Christmas Gifts for Quality Family Time over Christmas When There's Nothing on The Telly Box

At Christmas we all spend more time indoors than normal. The whole family together, all off work and school, perhaps with extended family too. The telly box isn't always good everyday, and sometimes we return to old fashioned things like board games and toys. House of Fraser recently gave me the chance to order a couple of boardgames for Aaron for this festive family time, but here's what I opted for.

Aaron's pretty much ADDICTED to jigsaws because in the first fortnight of big school (reception) Aaron did a jigsaw or two, at school every morning and now he's hooked. Throw in Planes / Dusty and you have a focused boy until it's done. He's seen both movies and was even lucky enough to see Planes 2 Fire and Rescue at a Blog/Press Preview (Gala Screening).

When you're on Oxford Street, House of Fraser might seem like a posh store that only does perfumes and cosmetics, but don't let the ground floor confuse you. Just like lots of other department stores, they stock nearly everything, toys and games included. Given that the above jigsaw is now out of stock I just Googled it to see who else is selling it, and everywhere I found is selling it for the same five pounds as House of Fraser so their prices are certainly competitive. What I will say too is the delivery arrived extremely well packaged and came with the gorgeous magazine you can see Aaron holding above. There were also lots of money off vouchers included in the package, which I really appreciated - yes they are advertising for the brands who supplied them, but good stuff!

In our House of Fraser package we also got a HexBugs set. Aaron played with it non stop until the batteries ran out (reminds me I need to replace them). He loved it so much he even brought it up to bed:

So in love with the Hex Bugs from @houseoffraser he's brought them to bed!!!!

A photo posted by Liska (@newmumonline) on Nov 11, 2014 at 11:50am PST

The Hexbug Bridge Battle Set is RRP 29.99 but good old House of Fraser is selling it for only 14.99 GBP. I must inform you though that there is a V2 model, and House of Fraser's is the original. We still love it though.

We also got a Doc McStuffins jigsaw set, which is incredibly great value as there are FIVE jigsaws in one packet. The packaging says 3D but don't worry this does NOT mean you will be building a volumous jigsaw, that is like a globe. No, each jigsaw piece is shiny so that the IMAGE appears 3D. This is currently reduced from 20 to 10 pounds.

We also got Guess Who, which is fabulous value from House of Fraser at ten pounds considering Argos is selling it for 14.99 GBP. Don't believe the packaging that it can be built in a few minutes as it took me ages. You literally have to snap off bits, which the instructions don't make clear and did hurt my fingers a little. I kept telling Aaron we couldn't play it till I built it. By the time I did it was bedtime and we haven't got it out since. BUT NOW that it IS built it WILL be great fun to play with over Christmas. I think I will get him to play it with his cousins over the festive period. I'll update y'all when I do:

Our total haul was 41 pounds worth, which is excellent. We also have a pack of cards (which are only 99 pence but currently out of stock, which you'll see below. We haven't touched them yet, but Aaron adores playing cards, so that will be another thing to provide quality family "playing" time over Christmas.

All items featured were sent to us for review, so that we could give you ideas for toys to play with over the festive season.

Having checked the prices of each item I can honestly say, when you are toy shopping online, try HouseOfFraser.co.uk before clicking "buy".

I was lucky enough to be sent a Christmas Stocking by House of Fraser's home department which I will be reviewing soon. If you are looking for a "vintage" looking Christmas Stocking then I don't think you can beat this one. It is LINED and beautifully embroidered:

Wow wow wow @houseoffraser know how to fill a stocking. My friendly neighbourhood courier just arrived with this. I think I earned it after spending yesterday being Mrs Christmas putting up tree decs and lights #ChristmasStocking

A photo posted by Liska (@newmumonline) on Dec 12, 2014 at 5:01am PST

Bye for now, Liska

xxx

So Tell Me What you Want What you Really Really Want....

It's a Spice Girls' song...

but it's what ran through my mind when House of Fraser said I could have whatever I wanted off their website: house of fraser dot co dot uk

What I really really wanted was some PJs for Aaron and I had no trouble choosing.

He'd recently gone through a growth spurt (and actually has again) so all of his PJs were short on the arms and legs. When he has GREAT PJs I enjoy bedtime more as I love dressing him for bed when I know he looks great. Is it just me?

Here's what we got:

At the time of choosing (back in February) they had a blue cross sale on, so the Pac Man ones and the Monster ones were heavily reduced so were bargains and sadly dear reader, that means they are no longer available. Actually I tell a lie, I just checked and the Pac Man ones are available in age 9-10. Despite Aaron being age 3 he has been in age 5-6 for ages as he is incredibly tall and has been since birth. They fit just right, and are beautiful fabric. We've washed them quite a few times and they're as good as new. What I LOVE about the Pac Man ones is that they are "skinny" which means they are such a gorgeous snug fit. The brand is Mini Vanilla and you can feel immediately that they are QUALITY! Aaron's going through a massive Pac Man phase at the moment and watches it all the time on You Tube and there is even a show on TV (which is what got him into it) - did you know it's made a comeback? It's on the Disney XD channel. He has no idea it is a computer game - nor does he know that me and my Mum had the hand held game when I was little (in the 80s) and that we both "clocked it". Mum never touched any of my handheld games (I had 8! I was a spoilt only child) but she was off sick with salmonella in bed for a week and turned out to be a Pac Man fan! Who knew! We (Aaron and I) now have the Pac Man characters (figurines) but THAT is a review that I am yet to right - coming to a blog near you soon!

See what I mean about them being the perfect fit - I love them:

I love that the Pac Mans on the bottoms are not just stickers so they wash well and I love that the one on the top is embroidered on, and again not just a sticker! The other thing I adore about these PJs is the cuffs on the arms and ankles, as it is still chilly at night despite the Spring weather and it's great to know Aaron doesn't have any chills getting under baggy PJs. You can see in the photo that they are not at all skimpy in length, even more so on the arms, so he will 100% get 6-12 months out of them, and more if his growth plateaus for a while which it would need to with the height of him right now!

I already blogged previously about the Very Hungry Caterpillar PJs as he wore them for World Book Day. They too are QUALITY and have the same principle of cuffs on arms and legs, which I now think are a must in cooler weather. Again no nasty stickers like you see at the cheaper end of the market. I have very much enjoyed my exploration of the top end of PJs. Sometimes you know, you DO get what you pay for.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar PJs retail at 22 pounds. I'd say they make a perfect birthday or Christmas present for the little book fan. You won't regret it as the fit and quality are both superb. The colours are really vibrant and I just love Aaron in them. The brand this time is Fabric Flavours and as a really nice touch the swing tag is made of fabric. I couldn't throw it away as I just loved it!

I am sure you can tell that this is a review I have very much enjoyed. You will know from my blog that I don't go to the opening of a postage stamp (in terms of blogging events) not that I have ever been invited to such an event ;-) and similarly I don't review just anything. If it's not right for Aaron and/or me, it aint getting on the blog #simples.

Blogging is a dedicated and time consuming affair, hence why I will only do a review if it is something that I want, that I really really want. On this occasion it was PJs as we had a real shortage and the budget wasn't allowing for the PJ splurge that I knew I wanted to have. 

So thank you thank you thank you House of Fraser.

Their website is really worth checking out. Especially the kids and baby section.

Disclosure: I was provided with my (Aaron's) precious PJs free of charge but was not told what to say. When I love it I tell you about it! Them's the breaks!

World Book Day - the Very Hungry Caterpillar

When I collected Aaron from nursery today it was so warm neither of us had a jacket on. Look at the weather we have been experiencing this March already in London (and if you click on that link you will see THIS WEEKEND is set to be EVEN warmer)! As he got near home he was too tired to cycle on his balance bike and asked if he could get the bus. We were only a 5 minute walk from home, but the sun went to my head so I said yes, let's get the bus to the shop at the end of the road (he wanted "yoghurt drink")!

Good frugal sense got the better of me and I couldn't justify the cost of the debit on my Oyster Card for 2/3 bus stops, so I said "let's go into town".  Except before we got there, I said "do you want to go to the shop where you like the sketty bolognese?" to which he was like "yeah they have toys"!

Suffice to say, we went, except as Aaron had just had a big lunch and pudding at nursery he did not touch his food (but he did eat all of the snacks in the snack box all the way home)!

It was busier than usual in there (Kiddicare), and I got talking to 3 different Mums, as their child played with Aaron. (Not at the same time, consecutively, so lots of playing, chatting and time passed)! He played so so so nicely I got really good chill out time.

On the way out, not having made ANY purchases - I am more than happy to go in there just for good food - I spotted a Thomas Track that was half price (not available online though) and I couldn't resist it. Whilst paying, I explained how I would have LOVED a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in time for World Book Day, and despite my not being able to find it, the very helpful cashier went and found me a copy. It's a SMALL hardback copy, so I kind of hesitated at the ticket price of 6 pounds (especially given that I nearly escaped purchase free) but like the track I could not resist it!

Although we only got our OWN copy today, Aaron's been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar at nursery for a couple of years now.

10 days ago, we received 3 pairs of PJs from HouseOfFraser.co.uk. I had deliberately chosen 1 of them as the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I fell in love with the PJs on the site (the other 2 pairs of PJs I chose were in their blue cross Sale and are now out of stock).

Here's Aaron wearing them a few days ago, along with a couple of pics of the book bought today:

In the spirit of World Book Day I thought I would tell you what I love about the book (I read it to Aaron 12 times tonight - I read it again and again until he slept).

• Children love the sun and the moon from a very early age, and the book begins with the moon.
• An egg appears on a leaf, so the book teaches about birth (of the egg kind). Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs!
• Next follows the birth after a warm sunrise on a Sunday morning. Aaron was fascinated by the sun coming up when he was younger.
• What follows is what the caterpillar eats Monday through to Saturday. I love this as it teaches the early reader days of the week and numbers. 
• It also teaches them to associate the name of the food with the picture of it.
• Aaron learned his numbers when he was really young, but this is not the same as counting. When he used to point at things he would say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and wouldn't steady up to point at the items as he counted. He now does thankfully, but this book would have been a great way to practice that, counting the items eaten, on each day, with each turn of the page. 
• For that reason, I'd say this would be a fabulous early book to get for a 1 to 2 year old, to take them right through to 3-4 years of age.
• On Saturday the Caterpillar eats far too much and gets a stomach-ache. I actually love this, as I do drill in to Aaron not to eat too many biscuits or chocolate and it's nice that the book backs us parents up on that.
• I am in to my Super Greens and alkalising and the healthy Caterpillar eats nothing but a "nice green leaf" the Sunday, a week after his birth, and "felt much better".
• The Caterpillar then builds a cocoon around himself and becomes, after "more than 2 weeks" a "beautiful butterfly".
• I love this, as I am trying to teach Aaron the concept of time, like "last night, yesterday, a week ago" etc... so it's nice to hear the book say "two weeks", so I can help him to further understand the passing of time.
• Beautiful message that he becomes a beautiful butterfly after eating a "nice green leaf". Thankfully Aaron doesn't have an overly sweet tooth and wolfs down broccoli in large portions normally eating his and my share! No doubt my hungry caterpillar will also one day be a butterfly :-)

Liska xxx

Disclosure: I reviewed HouseOfFraser.co.uk and my PJs for Aaron were in exchange for an honest review. I will be doing a dedicated PJ/bedtime post at a later date. I can highly recommend the website and had a great experience choosing our items.