you during the Easter holidays.  As Peppa Pig holiday bloggers we were sent a sample of product ideas for the Easter holidays - how about this small travel activity colouring set which can slip into your changing bag?

 

Or this fun summer sticker book which Holly absolutely adored (in fact, she played quietly with me and stuck in every sticker studiously for about an hour... anyone who has ever met Holly knows this is unheard of).

Of course, some of our lazy Easter Monday will probably be spent chilling out in front of the TV.  It is a good job we have a stock of Peppa DVDs to watch throughout the holidays too!

Our little Peppa fan will turn three soon and we have a very special Peppa Pig treat planned for her birthday!

   

Peppa Pig - 10 Years of Muddy Puddles

This year Peppa Pig and her family are celebrating 10 years of muddy puddles.  10 years of Peppa Pig - wowzers.  Lara was always a massive fan of Peppa Pig and is currently fighting with herself about whether or not a 5 year old is supposed to enjoy it so much anymore.  In the meantime, Holly is becoming more and more of a Peppa fan and is really starting to enjoy the wide range of storylines in the many Peppa Pig episodes.

To celebrate 10 years of muddy puddles, there are some awesome Peppa Pig products on sale this Christmas.  Holly was instantly taken by this waterproof apron which she has worn for festive cookery in the kitchen, Christmasssy crafts AND even for kitchen role-play in her wooden kitchen!

Lots of the new Peppa Pig products are crafty in nature - appealing directly to small creative people.  We LOVED this pack of chunky wind-up Peppa Pig crayons and travel activity set packed full of colouring in pictures.  I think both the crayons and the activity set would make perfect stocking fillers or entertainment if you are travelling this winter.

Other awesome Peppa Pig gifts include this Portmerion 3-piece ceramic set which includes a bowl, plate and small mug suitable for tiny baby hands right up to primary school children - it is a very special set which would make a lovely first Christmas present.  The design features lots of muddy puddles and is as suitable for George-pig fans as it is for Peppa fans.

Our other top picks include a Peppa Pig family calendar for 2015 which will take pride of place in our kitchen, new jigsaw puzzles and story books that will put a smile on every Peppa Pig fan's face.

And of course, a celebration of 10 years of Peppa Pig wouldn't be right without a special anniversary edition DVD featuring 10 classic episodes of Peppa Pig from across all of the series.  Our all time favourite episode, The Biggest Muddy Puddle in the World, features on this special DVD along with Lara's favourite, Cousin Chloe, and also some of our favourite Peppa Pig songs.  We LOVE this DVD.

Discloures: we were sent a sample of lots of different Peppa Pig products to review

   

Peppa Pig Ice Cream

What more could a little girl like Holly long for than a Peppa Pig Ice Cream?  These fun Peppa Pig Ice Cream lollies are sized for little hands and they are Holly's favourite summery snack right now.  They are free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives and, in the interested of research, I have tried one out myself... it was really very yummy strawberry ice cream.

Peppa Pig Ice Cream Lollies are available with 6 per pack at £1.99 from ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and the Co-op.

Also in the range is a frozen Peppa Pig Muddy Puddles chocolate cake but despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to track one down to try out.  They are small 4-6 child serving cakes for £1.99 and would have made a perfect addition to Holly's birthday party but I think people must be snapping them up before I get to the supermarket!

Peppa Pig Mothers Day Gift Ideas

I'm just a little bit excited about Mother's Day this year as I think Lara, who is nearly 5, really understands the idea this year.  Holly goes through stages of being a real Mummy's girl and she has also recently discovered the joys of Peppa Pig - I think I may have seen or hear approximately 20 episodes in one sitting this weekend.  These two fun gift ideas would make lovely gifts for mummies to share with their children this Mother's Day (30th March).

These fun Peppa Pig wash mitts cost in the region of £4.99 and come in two sizes - one is shaped like Mummy Pig in her bikini and is great for mummy to help out at bath time.  The other is much smaller and is for tiny hands like Holly's so that she can join in with washing at bath time too.  Both of my girls love these wash mitts and really got into the idea of washing being both of our jobs.  The Peppa-sized mitt really was quite small and was too small for Lara but it actually works quite well for our two girls to be able to share the set between them.  You can find these Peppa and Mummy Pig wash mitts online and in most major supermarkets.

Lara also is particularly taken with this Peppa Pig board book - "My Mummy". It is written such that she can read it herself and I almost melted when she first read it out loud to me - now Holly likes to take the book and sit on her bed and "read" it to me as well with lots of "Mummy" words. My Mummy is a fun book in which Peppa explains all the cool things about her mum, Mummy Pig. There are references to lots of Peppa Pig episodes that I recognise including the one where Mummy Pig lets the Peppa and George dress up in her clothes and the one where Mummy Pig gets stuck in a blackberry bush.

My favourite part of the book is where Peppa days that her Mummy works very hard on the computer - I tell Lara she can say the same about me! I think this book makes a wonderful mothers day gift to read with your little ones and this year I've really seen how books about Mummy can help children understand the role of their parents well within the context of other people's families.

 

Peppa Pig Weebles Pull Along Wobbily Train Review

This weekend Holly became the proud owner of a Weeble. And no ordinary Weeble at that - a Peppa Pig Weeble! I'm not sure who is more excited about this... me or Holly. I remember having Weeble envy as a kid and I was delighted when I found out that Weebles still exist. The new range of Peppa Pig Weebles from Character is great news for our Peppa-obsessed family!

The Pull Along Wobbily Train comes with a Peppa Pig Weeble character.  The train has an engine and two carriages which can house further Weebles characters which are available to buy separately - to me this is a little disappointing as I'd much rather spend a little more on a and have enough characters to fill the train straight away but I suppose it does mean that the choice of additional characters is up to you.

The train itself fits together easily and, unlike any other toy train we have owned before, it stays together when you move it!  The carriages click together so even Holly's tiny hands can put them together.

The Peppa Pig Weebles character is nice and chunky for toddler hands to grasp.  The base is rounded so that Peppa never falls over... just rocks back up to an upright position.  As you move the train around she wibbles here and wobbles there.

My elder daughter Lara really enjoys playing with the Pull Along Wobbily Train too.  I think it most appeals to her because she recognises Gertrude, Grandpa Pig's train from television and from visiting Peppa Pig World!  Next time I'm at Peppa Pig World I'll think about wibbling and wobbling like a Weeble!

The Peppa Pig Weebles Pull Along Wobbily Train costs around £17.99.  Further individual Weebles characters cost around £4.99.

  

Paultons Park and Peppa Pig World

For Lara's third birthday we took her for a very special day out at Peppa Pig World in the New Forest near Southampton, part of Paultons Park.

Before we went, we downloaded the Paultons Park iphone app to help plan our visit - it has a park map and a list of all the places to eat and drink (something we had struggled with on a previous visit to the park). I think the park map is invaluable and I wish more theme parks would do this as it means you can take the map with you and not have to worry about a flappy bit of paper on the day.

When we arrived at Paultons Park we had a brief look at the rides for big girls and boys - Lara was totally fascinated by the new Magma ride because she could see it from a distance. Thankfully, Lara was too small to ride the Magma! Mind you, at just under one metre she can still go on a lot of the attractions at Paultons Park, and not just within the Peppa Pig World area.

As you can imagine, Lara really wanted to spend the day in Peppa Pig World which is a dedicated area at one side of the park. I was really impressed that over a year after opening it was clean and pristine as the day it was opened. We really noticed this in the indoor soft play area which opened at midday after a thorough clean and was totally and utterly spotless.

After an apprehensive start (softened by a coffee and cake stop) Lara went on every one of the rides in Peppa Pig world. Her favourite by far was the George's Dinosaur ride which features a rocking bouncy ride-on dinosaur... grrrrr.

For lunch we took a picnic as we were worried that the food would be expensive and hard to find but in fact the situation had improved since our last visit and I think we could probably have found something suitable to eat. There is a bit of work currently going on in Paultons Park to introduce some new eating establishments and toilet blocks and I think they are investing well. The picnic area had been transformed into a very tidy and smart area with covered seating for all-weather picnics as well as a nice grassy area where we sat in the sun with our sarnies.

After lunch Lara headed back to the soft play area (she hadn't really spent long on soft play before and was really enjoying herself). She took a helicopter ride in Miss Rabbit's Helicopters and then joined me for a trip to the top of Windy castle in what was actually quite a high, fast-spinning ride! From the top we could see the rest of the park including the tractor ride which took Lara's eye.

Lara had an awesome birthday and we will definitely be going back to Paultons Park later in the summer.

 

Disclosure: We were sent the tickets for Paultons Park for the purposes of our review.

Peppa Pig 'My First Laptop' Review

Lara has laptop envy. She often wants to mimic what I do by playing on my laptop (although I think she understands that my work laptop is definitely out of bounds) so she was over the moon when asked to review the Peppa Pig 'My First Laptop' by Inspiration Works. OK, so it is a little more simplistic than my own laptop but it's a toy more than a learning aid so I think that's excusable!

Lara likes to carry her 'puter' around by the handle and find herself a cosy spot to sit down and open it.

When we received the Peppa Pig My First Laptop I had low expectations. I was quite happy for it to turn out to be purely a toy with nothing but a vague attempt at being 'educational'; after all, some of Lara's favourite toys are ones that simply make a lot of noise (most of these are, it seems, Peppa Pig themed!) However, I have been pleasantly surprised at how much Lara does learn from the toy, how it really does make her think about numbers and letters.

The My First Laptop is suitable for children from age 2 to 5. It has four different play modes suit different abilities (and moods). The laptop opens up to reveal a brightly coloured screen and a number of differently coloured buttons that correspond to Peppa's friends, letters, numbers and musical instruments. The first game mode is an exploratory one for younger children where they press buttons to find out what they each mean. The next two levels are quiz modes where the laptop asks your child a question about what they can see on the screen and they have to respond by pressing the correct button. The second quiz mode is a little beyond Lara right now but it means she has plenty more usage to make of this toy. The final mode is a music mode (perhaps Lara's favourite) where you can press buttons willy nilly to make sweet, sweet music (errrrr.......).

I really think the quiz modes work well. Lara is slowly getting on top of her basic counting skills but has a long way to go when it comes to letters and word noises so I think this will make a great way for her to start learning. The number of options is limited though so I'm worried that, given time, it will be more of an exercise in memory and repetition than in genuine learning.

The Peppa Pig My First Laptop has a RRP of £19.99 and is available at Amazon, Mothercare, John Lewis, The Entertainer and Morrisons.

Lara does... Peppa Pig World

Peppa Pig World Review: For Lara, Peppa Pig World is the stuff of dreams. The theme park, part of Paultons Park in Hampshire, is a pre-school Nirvana. On Friday we attended the press launch of Peppa Pig World and Lara got to meet her idol - Peppa and rubbed shoulders with Peppa royalty (Neville Astley, Mark Baker & Phil Davies)!

The mellow family absolutely loved Peppa Pig World. There were plenty of rides for children even as young as Lara (in fact, Lara was only unable to go on one ride due to her height). The facilities were really smart and the rides such as Peppa's Big Balloon Ride and Grandpa Pig's Little Train were so exciting for the children that the whole place was little up with the smiles on everyone's faces.

The park was clean and bright and the tinkly Peppa Pig music was at just the right volume to get you in the mood (I thought it would annoy me after a while, but actually I found myself singing along to the 'woof tweet' song and such-like! The toilets and changing facilities were good (throughout the whole of Paultons park they have two-stage toilet seats suitable for big and little bottoms alike!).

I found the food on offer to be really disappointing. Daddy Pig's Big Tummy Cafe didn't offer much in the range of sandwiches and Miss Rabbit's Ice Cream Parlour didn't really sell things suitable for a one-year-old to eat. Our search for healthy or nutritious food in the rest of Paulton's park wasn't very fruitful either... the sandwiches were all gone so we resorted to Chicken Nuggets and Chips and a very forlorn looking apple. Infact, I was underwhelmed by the rest of Paultons Park - I felt like it was unchanged since I last visited about 21 years ago.

As well as the rides in Peppa Pig World, there were some really super play areas both indoors and out for children right up to 8 years old. There were some innovative play features such as interactive musical toys and puzzles, and even a wet area where the littlies can splash about in muddy puddles.

We all had an amazing day and will DEFINITELY be going back as Lara could spend a whole day going round and round on Grandpa Pig's boats! The fun is best described through pictures so here we go...

  




  

Peppa Pig World opens at Paultons Park on April 9th. Find it at Junction 2 of the M27 near Romsey.