New on the Nintendo Wii U - Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush

This last weekend my girls had some serious fun crafting with dough making Kirby and friends figures. Miss E was adamant that Kirby needed a whole bedroom of furniture so he could be comfortable.  Just look at them in action -

My girls are very much into using their imaginations and free styling but if your child wants to create a Kirby and fancies some instruction then why don't you check out how to make your own dough and this great instructional video -



The girls were making Kirby figures to celebrate the upcoming launch on 8th May of the new Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush game for the Wii U. In this latest adventure, the evil Claycia has drained Dream Land of all its colour and your task is to help Kirby and his Waddle Dee friends bring their homeland back to its bright and beautiful best.

You can find out more information and see a sneaky preview of the game over on the Nintendo website here.

Disclosure: We were sent a box of craft goodies as we are Nintendo Ambassadors this year. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Club Chic Girls - Review

My 7 year old twin girls are very lucky as they get a number of great things to review. The latest item they have received has only just launched and both girls love their Club Chic doll.

With five to collect there is something for everyone. We were lucky enough to receive the whole set but I asked the girls which one each they would like to keep and we will pass the other three to friends of theirs, as it is always good to share!

Based in Bear Valley Hills, the Club Chic girls are totes the trendiest, coolest bears around! Each Club Chic doll has their own individual style and comes complete with personalised fabric outfits and a super-styling hand bag that your little one can use too! It explans on the box who each girl is and what their style/ personality says about them.

These are who my girls choose -

Miss M - Candy, as she would love to have pink hair like her and she is really into fashion, which apparently Miss M tells me Candy is too. her name also sounds American which is something Miss M would love.

Miss E - Pippa, truth be told Miss E did not strongly identify with any of them, I suspect this is because she is still figuring out who she is as an individual. She liked Violet as she is arty but she didn't like her Goth look so she opted for Pippa in the end as she wears glasses like Miss E does and she blogs like Mummy,

The dolls retail for £16.99 and you can pick them up from most good toy retailers like Smyths Toys. So what do you get for your money? Take a look and see -

I found the dolls a bit odd as they have such big heads and small bodies and I had wondered if they would stand up unassisted but they do and my girls think the big head, big eyes look is cute and I suppose they are what matters. The actual doll itself seems well made and all the parts move, the hair is the same as any doll like this and the painted face is well done. I really liked the fact that the dolls have a childs body and there is no emphasis towards perky boobs and slim hips!

The dress on Crystal is literally just a piece of fabric with a velcro fastening, so not much to it but it fits the theme and looks good on her. The purse that comes with it is very cute and again velcro fastens and my daughters will enjoy using these for their pocket money.

I think these make a nice Christmas present idea and my girls are certainly happy with their dolls.

If you like what you see you can check out more of Vivid Toys brands on their website, it is always good to find a British brand.

Disclosure: We were sent these dolls free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

BBQ Fail #TheCharcoalChallenge

I've got a bit of a secret to let you into.....  I can't BBQ, I am just rubbish at it.  I want to be good and I'd love to have serene evenings spent outside with my husband and the kids chilling as the meat slowly cooks and the beautiful smells waft over towards me.  This just does not happen. I bought a nice red gas BBQ once and we used it twice and that was it - it just seemed too much fuss and cleaning for the food we got.

Then I heard that MoneySupermarket.com where offering bloggers £50 to take part in the #thecharcoalchallenge and I thought perfect, I can try again - surely even I can manage one of those disposable BBQ's and we can have some yummy smoky burgers to enjoy for the girls birthday tea with their grandparents whilst we were on holiday.

Oh dear, how wrong was I?  We got the BBQ lit and that seemed fine, the instructions advised me to wait 20 minutes for the flames to die down and the charcoal to look covered in ash. All looking good 10 minutes in -

But then the smoke started as the wind had got up and the patio area started to look as if we needed a fire engine to come visit. My Dad could take the smoke no longer and we decided to put the BBQ out and stop trying to annoy the neighbours

So it was under the grill that the burgers went, ideals of smoky flavours out the window.  We did enjoy our birthday tea and then everyone loved the meringue, cream and strawberries after and we finished up with a game of monopoly. At least we got something out of the £50 that will last us for some years yet and give us lots of fun!

 Thanks to moneysupermarket.com for helping us have a fun evening as a family.

The Girls Recommend: ELC Styling Head

Hands up, who owned a Girls World when they were little?  I for one did and I adored it.  I was a really girlie girl and I loved to colour her hair and do her make up.  So I was thrilled when Father Christmas bought Miss M this super styling head from the Early Learning Centre for Christmas.

The head retails at £20 and you get a good sized head with very pretty hair, make-up in a CD case, brush, comb and lots of hair accessories.  Here are the girls happily playing together on Boxing Day -

Whilst they have used most of the lip gloss in their 3 or 4 plays since Xmas there is loads of the powder shadow and blusher still and I intend to just get them some cheap gloss from the market to use in the future.

I think this could provide hours of fun and at £20 I was very pleased.  This would make a fab gift for a little lady with a birthday in the coming months.  Keep an eye out for when ELC do those special times when they have 10 or 20% off everything.

This is a recommendation post and as such we have received nothing for free and have not been asked to write this post.  I am just recommending a product to you dear reader that our family give a big thumbs up to!

Our Family Recommends: Waitrose Profiteroles

Being Boxing day we had my family over and they are great lovers of creamy desserts, so I thought I would get soem profiteroles in.  No, I do not do the domestic goddess bake everything from scratch here, sorry!

I normally buy M&S profiteroles and the fresh ones but they were costing about £10 this Christmas so I left them and I am so glad I did.  For at Waitrose I bought 2 boxes of 18 profiteroles for £5.00 for the two. They were frozen but having had frozen desserts from Waitrose I knew we were likely to be talking a quality product rather than an Iceland bargain!

They were excellent.  You got separate chocolate sauce and plenty of it and the 36 profiteroles fed 8 of us in total.  So that was £5.00 for 8 desserts, you can not say fairer value than that!

I'll let you judge for yourself whether my twins liked them!
This is a family recommendation and that means we are sharing with you things that our family like and will use again. We received nothing for free and Waitrose have no idea I am posting this!