We have been sent some fantastic unicorns from the new Bayala range from Schleich and the kids absolutely love them already!




Each of the three that we were sent is exquisite in its own way, and the children quickly gave each one a name and decided on a unique personality to suit it.  They are all very well made and sturdy, perfect for children to play with in all sorts of adventures.



They easily created a family story with a Mummy, Daddy and baby unicorn.  They decided that the Mummy and Daddy had to teach the baby how to jump, so they set out to build a set of jumps that the unicorns could use.



It didn't take long to build and then each unicorn had it's turn to soar over the hurdles.  The children were happily playing at this for ages and creating lovely imaginative storylines to go along with them.



Ivy then went off with the Mummy and baby which she has claimed as her own (not surprising) and Ethan was left with the Daddy whom he built a huge obstacle course for.


It was fantastic to see how long these simple unicorns kept the children busy for.  I think it definitely has to do with the fantastic details and realism of each of them.  And when they are not being played with they look lovely on display on the toy shelves.  You can find the Schleich range to buy from Smyths Toys, and we highly recommend that you do as we really love them.

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* This is a review post, we were sent the Schleich Bayala unicorns to play with and write our honest opinions.*

We were invited to a very special early morning experience at Hamleys Toy Shop in London the other day to try out their Easter Egg Hunt!  We were very lucky to have this behind the scenes look at an empty Hamleys store, but the great news is that the Easter Egg Hunt is open to all over the Easter Break and there is still time to visit and have a go (until Monday 22nd April)!


We arrived bright and early and set off on our Easter Egg Hunt around the shop, we were given a sheet to fill in and wandered around all 7 floors of Hamleys looking for big colourful eggs with letters on them to fill in our sheets.


Once you find all of the clues you can take a picture of your finished sheet and post on Instagram using #Hamleys for a chance to win a birthday party at Hamleys!


There are so many other activities going on at Hamleys as well, after our early egg hunt we popped back outside for the grand opening of the shop.  It's fantastic!  Clearly we are not usually early birds and had no idea that this sort of thing went on, but there's a whole big count down and one child is chosen to ring the bell to open the shop each day!


There are also puppet shows several times a day (we watched one and the kids absolutely loved it, they were laughing hysterically the whole time!) There is a schedule by the escalators each day with a list of events, I had no idea there was so much to do at Hamleys, so definitely take a look!



And over Easter there are even more things going on than usual (check out the whats on section of their website), there is a Lego make and take of an Easter basket, available on certain days,  which we also got to try out and the kids really enjoyed being able to make their own little baskets to bring home.  There are also meet and greets with special characters on some days, so do check the schedule).


And if you're short on Easter treats, then you can even pop over to the Scrumpalicious sweet shop to choose some sweets to take home too!


There truly is so much to do at Hamleys over Easter, we highly recommend that you pay them a visit!

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* This is a review post of a gifted experience, we were provided with a special early morning visit to Hamleys before it opened to try out and the Easter Egg Hunt and gifted with a special goody bag, all opinions are our own.*

We are always looking for fun days out over the school holidays, especially Easter break as it can be so long and the weather isn't always fantastic, so when we were invited by Nintendo to visit Kidzania and try out Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt of course we jumped at the chance!


Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt is running at Kidzania London from now until April 21st.  It is included in your regular ticket to Kidzania (it's always advisable to book tickets in advance) and can be done as one of your activities at any time of your visit.


We arrived at the Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt area and and had our wristbands scanned, the children then had a few minutes to play the new Yoshi's Crafted World game on the Nintendo Switch.  The absolutely loved it straight away!  Ivy thinks that Yoshi is adorable and was happily just walking him around and exploring the game as she went along.  Ethan was drawn in by the features, when one of the staff members showed him how to throw an egg at a wall to make it come down into a bridge he was fascinated!  This is definitely a game that they would like to explore more.  


After a little bit of time to play Yoshi's Crafted World all of the children in the room were then brought together where the staff explained how the Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt would work and handed each child a pencil and booklet with some activities and the clues to find the hidden eggs around Kidzania.  


We made our way out and first took a photo in front of the Yoshi's Crafted World backdrop.  If you take a photo there and upload it to social media using #YoshisCraftedWorld and #Kidzania you will be entered into a competition to win a Nintendo Switch, the Yoshi's Crafted World game, a one year membership to Nintendo online and family passes to Kidzania.


Then we set off around Kidzania, following the clues to find all seven eggs hidden throughout.  It took us a little while to get the hang of it, but soon we were whizzing around filling in all of those blanks with the letters.  Once you've found all of the letters you then unscramble them to discover the mystery word and write it on the bottom of your sheet.


You then bring your completed sheet back to the Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt activity where you will be rewarded with a certificate and 10 Kidzos!  We then explored the rest of Kidzania and absolutely loved it (we will definitely be writing more about the whole experience!) There were just so many activities to do and it was incredible to watch the children as they did these activities on their own (grown ups have to wait outside each activity and watch) and as they grew in confidence and independence.  

Ivy's favourite activity of the day was the Just Dance Dance Club, where they children get to follow along with the moves up on the screen to train to be dance teachers.  It is another Nintendo Switch game so they are holding the controllers which registers their dance moves, and the winner of the game earns extra Kidzos.


Ethan's favourite activity of the day was the Nintendo Labo Workshop where he got to make his own remote controlled car out of cardboard which he could then control with a Nintendo Switch.  They then move on to the discover station where they get to see more of what the Nintendo Labo can do, by trying out a robot, a fishing game and even a piano made out of cardboard.  At the end of this activity they get to take home their cardboard car as well as a special certificate.


It was a jam packed day full of fun, and we could definitely go back again soon and do it all over again, the children loved every single activity that they tried!  We highly recommend a trip to Kidzania during this Easter break to try out Yoshi's Easter Egg Hunt (and so many other fun activities!)


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* This is a review post, we were invited to Kidzania and provided with tickets in order to try out Yoshi's Easter Egg hunt and write our honest opinions about it.*

We are big fans of a day out at the local garden centre, so when Squire's Garden Centre invited us to to try out their Create and Grow activities over the Easter break from school of course we jumped at the chance.  There are 15 Squire's locations around London and Surrey, so do take a look to see if there is one near you.


This Easter the activities are available to take part in from April 8th - 18th, weekdays from 10am to 3pm.  There is a Spring Hunt to find the clues around the garden centre and then reveal a mystery word to receive a sticker and a sweet treat, this costs £2 per child.  The other activity is to plant a pot of succulents and decorate it with Easter stickers, the cost for this is just £6 per child.


We started with the Spring Hunt, this is something that we've done before at Squire's, so the children were familiar with how it works and got stuck straight in.  We picked up our sheets from the information desk and set off around the shop looking for clues.  There were 7 clues in total to find, so we walked around looking for them.  Each clue is numbered and has a picture as well as a written clue to help you fill in the blanks.  


For us it's really fun doing these activities year after year, as now Ethan can do this completely independently and with beautiful writing and even Ivy is able to write on her own sheet (I used to have to do it for her) with just a little bit of help with spelling.  I can just picture it next year, I'll be able to sit down with a coffee as they do it on their own (just joking, don't leave your kids unattended in the garden centre, ha ha!)


Once we had found all the clues and filled in all of the blanks there was then a word spelled out downwards in the yellow boxes, which the children had to write out and reveal at the information desk to then receive their prize (a delicious piece of chocolate pizza which they absolutely had to share with Mummy!)


Next we went over to the craft area to make our Easter planters.  You can choose either a metal pot or a watering can in a variety of colours and then decorate it with as many cute Easter stickers as you would like (for Ivy this was a lot of stickers!)


Each of the children then chose which three plants they would like in their Easter planters, there was a huge variety of lovely little plants to choose from.  They really enjoyed this part and were so excited that they got to have three and not just one.


Once chosen we went back to the table to get started with the planting!


The very kind man who was running the activity offered to scoop up the soil for us, but as we're not afraid of getting a bit dirty those little hands went straight into the soil and scooped it into the plant pots.  I do recommend bringing some hand wipes with you as this did get a bit messy, but it's all a part of the experience and the kids do love getting stuck right in.


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* This is a review post, we were invited to Squire's Garden Centre to take part in their Create and Grow activities over Easter in order to review them, all opinions are our own.*