Casdon Little Shoppers Post Office - Review

My five year old daughter loves role play so she was delighted to be sent the Post Office set from the Casdon Little Shoppers range to review. She was eager to get playing as soon as it arrived so I set it up for her, this did require some fitting together of the plastic parts and intricate folding of the tiny magazines and cards so I would suggest helping out younger children with this they don't started to get bored or frustrated before they begin playing.

The Post Office includes: Weighing Scales, Post Box, Cash Drawer, Stamper, Coins And Notes, Magazines, Newspapers, Stamps, Envelopes, Post Cards, Vehicle tax discs and Forms, pad and pencil.

It wasn't long before we were ready to go and Elizabeth announced her Post Office was open for business, she convinced her eight year old brother to play too and the fun started from there...

The attention to detail in this playset is magnificent, from the tiny magazines and newspapers to the little greeting cards with their own envelopes to address and stamp. Both Elizabeth and Ben took turn of being the proprietor and the customer, coming to apply for a passport, tax their car and post parcels to their cousins in Canada, I watched from afar as I saw then take it so seriously, each aspect of the playset helping to fuel their imagination further.

It wasn't just their imagination skills that were being utilised while playing their post office games, they were using number skills to count the change in the till, filling out forms and writing notes down with the pen and pad and using fine motor skills to post cards and packages.

Casdon has been around for seventy years this year and I remember playing with a very similar post office set to this over 25 years go during my own childhood, they still have what it takes and I love the to see my children playing with the same toys that entertained me so many years ago, as much as they love them sometimes, they really don't need technology and battery operated toys to have some good old fashioned fun!

The Casdon Little Shoppers Post Office retails at £12.00 which I believe is great value for a toy that has so many aspects to it and encourages imaginative role play, but if you shop around you can get an even better deal at places such as Amazon. I would highly recommend the Little Shoppers Post Office for children from the ages of 3 to 7. 

We were sent the Casdon Little Shoppers Post Office for the purpose of review. Contains affiliate link.

Frozen Elsa's Magic Snow Sleeve Review

We love Frozen in our house, we recently went to see Sing-a-long-a Frozen and are very excited about the planned sequel in a few years and of course the special short; Frozen Fever that will be in cinemas alongside the new Cinderella Film from 27th March 2015! This bite sized follow up  will see our favourite characters; Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf reunited to celebrate Anna’s birthday and it will also feature an exclusive new song that i'm sure my children will soon be singing along to!

My daughter Elizabeth loves to dress up and although she can often be seen dressed as her favourite Marvel superheros she also loves to play princesses. She has had a beautiful Anna dress for a while and you can see some lovely pictures of it in our review, so she was delighted when we were sent a stunning Elsa dress from Rubies along with Elsa’s 2 in 1 magic snow sleeve from Flair!

The Dress comes with a detachable lace cape covered in snowflakes that is really very pretty. The dress itself is great quality with lots of detail including long transparent sleeves, sequin trims and a Queen Elsa motif on the front. Elizabeth usually wears age 4 - 5 clothes and the 5 - 6  (M) fitted her really well. Although not too baggy or loose it had plenty of movement for running round and playing in!

Of course as soon as it arrived we had to have a play!We added a tiara from our dressing up box and Elizabeth insisted I plaited her her 'just like Elsa's!' I even treated her to blue glittery nails to match... (she *may* have insisted I had coordinating nails too!)

Elsa's 2 in 1 Magic Snow Sleeve is the perfect addition to an Elsa dress up outfit to make princess play even more fun! In the box you get a stunning fabric sleeve with lace trim, a can of Frozen Snow Spray (essentially white silly string), a blue plastic water bottle decorated with snowflakes and the snow snow sleeve contraption itself, which is decorated with pretty patterns and the name Elsa.

The snow sleeve has two functions; the magic snow can can be attached and squirted out to create fun messy play or alternatively the pump action water bottle an be used in it's place for water spraying fun, perfect or hot sunny days!

We started off with the snow spray. The can fitted easily onto the mount which strapped on to Elizabeth's arm without any trouble, with the combination of the plastic and the can I worried that it may be heavy or uncomfortable on her arm, but it wasn't at all.  She was soon running around the front garden singing Let It Go at the top of her voice and lifting her arm to spray snow into the air!

It was lovely to see how excited she as to 'be just like Queen Elsa', all she had to do was lift her fingers and out came snow!

When the silly string runs out or if you'd rather have some water fun, you can easily replace this with the blue bottle provided filled with water. This has a pump action release so the water squirts out in short bursts rather than the longer streams of the silly string. Elizabeth did need to use more pressure to make this work than the can but she didn't mind and had great fun soaking me! I can see some interesting battles between Queen Elsa and my son's super soaker water gun coming up this summer! 

This set is aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old and I agree with that age range. Elizabeth will be five in a few months time and I would say that children younger than her may struggle to lift the 'trigger' with the back of their figures while children older than eight may find the straps tight on their wrists. (I *may* have attempted to try it on my own wrist to find this out...)

At an RRP of £29.99 this is a toy that is definitely worth it's price in play value, it will be the ideal gift for a little Frozen fan who would love to spray snow out of her fingertips just like Elsa! One thing I would mention is that the Snow spray runs out very quickly (around five minutes of continuous play) so you may want to factor in the cost of a few more cans of Silly String.

You can see the Elsa Magic Snow Sleeve in action in this two minute video we made:

 


Like this? Check out our other Frozen posts:

Disney Frozen Anna Dress

Singalong with Sing-a-long-a Frozen

LEGO Frozen Disney Princess: Elsa's Sparkling Castle

These products were sent to us for the purpose of this review. Contains affiliate links.

Doc McStuffins Carry Along Clinic

I have an almost four year old daughter which means I'm familiar with all the latest toys trends and Doc McStuffins is very popular at the moment! Doc McStuffins is one of Disney Junior's most popular shows and features Doc, a six year old girl who wants to grow up to be a doctor just like her Mum, so fixes broken toys in her playhouse clinic with the help of her friends; Hallie, Lambie, Chilly and Stuffy. It has a sweet (if slightly irritating at 6am when your child wakes you singing it) theme tune, 'Time for your checkup' and is surprisingly watchable for an animated kids show!

Although the main character is female, the show itself is popular with both boys and girls so I have to say I was a little disappointed when I saw just how pink and sparkly the toy range was. Of course I believe it is absolutely fine for boys to play with pink, what of it? However, I know that in some cases (especially when children have started nursery) a pink exterior to a toy could put a boy off from playing with something he could really enjoy. Hey hum...

We were sent the Doc McStuffins Carry Along Clinic for Elizabeth and I to review. My first impressions were: Pink, Plastic and glittery. Which if I'm honest are three things I wold usually avoid in a toy. However there was lots more to see and it's its not what a toy is made of that matters as much as what a child makes of it...

As soon as Elizabeth saw it she was very excited as she recognised the characters printed on the outside of the case and of course Lambie! She couldn't wait to get it out of the box (I would suggest that if this is a present to be played with on birthday or Christmas mornings you may want to unbox it first then wrap it as it did take some time to get all the fiddly bits out).

What's in the box?

In the box you get:

A carry along clinic that opens up and has a storage draw

A set of doctors play tools including otoscope, stethoscope, thermometer and syringe 

Lambie

Removable Interactive pane with 4 x character slides

The small blue laptop which is shown on many promotional images is NOT included in the set I have not been able to find out if this is sold separately or not.

Role Play

Elizabeth immediately put on the stethoscope and went to collect up some teddies to give a check up to! She found it easy to remove and replace the colourful plastic tools from their clips inside the clinic. From watching the show and other role play activities she as rather skilled at toy check ups and even had a chat with each of her patients! It was adorable to watch her playing doctor (maybe this could be a future profession?!). 

Interactive Play

She really liked the interactive panel  which had four different slides to use with it. She intially tried to use this while attached to the lid of the clinic but as she went to press the buttons she was knocking the whole set over so I removed this for her and she enjoyed playing with the different slides. There are four slides in total each baring one of the favorite toys from the show as patients and Elizabeth enjoyed working out which tool she needed to make them better. I can't help but feel that this activity would have been enhanced by having the other characters included rather than just Lambie. This panel is a great size for take along play, for car journeys maybe, although be aware it does play the rather catchy tune from the show, 'Time for a check up!' The panel comes with batteries included (2 x AA).

Carry Along

After clinc time had closed Elizabeth put all the tools away in their places, popping the spare slides into the handy drawer but keeping the stethoscope on (it's actally a good job that she wanted to continue to wear this as their didn't seem to be any obvious place for it to be stored). 

The first few times this was played with Eliabeth had trouble closing the the two clasps on the clinc and opening them again as they were very stiff but after repeated play these have become easier for her. Although a large toy with a few different play values this set isn't to large or heavy and my skinny three year old can easily carry it around the house or garden. She loves the handle and often closes it all up just to carry it to another part of the room and continue to play!

Overall Thoughts

I have to admit that the the amount of varied play this set has given Elizabeth and how pleased she is with it has made me reconsider my initial thoughts. Yes it is pink and plastic but the clinic itself is fairly sturdy and the tools are of great quality so I can see them being played with for a long time to come. One thing to mention is the balance of the toy when it is open for play, Elizabeth soon worked out that she had to angle the sides in slightly to keep the clinic upright while playing but younger children may struggle with this. The set is marketed at aged three plus which I feel is about right, and I believe that both boys and girls up to the age of around five would enjoy this set.

Worth The Price?

Finally the price, although I have grown to appreciate the play value of the Carry Along Clinic and Elizabeth would proudly name it as her favourite toy at the moment. I would find it difficult to justify spending the RRP of £59.99 on it. I imagine that this will be a very popular toy on an awful lot of children's Christmas list this year and that often means that retailers will compete against each other to offer the best discounts. So if you can get it at a good deal then you will make a  little Doc McStuffins fan's day!

You can check out the full range of Doc McStuffins Toys on the Flair website and latest price on amazon too.

Disclaimer: we were sent this playset for the purposes of review all opinions are our own. Post contains an affiliate link.

Marvel Superhero Costumes #bargainoftheweek

Are your children fans of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man or the Hulk?

Both my son and daughter are mad about Marvel, especially The Avengers, so I was rather excited when my friend and fellow bargain hunter Pippa posted in the Mymummyspennies Money Saving Group about a selection of Marvel dress up costumes she had seen for just £3.99 in her local Home Bargains!

She had immediately purchased Thor for her eldest superhero Bud. The next day I nipped out to our local franchise Quality Save but was disappointed to find they only had Captain America left and only in age 3 - 4. This was ideal for my 3 year old daughter who was delighted to meet 'Captain America' at Hamley's last month, however I really wanted to treat my son also. This is where Pippa came to the rescue again and managed to get not just a Captain America in size large for my eldest but a Thor for both of them too!

The sizes available were S (3-4) M (5-6) and L (7-8) - not all were available in all stores but at that price it worth a look!

So if you have a mini Marvel fan who not pop down to your nearest Home Bargains or Quality Save and see what's left?

If you've found any bargain this week why not share them in the linky, I'll give them lots of social media love! You can pop my #bargainoftheweek badge up by just grabbing the code below...

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.mymummyspennies.com/search/label/%23bargainoftheweek" title="#bargainoftheweek"><img src="http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/ii611/jennifer_dixon3/botw_zps1bc88a24.jpg" alt="#bargainoftheweek" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

Mike the Knight Mission Set review

Ever since we visited Camelot Theme park last year and watched the Jousting My 4 year old has been fascinated by medieval knights, So as you can imagine when Mike the Knight started on Cbeebies he very soon became a huge fan! The animated show follows knight in training, Mike, on his adventures around the Kingdom of Glendragon. It really is a lovely show that not only entertains with stories of castles and dragons but also teaches pre-schoolers values such as responsibility and the importance of doing things right, even if they don't succeed at first. A catchphrase of the show that Ben regularly quotes is 'Be a knight, Do it right!' I think that's a lovely sentiment!

Therefore I was delighted to hear that character online were launching a new toy range to accompany the show. When we were offered the chance to review one of the products from this range before they were available to buy in the shops I just couldn't resist!

The Range includes a variety of play figures, play sets and accessories, as well as plush and role play toys.

Ben was sent 'Mike's Mission Set' from the role play collection which consists of a blue plastic helmet with detachable feather, adjustable visor and chin strap and comes with a high density foam sword.

Since his fascination with all things medieval Ben has had a few toys swords but to be honest I've never really been happy with their quality. (The foam ones tend to be flimsy and fall apart after being played with just a few times and the plastic ones can been poorly made and one has actually snapped while being played with leaving a rather dangerous exposed edge.) However as soon as this one came out of it's packaging I was impressed. The attention to detail is great and it really doesn't look or feel like it is made from foam, while still being soft enough to be safe for young children.



The helmet is made from sturdy plastic with a movable visor that Ben loved and an easy to adjust chin strap. There is a red solid plastic feather that attached into the top of the helmet and it has the 'mike the knight 'logo on the front. There are no rough edges and again you can see that this is very well made.

Ben has enjoyed playing with these, putting on the helmet and being transformed into a heroic character to reenact scenarios from the show and create his own missions! (Often involving rescuing princess 'sister' from a 'very, very, very tall tower in a big castle with a pointy top')

I love how this set encourages imaginative play and I can see Ben playing with it long in to the future with many different scenarios! Even though it's aimed at an age range of 3 - 5 I think the simplicity of this set means that older children will also enjoy role playing with it, the helmet has plenty of room for growth and even fitted on my head (when Ben decided it was Mummies turn to be Mike!)

At an RRP of just £14.99 this set is really good value for money, both the sword and the helmet are high quality and even though Ben can be quite rough with his toys, after two weeks of playing with this regularly (including sword fights with the door!) there are no signs of wear or tear at all. I would reccomend this playset to any parents whose little ones like to play knights...

Also available in the range launching this weekend are the Glendragon Arena - for Mike's jousting competitions, Hairy Harry's Horse Stop - for Mike to take Galahad to the Viking Boat - with unique multi-oar rowing action and the Deluxe Glendragon Playset - A two tiered tower with hidden treasure features!

We were sent this item to review, but were not paid to write this post, all opinions are own own.

Moon Dough Supermarket - Role play and creative play combined!

Ben has just turned four and he loves role play! He is always playing shop either with his play till or an imaginary one! (I think he may become a shopaholic like Mummy!) I encourage this as much as possible as I think its a great way to develop use of numbers and simple maths. He has also recently become quite interested in creative play (when he was younger he was never to keen on getting messy with things like that and preferred to tell me what to do instead) and making things; from simple crafts to moulding shapes and 'dinners' out of 'play dough.'

I was delighted to be given the opportunity to review the new Moon Dough Supermarket from Spin Master Toys. As soon as I heard about it I knew that this could become a potential favourite in our house, as although we regulary use play dough I really don't like the smell and hate when it dries out and needs replacing, which wastes pennies!

What Ben thought...

Ben became very excited when he saw the brightly coloured and illustrated box and couldn't wait to get it open! Once I had put Elizabeth down for a nap we opened the box to discover what was inside!

Inside the box we found a cash register (needed putting together but very simple to do so) a shopping basket, 6 'shopping' moulds (milk carton, pineapple, chicken, tin of beans, bread and apple), 3 packs of 'moon dough' in Red, Yellow, and White and an instruction leaflet.

Ben's attention was immediately drawn to the till, which to be honest was a lot smaller than I was expecting from the illustrations on the box, but this didn't seem to bother him at all! He loved turning the handle even before there was any dough in it!

The instructions said to compress the moon dough into a single lump with your hands before removing from the packaging, then once out of the wrapper to squish it into a ball untill it softens. I did this and it became a soft mallable dough that resembled ready made icing in texture!

Ben found it easy to break off lumps the moon dough and compress them into the moulds, he made one of each of the shopping items and placed them in the basket, before returning his attention to the till!

The till itself was also a mould! Ben popped the dough in at the top, turned the handle and a coin magically appeared from the side! I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was for him to do on his own and he soon had a vast array of coins! He could have happily repeated this all day, but when the dough was running out I asked if he would like to play shop and he immediately decided I would be the customer and he would be the shopkeeper!

We had a lovely time playing and Ben loved counting the coins. (I find he is always better with counting when he has something physical to use rather than just in his head or looking at numbers on a page!)

Ben gave the Moon Dough Supermarket a big thumbs up and it is a toy that will give him hours of enjoyment and I'd imagine it would also be a hit with most other children in this age group!

What Mummy thought...

 It was lovely watching Ben play with this set, he really got into it and it made me smile to to see him really concentrating and working things out. However from a Mummy's point of view there are a few things I'd like to mention...

It's great that the 'dough' will never dry out and will last the test of time but I was disappointed that there were no containers or even resalable bags provided to store the dough in, I have used some zip-lock bags inside the cardboard box (which is nice and sturdy and really handy to store everything in between uses).

After we played with this for the first time and were putting everything away Ben got a bit over enthusiastic and managed to merge all the colours together so now when he plays with it everything is a bit psychedelic looking, this doesn't bother him and actually looks quite funky but is something to bear in mind!

The dough does get very crumbly and Ben managed to get it all over his clothes and the carpet, it brushed off fairly easily but it would make me wary about letting Ben use this if his baby sister was around as she may try to eat any crumbs he dropped!

Overall I would say this is a lovely toy that most children aged 3 - 6 will get many hours of fun from!

 I found it great for promoting creativity and imaginative role play. I really like that it doesn't smell, is not greasy and is very easy for Ben to use the provided moulds, I also love that it is hypoallergenic (as we are a family of very sensitive skin and tend to get reactions from a multitude of materials). I would recommend using a mess mat on the floor and being very cautious if you have younger children around who might be tempted to pick up any crumbly bits!

Oh, and make sure you have some small containers or ziplock bags to hand!

Moon Dough Supermarket is made by Spin Master Toys and is available from most leading toy shops and online at an RRP of £15.99. And if your looking for and even better deal Argos currently have 1/3 off so you can grab it by the 12/10/11 for just £10.49! A great bargain, ideal for stocking up on Christmas Presents!

We were sent the Moon Dough Supermarket set from Spinmaster Toys through Blog-Match in exchange for writing this review but all opinions are our own!