Pass on the Love with Persil

Earlier this summer, Jo Whiley launched the Persil 'Pass on the Love' picnics and we were given the chance to host our own Teddy Bear's Picnic too.



Lara held her own Pass on the Love picnic in our spare room on a rainy evening. It was a chance for us to sort through all of her teddies and soft toys (and through my own rather massive collection too) and see if we could find any toys who were feeling a bit unloved and in need of a new home.



Our searching identified one rabbit, a parrot, a chimpanzee and a hippo who Lara had shown no interest in for quite some time. The Persil Pass on the Love picnic is intended as an opportunity for you to pass on these cuddly toys, and any other bits and bobs you no longer need to the other attendees at your picnic or on to Oxfam. I washed the cuddly toys in my brand new bottle of Persil 2-in-1 with Comfort and then dropped our offerings off at the Oxfam near our work (remembering to tag them with my own Gift Aid tag so that Oxfam can claim back the tax on the items of mine that they sell).




And the fact that the summer is nearly over and it was chucking it down with rain didn't ruin our picnic. In fact, you can have a picnic any day of the year. Lara's own birthday party this year was intended to be an outdoor picnic but we held it in the living room instead. In fact, one of Lara's Aunties gets all the more excited about living room picnics because they remind her of childhood!

So, a great big thank you from Lara and our teddies to Persil 2in1 for helping us to Pass on the Love.

Angels Children's Fancy Dress Costume Review

Meet Nurse Lara!


We were sent a Fancy Dress Costume for Lara by Angels fancy dress and, given that Lara has received a medical kit for her birthday this summer, a nurse's outfit seemed really fitting!

Lara has just started dressing up in different outfits at nursery so she immediately understood what she was meant to do with her new outfit. She had a great time on this occasion being Nurse Lara and I know that next time we get invited to a fancy dress party, Nurse Lara will definitely be in attendance!

Lara's kids nurses costume comprises the dress, head-band and medical bag. You can buy it in ages 3-8 years and it costs £15.99 to buy online (delivery is free to the UK).

The fabric is really lightweight and so the dress goes on easily over other outfits. The dress fastens with velcro so when Lara loses interest, we can take it off quickly. I like the fact that the headpiece is elasticated as it means it will stay on however wiggly my toddler is.



The outfit needed a good iron once we took it out of the packet so I recommend buying with plenty of time if you are planning to wear this for a party. I also needed to trim quite a few loose threads from the dress.

My favourite feature of the children's nurses dress is the little watch (it is fabric) that dangles from the chest - a very authentic touch!

Two Great IPod Apps for Toddlers

Lara loves her apps. All two year olds do, don't they??? I'm always on the lookout for more fun ipod apps that will entertain Lara with at least some semblence of educational content and this month we have been pointed in the direction of a couple of goodies...

My First JCB App



My First JCB App is available for IPad, IPhone and IPod Touch for £1.49. All of the games are suitable from an age as young as 2.

The format is very similar (very!) to the Humf app that Lara already has, but children probably don't notice that!!! Lara's favourite games are:-

• Painting (colouring in)
• Racing
• Memory (matching pairs)
• Jigsaws

I think the bright colours and smiley faces make this a great pre-school app and Lara would agree. Every morning I get woken up by Lara asking "want to play diggers". My only negative comment on the entire app would be that some of the games require you to differentiate between the JCB characters and unless you know them well, the differences can be as subtle as a slightly different coloured windscreen which Lara found tricky.



Postman Pat SDS


Postman Pat SDS is also available for IPad, IPhone and IPod touch although from experience I think it would probably work best on the bigger screen of the IPad.

There are 9 different games and they all have brilliant graphics. My feeling is that each of the games is suitable for children of a bout 4 upwards. They all require a little too much co-ordination and concentration for Lara right now. I also found that on the Ipod touch screen that the games were hard even for me to play because of the size of the images and text and the levels of accuracy needed with your fingertips.



Lara's favourite game is the 'Pencaster trains' where you have to change the signals to make the train go to the correct destination. It is short and easy to repeat.

The voices, music and sound quality throughout all of the games is really good.