Quick and Easy Boys Halloween Outfit

With Halloween quickly approaching it was great to see some Snazaroo face paints in our toyologist box!

My boys had decided they wanted to dress up this Halloween as Vampires, and so we brought a couple of cheap Vampire capes from the local supermarket, and some fake fangs, with a plain white shirt and black trousers their outfits are done, but to add the finishing touches and give them the all important Vampire look the Snazaroo face painting sticks were perfect!

These non toxic, Allergenic easy to remove face paints are ideal, they come in a pack of 6 colours Green, Red, Blue, Black White and Yellow, so there is a colour for every occasion.

The sticks are about 2 inches long each and have a sloped angle on one end which makes face painting easy. They are very soft and apply with ease, even to sensitive areas such as eyes.

We added red and black around the boys eyes and white over the face, the snazaroo sticks blend together easily so the effects can be easily achieved to give that all important spooky look!

These sticks would do several face painting sessions, you also could use them to decorate hands and feet if you wanted, or just about anywhere, great simple fun and brings face painting to your home.

Look out for the Snazaroo face painting sticks in a Toys R us store near you!

Puzzling good Fun!

As I mentioned in a previous post we are now members of the Ravensburger Puzzle club,
and as which we were sent a Disney Pixar Cars, giant Floor puzzle, and Puzzle store board to review.

The Puzzle store is an ingenious jigsaw puzzle board, which means you can leave a puzzle mid way through, fold up the puzzle store and pack it away neatly and safely until you want to return to the puzzle. I have been a huge Jigsaw Puzzle fan, and I remember many years ago my Gran buying me a puzzle store, and I loved it. The puzzle store I had however didn't have the additional benefits to store your sorted pieces like the Ravensburger Puzzle Store has.

We really love the puzzle store, my eldest is really getting into jigsaws and we often sit down and complete more detailed jigsaws together, and I very nearly purchased a puzzle store a month ago after having to dismantle a half finished jigsaw in order to free up the coffee table again, so the Ravensburger puzzle store couldn't have arrived at a better time, and it is so very useful for anyone who is a puzzle lover, it really does give you the opportunity to sit and do a section of your jigsaw, then pack it away neatly until you want to return to it, without having to leave your puzzle out where it is likely to get knocked and pieces get lost, which has happened many times here.

The puzzle store is large, it is 56cm x 76cm when closed, and consists of a puzzle board to complete your jigsaw upon,  one half of the puzzle store is a sorting tray, which is segmented into 5 sections so you can easily sort your pieces, and when you fold the puzzle store up the pieces remain in the correct sorted trays. See our video review at the bottom of this post.

We also received the Disney Pixar Cars Giant floor Puzzle, which is a 69cm x 49cm so fits neatly into the puzzle store, Obviously larger children's Puzzles don't really need a puzzle store, because you tend to complete the whole jigsaw in one go, but my youngest really loves the puzzle board and sorting trays it really does help him to complete the puzzle alone, and has the added benefit of keeping the pieces together, and the puzzle board means he can complete the puzzle even on the rugs and carpet, as the board provided a stable surface which makes fitting the pieces together even easier.

The Cars Floor Puzzle is a lovely bright colourful jigsaw which features all the favourite characters from the Disney Pixar movie, there are 60 pieces, which are all a perfect hand size for smaller children and are the great quality you expect from Ravensburger.

The age rating on this Puzzle is 4+  my two eldest who are 8 and 9 sat with my youngest who is 4 on the first couple of occasions of completing the puzzle and all enjoyed making it. Now my youngest can complete it alone, which gives him a great sense of pride and achievement.

We really loved the Cars Puzzle and would recommend it to anyone, it is a great introduction puzzle for the 4+ age range with its bright familiar characters and easy to fit together hand sized pieces, it is great for introducing the love of jigsaw puzzles!

You can purchase the amazing Puzzle store from Argos Currently prized at £24.99 (down from £34.99) here : Puzzle store at Argos.
and you can purchase the Cars Giant Floor Puzzle from most good toy stores it is currently priced £9.99 at toys R us : Cars 2 Giant Floor puzzle at Toys R us

Here is a video to show you the puzzle store in use...

Nerf Vortex Proton Blaster

When my three saw three Nerf guns in the Toyologist box they were thrilled, my eldest many times has asked for a Nerf Gun
.

So I was intrigued to see what the fuss was all about with these Nerf Guns, which are from the Vortex Range of blasters, these blasters range in price and size,

The Proton is the smallest blaster in the Vortex range, priced  at £12.99 it is a very sturdy gun, and comes with 3 Nerf Discs which are soft on the edges to prevent broken windows. You can also purchase additional ammo if you loose you original discs (which you probably will!)

The key to the Nerf Vortex range is the rapid fire, long distance shooting they boast, the guns fire VERY fast, so fast you can't really see where the bullets are flying too, or coming from and the discs can travel huge distances!

We were sent two Protons to review, which was great as the fun is in the game, my three have spent many happy hours running around the house and garden having Nerf battles!

The Nerf guns are a very well made they are extremely sturdy and can withstand being dropped and bashed around abit, the age rating is 8 for the proton but my youngest who is 4 could use it easily, with a slide open compartment to load the disc, which opens easily. No batteries are required either which make these a toy which can be picked up and used over and over again without the worry of having to find replacement batteries!

I can see these lasting many years and always being a big hit, so the price of £12.99 is very reasonable and well worth it for the quality of the gun which is sure to be something which will last and last.

Heres a video review showing how my 4 year old can easily manage the Proton Blaster.

Silent Sunday

(Thebeautiful top Chloe is wearing was from supplied by Boden Clothing)

Autumn Sunshine

Today the sun shone through and although its abit nippy its not as cold as it has been the past few days, so me and my daughter and Jackson our beautiful Boxer dog,went for a bike ride through the woods.

  I love watching Chloe and Jackson run off together, they are best friends

Having a dog gives you a reason to go into the country and enjoy being outside, they are a friend who's always willing, always happy and eager to be with you.

We had a lovely afternoon in the Autumn sun, rushing through the woody pathways and jumping around in the grassy fields.

 

Simply fun in the beautiful countryside, a perfect way to spend a sunny Autumn Day.

I'm linking this post up to the Country Kids Linky over at Coombe Mill

Why not come along and show off your outdoor activities from this week? or come over and see who else has been enjoying the outdoors by viiting Coombe Mills blog here : Country Kids

Chloe is wearing the Lovely Spotty Pink Top from Boden Clothing look out for our review coming soon!

Puzzles!

We love puzzles here, my eldest often sits down and completes a jigsaw, and my youngest is just starting to get really good at jigsaws and can happily complete them himself now.

So when we were asked by Ravensburger if we would like to be part of their Puzzle club, we jumped at the chance.

If you don't know who Ravensburger are, then where have you been hiding?! they have over 100 years of experience in the market and their puzzles are amazing quality and come in thousands of designs, they have a Puzzle to suit everyone, and not only do they make Puzzles but other things too like Flash Cards, Family games even arts and crafts.

Being apart of the Puzzle club means I am one of 12 other families who have been invited to test out and review puzzles for them, and post the review onto their new Puzzle Club Blog, which is a place where you can find out new puzzle designs and see what everyone has to say about the puzzles!

So be sure to pop over to the Ravensburger Puzzle club blog, follow it via google friends connect and keep upto date with all that's happening over there, I will be posting my reviews here for you too, The first puzzle we have been sent is a lovely Cars 60 piece giant floor puzzle, and the amazing Ravensburger puzzle store board,  I will have the review for you very soon.

Rainbow Pictures!

We received a Rainbow scrapper set from Toys R us, made by Reeves.

We have had this sort of set in the past, foil scrappers and the like, some of them are very difficult to scrap, the tools can often be metal which make a terrible grating sound as you scrap, and the level of accuracy needed is high.

This kit is a bright rainbow design, in the kit you get a picture board, we received the Dog design, on a 10inch by 8 inch board, and a plain black board which you can use your own imagination on.
You also get a child proof plastic scrapper, which is easy to grip and scraps away the black smoothly (without the scratchy noise!)

Chloe who loves all things arty set about on this straight away, the age rating says 4 and above, in reality I think 4 year olds may struggle to get a good end results, Chloe is 8 and managed easily, she created her own doodle on the blank board and followed the pattern on the dog, the scrapper tool made scrapping easy and you do not need to put alot of effort into scrapping away the black, the colours are bright and the end results are rather stunning, however a certain amount of attention to detail is required as there is no sections which can not be scrapped away, so you do have to stick to the pattern, which some younger children may struggle with but this toy is a great way to encourage their fine motor skills and concentration.

I think this is a really lovely set that older girls would thoroughly enjoy and would keep them happily occupied for an hour or two over the Christmas Holidays, so it is definitely one to keep an eye out for, and I would say spending the extra money on the Reeves brand name is worth it, as some of the cheaper sets we've had do not scrap away so easily and end up with ripped sections where too much force has ripped the board.

Here is a video for you, for more reviews remember to take a look at the Toys R us facebook page and the Toy Box app.