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.

Essence of Arcadia Aromatherapy Gift Set Review

When the lovely Rebecca from Essence of Arcadia contacted me to tell me proudly of her new range of Aromatherapy oils and diffusers, I was very excited. In my pre-Mummy days I had dabbled in aromatherapy for medicinal, cosmetic and relaxation purposes and I couldn't wait to rediscover the joys of using aromatherapy essential oils.

Essence of Arcadia have launched a small range of luxury aromatherapy products just in time for you to add to your Christmas lists.  This beautiful presentation box contains 14 different essential oils (one of which is a blend) and it is the perfect gift for anyone looking to explore the world of aromatherapy.  The set is packaged in a smart black box which provides a good place for storage, away from light.

In the 14-oil sample set you will find most of the essential oils you need to start discovering all of the different uses for aromatherapy and you'll be blending your own relaxing concoctions in no time!  The set contains Bergamot, Cinnamon, Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Frankincense, Grapefruit, Lavender, Lemongrass, Orange, Peppermint, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Ylang Ylang and a Healing Blend made from tea tree, cinnamon, ginger and eucalyptus.  Each oil comes in a small 10ml darkened bottle and is 100% pure organic essential oil.

Essential oils can be used in so many different ways.  Essence of Arcadia sell a couple of stunning-looking oil diffusers for evaporating the oils in water but by far my favourite way of enjoying aromatherapy oils is to drop a few droplets into a warm bath so that I can enjoy the scents.  When I first received this sample set of oils, the first thing I did was run a bath with bergamot and grapefruit oils - a zingy combination that I remembered always used to cheer me up.  And that it did.

The beauty of aromatherapy is that you can use the scents, and the properties of the oils to turn a rubbish day into a good day, or a manic day into a mellow day.  If you're feeling sluggish, you can find a smell, or create a body lotion that brightens you up.  If you've got a headache, you can make a gentle oil rub that releases tension and helps clear your head.  The Essence of Arcadia oil sampler sets come with a small booklet which explains how to use the oils as well as a few simple "recipes" to get you started.  The booklet also contains a summary of each oil, and its properties and proven benefits.

So far, I've been really impressed with the quality of the oils from Essence of Arcadia.  The 14-oil luxury gift set costs £39.99 and a 6-oil starter set costs £19.99.  From past experience, I know that as you explore aromatherapy, you are likely to use up some oils faster than others and it is great to see that Essence of Arcadia also sell individual 10ml bottles of each oil for £6.99 which is very reasonable for a high-quality pure essential oil.  Essence of Arcadia aim to make home aromatherapy feel as special as a luxury skincare product or pampering home-spa, rather than clinical, scientific or even quirky - I certainly think they've done well on this!

You can follow Essence of Arcadia on Facebook and Twitter.  Stay tuned to Mellow Mummy in the coming weeks to find out about their luxury aromatherapy diffusers and your chance to win a diffuser and oil set of your own.

A Kids Shoe Christmas Wish List

This year, interestingly, each of my girls put on their Christmas list letters to Father Christmas a pair of shoes.  For Lara she has asked for a pair of black patent lace up boots and for Holly, a pair of pink sparkly slip-on shoes.  Just to complete the set, even I've put a pair of shoes on my list...all be it running shoes!

Because we've all gone a little bit shoe crazy, I've been putting together a Christmas list of shoe ideas for the girls and here are my top 6 ideas of fun, show-stopping shoes that my girls would love to receive as gifts this festive season.

1.  Number one on both girl's lists is a pair of black lace up patents boots.  Paired with a brightly coloured set of shoe laces, these are all the rage at school at present.  I found a bargain pair at Shoezone for just £12.99 so I wouldn't mind risking the inevitable scuffs at this price.

2.  Next up is a pair of Heely roller skate shoes.  I haven't seen anyone wearing these for a couple of years but Lara really fancies a pair.

3.  Sparkly slip-on pumps.  Ballerina pumps regularly feature in ranges of kids shoes these days and they look so tempting as they are easy to slip on and off; I'm sure that they are highly impractical for a 3 year old but they make a perfect combination with a party dress.

4.  A pair of Nike junior running shoes.  Both of my girls want to run like Mummy and I've learned that even little people, if they want to run and avoid injury, need a specialist pair of running shoes.

5.  Holly saw these Gruffalo slippers while I was browsing online for something totally different.  Neither of my girls normally wear's slippers so these would be a bit of a novelty.  Actually... I think I may need a pair of these.

6.  Frozen snow boots.  We first bought snow boots for Holly his time last year and, despite having not seen a flake of snow all year, I've been surprised at how much she managed to wear the boots so I'm not afraid to buy a her a new pair this winter and how could anyone resist a pair of Frozen now boots?  I found these ones at Brantano.