Christmas in July 2012

I went to one of the many Christmas in July events yesterday with two other lovely bloggers, Really Rachel and Katie Cupcake to help judge the UKMums.tv mums choice awards.

There were cupcakes in abundance, Ice creams, Christmas cake and oodles of new toys to get enthusiastic about.  All in all it was definitely worth the epic trip from Wales, starting at an exceptionally early 4:30am!  So thank the lord for all those fake bursts of energy in the cakes...

Leaving with a goody bag filled to the brim with exciting toys for my two bundles of mischief helped amuse me on the long journey home.

I did my usual trick and tried to find any random characters to have a quick photo with to spice up my blog post.

Here I am with the lovely Lalaloopsy

I fell in love with the stand, especially the Novi Stars; I need to borrow a girl from somewhere just to review the range of dolls.  One even smelt of bubble-gum, others are all glitter and sparkle.  I am not very girly at heart, but if anything would entice in it would have been those dolls!  Plus the handles of the packet turn into a headband, which is very clever.  I have a feeling these will be HUGE for Christmas.

I had a to have a picture with the gorgeous Princess Leah who was promoting a clever Star Wars Radio Controlled Inflatable R2-D2.  It was quite good fun and easy to control, but more of a novelty I think.  My boys would be very animated by it at first, but I am unsure if they would keep returning to it.

I was interested to see that Mega Bloks are bringing out some great new ranges.  I will not say too much but one of them I think will feature quite highly on the Christmas list of my eldest.  Definitely keep your eyes out on their website for updates.  When their products start selling like hot cakes you do not want to miss out!  Although I have no plans to tell hubbie about the World of Warcraft range, just in case I start him off on his slippery slope to World of Warcraft rehab again ;)

Ravensburger are revolutionising jigsaws, I was amazed at the display I saw of the Augmented Reality Puzzles.  You can download a free app and then your jigsaw comes to life.  You can see famous landmarks, find out about wildlife or spot certain fish.  My taid (granddad in Welsh) would be shocked to see how far his beloved jigsaws have come, but I think it makes them even more educational and interactive.

The Kurio tablet looked pretty impressive with an affordable price tag, but am not sure if I was just getting suckered in with the Angry Birds and Fruit ninja apps rather than the actual tablet.  For the youngsters though I enjoyed seeing the LeapPad 2 going through its paces.  I do like the addition of a front facing camera and the ability to make a cartoon learning about the process as you do it, is it enough to make me want to upgrade from our LeapPad, maybe?

The news of Skylanders Giants and watching a demonstration of the game was one of my highlights of the event.  My eldest was beyond excited to get Prism Break in the goody bag.  Least that is another one to join the battle when the others are having a rest because him and his friend have been well and truly owned!  If your children do not already own Skylanders I think you seriously need to rectify it, even if only just so you can secretly play when the children have gone to bed!  I love how the characters all have unique special features and in a way their own funny personalities.

Drumond Park made me giggle their Pumpazing game kept having part of the game boing off and hit people passing the stand.  A great way to lure them over, forget cakes, they will just chuck stuff at you to get your attention!  As always though I do love this company when it comes to children’s board games.

Another board game I am sorely tempted to try out is the It’s a Chicken by Paul Lamond Games.  My boys have all types of games but not any to help develop their drawing abilities.

I probably could keep yammering on for ages (Hex Bugs, The Trash Pack, Schleich Dinosaurs...), but just to say Christmas 2012 is going to be spectacular!