You can buy Lego Toy Story 3 products from the Lego Store.

A few weeks back Weetabix sent TB some of the new Weetabix Chocolate to review.  He loved it, and so did lots of other kids across the Blogosphere. 

Weetabix have given me three boxes of the new chocolate Weetabix to giveaway.  If you’d like the chance to win one simply do one (or more for extra entries) of the following:

1. Comment on this post and let everyone know which is your favourite breakfast cereal.
2. Tweet about this giveaway and follow @Glowstars on twitter (link to your tweet in a separate comment)
3. ‘Like’ the Glowstars.net facebook page (leave your Facebook name in a separate comment)
4. Join Glowstars.net on the Google Connect widget in the sidebar (let me know in a separate comment once you’re a member or if you’re already a member)
5. Blog about this giveaway (link up to your post in a separate comment).

The winner will be announced in the Sunday Review on 29 August 2010; please leave your comments by 12am, 28 August 2010.

Good luck!

If there’s one thing I hate dressing the boys in it’s boring clothes.  I steer away from pastels and plain colours and head straight for the bright and bold.

I love these cow-themed baby vests we found in Asda (£7, 7-pack).  With slogans such as ‘messy moo’ and ‘milk thief’ and even freisian print they’re great fun.

And if you’re looking for a nursing pillow or car seat cover to complete the look, try Minnie Moo.  Their nursing pillow is my favourite of the three I own.

When we first went out to Brasil we took gifts.  We spent an afternoon trawling the tacky tourist shops on Oxford Street to buy London branded souvenirs.  What did we take out with us?  A suitcase full of junk.

Temple Island Collection is one of the leading names in visitor and heritage retail for both skillfully designed bespoke product and our own successful gift ranges.  They manufacture and supply licensed gifts such as the famous Red Bus range.  The quality stuff that you don’t mind taking out to your Grandma and having her show off to every visitor who steps through your door.  

I particularly like the MONEY Magnet range.  The £50 note magnet (£2.99) is probably the closest I’ll get to holding one of those wonderful red notes.

Although perhaps a little too reminiscent of TFL’s branding for my liking, the Stripy Gifts collection will definitely be a hit with the tube-enamoured members of the family.  The mug and tin set (£10.99)  is a particularly good choice for stashing in a suitcase – at least it won’t get broken!

I’m hoping this Cheeky tea towel (£4.99) might encourage the husband to do more washing up.  Unfortunately it won’t get me to dry the dishes – I’ll be too busy admiring that man’s lovely bottom!  Yeah, perhaps not one for Grandma but I’m sure our cousins will appreciate the range. 

Shipping is proportionate to the products ordered, but you’d have to be ordering quite a bit before it became more than the price of your train ticket into the London and shipping internationally doesn’t seem to be that much more expensive than in the UK – perfect for keeping your luggage light!

*^{Temple Island Collection sent these items for review.}

If you were at Cybermummy you might have visited the Tropicana stand.  You might even have tried their newly-packaged Tropicana K1ds juices.  I did and although I’m not a fan of kids juices – finding that either they’re too sweet or not sweet enough – I was pleasantly surprised.

Tropicana sent TB some of the K1ds juices to review.  After all, they’re meant for him, not me.

TB demolished the two packs of juices; one apple & blackcurrant, the other orange & pear.  They’re made from 75% juice and 25% water with no added sugar¹, preservatives, artificial flavours or sweeteners.  I was amazed to find that one 200ml bottle of Tropicana K1ds juice counts as one full portion of your kid’s five a day.

I also liked the fact that the sports-top bottle means there’s less chance of mess.  One down side though: TB decided those bottles just aren’t big enough.  Perhaps Tropicana could come over and install K1ds on tap?

¹Contains naturally occurring sugars from fruit

You and I both know that keeping the kids entertained over six long weeks of summer holidays is a mammoth task.  Hell, it’s why I go to work!  If you’re looking for something to fill an hour (or maybe more) why not try getting your kids to draw a picture of what they think Life in the Future will be like.

BiC Kids has launched a nationawide art competition which runs until 20 August.  Competition entries will be judged by Anna Williamson, presenter of popular children’s TV show Toonattik, artist James Mylne who recently recreated The Girl With A Pearl Earring using a BiC Cristal pen, and BiC’s Professor of Colour, Cécile Parenton. All entries will be judged by age group and winners will be selected on originality, creativity, colour and technical ability.

The winner of each age group will win a BiC backpack of goodies plus £150 worth of BiC products for their school. One overall winner will be chosen who will receive the prizes above and an art masterclass with James Mylne in London (accompanied by one friend and parent/guardian).

We’ve set TB to drawing his vision of the future – unsurprisingly containing robots.  Will your kids have a go?

For more details on how to enter and Ts&Cs visit BiC Kids.

Since I’ve been unable to eat dairy snacks have been proving rather problematic.  Hell, main meals are problematic but don’t even start me on that one.  The trouble is, everything seems to have milk in it: yogurt covered cereal bars, biscuits and all sorts you wouldn’t even imagine contained milk.  So that’s it, I’m snacking on fruit and crisps now.

Jordan’s sent me their new apple, sultana & cinnamon Frusli bar to review and I almost screamed when I realised it was dairy free. 

The bars, made from wholegrain oats grown on British farms, contain 25% fruit which is more than most other cereal bars.  And you can actually tell it’s there.  Yes, that’s right, you can actually taste and feel real apple, and see it.  Not only that but the combination of cinnamon and sultana alongside the apple makes for a gorgeous treat.  Eating these Frusli bars feels like it should be very naughty.  If you want an added bonus to all of that (and for me taste alone is good enough) the apple, sultana & cinnamon Frusli bar contains no artificial flavourings, colourings, preservatives or GM ingredients and is suitable for vegetarians. 

Now the only question is how to stop me eating a whole box in one go?

TB loves Cheesestrings.  While I think about it, I’m quite partial to them as well.  So imagine his delight when he was sent Cheesestrings Spaghetti to review.  Well, don’t listen to me – listen to him.

And because you want  a little more solid recommendation than a six year old’s giggling, Cheesestrings Spaghetti are 100% natural, with no artificial colours, additives or preservatives and each made with 200ml fresh milk.

The Travels of Wiglington & Wenks is a series of stories for kids written back when some of us were kids ourselves.  Over 20 years after the stories were originally released, the Travels of Wiglington & Wenks has been transformed into an online virtual world where players can travel to places around the world, through time and space, meet famous historical people, play fun enriching games, make new friends own exotic islands, build culture-inspired houses, wear all kinds of cool clothing and costumes, explore secret locations, solve ancient mysteries and become a legendary traveller.

TB was given a one month premium membership so he could review the site.

Whilst TB could happily play on the site, it wasn’t his favourite thing.  In fact, he preferred watching the YouTube trailer more than playing the actual game.  I think some of this was down to being a little below the target age of 7 to 14.  That said, I couldn’t imagine myself having used the site much beyond the age of 11 or 12.

In terms of a parent’s point of view, Wiglington & Wenks is educational and avoids more traditionally commercial brands but it’s music, which TB insisted on blasting out from the speakers, is about as annoying as it gets.  The world can be played in for free but there are also a number of paid membership options; going by TB’s lack of interested, I’m just not convinced that it’s worth paying out for.

TB used to be obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine.  Well ok, I was obsessed and he just picked up on that.  Over approximately two years we spent a small fortune on collecting as much of the Tomy Motor Road & Rail range as we could.  The tracks themselves were an enduring set but at six TB’s now grown out of Thomas and the set has been sitting boxed up in our garage. Read the rest of this entry »