Playpennies

A few weeks ago I was sent a Kettler Balance Bike to review for the Back to School month on PlayPennies. I was really excited about it, I’m on the market for some kind of transportation for my child as she ventures to school for the first time and I’m not really sure what she’ll enjoy, and what will work.

So far we’ve tried out a scooter and she really enjoyed it, but she hasn’t quite gelled with it as well as I’d hoped and it isn’t right for the long uphill hike to school every morning. What we need is something that will not exhaust her before she even gets to the gates! And that I can keep up with, obviously. I’m not cut out for running up hills at 8am.

The bike arrived in an enormous pink box. We got the Sprint Air Princess bike and my child was nearly faint with excitement. I was dreading the assembly, if I am honest. I can put things together alright but I always worry that it’s not tight enough and that it will come undone while she’s using it.

However, this bike assembled in ten minutes flat. I had to double-check the box to make sure I hadn’t missed anything because it was so easy. The instructions are simple pictures and most of the parts are solid. The only instruction they didn’t have was how to install the balance spike but it was pretty self-explanatory.

The bike is aimed at kids two years and older and retails for £59.99.  It's sturdy and well made and is definitely very good quality. The paint gleams efficiently, the metal used to make the frame is very strong (I sat on it to check), and the extras, like padded handles and a comfy seat, are really good quality.

That said, I just don’t get it. I don’t. I showed the bike to friends and family and they didn’t get it either. Yes, it’s supposed to get your children to learn how to balance on two wheels. Yes, it’s adorable and zippy and fits neatly into small spaces. But why have a bike that teaches them to ride on two wheels and not include any pedals?

I mean, surely it’s easier to learn how to ride a bike if you have pedals? Or is that just me? As far as my daughter is concerned the bike is a complete no-no. Once I’d built it, we went outside to the park for her to test drive it and she was terrified. She struggled to move it forward without taking both feet off the ground and, because the momentum was so limited, her balance was immediately compromised.

“Why can’t I make it go forward, mommy?” she asked me, “Where are the pedals?”

Out of the mouth of babes, I think. Look, the idea sounds good enough in theory and, I’m sure, there are many parents whose children will find these bikes to be very useful. However, for almost £60 I want a bike with pedals and training wheels.

And finally

While the quality of the Kettler Air Princess Balance Bike is undeniable, and the range of colours really lovely, this feels like more of a gimmick than a necessity.

I may not be a new mum, but I'm definitely a stressed out one, so when Mama Baby Bliss offered to send me a Bliss Stick I was completely and utterly game. The Bliss Stick includes a subtle blend of mood-enhancing essential oils and is designed to fit snugly in your handbag. As you can see from the photo above, the  Mama Bliss Stick is really teeny tiny.

The essential oils included in the Bliss Stick are lime, geranium, and bergamot and these oils help energise and relieve a tired mind and lift the spirits. I'm always game to try out new therapies so this sounded like a wonderful idea, especially since I'd just spent the last week surviving on five hours sleep a night and my tot had decided that this was also the perfect time to start pushing boundaries. In short, I was frazzled and this Bliss Stick sounded great.

When it arrived I'd just spend the day commuting to London, as mentioned in the fitflop review. I was the epitome of the bedraggled mum. I immediately whipped off the lid and dabbed it on my wrists. YUM! The smell is divine. Now, sometimes essential oils can be a little overpowering. Well, for me anyway. If they smell too strong I tend to get a headache instead of a health benefit.

Thanks to the easy little roll-on applicator (a genius idea I must say) I could determine how much I wanted to put on my wrists and neck. At first I rolled just a little on but now I'm an addict. Every time I feel stressed, or the start of anxiety creeping up my shoulders, I put some Bliss Stick on. I can't tell you if it works scientifically, but I can tell you that it definitely works for me. Psychosomatic or not, this is my new little rescue remedy.

I'm going to write a bit of a review about the Fisher Price Newborn To Toddler Portable Rocker, which I have been using for over a month now. I can't seem to find the product on the Fisher Price UK website, so I'll link you to the product page on Kiddicare instead.

The chair itself is really quite cute, good colours and accessories which would really appeal to a very young baby. It has a few height settings which you can adjust according to the child's age. There are also some handy "stoppers" at the end of the rockers which you can use if you want to stop the chair rocking for some reason.

The chair has a vibrate function which seems quite good for comforting and soothing baby.

Even though the product states that it is for newborns, it wasn't ideal when I first put my baby in it, when she was a few weeks old. With the seat at its flattest setting, baby's head kept lolling over to one side, as they are prone to doing. Her head would then rest on the hard plastic parts at the side of the chair. I eventually used a little soft headrest which I had from another product, to prevent this from happening.

I think this is a pretty good product, but I don't recommend it for newborns. In my opinion, it would be good once your child is a few months old.

A friend bought me this portable rocker on Amazon quite a while ago. It may be a slightly older model now as most of the online store seem to be out of stock of this particular product. I still wanted to write this review though in case anyone was searching for some personal comments about the Fisher Price Newborn To Toddler Portable Rocker.

Here's a pic I took :)

At the beginning of the month, I attended the launch of Method Natural Laundry detergent. While I was there, I discovered that there was a whole range of Method eco cleaning products, some of which are shown here sparkly and new, in my kitchen ready to leap into action.

I'm always interested in finding new eco cleaning products. The thing is, I'm invariably disappointed by them. Detergents that don't clean, window cleaners that require a lot of elbow grease, and spray cleaners that won't shift the grime without, yes you guessed it, lots more elbow grease. Ecover's floor soap is the exception to this rule - it is superior to ANY floor cleaner I've found so far.

Method Laundry Detergent (£5.99); I really wanted to like this. Just four squirts, so easy and mess free! And, unlike other eco detergents I've tried, it worked. But it did not get out food stains unless applied directly to the stain. Otherwise it leaves greasy marks behind (you can see the result on my son's school shirt here).

It does behave beautifully as a stain remover when applied directly though. But it will still leave behind residue from any bits you miss. As I found when I tried to use it as a stain remover on a white Sportacus t-shirt my son smothered in chocolate. I missed a few spots, and they were still there when it came out of the machine. All the spots I'd treated with the detergent were gone though.

So, mixed feelings. If only eco products will do then yay, at last an eco friendly stain remover. Personally though I can't afford to use that much of this detergent for that purpose.

I am utterly in love with the Method Best in Glass cleaner (£4.28). This is the easiest to use, smear-free glass cleaner I have ever come across, natural or otherwise, and required only a squirt per pane. I've used natural products for glass since my son was born, as there's something about glass that attracts little fingers, and tongues! It is going on my shopping list.

But it won't be accompanied by the Method Tub & Tile bathroom spray (£3) I'm afraid. I loved the smell of this, but it required a lot more scrubbing than simple white vinegar and lemon juice to achieve the same result.

Feel free to share your experiences with Method and other eco friendly cleaning products here!

I Want One Of Those.com (IWOOT) sent PlayPennies a bundle of brilliantly bewildering camping accessories that you just know, because they are from IWOOT, are completely insane. We had these sent along to our old PlayPennies regular, Heidi, who promptly whisked them off on a camping holiday with her husband and two boys...

The Briefcase Barbeque

We all loved this idea. A proper bb that’s compact and portable, and in a briefcase. So what did Heidi think?

“I loved the idea of this. I thought it would be perfect for the beach or camping, but in reality it’s just too small for our needs as a family of four,” she said, “We went camping this weekend with friends and had planned to cook dinner on it, but once we got it out the box we realised there was no way we were going to fit food for four adults and two children on it.”

Heidi did go on to say that there is a bigger version available for the larger camping group of humans but that she couldn’t really recommend the smaller one for a family at all.

“It might work fine for a couple with a baby not yet on solids,” she added, “But then, if you’re camping at that stage of life you’re probably so superhuman you take gourmet meals with you, or have a butler.”

The friends Heidi went camping with also felt that it would be too small for just the two of them and she wasn’t sure it would cook the meat properly. However, they did find the perfect use of it – an impromptu campfire around which they sang songs and made s’mores and toasted marshmallows.

“Maybe they should ditch the bbq bith and market it as a portable campfire complete with the ingredients to make tasty campfire treats,” said Heidi, “Now that I could get excited about.”

She also felt that it was a mission to clean, difficult to locate smaller bags of charcoal for, and nowhere near as convenient as a disposable bbq. Except for the green angle, of course. You wouldn’t be contributing to landfill with the IWOOT one.

“As a gift it’s actually quite inspired,” said Heidi, “And it will probably be the inspiration for some impromptu family fun, as long as we can find some small bags of charcoal.”

The Pocket Towel

“The pocket towel takes a bit of getting used to in terms of the way it soaks up moisture but it's reasonably effective,” said Heidi, “It also scores high points for being portable and taking up minimal space in your luggage.”

Certainly this is an ingenious idea and is something that will definitely come in handy for the camping family. So small it can be secreted away anywhere in the car, easy to use and very useful for camping, this gadget won Heidi over.

“One of the best things about the pocket towel is how quickly it dries,” she said, “None of this having soggy towels at the bottom of your beach bag, or lurking in the corner of your tent. I know a mum who bought one of these for her daughter’s teacher as a thank you gift at the end of the school year.”

“The teacher is going backpacking around Australia during the summer and was reportedly thrilled. And I can see why! This is an inspired gift for festival goers and intrepid explorers.”

Costing £9.99, this seems like a fabulous investment for families that camp.

The Pocket Shower

I have been dying to hear about this particular review. I’ve been quite excited to see if it worked, how it worked, and what happened when you used it. Here is Heidi’s onsite report.

“The idea is that you fill it with ten litres of water, hang it from a tree, and let the sunshine heat up the water within, giving you a seven minute shower,” explains Heidi, “I might be missing a trick but I just don’t get this. You’ve got to go to the lengths of finding ten litres of water, pouring it in to this, hanging it from a tree and waiting for it to warm up – all for the shortest shower of your life.”

Unfortunately the pocket shower just didn’t strike a chord with Heidi at all.

“The only place you’re likely to find that much water whilst camping is in a tap, and a tap strikes me as all you’ll need for a wash anyway. Besides, what kind of campsite doesn’t have shower facilities?” she wondered, “Perhaps if you’re camping in the Australian outback but where would  you find ten litres of water in the Bush?”

Ultimately Heidi felt that this was more of a gimmicky gift that may come in handy for an intrepid explorer but that overall it was more for entertaining her kids on a hot day and not really worth the £14.99 price tag.

And Finally

The Pocket Towel was the clear winner in this review, useful and helpful it did what it should and made a big difference to her camping experience. The bbq was a bit too small for her family but should perhaps be judged only on that level as she never got a chance to cook on it. If this appeals to you, get the bigger version just in case.

In honour of the festival and camping season, these delectably warm and toasty summer days, PlayPennies was sent some adorable sleeping bags and self-inflatable mattresses to review. Parents can choose from a funky flower design called Flowies Rose, or a DINO Explorer range with lots of lovely dinosaurs.

While I appreciate that perhaps girls won’t like dinosaurs or boys won’t like flowers, I’m not a fan of forcing a gender stereotype on anyone so I won’t be allocating a gender to this review.

Outwell Self Inflatable Mattress

How cool is this? I loathe having to blow up/pump up anything. I think old age has rendered me incapable of blowing up even balloons, so getting in a mat that will do all the hard work for me is pure genius.

The two different self-inflatable mats we were sent had either a funky green and red dinosaur pattern or a pretty lilac and green flower pattern. They have plenty of other colours and designs on their site too, so if neither of these appeal to you there will be others there that you might like.

The mattress didn’t take long to sort out. I only had to slip it out of the included cover and follow the simple instructions. You have to do a teeny bit of inflating at first. I suppose this is to activate it or something, but it didn’t demand a lot of effort to do.

After about five minutes, as opposed to the advertised two, the mattress was fully inflated and ready to go. I had to top it up a bit after a while but this is quite normal for most inflatable mattresses as the fabric settles.

My daughter adored it. She lay down on it and refused to get off. It’s really a lovely size for her (she’s four) and its dimensions are 160x51x3cm. Because we didn’t have any camping trips planned in time for this review I did a field test in the lounge. My daughter was set up with the sleeping bag (see below) and snugly ensconced on the mattress for the night.

I must admit that I expected lots of cries of, “Mooommeee” to continue throughout the night, but instead she did her usual three (a wee, a drink and a cuddle) and fell straight to sleep. In fact, because of the novelty value, we got an extra hour of sleep that morning. Oh, how I wish I could keep this mattress!

The only down sides, for me, are the fact that the site is determined to make them gender specific, and that the dinosaurs were a bit disappointing. I would have hoped for something a bit more detailed than the plain black images.

These retail for around £17.99 which feels like a good price for a product that does all the hard work and looks good for kids.

Outwell Sleeping Bags

The same designs seen on the self-inflating mattresses are repeated on the sleeping bags but with some neat little extras. Flowies has a fairy motif while the dinosaurs have, well, a dinosaur motif. The bags come with a cap compression sack and measure 165x70x40cm. They are really cute and my daughter just adored hers.

What makes these quite impressive is the long list of specifications. They come with a ridge hood and thermocollar insulation around the shoulder area for extra protection. There is a full length zip baffle complete with an anti-snag guard (thank goodness!) and an inside mesh pocket for storing all those little toys and secret things.

The fabric, for those of you who are camping buffs, is 230T microfibre polyester.

I have to admit that, in spite of a life of camping up and down two continents, I am possibly the worst roller-upper-of-sleeping-bags in the universe. I have been incapable of reducing a sleeping bag to the size it needs for insertion into tiny bag from Day One.

Sadly, this is no exception. I sweated, heaved and rolled until I gave up and had a sulk. This isn’t really a good basis for a review though, because my husband ambled in and did it in seconds. I think, perhaps, sleeping bags have it in for me. Possibly they’ve teamed up with spiders to keep me on my toes.

These Outwell sleeping bags sit in the region of £22.99, a reasonable price for a quality sleeping bag methinks. I love the patterns and styles available and felt that this was a good quality product that appealed to its target market.

And Finally

As a special surprise for PlayPennies readers we are giving away two complete sets of the Outwell kids range to two lucky winners. Check out the competition here and follow the simple instructions to win. I really do recommend these products to future parental campers and festival goers so good luck to you all!

I’m sorry about the randomness of the name (Day One) but I figured that now I’ve introduced the challenge it’s probably easier to move forward in numerical order. Over the weekend I got my FitFlops sorted out and started wearing them wherever I went.

On Friday I really did feel some burn. I was running pretty much ragged preparing everything for my daughter’s birthday party so the shoes got a lot of wear. Also, thanks to the Orange Juice Incident of 2010, I discovered that they are easy to wipe clean, don’t stain, and are waterproof. This is good news. Not so much the clothes my daughter was wearing, or my lovely jumper though...

The FitFlops are alright in terms of comfort. I must admit that the design does put a lot of strain across the front of my foot. The straps tend to cut into my foot a bit when I’m walking because the shoes don’t bend at the base as easily as a normal pair of flops might do.

Initially this was a little distracting and uncomfortable, but as the leather began to mold to my feet, the shoes became increasingly comfortable to wear.

At the end of the day on Friday I felt some pain in my calves and knees, and on Saturday morning I was faintly stiff. Not as stiff as I’d expected, if I am honest, but there was definitely something there.

I ate a load of cake at the birthday party (I bought too much) so these poor shoes have a lot of work to do! Today I am finally getting to take them on the Big Commute across London which, I think, is going to be the true test of their comfort and their fitness promise.

Check in tomorrow to find out if these make the commute worthwhile!

I also have to say a big thank you to Fitness Footwear, who gave me my yummy chocolate leather FitFlops for the challenge.

Over the last few months since I have had my baby girl, I have been testing out various products, many different types of baby wipes in particular. I got a free packet of Asda Little Angels baby wipes at the Cybermummy conference recently, as I mentioned in this post about the freebies.

Now, I probably would not have specifically purchased this Asda brand myself, as it wasn't on my mummy-radar at all.  I do most of my shopping at Tesco, and only occasionally visit Asda. So, it was good to try these baby wipes out for free.

I was very happy with these baby wipes. In fact, I was quite surprised they were so good, for a supermarket's own brand.

I liked the texture and feel of the material used in the baby wipes. They were surprisingly similar to Johnsons baby wipes, in that regard.

The packet says that they are enriched with aloe vera and baby lotion, but they do seem very mild on baby's skin. As for the smell, they were fragrance-free, and that was grand.

Price-wise, I just had a quick look at the Asda grocery store online, and these baby wipes are £0.87 for an 80pk, and are available for £3 for 4 packs (320 wipes in total). That works out at 0.94 pence each (under a penny per wipe, if you want to compare with other brands).

So in conclusion, if I saw these wipes on special offer in Asda, I would probably stock up on them. The Johnsons brand are still my favourite though, as I mentioned in the Johnsons baby wipes review, and the Huggies are still a definite No-No. I think I will try some more of the supermarket own brands next, to see how they compare with the big names in baby products.

Feel free to share your baby wipes findings in the comments below.

I sat down with my little nephew to play with Mr Colour Maker, the new learning toy from Tomy. I'll write a quick review of what the 3 year old and I made of this colourful piece of apparatus!

First impressions were that Mr Colour Maker was a lovely bright colourful toy, ideal for toddlers and young kids. Of course we didn't bother reading any instructions, we just leapt in and experimented with the toy. Batteries weren't included, so we had to scrounge up 4 double As to get us going.

There are 2 settings to this toy. One is the singing setting and the other is the colour mixer. You can choose each setting by opening and closing the lid of the paint pot.

The colour mixer setting is quite good fun. Mr Colour Maker states which colour he would like to be, and you pour the little pots of paint into him accordingly. The toy then lights up with the appropriate colour. If you want to clear the colour, you tip up the paint pot to "pour" out the paint.

As you only have a little pot of red, blue or yellow, he can only be those three colours, and purple, green or orange too. My nephew had no idea how to make the secondary colours from the primary colours, so this was a bit of a learning experience for him. It was very helpful that all the colours were shown on the pot itself. Each secondary colour was flanked by the two primary colours that are used in its making, so it was easy to explain in that fashion.

If making a combination colour, you have to make sure that once you have added the two primary colours that you mix it up with the paintbrush which is attached to the paint pot. The paintbrush tip then glows with the new colour that is made.

The second setting is the rainbow song. The paint pot simply sings all the colours of the rainbow to teach these to your little one.

With the coloured lights, it's a great toy to play with in a darkened room.

The toy seemed quite sturdy. It withstood the weight of a toddler standing on top of it... all the while singing its merry little heart out!

There were a few down sides to the general operation of good old Mr Colour Maker. At one point, we were merrily tipping the little paint pots into the large paint pot, but we could not get it to light up at all. This "fault" seemed to be happening intermittently, and no matter what way we held the little pots, they just wouldn't activate the lights inside. As the toddler had popped the lid of the paint pot out of its hinges within minutes of use, we didn't realise that it was the lever to choose those different settings, as mentioned before. After a bit of jiggling and poking, the adults in the house finally managed to pinpoint the issue, and reattach the lid.

But the same thing kept happening while we were using the toy. We eventually figured out that when the young'un was tipping up the pot to clear it of its current colour, the string of the paintbrush was knocking the lid closed, therefore resetting the toy to the singing level. This got kind of frustrating after a while.

As the little paint pots are standalone pieces, I can see that these could easily become lost in the mountain of toys in modern kids' houses.

As for the music, my family found this a little bit freaky. The tune it plays is kind of suspenseful, like you'd hear illustrating a haunted house, or something from Jaws. I wasn't sure if that was entirely suited to a young kid.

So, in conclusion to this Mr Colour Maker review, I'd say that the toy is pretty good fun for young toddlers, but I cannot see that it would get an awful lot of repeat use once they have learned how to make the colours. It is bright and good fun, but those little niggly flaws are a downside to Mr Colour Maker.

Every so often an invention comes along that seem so obvious it is hard to believe that no-one has thought of it before. The Hamster Buggy Bag is one of those. This bag clips onto the bar running down the side of most lightweight strollers. According to the website the Hamster Buggy Bag will take a lot of shopping, or all your baby/toddler essentials, without leaving the stroller in danger of toppling backwards. The bag is the brainchild of a lovely sounding couple called Philip and Lara.

I had a stroller that was a bit gimmicky, in that it was more a sort of 'style' statement than a pushchair. As a first time mum I had NO idea how indispensable my buggy was going to be as a workhorse. Or how much I was going to have to carry about on it. In retrospect I would recommend that all mums wait to buy the stroller until their baby is ready for it, so that by then you've got a much better idea of how much you need to carry.

So there I was lumbered for the longest time with a pushchair on which you could not put plastic carrier bags on the handles. Yes that's right! How useless is that? Luckily I managed to find some hooks that clipped onto the handle bar and onto which I could hang the shopping bags. But they were very prone to slipping off.

With the Hamster Pannier Buggy Bag, there are clips to secure it down the side of the pushchair. In fact there's a video showing how this works on the front page of the website. One little touch that I know any mum will appreciate is there's a little side, zipped pocked on there. So you've got somewhere to keep your bus pass, purse, keys, and iPod to hand. Ha, iPod! How often do mothers of toddlers and babies get to listen to music? Still it is nice to know it is there if needed.

I had to see how this works for myself, so we got PlayPennies mum Tamsin to try it out. She loved it. "The Hamster Buggy Bag fits on my buggy, and it is nice. I really like the colour, and was impressed with how much it held. It folds up into its own pocket, which is tiny at 18cm. This is much appreciated as I can just throw it in the basket at the bottom of the buggy and carry it about with me everywhere, as you never really know when you'll need it."

It wasn't all rosy when it came to the shopping though. "Unfortunately the Hamster Buggy Bag wasn't big enough for cereal boxes. So I did end up having to use some plastic carrier bags after all. However that's the only down side."

Mum Melanie found she managed to get all her shopping in the bag. "It was great. I always feel guilty about having to use a plastic carrier bag at all. So this was handy."

Melanie uses the bus a lot and this was one area where she felt it might be a problem. "For short journeys I always use the bus. With just one bag on, and with it full of shopping, the width of the pushchair widened considerably. I was only just able to manoeuvre it into place on the Hopper Bus I use to the supermarket. I can see that this might be a problem if I had two bags on each side, and there was already another buggy in the slot. I would definitely have to take the bags off. I am not sure I'd find it easy to unclip two heavy bags, while on a moving bus!"

And finally

Would our mums recommend the bag? Tamsin said she would "definitely recommend this to mums. It is really practical and it looks fantastic too!". Melanie concurs "It's fairly stylish but unlike some of the style over substance stuff it has a practical use too. I'd quite likely consider buying it as a present too for new parents."

When I had my new baby girl a few months ago, I hadn’t bought any skincare products to bath her in. There seemed to be a load to choose from on the market, so I didn’t make a decision at that point. When I was in the hospital and had just given birth, the nursing staff offered to bath the baby and show us how to do it. The nurse used this Johnsons Baby Top-To-Toe bath wash, and I have been using it ever since. I think I also got a small sample bottle in a Bounty baby pack from the hospital, which you can see me holding in the picture above.

When bathing my little one, I wrap her body tight in a towel and wash her hair in the bath water first, using a small drop of the Johnsons Baby Top-To-Toe wash to make up a bit of lather on her head. I don’t add any more to the water though, as what was on her head is enough for now.

The body wash leaves her smelling delicious, good enough to eat! It seems gentle on her skin, and doesn’t cause any problems. It’s easy to rinse off, and doesn’t leave any nasty unwanted residue.

When she’s a little bit older and has more of a head of hair, I will probably switch to using a baby shampoo for her hair, and keep the body wash for her body...

I know that some mums just use whatever body wash is on special offer at the time, whereas others tend to pick a certain brand and stick to it. I think that changing products can sometimes cause rashes and issues with baby’s skin, so that’s another reason to stick with one particular brand.

What body wash do you use for your kiddies?

I have a real weakness for books! They are one of the few things in this world that I find utterly irresistible.

I love books. I adore books. I HOARD books. So when it was touted around the PlayPennies office that there was the chance to have a personalised Bookadoo made to review, my hand SHOT up in the air and I found myself chanting, "OOH! OOH! ME! ME!"

I'm not proud of it, but hey I snaffled the Bookadoo review *grin*

The process was very straightforward and utterly painless, in fact the hardest thing was choosing which photograph to use. You see, Bookadoo books don't just personalise their books with your child's name, they use lots of clever photographic magic and skill to take your child's head and superimpose it onto the body of your chosen character.

I figured The Teenagers wouldn't want a personalised Bookadoo book so I chose a picture of my youngest (albeit from a couple of years ago - it's a CUTE picture, I like it!) and you must make sure that the photograph you choose meets the image requirements; there's no need to worry, everything is explained very clearly on the Bookadoo website.

Photograph chosen, next to choose the book. There are several stories to choose from, I chose the Superkid book as my youngest IS a little superhero, no really, he is...at least that what he tells me! And you must also decide whether you would like your Bookadoo book with a soft cover or hardback.

You can add a foreward to the book if you wish; as this wasn't for a birthday or any other special occasion I chose to leave it out but you can say anything you like, maybe something like: 'Dear So and So - Happy 4th Birthday - lots of love, whoever'

Then just enter your child's first name, send it all off to Bookadoo with your payment and they'll send you your personalised book within 9 working days or so. The soft cover books retail for £17.95 and the hardback versions are £24.95 and each book contains 36 pages of literary and photographic treats for your child.

Our book arrived within the 9 working days delivery time frame and my youngest LOVES it. The Teenagers think it's cute (but I was right they didn't want one) and are more than happy to sit and read it to him.

The Superkid story is wonderful and is laid out in a superhero comic type of style, where the text is inside ''bubbles' that is laid over the pictures rather than the 'traditional text with pictures underneath' look - I'm not sure I've explained that very well but you can see what I mean over at the Bookadoo website where you can browse through each page of all the books.

Superkid is utterly amazing! In a fast-paced story, that's just the right length for youngsters, he resuces a fireman from a burning building, saves a boy who's being crushed by a lump of concrete (quite what he was doing playing on a building site at night, I don't know!), saves a little old lady from being mugged and a girl from drowning - what a kid!

There's a lovely twist to the Superkid story at the end and was met with rapturous applause and, "Read it again! Read it again!" requests.

If your child isn't old enough to read their personalised Bookadoo book on their own, they'll get just as much enjoyment from looking at the pictures and following the story that way.

And finally...

There is clearly something very magical about seeing your photograph and name in print - unless you're a celebrity who's been snapped looking less than your best - as all the kids' faces LIT up when they  recognised the pictures of the little boy on the front cover.

Our Bookadoo book is clearly going to be much-loved and cherished over the coming years, and will probably be brought out for fond trips down memory lane long after he's grown out of it too.

When the people who created Antistax gave us some Antistax Cooling Leg  Gel to review, I snatched it away before anyone else had a chance to get their hands on it!

They claim it will 'rapidly sooth and refresh tired, heavy legs, with a special cooling action' so in true PlayPennies style, I've given it a real run for its money over the last week.

Our poor legs take a lot of abuse. We rarely sit properly, often cross-legged at our desks - very bad! (I do that) or with them curled up underneath us on the sofa - very bad (oh...I do that too!). When we're not sitting we're running around all over the place and even just standing up for long periods of time can leave your legs feeling all the things that Antistax say their cooling leg gel will alleviate: tired, aching and uncomfortably heavy.

I'm the fitness freak here at PlayPennies and my mornings tend to kick off very early in the morning running with my dogs.  Even though we've not been having the sunniest of starts in my little part of the country it's still been quite warm at 5am, so by the time I get back in I have most definitely got legs in need of some cooling.

I also train with weights five days a week and after my leg workouts they are invariably very tired, combine this with the usual running around after children, whirlwhind trips up and down the supermarket aisles at least twice a week adn you can start to get a picture of the what the Antistax leg cooling gel was up against!

However, I thought I'd go above and beyond so me and the teenage daughter tropped off to Milton Keynes at the weekend to inflict some serious abuse on our legs - we even wore high-heeled boots just to really up the anti!

Why Milton Keynes? Well the Milton Keynes Festival is on at the moment and as we're heading in to festival season we figured we should attend one!

In case you don't know, I don't DO camping and as Milton Keynes is just a hop down the road, it seemed the ideal event to go to to ensure lots of standing around looking at things and watching various performances.

In addition, the Teenagers are going away for a few weeks over the summer so a trip to the MK Festival could also be tied in with racing around the enormous Centre MK shopping mall for last minute summer short and t-shirts bargains.

We rounded off this marathon with a quick stop at Ikea, the only shop where you have to walk for miles just to get to the bundles of wooden coat hangers you wanted! By the time we got home, we agreed that our legs and feet were well and truly tortured and abused.

Having read the comprehensive instructions and handy hints on leg care that are included with the gel (I've just uncrossed my legs again - very BAD!) we had decided to put the gel in the fridge before we left, as suggested, for an added cooling effect.

I wondered if the sensation would feel the opposite of Deep Heat and must confess to squidging some of it onto my legs with a little bit of  trepidation!

Well, the first thing we both noticed was the smell...sherbert lemons! But in a refreshing and light way rather than overpowering and sickly sweet.

The next thing that struck me was the consistency. It's very 'together' when you squeeze it out of the tube - that's the only way I can think of to describe it to you! You know how sometimes you squeeze gel out of a tube and it immediately turns watery and runs everywhere? Well it's NOT like that!

So, following the instructions we put our legs up, and started to massage the gel in working from the ankles upwards and I have to say that the cooling effect boasted about by Antistax is utterly wonderful!

The BLISS! The JOY! The COLDNESS! The gel just disappeared into our skin too, leaving it feeling soft and cool without ANY trace of greasiness, stickiness or shine.  The Antistax leg cooling gel comes in a 125ml tube and retails for just £5.49 andwe discovered that a little bit goes a LONG way too, so it's going to last you a fair while even if you use it often. It's also just heavenly when rubbed into hot, tired feet!

The Teenage daughter refuses to let me post pictures of  her stubbly legs undergoing this gel rubbing-in process; shame, I thought it was a great idea! I, on the other hand HAD shaved mine that morning, deliberately so, as I wanted to know whether the gel would irritate newly-dehaired legs like some creams, gels, lotions and potions can - it didn't!

I'm flying long-haul in a few weeks and the Antistax cooling leg gel is most definitely coming with me on the plane - it's going to be an absolute godsend! After a day or running with the dogs and our high-heeled boots Milton Keynes marathon (high heels...also very bad!), I know that it's going to be more than up to the job of reviving 'in-flight legs'. HURRAH!

And finally...

There are other Antistax products available to aid and promote healthy legs if you aren't a fan of gel.  All of them contain natural Red Vine Leaf extract which, when taken in the form of  Antistax Healthy Active Leg Capsules for four to six weeks, has been shown to help avoid swelling of the lower legs and feet.

If you're off on holiday, a gym-junkie, have a job that involves sitting for long periods of time, have a job that requires you to be on your feet all day or are heading off to any of the numerous festivals coming up (so that's just about covers everyone then!), I wholeheartedly recommend you get your hands on some Antistax products of your own; they are available from Boots, Tesco,Sainsbury’s, Superdrug, Wilkinsons, Morrisons and chemists across the UK.

I suspect that I am the target market for the FlexiBath Baby Bath Tub. It came as quite a surprise to me to find that I turned germ-phobic when my son was born. And chemical-phobic. He was well over a year old before I was able to brave the local soft play centre. It seems weird to me now but then there's a lot of reactions that aren't exactly rational when you're a first time mother.

When on maternity leave I did a lot of travelling, and while I could find a travel alternative for just about everything (see the Samsonite Pop-Up Travel Cot for example), there was nothing at the time to take the place of a baby bath. Instead I travelled with a spray bottle of cleaner (natural of course) and used a towel to keep some distance between baby and the bath tub in hotels, and the bottom of the shower cubicle in the RV we rented the other side of the Atlantic!

The FlexiBath baby bath tub is foldable. So handy for small bathrooms, for throwing in the boot for a weekend at the in-laws/parents, and for taking when travelling in some situations. Although at 1.3kg it might be too heavy for air travel.

Sadly I don't have a baby to try this bath out on anymore. So I gave it to PlayPennies mum Emma to test instead.

First impressions

Emma wasn't quite sure what she was in for.  "I had imagined a plastic contraption which might possibly leak. But when I opened up the flexi-bath, it IS plastic sheets but the seams are all made of some rubber material, so there's no chance of leakage at all. I was pleasantly surprised at the excellent design that has gone into this product. It was flat-packed, and popped open when I poked at it."

According to the manufacturer's website, the FlexiBath is made from Polypropylene (PP) and Thermoplastic Elastomeric (TPE). It claims that both types of raw materials are free from PVC, phthalates, heavy metals and other harmful or hazardous materials.

The FlexiBath can be folded together and stored flat against the wall, or in a cupboard, under a bed - you get the picture. The bath tub has a non-slip surface. It comes in a wide range of colours, including transparent.

Bathtime

The specifications on the website don't really give an idea of the capacity of the bath. Just the size of the bath - 66.5cm long, 38.9cm wide and 23.8cm high.

"When we first tried out the flexi-bath at baby's bedtime", Emma explains, "I had to put about six kettles of water in it to get it to a decent level for my little one. Baby got in, splashed around a bit, and found the bath pretty comfortable, or so I assume. She's 2 months old, and she could easily stretch out to her full length in the bath."

Emptying the bath provides a slight logistical problem. "For emptying, I carried the bath over to the sink, and easily removed the stopper from the bottom, and watched all the water wash away into oblivion." she said.

Read the manual

"I decided to read the instructions after I had used the bath for the first time." Emma confessed, although she didn't really miss out on anything.

"They say all the usual things, such as don't leave your child unattended, don't heat the water in the bath itself... etc. Most are just common sense. If you don't actually possess any common sense, you'd be better off reading the instructions!"

And finally

Emma wasn't sure though when you might need the FlexiBath. Personally I agree. In a tiny bathroom in a small flat, surely the basin would do until baby was big enough to go in the bath comfortably? And in hotels, there's always the towel on the floor of the bath tub option.

Emma commented that "I was trying to think of where and when this product would be useful. My partner said it would be handy if you were going on holidays, or even just off to a hotel for the weekend. You could pop the flexi-bath in your car for whenever you need it."

But then there's people like me who are far more comfortable using the same bath that's solely for their baby's use. And if you can't be a little bit irrational when in charge of a new baby, when can you?

The best outdoor toy I have bought is a small trampoline. As well as jumping on it, the trampoline is a spaceship, pirate ship, gladiator arena and a 'house' where on summer evenings dinner is often eaten.

The 'My First Trampoline' was the smallest 'proper' trampoline that I could find. I don't have a large garden but I did want my son, then two years old, to have a trampoline to bounce on. At the time it cost me around £80. Now you can pick up the same model for a little less. The cheapest I could find it while writing this was  at Trampled Underfoot for £69, including delivery.

It is now three years later, he's five years old, and it is still the most popular toy in the garden. The My First Trampoline takes weights up to 8 stone, so I'm hoping we'll get a little bit more use out of it.

I can say, hand on heart, that it was an absolute doddle to put up. That's because I didn't have to do it. My husband and my step-daughter did and they've got a rather different view. That might be more down to the dynamic of father and daughter working together. However at the end of the afternoon we had a beautifully set up trampoline that looked just like the picture on the box.

Ours is on a patio, so we can't secure it down. My First Trampoline does come with pegs though. Even with three five year old boys playing 'gladiator' using the net to bounce off, it still stayed upright and hardly moved.

The poles around the outside of the My First Trampoline are covered with foam, and it is only now three years later that the foam is starting to split. This has been encouraged by my son and his friends playing 'ship ahoy', which involves using the foam lagging to spin around and around. The net has suffered the most however.

It has been out in all weathers, and it is only with  last year's deep snow that  the first signs of damage appeared. As you can see in the picture, the net split along the seam at the top. I've mended it for now with white nylon twine.

Luckily I managed to find an online store that was selling off all its bits and pieces of My First Trampoline stock, and got the net plus foam padding surround for £20 including postage. The one downside of this trampoline is that spare parts are not readily available.

So tell me - what is the most indespensible toy in your garden? Do you have a trampoline and what were your experiences like?

One minute I was 25 and the next I am starting to see the dreaded 40 approach with alarming speed. Where did the time go? My skin is now (sadly) starting to show the dramas of the years and it was with great joy that I got a bottle of Dove VisibleCare Softening crème bodywash.

This stuff has been tested and checked by real women and experts in skincare and in the biggest ever bodywash trial, they had 8 out of 10 women saying that they could see a difference in their skin. And I have to agree.

I have very sensitive skin which really suffered when I lived in Bath. The hard water made my eczema flare up and my skin got dry, no matter how much moisturiser I applied. Now we live by the sea, my skin has undergone something of a transformation and, now that I use this stuff, it looks even better.

I know I sound like a beauty advert but this Dove VisibleCare body wash really works. It also poofs up nicely on my bath sponge. You have to be careful when you first start using it, though, when the bottle is full it tends to pour out and you get more than you need. Also, the bottle still feels heavy and full when there is barely anything left.

That’s quite annoying, actually, because I ran out without realising I needed supplies. Still, my skin did feel softer and my husband, completely unprompted, said, “Wow, your skin looks so much better since we’ve moved here.” I didn’t tell him that product helped...

I also have really damaged skin around my neck from when I lived in Africa and never applied sunblock. As a child I was crap at that. And this Dove VisibleCare Softening body wash has reduced the redness visibly. Which is nice, because I have a small complex about this area of my body.

So, there you go, I loved it. It's cheap, it lasts a month, and it works. They guarantee results in seven days but I didn’t count. Have you tried this out? Please let me know which woman you are – are you the two out of ten who saw no difference or, like me, are you one of those who loved it to death?

P.S. I also love their natural beauty campaign. It's about time companies stopped throwing stick insects at us in ad campaigns.

Mossie bites can totally ruin my holiday. This is not a problem at home. It’s as if I have built up a resistance to the little bloodsuckers around here, because I barely get a bump on my arm if I’m bitten. But as soon as I go somewhere else I come up in lumps the size of a small golf ball. And that’s before I scratch the bite. If I’m idiotic enough to do that, then I’m walking around on holiday sporting a lump on my arm, or leg, or heaven forbid my face, the size of an orange.

Not a pretty sight.

So, top of my shopping list for my summer holiday is always insect repellent, shortly followed by a first aid kit. Because, even if I do remember to spray myself, I’m sure to trip over a misplaced bit of air. That’s just the kind of luck I have!

In the interests of keeping our readers safe in the great outdoors this year, I got a bunch of products from Boots. And gave them to Katharine, a PlayPennies mum with a lot of experience taking children on holidays to the seaside, camping and abroad.

Repelling mossies

Boots gave us two insect repellents. Repel Insect Repellent Lotion Natural Citrepel 75 (100ml) £6.99. And Repel Once Insect Repellent Spray (125ml) £8.99.

First impressions were good. As Katharine comments “Both types of insect repellent (Natural Citrepel and Repel Once) have a quite pleasant odour, and don't smell anything like as strongly as repellents I've used in the past.”

Although the name of the active ingredient, Citrepel 75, sounds a bit sci-fi, the substance is natural and comes from the lemon eucalyptus plant. According to Boots, the Natural Citrepel 75 repellent is suitable for non-tropical areas with a low risk of malaria and insect-transmitted diseases. It also claims a light and non-greasy formulation.

That wasn’t quite what Katharine experienced however. “Whether using the spray pumps or the lotions, they all go on easily, though they all leave your hands feeling slightly sticky” she says. “The Repel Once ones (which are designed for tropical areas where malaria is a problem) are the stickiest. A quick wash of the hands, though, and the problem's solved - I've never been troubled by mosquito bites on my hands, so I can't see it being a problem not having lotion on them.”

Repel Once contains 25% DEET and claims to provide protection from mosquitoes for up to 8 hours. Neither repellents are suitable for use on children under six months.

What were the repellents like in use? "While wearing the lotions outside, I haven't been bothered by any insects - but I haven't really found insects to be a problem at all this year," Katharine explains. "So it hasn't been a very fair/thorough test. (Most years I end up covered in bites - I must taste good.)

What was Katherine's final verdict? "The prices, ranging from £7 for the non-tropical Natural Citrepel repellents to £9 for the tropical Repel Once Spray are probably quite reasonable, but unless I was going somewhere with a particularly rampant mosquito population, I doubt I'd bother buying them. If they were a couple of quid cheaper, I would."

Soothing stings

Even with the most careful application of repellents, you can be sure that if you miss even the tiniest spot, a mosquito will find it. Scratching such a bite is, for me, a really unpleasant and unsightly experience! Boots has a product, Bite and Sting Relief Click It (£5.49) to help people like me. Our tester found Bite & Sting Relief Click It rather intriguing. "You click it five to 10 times on and around a bite or sting to dispense tiny electrical charges, which supposedly relieve the urge to scratch." Certainly sounds like an unusual approach. What is it like to use?

"Thankfully, I haven't been bitten or stung lately, so I've been unable to test its efficacy." Katharine told us. "However, I have used it on un-stung skin to see what it feels like - in a word, strange. Not unpleasant, though, and I'll certainly be taking it with me on my travels this summer. At just £5.49 and with the ability to treat up to 2,000 bites, it seems incredibly good value, too."

Travel First Aid Kit

With two boys, we definitely always needed to carry at least a few band aids with us, wherever we went. But it was my energetic and adventurous step-daughter who required a more substantial first aid kit! I was never confident enough to be able to carry just a little one. However, I might have done with this Boots Travel First Aid Kit (£8.99), as, from what Katharine says, they're thoughtful enough to include space for you to put a few extras of your own.

Katharine says "Finally, the Travel First Aid Kit is another great value piece of kit for just £8." In fact, it is a kit that she has bought and used in the past because it seems to fit such a lot into such a handy pack. "I just sling it in with our luggage when I pack for a holiday and I know I'll have everything I need for any minor medical mishap. There are plasters, dressings, a bandage, scissors, antihistamine cream, a blister plaster, antiseptic wipes and even a very brief guide to basic first aid. The small bag it all comes in is roomy enough for you to pop extra bits and pieces in too."

And Finally

My plan this year is to go camping, and more of us than ever before taking advantage of the festivals abounding in our countryside. For use here I'll be going with the natural repellents, but in a hotter country I'd probably opt for something with DEET in it to be doubly sure.

Plus if this summer continues to be as hot and muggy as it is, especially with the humidity, I don't think I'll have to go on holiday to find bumper crops of mossies! Some of these items will probably see just as much use in my own backyard, which makes sure I'll get my money's worth out of them.

I first stumbled on Johnsons Baby Soothing Naturals cream when I got a free sample, alerted by this thread on our sister site Hotukdeals. I thought I would do a review to let you guys know what I think of the product, as I have been using it in my house for quite a while now. (There's a free sample link here)

When I first got the free sample of this cream, I tried it on my face and neck. And I liked it.

It doesn’t smell strong at all, which I really like – it’s unperfumed.

After application, it leaves my skin feeling moisturised, but not oily or greasy (as I have experienced with some other creams).

After trying the freebie of the Johnsons Baby Soothing Naturals cream, it led me to buy a jar of this cream when I saw it on offer at my local Tesco store. As I write this, the Tesco cost is £2.47 for a 250ml tub, so I think it’s pretty good value for money too.

As I have a new baby girl, it’s probably the kind of product I will use on her too when she is a wee bit older. Now, I use the Johnsons body cream on my face and neck, and also on my post-pregnancy flabby belly!

The only thing that annoys me about this cream is the foil cover that was inside the tub. When I first opened the tub, I just peeled back the corner of the foil and started using the cream. As time went by, I didn’t bother to remove the foil, I just kept peeling back a little more... and now it has become covered in cream and I don’t want to make a mess by removing it - you can see this in the picture above. This is probably my fault though, for not removing the foil in the first place.

I’m nearly finished that first tub, and I will definitely be buying more when it runs out!

Have you used this particular body cream? Do you like it too? Or is there another brand which you prefer? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

My mum's side of the family is rather big and at least once a year we'd all get together for the day on the August Bank Holiday Monday.

The agenda was always the same: meet at a pub, go to the beach (regardless of weather), eat sand-filled sandwiches, get cold, move on to a park somewhere for phase two. I dreaded 'phase two' - it involved catching of balls and throwing of frisbies; I am, to this day, RUUUUBISH at both!

I thought those days of torture would be over when I got older and started doing trendy things like going to festivals or camping at motorcircuits for Formula One or MotoGP race weekends.

But OH NO! It would seem that throwing round bits of plastic and funny shaped foam things at each other at these events is THE thing to do! It's COOL!

On 6 July I wrote about the Rangs Magic Boomerang. During that little deal post I mused over whether my total ineptitude with anything like this would be a challenge too far for it, and thwart Rangs' claims that they have THE 'World's Best Boomerang' which is guaranteed to come back to you (if you throw it correctly).

By sheer coincidence some  lovely people from WickedVision were, at the very same time, sending us an outdoor and INDOOR Rangs Magic boomerang to play with (yep, an INDOOR boomerang) along with a Duncan pro yo-yo (another thing I still don't have adequate skill for!).

Fortunately for me, my name wasn't top of the list for this one and so it was Tamsin who went forth to make a show of herself show off her festival-fun and playing-in-the-park boomerang skills in public in the name of the PlayPennies review.

Along with her four-year-old daughter, Tamsin decided to try the Rangs Outdoor Magic Boomerang first...

"The packaging is genius! The boomerang is simple to remove and all the instructions are written on the back," Tamsin told us, "this made life so much easier as we ambled into the park; I had to take the packaging with me so we could see what we had to do as there was no way I was going to memorise everything!"

She continues, "To start with you are shown how to hold the boomerang, you have to throw it at a 45-degree angle into the wind and all sorts. If you don’t, your boomerang won’t come back!"

Oh this could be fun, you remember how good Tamsin was at following the cookie-making instructions, right? 45-degree angles into the wind!

"How much is 45 degrees anyway? Maths is not my strong point!" lamented Tamsin, and it was at this point that our intrepid mother-daughter duo enlisted the help of a nearby family enjoying the sunshine.

"I have to tell you that this boomerang was a huge icebreaker because soon everybody was getting in on the action, trying to find the exact angle, the direction of the wind, and who could get their boomerang to come back," she told us, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

They never quite managed to get it to actually land in their hands (or even return faintly in their direction) nor catch it using the clever moves shown in the instructions, but they did, by all accounts have a lot of fun.

Tamsin's little girl utterly ADORED playing outside with this little toy and just to make sure they gave it a thorough testing, they took it off for a throw-around on the beach.

"At first I was a bit worried that we would decaptitate someone but actually this just served to make us friends and engage the rescue services of a shaggy dog. The latter galloped into the sea to catch the boomerang when we accidentally threw it the wrong way!"

This is all very well and good when you're in the wide open spaces of a park, but I have to say the INDOOR boomerang intrigues me!

"I eyeballed this chap with suspicion. I had visions of smashed TVs, broken lampshades and grumpy husbands," reveals Tamsin.

Like his outdoor cousin, you can do things to the wings of the Rangs Indoor Magic Boomerang that will wow your friends and make you look like a pro boomerang-chucker - turn the wings down for lower flight, up for hovering (yep, these dudes can hover!) and twist them for a tight flight circle!

Having had so much fun with the outdoor version, Tamsin reluctantly handed over the Indoor Magic boomerang to a friend, saying, "We don’t have a lot of space to work with so we found a friend who does. She was also pretty flexible on the whole “boomerang indoors” thing on condition we left the boomerang with her."

Indoor boomeranging just does't sound as much fun as hurling one as far as you can outdoors, I was rather amused (and pleased) to read what Tamsin's friend had to say about their indoor throwing experiences.

"Toby loved it! In fact, I couldn’t get him to stop playing with it. Even hubby got in on the action and soon it was really a competition to see who could get their boomerang to come back and catch it using the trick catches on the back of the instructions."

Is this just a boy thing?  There must be girls out there who can throw these things and get ultra competitive in the process? Toby's mum, like me and Tamsin, is not one of them...

"I am terrible at it," she said, "and mostly knock things down but Toby and Hubby both managed to get the boomerang to fly back to them and did some spectacular saves. I would recommend removing all bric-a-brac and covering your TV with a blanket though.” Sounds like it might be an idea to put your priceless Ming vases away!

Yo-yo's! Another toy of torture from my childhood (you can see why my name wasn't on the list for this review can't you!) and one which my brother was annoyingly good at!

Along with the boomerangs, WickedVision sent Tamsin a Duncan ProYo yo-yo to bounce up and down and flick over her wrist.

"Offering competition grade performance, this yo-yo is a complete charmer. In fact it’s a little intimidating!" admits Tamsin.

"It wasn’t great for tiny tots so hubby and I had a go and really enjoyed it. Talk about being taken back to the good old days of being a kid and doing yo-yo tricks in lunch breaks. The coolest tricks meant the coolest kids!"

This was and is, I'm reliably informed by my Teenagers, still the case - if you can't 'Walk the Dog' then you're a nobody in the yo-yo world.

Luckily the Duncan ProYo comes with full instructions on how to perform all of these amazing tricks.

So did the instructions turn Tamsin into a yo-yo-flinging-over-the-wrist-and-down-along-the-ground-to-walk-the-dog pro?

"To be honest I spent most of the review time trying to remember how to yo-yo in the first place, much less Walk the Dog. Still, I only got tangled up in string once and only had one grumbling untangling incident," she finally confessed, after we threatened her with all sorts of unmentionable torture and torment!

She did conclude, however, that whilst she and her daughter aren't going to be entering any yo-yo or boomerang contests any time soon, they did have the most ridiculous amount of fun.

And finally...

All of these things that WickedVision sent us are perfect for messing around with at festivals, and all the other Parties in the Parks that are happening around the country.  Also, with the school summer holidays coming up they would definitely keep your kids entertained both outdoors AND in.

I think we have to face facts that these toys are going to be with us for the rest of eternity and if you can't beat 'em...you might as well join 'em and engage in some family festival and party-in-the-park fun!

It's that time of the year. The going-on holiday time of the year. A sun-kissed white sand beach on an island somewhere. A campsite on the British coast. A festival in a field. Does it really matter? It is a holiday, a change of scenery, a time to recharge the batteries!

I did a lot of travelling when I was on maternity leave. After all, why not make the most of getting  six months or more off ? On the first trip, we went to Hong Kong when my son was two months old. I looked for the lightest, easiest to carry, travel bassinet I could find.

Now in those early days of motherhood  I admit I bought a lot of crud. I was a sucker for every gimmicky thing going. I had no idea if the Samsonite Pop Up Travel Cot would actually be of any use, but it looked the business. Tiny - seriously tiny. It folds up into a small round bag about the same size as a medium sized frying pan.

It's made with some of that springy stuff they use in pop-up tents. And it works the same way. Pull it out of the bag and it simply pings open. I then spent the next ten minutes looking for the little metal rod that you have to insert to keep the end of the bassinet part from collapsing. After which I realised I hadn't actually seen how it was when it came out of the bag, so had no idea how to put it back together to get it in again.

Actually all you have to do is, after you've taken out the metal rod, is hold each end in each hand, twist into a letter 8 shape, and push it together. It then slides into the tiny bag. Did I mention how tiny it is?

Once baby gets a bit mobile and is rolling about or attempting to crawl, then there's no point in even bothering with this cot. But for the really little ones, the Samsonite pop-up travel cot is fine.

It comes with a mosquito net, which is one reason I bought it. However, I wouldn't rely on this for malarial areas. It didn't fill me with complete confidence that it could keep out mossies entirely. However it will keep flies and other creepy crawlies off your sleeping baby. You could wrap a mossie net around it for extra protection.

The mattress was a lot thinner than I was expecting. I didn't think that my son would find that comfortable at all but it didn't seem to bother him at all. Still, I used to put a blanket underneath when on wood or tiled floors for extra protection.

It also got a nickname, courtesy of my four year old nephew who christened it 'The Boat'. Because actually, that's pretty much what it looks like, with the hood up and the prow shaped front!

My verdict? This was actually one piece of gimmicky baby equipment that I got a lot of use out of, from hotels in the far east to staying at grandma's.

Have you travelled with a young baby? What did you use for a bassinet?