Schleich - Bayala purple magic horses from Smyths Toys - Review!

Over the last year or so I have noticed Schleich toys. Mostly farm animals and dinosaurs which did not take Ellie's fancy but there is a new range out which did catch her eye! The Bayala purple magic horses!

She is a big fan of anything magical and mythical so these were right up her street! She actually screeched with joy when they arrived!

The Bayala universe is being enchanted by new purple magic horses. The proud moon unicorn stallion and the dazzling star Pegasus mare guard their cute shooting star foal.

All three figures are decorated with glitter elements and rhinestones. 

Moon unicorn, stallion -  £13.99

This proud stallion is a moon unicorn and with his friendly, open eyes, always keeps a watchful eye on his family – the star Pegasus mare and their shooting star unicorn foal.

Star Pegasus, mare - £13.99

This beautiful star Pegasus mare is not from this world. She comes from the infinite space of the universe and you can see this at first glance.

Shooting-star-unicorn, foal - £7.49

The cute shooting star unicorn foal is more daring than the adult unicorns. His bold and curious ways help him to explore the magical world of Bayala.

Aren't they just beautiful! Ellie is in love with them. She really adores them. She has played with them off and on for a few weeks and is showing no signs of losing interest in them. The foal is the ideal size for fitting in her coat pocket and taking out which she has a couple of times. I think they might be her favourite toys!

These are all available to buy from from Smyths Toys Superstores. 

We were sent the Bayala purple magic horses free of charge in exchange for this blog post.

Top tips for an egg-cellent Easter egg hunt!

It will be Easter soon and when my girls were younger there was nothing more than they loved than an Easter egg hunt. Most years the weather let us down but they always ended up having fun! 

Organising and Easter egg hunt isn't just hiding a bunch of chocolate eggs in your garden there are a few other things you may want to consider if you want it to run smoothly!

If by a miracle the weather is warm bear this in mind when you are hiding your eggs if they are left to long before the hunt they may melt.

Before starting your exciting Easter hunt make sure that anyone with a food allergy is accommodated for.

Write down a list of where you have hidden the Easter eggs. You don't want to lose any! When I haven't written a list we always find an egg or two days later. lol

Remember you do not need to use large eggs. You can buy a multi-pack of small foil wrapped eggs or plastic re-usable eggs which you can fill with mini eggs or something similar.

If your hunt involves several children, avoid arguments by colour coding the eggs and letting each child look for a particular colour. That goes for kids which are not great at sharing too!

If you are planning to do the hunt outside do have an indoor back up plan if the weather takes an unexpected turn.

To keep things fair make sure everyone ends up with the same amount of eggs.

Set boundaries and tell the children where they are. Explain there will be no eggs hidden outside of your back garden for example. That will help stop anyone from wandering off. 

If you have older children you could set treasure hunt clues to help them discover the hiding places. You could use riddles or rhymes for them to figure out or map out the hiding places on a treasure map.

Easter egg hunts should be fun. Don't make hiding spots too tricky so the hunt goes on forever. On the other hand, don't make it too easy so it's over too quickly.

Make a rule before you start about how many eggs they are allowed to eat once the hunt is over. Unless you want a bunch of sugar filled kids throwing up all the chocolate they've eaten

If you have dogs lock them in a separate part of the house or garden while the egg hunt is happening. Chocolate can make them very ill.

Will you be having an Easter egg hunt this year?

Our weekly meal plan! 15th - 21st April. #MealPlanningMonday

Last weeks meal plan went well considering the kids were off school. We swapped a couple of days around but everything was eaten apart from the pizza. I decided I really fancied an Indian takeaway on Friday but I really didn't want to pay for one so I made a curry. Just using a jar of curry sauce, some chicken pieces, peppers and mushrooms out of the freezer and microwave rice. It was so good and way better then paying the prices of a takeaway.

This week I have cut down on the shopping and we're having a week of clearing the freezer and cupboards out a bit.

This week on the menu we have:

Monday - Chinese chicken thighs with noodles.

Tuesday - Bolognese over jacket potatoes.

Wednesday - Chicken Nugget Casserole with curly fries.

 Thursday - Chilli con carne and rice.

Friday - Pizza.

Saturday - Greggs Sausage & bean melts with chips.

Sunday - Barbecue sausage and bean stew.

What are you eating this week?

Spreading a smile for Jessica! #GiveJoyForJessica

It is a year today since I read the devastating news about Jessica, the daughter of Louise who writes the blog Little Hearts Big Love. I can't imagine what Louise and her family have been through this past year. Jessica was such a special little girl, always with a smile on her face!

Louise is asking that today, on the anniversary of Jessica's death we do something positive to mark the day. To do something to bring another person joy and make them smile. So I am sharing this photo and video.

We baked earlier in the week and Ellie got a bit carried away and forgot what she was doing and brought the hand mixer out of the batter when it was spinning. Oops. It splatted everywhere. After shouting stop, put it back in we both had a good laugh about it.

Before we had started baking I had gone to get a chair to sit on and had left the camera recording. As soon as my back was turned Ellie had to do her dance. She calls it cool, I call it funny. It was caught on camera along with the shifty look back at the camera, the half eye roll, the cheeky laugh and the hair flick. lol