I probably shouldn't admit this, but my kids watch tv in the morning while I drink my coffee and before I make breakfast (it's safer for everyone this way) and this means that they see toy ads, some which make no impact and some which they love so much that they single the jingles all the time and ask if they can have them.  My Fairy Garden was one of these that they both loved at first sight, and were so excited when I told them that we were getting the Lilypad Gardens to play with and review.



The Lilypad Gardens set comes with a large flower pot (in several pieces), Lily the fairy, a few little lilypads, a little frog, a sunflower windmill and some grass seeds.  It's very easy to set up, and all that you need to provide is the soil for the seeds.  





We decided to buy a couple of little plants as well (I'm not much of a gardener and wanted it to look pretty for our fairy right away).  We filled our fairy garden with soil and planted our blueberry and blackberry plants to make it look lovely for our fairy.



Then the kids each filled up their watering cans and watered the plant as well as filling up the moat around the bottom, and placed the lilypads and frogs into the moat to float around.


Then it was time to play with Lily the fairy in her new home.  Ivy loves opening up the little door and having the fairy go in and out and fly all around the garden.  She also loves moving the lilypads around in the water around the outside.




























The kids both woke up the next day and ran to the back window to check on their fairy garden, they really do love it and I'm sure will continue to play with it throughout the summer (and we may end up having to add to the collection!)



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* This is a review post, we were sent the My Fairy Garden Lilypad Gardens from Interplay to play with and write our honest opinions about.*

We've just recently got back from a trip to Dubai as a family and we had an incredible time. For us it was all about swimming and fun in the sun, so there were definitely a few essentials that made our trip even better!



We love the new sun cream from Child's Farm, it couldn't have come at a better time as so many sun creams are full of chemicals and this really is a lovely product and worked so well as our kids didn't even get a hint of a sunburn and that was even on days where the temperature rose above 40 degrees!  



There is also a lovely after sun product that we used on the kids in the evenings to keep their skin moisturised after all of that swimming and time in the heat.  The 3 in 1 swim is also perfect for travelling as we only had to bring one product for bath time to wash, shampoo and condition.  And of course we used plenty of detangler on Ivy's long hair as it got so curly in that humidity and needed to be brushed through to smooth it out, which was easy to do with their bath time brush, it all helped to make bath time on holiday run much more smoothly.



For swimming fun Ethan loved trying out the incredible Swim Fin floatation device.  First of all Ethan thought that it was just the coolest looking thing, because he could swim around the pool like a shark!  But he also loved the way that it held him up in the water so that his arms and legs were free to help him learn to swim.  It doesn't support him as much as arm bands, so it is great for a teaching session when we wanted to really work on his swimming skills and when 2 or more adults were in the water with him so that he could swim back and forth between us with ease.



Both kids loved playing with the toys from Swim Fin the Funky Floaties  were perfect for Ivy to be able to reach out and grab as they float at the surface of the pool.  She could easily through them a short distance then propel herself towards them to pick up the one that she wanted.  And the Dinky Divers were so much fun and a real challenge for Ethan to play with as he could drop them down to the bottom of the pool and try to pick them up using his hands or feet, or even be very brave and put his face under the water to retrieve them.  It was fun to have some toys in the pool with us on holiday and give us something to keep the kids busy.


To keep the kids afloat and protected while they swam in the many pools and around the water park they tried out these Konfidence swim suits.  Ivy wore the Floatsuit which kept her floating in the water as well as protecting her from the sun with its 30+ UPF protection.  It's a great design for younger children as they have got their buoyancy aids on them in their swimsuit, so that even if they sneak over to the pool before you're ready you know that they'll be safe for that second before you get there (trust me, Ivy did this a lot!).  It's also great because the floats within the suit are removable, so you can take out just a few when they become more confident or remove them altogether.



Ethan tried out The Original Konfidence Jacket and he absolutely loved it!  It definitely gave him the confidence to swim through the pool and didn't get in the way of his swimming.


























Then to dry off and continue to get sun protection Ivy tried out this UV Poncho towel from Cuddledry.  It's great because the towel itself is not too thick, so it doesn't make your child overheat, but it's made of the softest bamboo to dry them off and SPF50 built in, so you don't have to worry about the sun screen that may have washed off whilst they swam as they dry off before reapplying.


We had such an incredible trip to Dubai and these essentials definitely helped us along the way, and now we're all set for more fun in the sun this summer in and around London!



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* This is a review post, we were sent products from Child's Farm, Swim Fin, Konfidence and Cuddledry to try and write our honest opinions about.*

• plastic mobile ring
• string
• tape (optional)
• spare buttons
• beads
• feathers

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Happy Birthday to the Queen!  One thing that I love about living in Great Britain is how much everyone comes together for these big celebrations and throws local parties that always involve lots of cake!




Ethan loves any sort of matching activity, so this matching of crowns was right up his street and he finished in a few seconds flat!



Then to really prepare for the Queen's birthday celebrations and to work on scissor skills we cut out some bunting and some party hats!


And of course it wouldn't be a party without some cakes!  We made these simple Rice Krispie treats with marshmallows, red white and blue hundreds and thousands and these fantastic 90th birthday cake toppers.

Happy 90th Birthday Your Majesty!

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* This is a review post, we were provided with all of the print outs and cake decorating bits from iChild in order to write an honest review.*

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• rulers
• a selection of toys
• large paper
• pencil

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