Olivia Toys Review

Team Mom sent us some Olivia toys. Are you familiar with Olivia? She is the adventurous pig famous for her books and now cartoon on Nick Jr. We are huge Olivia fans around this house. The kids think she is hilarious and most times I tend to agree. You can imagine how psyched they were when we were sent an Olivia 2-in-1 Transforming Playset and an Olivia 8″ Plush. Both toys are made by the great company, Spin Master.

Olivia inspires kids everywhere to think boldly and follow their dreams. Spin Master has taken Olivia’s bold personality and extraordinary imagination, and infused it into a collection of fun and creative toys for children age 4 and up.

The Olivia 2-in-1 Transforming Playset is a little like a dollhouse but one that you can open two different ways. The first is Olivia’s house and the second a pirate ship. The house comes with 23 accessories like a bed and a treasure chest but it also comes with a sticker sheet. You can basically decorate the house or ship with the stickers. Oh and the most important part… it comes with Olivia herself. The kids love this house because  they can act out fantasies. The one thing I didn’t like… there weren’t any other characters. It would be nice if they had included her brother Ian or her friend Julian. Since I have two kids they are constantly fighting over the one character. The other bothersome thing was that some of the accessories are small. The plates for the tables are tiny. I’m constantly finding them around the house. I think Spin Master put an appropriate age range on this toy. Not a good toy for younger than 4. Perfect for my two though (6 and 5) with the negatives out of the way it’s a fantastic toy. We give it 6 thumbs up. You can purchase the playset at Toys R Us, Target or Kmart. You can also find out more info at http://www.spinmaster.com.

The second toy was an 8″ Olivia plush doll. L claimed this as her own right away. Poor J. Don’t worry I’m making her share. Olivia is so darn cute dressed up in her artist outfit. On her cartoon she’ll tell you all about how she likes art and our own little L loves art as well. So this is perfect. Olivia comes dressed in her other favorite outfits like Opera Singer and a Cow. These can also be purchased at Toys R Us, Target and Kmart.

Overall I really think the Olivia toys are going to be a huge hit this Christmas. It’s never too early to start thinking Christmas, right?!?!

Disney on Ice: Princess Classics

Last night I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the Disney on Ice Princess Classics show. I took my daughter L and her two close friends J and Z. Plus their mommies. We had a great time. The girls got to meet Cinderella and we had a fantastic dinner, plus goodie bags. Everything was incredible. Special thanks to Feld Entertainment for treating us like royalty.

The 3 princesses we brought

L meeting Cinderella. She was so excited to tell her where we were headed in 8 days. Cinderella told her to give her a special wave.

The show was awesome. We were all really excited for the show to start and our seats were really great.

The 3 girls before the show. L is holding up the nice gifts we got from Feld.

J and J

A and Z

and me and L

The girls all squealed with delight as the lights went down and the show started. Each princess came out and talked about falling in love and being a princess through their stories and songs. Basically there were snippets from each princess story. I think they were most excited about Ariel. It was fun to watch the girls watch the show. Pretty soon they aren’t going to be into princesses much longer so I’ll eat this up as long as I can.

Here are a few pics from the show.

So because you came here today to read my blog…. Oh and if you live in STL…. I have an awesome discount for you today. Go to http://www.metrotix.com and enter the code MOM and you will receive $4 off any of the weekend shows (Friday night through Sunday) and just so you know there isn’t a bad seat in Chaifetz Arena. So hurry, buy those tickets because this is a show you don’t want your princess loving kids to miss. Thanks again Feld, SO MUCH FUN!!!

Right girls?!?! I think they had a BLAST.

The Countdown has Started

AH, the countdown to Disney World is underway. We are currently on day 20. 20 days till we leave. WOAH!!! That’s crazy. I remember when I thought it would never get here and now….

Well, anyway I made the traditional Mickey head countdown with the kids the other night. This time I let each of them color the heads, plus I colored a few, I couldn’t resist.

I could never get a picture of the kids standing in front of the countdown so you’ll have to settle for just a picture of the door, all by it’s self. Here’s a closeup

So each day they take turns tearing one down that they colored. God we cannot wait. Super excited and just ready for a vacay.

Moon Dough Barnyard Play Set Review

Team mom sent us a Moon Dough play set recently to review. My kids were aching to open this set to see what it was all about. With school starting and life just being generally crazy. I kept having to put it off but FINALLY on Thursday we opened the set up and let loose.

Moon Dough is made by Spin Master and Spin Master toys never disappoint. The dough is hypo-allergenic and wheat-free. It never dries out so you can use it over and over. The Moon Dough is a very cool texture. The company refers to it as a marshallow type texture but I would refer to it as a circus peanut type texture. I thought it was kind of cool. I am not generally a fan of that other dough that you “play” with. In fact I rarely let them get it out, that’s more of a Daddy’s watching you toy. So I was hesitant but this stuff is really cool. If it falls on the floor it’s very easy to pick up. One complaint is that the dough we got with the set did not come in containers, we had to use ziploc bags when we were finished playing.

The way the barn works… you take dough stuff it in the top and turn the crank in the back. Out shoots a horse, cow, chicken/rooster and a sheep. There are also molds for a fence or a hay bale. and there is a mat that the farm can sit on. So it is a lot of fun. My kids didn’t tire of it, even after an hour. I really liked that the barn had an attachment to catch all the remnants. That was nice instead of having to pick up all these small pieces of dough. The product is geared towards the 2-4 age range. My kids are 6 and 5 and I’m 34, why am I telling you that??? We had some trouble figuring the whole thing out. It takes some practice to get the animals to appear down the chute looking like the animals. You have to turn the crank slowly and kids never do anything slowly. But with some practice it gets easier.

One other complaint I had was when I was going to clean up the barn and accessories there was a whole bunch of dough caught inside in between the wheel of animal forms and the wall. It was very difficult to get all of it out. But don’t let that deter you, this is still a great toy and my kids I know will play with it endlessly and I don’t mind that they do because it’s not messy.

There are other play sets: Moon Dough Pizza Shop, Magic Molding Doghouse and Moon Dough Burger Shop. Of course the Moon Dough comes in several colors (refill packs) like Blue, Green, White, Orange, Purple, Red, Pink and Yellow. The sets can be purchased at Walmart, e Toys, Toys “R” Us, Target, Kmart, AC Moore and Michaels.