Tomy has recently released Raa Raa's Interactive Playset - a cute little toy version of the treehouse in the popular kid's TV show, Raa Raa The Noisy Lion. And we're going to give it a review!

I've seen the Raa Raa kid's TV show a few times, but it's never really been one of my little girl's favourites. The playset is very accurately made though - it's almost identical to the house Raa Raa lives in on the show. This would be a definitely plus for kids who like Raa Raa the noisy lion.

As well as the main treehouse playset, this toy comes with a few accessories; the cubby buggy, a drum set, a chest, a ladder, and of course, Raa Raa himself. The extra elements don't really do anything "interactive" as the name of this toy might suggest - they're just little extras that the child can use for imaginative play. I've been finding the various bits and pieces all over the house though; Raa Raa in my laundry basket, the ladder in the bathtub, the drums down the back of the TV!

As for the interactive part of the toy, you can slot Raa Raa into one of two smart spots on the treehouse playset. When you do so, the toy will emit some sound effects, various roars and a few of Raa Raa's phrases. When you buy Raa Raa's little friends and use them on the playset, they will activate more and more noises, some 30 potential phrases in total.

The toy is pretty solid though and it's well-made, even the little cubby buggy. I am usually not a fan of plastic toys, I much prefer wooden toys, but the Treehouse playset seems quite tough and durable, sturdy enough to stand up to the daily rigours of a toddler.

On a negative note, I was quite disappointed with the battery needs of this toy. I first tried it with a couple of rechargeable double AA Eneloop batteries, only to find I couldn't get it working. I thought the batteries might have been dead, so I tried a couple more; again, to no avail. I actually had to get my partner to nip to the shops to get a pack of non-rechargeables; they were the only batteries that worked in this toy. While my daughter had fun playing with the toy for a couple of days before I managed to get the batteries(you can still use it without - the powered features really aren't that spectacular anyway), there are only a few sound effects from standing Raa Raa on the smart spot.

That's quite a bad point though - with the amount of toys in the house which require batteries, if a toy doesn't work with rechargables, it's not likely we will replace the batteries once they are depleted.

I gave the toy to a friend of mine, who also has a 2 year old toddler, a little boy this time. He is a HUGE fan of Raa Raa The Noisy Lion, and was incredibly excited when he and his mummy were taking this out of the box. Just to have his own little Raa Raa was amazing to him. His mummy also found a similar situation to me in that Raa Raa was turning up everywhere around the house too. My friend came up with one point that I hadn't thought about regarding purchasing the extra figures - if you buy the sets of 3, they actually come with another Raa Raa - what to do with two Raa Raas!?

As Raa raa is a show loved by either gender, this interactive playset would be a great gift for either a little boy or a girl this Christmas.

Price wise, the Tomy toy is selling around the £35 mark, which isn't too bad for a Christmas gift, though you might be able to find it a few quid cheaper on special offer.

To purchase Raa Raa's pals, they're quite reasonable - a 3 pack consisting of the giraffe, the elephant and the monkey comes in at £6.50 at Asda. Just watch out that you don't buy the set with a second Raa Raa!

*** Competition now closed, winner was Jodie! ***

It's time for another competition to award one of our lovely PlayPennies parents. This week, we've got hold of a £100 gift voucher from TheRange.co.uk, which can be used on anything in store.

If you haven't heard of The Range, they sell a wide variety of items from bedroom furniture to Garden Furniture and everything in between with Kitchen wares, arts and crafts products and even pet supplies! I am sure it would be super-easy to spend £100 there, especially now that the warmer weather is starting to show itself, and there are some great ideas for summer living.

Now, down to the nitty-gritty:

Prize: £100 gift voucher from The Range to be used in any one of their 63 nationwide stores

How to enter: Click through to The Range and tell us about what you would spend your £100 voucher on.

Just leave a comment below to enter.

Bonus entries

If you'd like a bonus competition entry, why not subscribe to the PlayPennies daily email updates? Or, if you write a UK blog, give this competition a quick mention on there, and you can get a bonus competition entry (Make sure to leave your blog post link in a comment below too).

Rules:

• UK entrants only
• Competition period: 23rd to 30th April 2012
• One type of each competition entry per household
• Competition subject to change and admins decision is final in all cases

*** Competition now closed - Charlotte was the winner ***

We're hosting an exclusive PlayPennies competition this evening, which will run over the next week or so. The prize is a £100 gift voucher to spend online at Zalando! Zalando is an online shoe and fashion store which also sells baby and children's products, sports equipment and beauty products. It would be really easy to spend £100 there, they've got a lot of super products to choose from.

If you'd like to enter to try and win the £100 Zalando gift voucher, here's how:

Leave a comment below saying what you would buy on Zalando's website with your £100 prize

So have a nosey round there, see if you like anything, and tell us what it is, in the comments below!

If you'd like bonus entries into this contest, you can also tweet an answer to @playpennies. And remember, those of you who are subscribed to PlayPennies daily email updates will also get a bonus competition entry.

Rules:

• UK entrants only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Ends 12th April 2012

Good luck everyone!

I want to share a response to this post over on Mummys-tips. On Sunday, we blogged about their site. Sian wrote a post which raised some points about post-natal depression, and we thought it was a really important topic to share. As Sarah wrote in the Playpennies post, it wasn't her usual type of content, but she thought it was pretty important to highlight and share with Playpennies readers.

Since then, we've been accused by Sian of stealing the whole blog post without permission. We quoted 178 words - clearly shown as a quote - from a potential 1099 words in the original post. None of us here at Playpennies would ever copy a post and attempt to pass it off as our own content - the very idea goes against the basic moral and ethics of any blogger.

All of us who write here at Playpennies are proud to be part of the mummy blogging community and linking to other bloggers we love and respect is an essential part of blogging and sharing who has influenced or touched us. We are horrified that Sarah's recommendation has been taken the wrong way and we are obviously incredibly apologetic. To make sure there's no misunderstanding about the quotation we've removed the few sentences we highlighted here and wanted to apologise for causing offence.

Emma

*** Contest now closed, winners to be contacted soon ***

The baby event has started at Tesco, and it's running until the 5th of February 2012. To celebrate, Tesco is giving one lucky PlayPennies parent a little prize - £100 in Tesco vouchers!

How to enter the competition:

There are 3 ways to get an entry into this PlayPennies competition:

• Leave a comment below stating what you'd like to spend your £100 on
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies email updates (those already subbed will be automatically entered)
• Leave a twitter link to this compeition (and post your twitter username below too). Remember to end your tweet with @playpennies so we'll see it on our Twitter feed

A quick note about some of the deal highlights to be had in the biggest ever Tesco baby event...

Deals:

• Pampers Baby Dry Carry Pack: was £6.49 each, now £4.30 each
• Pampers Simply Dry Carry Packs was £4.50 each, now £3.00
• Johnson’s Baby Wipes 64-Pack:was £2.44 each, now 95p each
• Huggies Super Dry Economy Pack: was £9.98 each, now half price £4.99
• Aptamil Growing Up Milk 12m+ 900g: was £8.49 each, now £6.50 each

Products on BOGOF:

• Johnson’s Baby Bubble Bath & Wash, 500ml: £2.99
• Johnson’s Baby Gold Shampoo, 500ml: £2.60
• Johnson’s Baby Pink Soft Wash, 400ml: £2.98
• Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Bath, 500ml: £2.50

Half Price Buys:

• Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Electronic Steam Steriliser: was £47.99, now half price £23.99
• Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Microwave Steriliser: was £26.99, now half price £13.49
• Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Electric Breast Pump: was £99.99, now half price £49.99
• Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Freedom Breast Pump: was £29.99, now half price £14.99

Could be some good deals for you to grab there.

You can also follow Tesco on Twitter via @TescoBabyClub. They are giving out prizes every day during the Baby Event so it could be worth watching out for that.

Rules:

• Ends 24th January 2012
• Open to UK residents only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Must complete email verification when subscribing
• Must include a valid email address if commenting
• Admin’s decision is final in all cases

*** Contest now closed - prizes went out to robertssophie, clairetiptop, bethymorg, elaine73,  slbhill ***

The lovely folks over at Hallmark are giving us a little pressie this week, they've offered 5 of their Story Buddies to the PlayPennies parents! The Story Buddies are worth £19.99 each. If you win, you can choose from 3 styles, Cooper, Watson or Jingle (he's the Christmas edition). The story buddies are interactive soft toys that come with a book too - I think they're pretty cute! I watched the video of Watson in action. You read the story, and Watson responds with appropriate comments at certain points. Quite fun!

Well, if you would like to win one of these toys for your little one this Christmas, just answer this question for us:

What type of animal is the Watson story buddy?

Leave your answer in a comment below please. Make sure to leave a valid email address too, so we'll be able to get in touch if you win one of the 5 story buddies (Please note that first time commenters may be placed in the moderation queue for a little bit).

For a bonus competition entry, subscribe to the daily PlayPennies email updates.

For another free competition entry, tweet about this contest on Twitter and put the link or your Twitter username in the comments below. Remember to end your tweet with @playpennies so we'll see it on our Twitter feed. :) They sometimes run more comps on the Hallmark Twitter feed too, so feel free to follow them while you're there.

If you don't win one of the Story Buddies in this competition, and you're wanting to buy one online from Hallmark instead, the last day for Christmas delivery is the 20th December 2011.

Rules:

• Competition ends on 30th November 2011
• Open to UK residents only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Must complete email verification when subscribing
• Must include a valid email address if commenting
• Admin’s decision is final in all cases

*** Competition now closed, winners contacted soon! ***

To celebrate the UK premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Clintons is offering four lucky PlayPennies parents the chance to win an exclusive hamper of Twilight goodies, pictured above.

Winners will each receive a Twilight t-shirt, luxury travel bag, passport cover, luggage label and candle, worth £100 each.

How to enter: Check out this question and post your answer in the comments below:

How many months are shown in the 2012 Twilight Breaking Dawn Calendar on Clintoncards.co.uk?

For a bonus competition entry, subscribe to the daily PlayPennies email updates.

For another free competition entry, tweet about this contest on Twitter and put the link or your Twitter username in the comments below. Remember to end your tweet with @playpennies

Rules:

• Competition ends on 22nd November 2011
• Open to UK residents only
• 1 type of entry per household
• Must complete email verification when subscribing
• Must include a valid email address if commenting
• Admin’s decision is final in call cases

Please remember to use your correct email address when leaving a comment below, so we can get in touch if you win. We'll try and get in touch with all the winners next week, and we hope to have your prizes out to you in time for Christmas.

I am actually looking forward to this movie. Having read the books and caught the first few movies, I can't wait to see the rest!

The Twilight 2012 Calendar and a range of Twilight cards are available at selected Clintons stores and online at clintoncards.co.uk.

Here we have some exclusive voucher codes which you can use online at schoolstationery.co.uk, for various discounts on your online purchases.

Click here to use the Schoolstationery voucher code online

• Voucher code: playpennies11
• Discount: 5% off
• Expires: 1st June 2012

• Voucher code: playpennies100
• Discount: £10 off £100
• Expires: 31st December 2011

You cannot stack multiple Schoolstationery voucher codes on one order, so it would be best to work out which one is the best for you to use. For example, if you're spending between zero and £99, use the 5% code. If you are spending between £100 and £200, use the £10 code. If you are spending more than £200 (could happen!), then use the 5% code as that would be the higher discount.

It's the first time we've posted about Schoolstationery on PlayPennies, so I will write a little bit about the store. They are a school supplies provider, but can be used by either people in the teaching profession, or even parents. They have a similar feel to Viking Direct actually, I notice that they sell things like tea bags and catering stuff, as well as all the pens and pencils of the day!

They list a couple of special offers on their site:

• Framed Map of Europe for £44.79 & free delivery (was £79.99)
• Bic Velleda 12 pack Whiteboard Markers for £10.99 (was £19.63)

You also get free postage on orders of £40 or more.

*** RESULTS ***

Announcing the winner of the Halloween costume comp to win a £50 Amazon.co.uk gift voucher - the prize goes to claireabelleh for the cutest little black cat! We'll be emailing you soon to sort out your winnings.

Honourable mentions to almostwitty  for dressing up the baby boy as the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison for those of you not in the know) and to DiCoke  and her little mummy!

I am sure there are lots of PlayPennies parents and their families that will be getting dressed up this Halloween. If you are doing so, then why not snap a picture, and we may just give you a £50 Amazon voucher for your trouble!

All you have to do is get yourself or your kids dressed up, put this PlayPennies competition image somewhere in the scene, and take a picture. Upload your picture to an image hosting service like photobucket, imageshack or flickr, then post the link in the comments here on this PlayPennies thread.

We'll be sharing all the eligible images on the PlayPennies flickr feed, so you can see the entries as you go along.

Rules:

• UK entrants only
• 1 entry per household
• Ends 1st November 2011
• Must include the Halloween competition image in your photograph (no photoshopping)

We'll bump this competition post on Halloween as a reminder, next week. And for those of you who might be interested, there's a similar competition running on our sister site Dealspwn.com, and they're giving away an Xbox 360 package for those fancy-dressers with a video game related theme!

Good luck everyone, and Happy Halloween!

I'll start this Daisy Tabletop Wooden Kitchen review off with a  little anecdote. A few months ago, I set an upside-down pot on the kitchen floor and gave my (then 14 month old) daughter a wooden spoon. Instead of banging it with the gusto only a toddler can muster, she turned the pot over and started to stir the invisible contents. Dear daughter had of course seen me do this many times, while she was in my arms and I was busily prepping dinner at the cooker.

My daughter is now about 17 months old and is really starting to understand the role-play style of learning through play. We were at her playgroup and I saw her playing with the teapot and cups, so I resolved to get her some kitchen items of her very own. I received this cute Daisy Tabletop Wooden Kitchen by Tidlo of John Crane which is about £35 at Dillons Toy Box.

Firstly, a word about the quality of this kitchen: When I took this little tabletop kitchen out of the box, I was a little disappointed when one of the wooden parts seemed to be detached from the toy. I don't think that it was supposed to come apart, but I was able to slot it back into place with ease. Following on from the disappointment in the unboxing, it was all uphill from there.

The actual Daisy Tabletop Wooden Kitchen set is really pretty, lovely colours and cute designs on both the kitchen itself, and on the extra implements. It comes with 3 spoon / spatulas, 2 pots with one lid, salt and pepper shakers, and a fried egg! It also folds up so you can store it away when not in use, which is pretty handy if you don't have much space to spare.

To be honest, I was quite surprised how much my little daughter likes this Daisy Tabletop Wooden Kitchen. It's sitting on the living room floor, and she keeps going back to it to play. She's constantly stirring the invisible beouf bourguignon in the little pots, and carrying them round the house with her. I sometimes find the spoons in various places round my home too; down the back of the sofa, under the kitchen table, in the bath... they get about!

When I was small, I never had a play kitchen and was always supremely jealous of the rich kids in my class with their amazing deluxe play kitchens at home. If you want a little kitchen for your child but haven't got that much spare space or cash, then the Daisy Tabletop Wooden Kitchen could be a good fit for you.

Hello PlayPennies parents! The eagle-eyed mummies and daddies will have noticed that we've just had a site update here on PlayPennies. It's no huge overhaul, but we've added some things we think you might like.

You can now create a PlayPennies account or log in with your existing username and password from the HotUKDeals network (Your Mobot or Dealspwn login will also work).

We've added a little discussion forum. It's a bit sparse right now as we've only just opened it, but feel free to use it any time you want. If you have any burning questions about family life, or even want to give some tips to your fellow PlayPennies parents, please feel free to post in there. Even if you just want to vent about something, go ahead!

As a fairly new parent myself, I've lost count of the amount of times that I have googled questions over the last year, relating to my baby. What are those red spots on my baby's face? How do you wean a baby?  How do you teach a baby to spoon feed? And I have also asked many questions about poo... but I won't go into them. Anyway, I plan on reaching out in the forums when I have queries, so I hope you do too.

Another addition is the featured posts section along the top, and it extends down the right hand side too. We'll be highlighting the articles written by our authors, so you can read these at any time. We felt that the deals pushed these articles down the page very fast, and they deserve to be shown a little extra love.

And check in with us over the next week or so, we plan on giving away some free Amazon vouchers to celebrate our new site update!

*** Comp now closed, winners contacted soon ***

Vosene have recently launched a new Afterswim Hair & Body Wash in their Vosene Families range of products. And they’re giving 50 full-size bottles away to our PlayPennies parents! The Vosene Afterswim hair and body wash is specially developed to wash chlorine, salt and other impurities clean away. If it smells as good as any of the other Vosene products, I can’t wait to try it out at the swimming pool.

The 200ml Vosene Afterswim Hair and Body Wash has an RRP of £2.54, and 50 PlayPennies winners will be getting a full-size bottle.

How to enter:

• Leave a comment below stating what you love / hate most about swimming
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies email updates for a bonus entry
• Tweet about this competition and leave your twitter link or username in a comment below for another competition entry

We’ll choose 50 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 1^st September 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin’s decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There’s also a giveaway on the Vosene website just now, they’re offering family theme park tickets. Or a competition to win a back to school treat worth £150. You might want to enter those too. :)

I don't wear jewellery very often, but when I do, my 1 year old baby always pulls and sucks at it, and this is especially true of when I wear a necklace. Some of my necklaces are quite fragile, and I worry that they might break, or beads would get swallowed, so I've started avoiding wearing them when baby is close enough to get her chops round them!

I got one of these teething necklaces from Gumigem. They were invented by a mum with a similar mindset to me, who wanted to wear something safe that her baby could still grab and chew if they wanted to. The Gumigem necklaces are made from a similar silicone material to that of most baby teethers.

I got a plain purple heart shaped necklace, but I see that there are loads of other fab colours to choose from too. I particularly like the Sea Sparkle (pictured top left).  I think these would make a nice gift for a new mum, they do a few combo sets as well.

My baby really likes to chew on the Gumigem necklace. When she first sunk her incisors into the necklace, she left quite deep marks which I thought were not going to fade away. But the material crept back into its own shape after a minute or so. I decided to bite the necklace myself to see what it was like - it's very tough and you wouldn't be able to bite a piece off it. The cord is a long, strong, string and unbreakable to baby, with a safe clasp at the top.

The Gumigem necklace actually sits on my office desk at home, and I pop it on from time to time when I am trying to keep the baby happy while still doing a little bit of one-handed work on the computer. She enjoys fiddling and biting it.

In conclusion, the Gumigem necklace is not the piece of jewellery I would reach for when going for a posh night out, but it is perfect for wearing during the day, when there's a baby hanging off my hip.

*** Expired - winners announced here soon ***

The folks at Vosene have given us 20 hair care kits to give away to the PlayPennies parents! Tamsin has written a Vosene review in the past, where she was very pleased with the results.

Here's what is in each Vosene kit:

• 100ml Conditioning Shampoo
• 50ml Mega Hold Styling Gel
• 50ml Extra Shine Detangler Spray

To put your name into the hat to win one of the kits, just leave a comment in the thread below. We'll choose 20 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 16th June 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin's decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There's a competition on their website to give away a family holiday worth up to £10,000, you might be interested in entering that too.

Here’s another Workshop Wednesday from Maggy at Red Ted Art! [Emma]

You may have seen some of my other crafts shared on Playpennies – there were dinosaurs and ambulances and monsters. But how about the little girls in our life? And with spring in the air, there is nothing better than a “crafting” with flowers.  This is a wonderful craft to do, when you are out for a walk or at the playground or sitting in a park... grab those dandelion “weeds” and make them into something beautiful.

You may find them tricky at first (as with anything new), but they are really easy!

We were lucky that a good friend from Sweden was visiting and she showed us how:

1. Place 2^nd flower UNDER the 1^st flower.
2. Twist stem over
3. Tuck it behind the 2^nd flower.
4. Place 3^rd flower under the first two flowers
5. Twist stem over…

Try and get the flower heads as close to the stem and together as possible. You can pinch off any of the remaining stems if it gets too bulky. Interweave other wild/ weed flowers for more colours and prettiness. Done!

(Click for larger ^^^)

I received a Mini Cupcake Maker from Kelkooselect, to try my hand at baking mini cupcakes!

Mini cupcakes seem to be really popular lately. I’d never heard of them until the last year or so, but you see them everywhere now! I think it’s maybe a psychological tactic though – thinking you’re only eating a little small cupcake, regardless of the fact that you eat twice as many as a normal sized treat!

The cupcake maker is similar in size and design to a toastie machine. I used the simple batter recipe which was on the instructions of the cupcake maker. I had planned on making quite a few cupcakes so I decided to triple the recipe (having no idea how many it was going to make).

You can use the cupcake maker as it is, simply pouring the batter into the holes. Or, you can choose to use little cupcake cases, which is what I decided to do. I thought it would cut down on the potential mess and make things easier to tidy up.

There was a fair bit of trial and error involved when I first used the cupcake maker. I wasn’t sure exactly how much batter needed to go into the cases, considering they needed room to rise. I also wasn’t really sure how long to leave them in for. The instructions suggested 4 minutes, but I ended up trying a few different lengths and settled on a 7 minute cooking time. I believe the appliance cools slightly with opening and closing between batches, so that’s probably why it needed a bit longer than it said on the destructions.

I feel the size of the cupcake holes is good, and it’s really handy that this is all in one appliance. If I’d just been filling the little cupcake cases and popping them in the oven, I don’t think I would have had as good results. The batter made the little cases spread out, but the cupcake maker shaped the baking batter into the perfect cupcake shape.

I tried out a few different flavours with the cupcake batter. I mixed one little batch with peanut butter, one batch with nutella, one batch with peppermint food colouring. The peanutty cupcakes were lush! I had also bought a cupcake decorating kit from Sainsburys, which came with various icing pens and sprinkles. It was fiddly to decorate the little cupcakes, but they looked like a lot of effort had been put into them. I also cut off the top and filled a few with sugar cream icing, and made them into little butterfly cakes.

In the end, tripling the batter recipe wasn’t a great idea. I made about 70 mini cupcakes, and still had batter left over. It was hard to judge the quantities. But everyone enjoyed the little cupcake treats!

As I had used the cupcake cases, the appliance was really easy to clean when cooled – a little wipe over with some kitchen roll did the trick.

The mini cupcake maker is incredibly pink! That’s not normally the sort of colour I would actually choose for my own kitchen, but I know many people love pink appliances and accessories.

With various kitchen appliances, I sometimes buy something... use it regularly for a couple of months and then it hides in the cupboard for all eternity. I think I will be cracking out the cupcake maker for special occasions though, making special treats for birthdays and Christmas.

(Image credit: modomatic on flickr)

We're excited to let you know the results of the recent iPad 2 competition here on PlayPennies, iSave, iWrite, iPad. We had over 50 entries which we were quite excited to see, as it required a bit of creative thinking, rather than just sticking your name into a hat.

There were a number of entries that stood out, but we were only able to choose one winner. It is:

• Mad House Family Reviews with Make Do And Mend

Congrats Cheryl!

Here are some words from an excited competition winner, Cheryl:

I was over the moon to discover an email waiting for me when I got home from work today telling me that I'd won the iPad ! I never dreamed I'd win in a million years so I was absolutely delighted ! My 9-year-old daughter has already asked if she can have it (er, sorry but no !!) and started telling me about all the great things you can do on it (she obviously knows more than me !),  then my husband got in from work and pointed out it's his birthday in a fortnight ! I can't wait to discover all the great apps I've heard about online. I've been told that even really young kids can manage to unlock the screen and find their fave apps so I'll look rather silly if I don't manage it !! Lots of fun on the cards this summer when I'm lazing by the pool or on the patio !! Thanks so much, I think I'm still in shock!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and we hope to have more great competitions on PlayPennies in the future!

Here's another Workshop Wednesday from Maggy! [Emma]

As you may know, over at  Red Ted Art my children and like to get crafty. We also like combining what we craft with a story. Sometimes the craft comes first. Sometimes the book comes first.

Today, the book most definitely came first. It is called “Who’s Hiding” by Satoru Onishi. I bought it a while back, when Red Ted (now 3yrs) was still small. Red Ted liked it, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. Enter Pip Squeak (17mths)… and she absolutely adores it. She can’t get enough of it and we read "Who's Hiding" at least once a day. It goes to show how different children are.

So, what is the book? It is a very simply illustrated book on animals. Each double page has a set of 24 stylised animals – simple outlines and simple colours. The background of the pages changes colours, which results in one or more animals “disappearing” and you have to say which one it is. On some pages we are asked, “Who is sleeping?” On others, “Who is backwards?” Simple. Sweet. Fabulously illustrated.

On around the 100^th read, I suddenly realised that a number of the animals are indeed loo roll shaped... enter today’s craft!

They are not ALL loo roll shaped (thankfully, as I did get a *little* bored after about the 9^th one). So, we focussed on:

• The Dog
• The Lion
• The Tiger
• The Bunny (as smaller thinner roll used)
• The Rhino
• The Cat
• The Monkey
• The Elephant

We used: Loo rolls (+one thinner tube, it may have had wrapping paper on it), acrylic paint (though you can use poster paint with a bit of PVA glue mixed in), felt (though you can use card), googley eyes (though I like the ones with “paper eyes” better), glue, black marker pen for nose and mouth

1. Paint your loo rolls and let dry
2. Look at each animal and cut to shape – e.g. cut out feed and  trim off top to cut out ears. Keep the trimmed bits to then glue on tails etc at the back
3. For the lion – we made a felt mane & tail tassle, for the bunny & elephant we painted extra paper tubs so we could cut out ears and then stick these on... the rest are felt shapes cut out
4. Finished. Play.

Don’t forget to add your detail to the backs!

Today we've got a guest column from Molly Forbes. She is a freelance journalist and writer, juggling work with her main job as a first-time mum to a very loud ten month old baby girl. You can read more of Molly's writing at her professional site Mollyjforbes.com or her blog Mothersalwaysright. If you enjoy this article, don't forget to read Luschka's post on cloth nappy discounts.

Nappies are expensive, especially if you have a baby who needs changing as often as mine. Since the birth of my daughter ten months ago I must have spent at least £300 on disposable nappies, that’s quite a lot for something that’s just going to end up in the bin.

I didn’t even consider cloth nappies, put off by the thought of mountains of washing and terrifyingly large safety pins. The idea of soaking dirty nappies in a bucket and then hanging up the stained rags on a line really didn’t appeal.

But then the maternity pay ran out and we decided we needed to make some changes if we were to avoid financial ruin. It was either stop the baby’s swimming lessons or switch to cloth nappies, a no-brainer really.

Before going all-out reusable, I thought I’d test the waters. So as part of this week’s Real Nappy Week I have been swapping one disposable a day for a cloth nappy. And I’m a converted woman.

Cloth nappies have got with the times. They’re now, well, trendy. Gone is the bulky terry towelling version with enormous safety pins. Reusable nappies are now no-nonsense cloth squares which easily fold and fit snugly inside a nappy cover with Velcro fastenings. That’s not all. The nappy covers come in all sorts of brilliant designs, from stars to stripes, leaving frustrated fashionistas like myself spoilt for choice.

The washing part is easy too. Once used, the dirty nappies can be added to a normal wash and spun at 30 degrees, with a scoop of nappy sanitizer. All the mucky stuff goes down the toilet with the nappy liner, so there’s no need to spend hours soaking cloth nappies in buckets. That said, I think a bucket is a handy investment if you want to switch to cloth completely. It means you can chuck the dirty nappies in there as you go and put a load in the washing machine at the end of the day.

The figures show that swapping to reusable nappies long-term is good for the environment as well as your wallet. Disposable nappies account for 4% of all household waste in the UK, which can be as high as 50% for a family with one baby.

This is an expense councils have to pay for, so many are trying to encourage parents to switch to cloth nappies instead. In fact, some are so eager for us to ditch the disposables they’re offering £70 cash as an incentive.

If £70 in your pocket isn’t enough to tempt you, how about £700? It’s estimated that’s the total amount saved per child if you swap to reusable nappies, not a figure to be sniffed at, I think you’ll agree.

But if you’re not won over by the savings, and the environment argument doesn’t grab you either, then just go and take a look at those pretty nappy covers I told you about. They were the real deal-breaker for me. Who can resist purple and blue stars? They’re so trendy I’m now wondering if they do the pants in a mum-sized version.

You can find out more about Real Nappy Week at Goreal.org.uk.

(Flickr image credits: simplyla, MissMessie, 114bberry.)

Sam Thewlis is one of the lovely peeps over on the Bitterwallet side of the office. Instead of throwing pencils at us, she's been down to the NEC Baby Show, and here's the round up of all the happenings. [Emma]

It’s that time of year again, The Baby Show is back at the NEC in Birmingham, and Playpennies have already been there to find the best show bargains and sniff out some exclusive deals for Playpennies readers...

Out and About

First up, and as featured on Daybreak this morning, you can get the fabulous Snoozeshade buggy and carseat covers, essential if you want your small person to get some sleep while on the move, for a great price. You can buy a SnoozeShade Original, limited edition Pink Trim or a SnoozeShade for infant Car Seats for only £15, and even if you can’t make it to Stand R54, you can buy online at the same price until Sunday 29^th May 2011.

Normally, Show visitors who miss the week’s online extension can get 10% off online, but in a Playpennies exclusive, you can get 15% off and free P&P until 30 June 2011 by quoting code “playpennies15”. [Snoozeshade.com]

Another product designed by a mum for mums is the Mamascarf, a discreet and tasteful scarf to provide privacy when breastfeeding. At the show you can get 1 Mamascarf for £16 or 2 for £30, but if you can’t get to stand M10 at the show, Playpennies readers can use the code Keira01 to get 10% off online [Mamascarf.co.uk]

Of course, when you’re out and about, you are probably going to need a stylish baby changing bag. There are loads at the Show, but here are three of the best offers:

Koochu changing bags are designed to look like anything but. In glossy leather and stylish shapes, they are definitely going to last longer than nappies! With innovative features like removable (and washable cotton liners) in the LaSalle (show offer £85 instead of £105), the popular hobo style Lincoln (now £40 from £75) and a dashing men’s changing bag (the El Dorado, down from £95 to £70), you be daft not to. And the people at Koochu on stand M50 are so lovely they have also given us a Playpennies exclusive: simply use code Koopp1 and get a massive 15% off until 30 June 2011. [Koochu.com]

But if leather isn’t your thing, Mummy and Little Me are selling the delicious Yummy Mummy Bags on Stand E30 for a reduced price of £67.50 and you get a £5 voucher. And you don’t even have to be there - the offers will be available on the website for the duration of the show, and Playpennies readers can get 10% off all changing bags for two weeks after the show with code Spring11. [Mummyandlittleme.co.uk]

Finally, Baby Catalogue are selling the best Australian-selling Ryco changing bags for half price in a pre-launch special. Although you can’t get this deal online, you can get 10% if everything they sell until 31 July using code BBSH2011. [Thebabycatalogue.com]

Fun and Fleecy

Again spotted on Daybreak, Happy Hoppers are normally £20 each, but a special show deal lets you get two for £30. However, if you whisper* “Playpennies” you can get one Happy Hopper for £15. Which is almost like a half price deal... [Happyhopperz.co.uk]

*it’s another Playpennies exclusive so don’t say it too loud!

Or have you heard of Coverdry? They are fleecy car seat and bed protectors that are completely waterproof that protect against those little accidents. As well as having the chance to enter a competition to win a luxury holiday to Wales at stand E4, the bed protectors are on sale at the show for just £25 instead of £35. And Playpennies readers can even get the same deal online by quoting “babyshownec” on the website. [Coverdry.com]

Freebies

Finally, there are lots of freebies to get while walking around, as ever, but worthy of note is the Peter Rabbit Organics stand on M12 who are giving out free cartons of juice for children from 6 months up. You can also go and get a (really rather good- Playpennies tested!) head, neck and back massage from Cloud9 massage on stand H30. It’s not actually free but you can pay whatever you think it’s worth. Even if that’s 1p.

The Baby Show runs until Sunday 22^nd May at the NEC, Birmingham.