Is it bad that Toys R Us have been my babysitter/childminder for the past few weeks?

Hmmmm, don’t answer that.

There are just two more days till I finally see my Doctor and ask her that question.  It’s been a hell of a few weeks and to be honest I possibly couldn’t have done it without the distraction of two small girls ripping into a box full of toys with looks of intense glee on their faces and giggles that have become gradually more crazy-sounding.

Seriously, they have been having a brilliant time.  Whenever I’ve been at my lowest we’ve been able to try something new, and it’s been a mood-lifter for us all.  I’ve really enjoyed extracting opinions from them too, and it seems the measure of a good toy is not only whether or not you like it, but also whether you would give it to a friend.

The biggest hits so far have been:

Boggle Flash

Which E and I love and even Miss M has had a little go at with the old cat, hat and mat thing.
It’s easy to use, packs down into a tiiiiiiny box and at £25 isn’t a bad buy.  There are 3 games including one for mulitple players and I’m sure we’ll be playing this at Christmas this year while my brothers are battling it out on the wii and my dad snores.  (By ‘we’ I mean my Mum, sister-in-laws and nieces.)  It doesn’t make the original boggle obsolete either, there’s room for both I promise.

E, M and M’s 6 year-old-friend also loved Sprayza pens, in fact they loved them so much Miss E wrote her own review which I will share with you later this week.  And, while they’re usually £9.99 they’re £7.99 at the moment.  Bargain!

The Shaker Maker went down well even though it was a Ben 10 one.  E and M had fun with the shaking and the making and Ben 10 looked great in pink.  He looked less attractive  in a crumbly mess on the floor but that was definitely our fault and not the people at ShakerMaker HQ.  At £9.99 it got the ‘cool present thumbs up’ and they make loads of different kinds, even David Tennant, David Beckham and David Hasslehoff ones.  (Ok, I lied about the David Tennant, David Beckhma and David Hasslehoff ones.)

But,  The Girls Only Kim Doll?  Well erm, maybe the look on my children’s faces will give you an idea about our reaction to this.

The 10 year old on the right is no longer into dolls.  She loves anything small and cute, and we have not yet moved on the baby-borns, prams, bottles etc but they are in the wardrobe or on top of the wardrobe in the position of all not-much-played-with-but-not-yet-completely-scorned toys.

The 5 year old on the left finds most life-like dolls a little bit scary.  She likes dressing up,  animal toys and Barbies, but not baby dolls or dolls with ’scary mad hair’ which was her description of the lovely Kim.  We listened to the CD but E and M were not fans and to be honest the assertion that Kim is a ‘fashionista’ made me feel a little ill.  I wasn’t too fond of the ‘Girls Only’ label either.  My girls played quite happily with the Ben 10 shaker maker and the Pirate Snakes & Ladders set, both of which might have been considered to be aimed at boys going by the packaging, so the labelling of a toy aimed at small children as ‘Girls Only’ just didn’t sit right with me.  The Snazaroo Boy’s Face Painting Set got around this problem by having a Snazaroo Girl’s Face Painting set too.
If it’s any consolation Mr/Mrs Zapf, I’m pretty sure I would have loved this doll as a kid, and the friend I’ve passed it on to thought it was perfect for their 7 year old daughter so maybe my kids are just weird?

We have a couple more items to explore, both of which need Mummy at full brain capacity, but if that doesn’t happen any time soon I may bribe trick invite Granny to play.  In the mean time, just see us as your friendly and honest Christmas prezzie advisers.  My two little Toyologists are working hard and, well ok I admit it, I’m kind of enjoying it too.

Thanks Toys R Us. x

P.S.  Click the link for some fab Toys R Us competitions.