Review - Team Barbie

I'll be the first to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Barbie. The feminist in me blames her for the pinkification of girls' toys that seems to have taken place over the last twenty years - a subject I could rant on about for hours, but which might have to wait for another post. The problem is, however, that there is an eight-year old girl inside me that comes out to play and gets very nostalgic about certain toys that I remember fondly from my childhood, of which Barbie is one (Lego and Playmobil being the other two).

Does every girl remember her first Barbie? My first - and only (they were expensive in those days!) - Barbie was "Superstar Barbie" complete with feather boa, long evening gown, necklace and earring, and star-shaped stand. My daughters are spoilt in that even at their young age, thanks to friends and relatives they own several dolls each. When the guys at Mattel therefore offered me a full set of the new Team Barbie dolls in exchange for a review, I hesitated slightly as to whether they would actually be appreciated or not!

It cannot have escaped anybody's notice that there is a large sporting event taking place in London over the summer, and just in time four new Barbie dolls with a sporting theme have been released (although not official O.l.y.m.p.i.c.s merchandise) - a swimmer,

a hurdler,

 a gymnast

and a tennis player.

The last three are similar in terms of construction , all having jointed limbs that bend at the arms and the legs for added movement (a vast improvement on the rubbery bendy legs that some Barbies have, I must say).

The swimmer doll differs slightly from the rest of the collection in that it not only comes with its own dog, but in that both dog and doll possess a clockwork windup mechanism that means they both actually swim. I have to say this was definitely a big hit - not only with my daughters at bathtime, but also for my husband, who took great delight in setting both figures up and racing them around the bath, exclaiming that they swam so much better than a lot of the wind-up toys we used to have at bath time. Whilst more expensive than the other three dolls, this little gimmick definitely made swimming Barbie the favourite of the four.

Even if she does have a pink swimming costume.

In Cyberspace, No-one Can See You Pout

(or - "My God, is she actually still blogging?")


TMI Alert (and no, this post doesn't really go anywhere, sorry)

The past month has seemed more hectic than usual - work is picking up again (new boss, all change etc etc), weekends seem to have been filled with a strange social whirlwind that shows little sign of abating at the moment - there are literally only two weekends between now and back to school in September where our diaries are completely free - but to top it all off, I have been laid low twice with a horrendous stomach bug that, without putting too fine a point on it, involved torrents of Biblical proportions of things that should not be torrential.

The second bout took me completely by surprise, after I assumed I had fully recovered from the first bout, and I can only describe as "miffed" my mood when it turned out I would be spending a couple of extra bank holidays in bed . NOT EVEN BECAUSE OF A HANGOVER. How unfair. Anyway, much as I am happy to moan on here, I decided to keep my moaning away from other social media platforms, using the principle of if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it.

The problem with platforms like Twitter etc, however, is that people come and go all the time. This week has been half term, so lots of people have been away anyway, including a lot of the people that I converse with the most, so it seems fair that nobody would really have noticed that I hadn't tweeted in a couple of days. (By day three I have got a bit miffed though...I COULD HAVE BEEN ON MY DEATHBED, PEOPLE!).

Also this week, I had an email from the lovely folks at google with an annual renewal for my domain, and it got me wondering what it would really be like to withdraw from the online world altogether. I know other people have done it, and a couple of relatively high-profile parent bloggers have deleted their blogs recently and considering the infrequency with which I actually post anything here I am hesitating as to whether I really want to fork out the vast sum of $10...

The bad news for anyone reading this, however, is that my list of ideas for posts appears to be growing.

To misquote another famous film - I think I'll be back.
(Assuming it ever stops raining)

Shoe addict that I am, I've entered a little competition to design my own shoe...just need a few votes to help me win!

Help me to win, vote on my design here!

Jokes for Children, part 2 - 6/7 year olds

It's not hard to tell that I'm a pretty rubbish blogger. The perils of a full-time job and two children mean that I don't often have the time (or, let's face it - the inclination) to write regular posts. In some ways, I envy those that do, although I like to hope that maybe my sporadic approach means I only post true nuggets of golden quality (ahem).

Anyway, good bloggers are supposed to be on top of their stats and traffic, know their audience inside out and tailor their approach accordingly. Here again I fail pretty miserably, having been so totally bamboozled by the last update of google analytics that I never darkened its doors ever again. Still, blogger doesn't let me totally forget that I am supposed to worry about my stats, for it gives a handy little guide in my dashboard that I have been known to idly glance at on the odd occasion.

Pretty much consistently without fail, the one search term that brings the most people to my blog on a regular basis is either "jokes for four year olds" or "jokes for five year olds". Go on, I dare you - go google those search terms and see who comes up around halfway down the page (number three spot on the five year olds, I'll have you know - people pay good money for that sort of ranking!). Yep, yours truly with a post I wrote nearly two years ago now begging for inspiration for jokes for children.

The thing is, while my youngest daughter is now starting to appreciate the jokes aimed at this age range, eldest daughter has now turned seven, and as any parent of a seven year old will tell you, this is a vast step up in sophistication from a five year old when it comes to humour. While her little sister is still at the "why did the chicken cross the road - to get to its house" school of comedy, DD1 can be found rolling her eyes, sighing loudly and muttering "that's not even FUNNY" under her breath at her younger sibling's efforts.

I have therefore decided that now seems like an appropriate time to update my own, very limited, repertoire of jokes for children to reflect that increased sophistication. (Once again, I take no responsibility whatsoever for how funny or not these jokes are - they are purely based on those that either I, or a just-turned-seven-year-old can remember...)

Current favourites include doctor, doctor jokes, e.g.:

"Doctor, doctor, I think I'm a strawberry"
"Here's some cream for you"

or

"Doctor, doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains"
"Pull yourself together"

or a series of jokes revolving around deer and their various body parts (or lack thereof):

"What do you call a deer with no eyes"
"No idea"

"What do you call a deer with no ears"
"A d"
 (particular favourite, that one)

"What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs"
"Still no idea"

You get the picture...

So, as before, I'm throwing the floor open to you - help me out here -what are you favourite jokes for children, for any age range?

When Polly Pocket met Chessington World of Adventures (or the one with dolls, vampires and big fish)

Last week saw the annual "I can't believe my baaaabyyyy is X*" hand wringing that takes place around mid-April, with eldest daughter's birthday. We had already arranged a party, but when I found an email in my inbox inviting us to a Polly Pocket event at Chessington World of Adventures on the day itself, I couldn't really say no...My two have only relatively recently discovered Polly Pocket, having been given some figures for Christmas, but they were already big fans, so it seemed a bit of a no-brainer.

When we got to the hotel where the venue was, the kids totally conformed to type, as DD1 headed straight for the computers with the new Polly Pocket website, and DD2 got her face painted:

 ....but mostly they were just happy to play with all the Polly Pocket toys on offer:

When the fun was over, we were allowed free reign inside Chessington World of Adventures. I think I've blogged in the past about my love of theme parks and especially rollercoaster-type rides, so I suspect I may have been a bit more excited about this bit than the children...

We started off gently with a quick trip round the zoo, and the Sealife Centre, before heading towards the rides. To be honest, an odd number of people in a theme park is never the best idea, and we really could have done with Mr Tin being able to join us for the day - sadly he was shackled to his desk, so couldn't make it. Therefore, random adults had to be found for DD1 to pair up with on some of the scarier rides - both of my children being rollercoaster freaks like their parents.

Both kids loved the "Vampire" - their first experience of a "hanging underneath" rollercoaster - despite the fact we had to queue for nearly two hours, thankfully our longest queue. In the end, the combination of the park being busy due to school holidays and starting the day relatively late after the event meant that we probably only managed to see a third of the attractions. The cries of "please can we go again mummy" started on the way home, and I must admit the new hotel looked very tempting....

DD1 declared it the "best birthday ever" - I only hope I can live up to the next one!

Many thanks to the guys at Mattel and Chessington for a fabulous day.
____

(*7, in this case)

(P.S. Head over to http://pollypocketbestdayever.co.uk/ for a chance to win more fun days out, including trips to Chessington World of Adventures)