My introduction to Thomas the Tank Engine began many, many years ago when I was an au-pair in London. I looked after boys and one of their favourite shows was you guessed it, “Thomas the Tank Engine.”

They had the toys and the accessories, and it kept them on track (I couldn’t resist).

I knew that one day, when I became a mom of boys, that Thomas and Friends would be one of our go-to toys.

Fast-forward life. Things had not gone according to plan. I am now the mom of two little girls, not boys.

That isn’t to say that they didn’t enjoy their outing. Mommy, and Thomas delivered. We were invited to the South African Premier of the latest Thomas the Tank Engine movie, Thomas and Friends – Big World! Big Adventures!

As I type this know that I am currently singing the theme tune.

The premier was wonderfully chaotic, colouring in of pictures and being entertained by the wonderful Sureshnee Rider who had the hard task of keeping the mommies focused on their kids as Bobby Van Jaarsveld took to the stage to sing the theme tune of the Movie.

Sureshnee Rider at the Thomas & Friends Premier

Bobby Van Jaarsveld singing the theme tune.                      Thomas & Friends. Big World! Big Adventures!

The Thomas & Friends movie premise for parents – to keep you on track 🙂

Protagonist Nia, the first African tank engine to join Thomas & Friends, is a strong aspirational character with a great moral compass and sense of fun, with equal competency and capability as Thomas. The UN and experts from the Royal African Society were experts consulted in the special development of this important character. In fact, Thomas & Friends™ collaborated with the UN to develop content for the movie specifically inspired by the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) encompassing everything from health to gender equality and education.

Did the film deliver?

Yes, it was a spunkier Thomas the Tank Engine. The graphics and music are good. I would recommend this film to kiddies who can sit through a 1h21 minute movie. My 4-year-old and 7-year-old were entertained throughout.

It was a cute movie with really lovely messages that everyone needs to hear time and again. And yes, I am a sucker for movies that encourage kindness and acceptance.

The Thomas & Friends Brand

The Thomas merchandise we were given is of the highest quality. It is super impressive. There are loads of  great gift ideas and party ideas surrounding the movie. Please let me know if you have had a Thomas & Friends inspired party!?

I am a massive fan of the Soundtrack and yes, I am that mom who plays kids music in my car.

You can listen to the theme tune here on Bobby van Jaarsveld’s website

“Thomas & Friends Big World! Big Adventures.” is currently showing at a cinema near you! (Yes, I have always wanted to say that!)

Follow and use the #ThomasAndFriendsSA and #BWBA hashtags to see what everyone is saying, or to have your say. 🙂

P.s. there is such a character that goes by the name of The Fat Controller.

Parenting and Education are areas that I am quite driven to research and keep up to date what is the latest findings. Some of my investigations lead to Toy Reviews and stumbling across brands I know or new ones. Enter LeapFrog Educational toys.

Whilst I find what works and doesn’t quite work for my family, I hope it helps you and yours. I look at quality, value for me and what research is behind the end product. I’m also a sustainability nerd so I always like to see what does a company do to give back.

STEM and STEAM

The buzz word is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) or STEAM (Science, Technology, Art and Maths) learning approach and I am investigating more into this educational aspect of learning. But it needs to start somewhere and so I begin with the basics of learning to read, shapes – the foundation and that is where I introduce you to the Leap Frog brand.

Taking the LEAPFROG brand

I am a massive fan of the LeapFrog brand because it is my go to gifting guide, for friends and my family. The LeapFrog toys that were gifted to us over the years are still giving my kids joy. Especially their Pal Scout and Violet. We have one of each.
When giving gifts I guess there are 2 different approaches a fun and cool gift or the practical one that is needed and invokes limited squeals of delight.

Leapfrog has the ability to be both cool and fun, with squeals from kids and parents alike. I am talking from experience here.

Giving the LEAPFROG Brand

Prima Toys had an event this year and with it we were able to see what is coming to stores or what has just been unpacked. (that is for its own post) I was lucky enough to be asked to review a My Pal Scout and because my girls already each have their own Pal I was happy to do it and soo Prima Toys has given the go ahead on a giveaway for two LeapFrog toys. That is correct TWO. Thank you Prima Toys 🙂

Drum Roll please I will be giving away one of each:

A Read With Me Violet and a LeapFrog Number Crunchin’ Squirrel.

Leapfrog’s Read With Me Violet is the Perfect Introduction to Reading!

Watch your little one light up with LeapFrog’s Read With Me Scout, a cute cuddly Puppy complete with a set of 5 colourful books that Scout can read to your little ones!
Scout responds to every pet, pat, hug and kiss—press a button on Scout’s collar to start reading and pat his head to turn the page. Scout loves to sing, too! Switch into Sleepy Time Mode when it’s time to snuggle and listen to relaxing stories and 8 minutes of lullabies.
Read with Me Scout is available at selected retail stores. Available in green and violet (Read with Me, Violet). Recommended retail price is R599.00.

AND that is not all

LeapFrog’s Number Munchin Squirel is an ideal introduction to numbers

“The Number Crunchin’ Squirrel™ offers a number of fun activities to build early concepts around numbers and sums. The squirrel challenges your child to count along and feed it different combinations of squirrel treats to make different sums. Playing with numbers in these fun ways can foster early math awareness and build math skills.” – Clement Chau, PhD LeapFrog Learning Expert. Recommended retail price is: R549.99 from good toy stores and retailers countrywide

How to enter:

Read the Competition T’s and C’s and follow the Rafflecopter giveaway advise

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1. The prize is as follows: one Read with Me Violet valued at R599.00 and one LeapFrog Number Crunchin’ Squirrel R549.99
2. The prize is as stated and no cash or other alternatives will be offered.The prizes are not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice.
3. Winners will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter (follow all the steps please)
4. This prize is only open to people living in South Africa
5. By entering the competition you confirm that you will bide by all the terms and conditions.

Good luck xxx

Recycling. Being a Recycler. A noun or a verb that fills you with delight or dread.

Perhaps you’ve tried recycling but couldn’t find anywhere to drop your items off. Maybe you’re hooked and love to see how little waste from your home or office goes to landfill. Or maybe you’re trying but you feel you’re missing the mark somewhere.

I am a mom of girls. It’s weird, always thought I would be a mom of boys, but who am I to argue with the universe? I was invited to attend Barbie’s Birthday Bash recently, and it got me thinking …

What does it mean to be a mom of girls through the years?

There is one consistent thing that all moms of girls, have in common: BARBIE.

I played with Barbie when I was a little girl and during this time Barbie and the Rockers were all the rage. Hours were spent dressing and styling Barbie. Already then I do believe in our minds we believed we could be anything.

This is the umpteenth attempt at writing this because I do not want it to be sales pitchy and really that is what it was sounding like but how can you not sound like a sales pitch when you realise that Barbie turned 59 this year.

Yes, I shall age like Barbie.

With Barbie’s birthday came the Barbie #YouCanBeAnything campaign. The highlight was her birthday tea held at the Fine Living in Parkmore. It was here that we were graced with the beautiful Sureshniee Rider as our MC.  She even gave us a snippet into her own childhood and shared her own personal Barbie memory with us.

We all got to take a trip down our very own memory lane too as we saw Barbie through the generations. From the very first Barbie until the present day #YouCanBeAnything campaign.

Having girls I need to be more mindful about empowering them. Something I am quite passionate about and, yes, I am passionate about a lot of things. We recently held a #GirlMomsMeetUp to explore the brands and products that speak to us and our kids, as moms of girls, and we were beyond excited to have Barbie as one of our sponsors for that event.

Back to Barbie’s Birthday Bash … The girl power was fierce.

One thing that fascinated me the most from the Barbie birthday event, was the insight into what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to the Barbie clothing range. We were shown exactly how a Barbie outfit is created. Contrary to what a lot of us assume, it is not necessarily imported. Rather, it is conceptualised and made right here in South Africa. I love to hear that products are designed specifically with us South Africans in mind.

The presentation we were taken through showed us how the fabric used to make the Barbie clothing merchandise is  sourced. Whether it is imported or sourced locally. It turns out that specialized fabrics like mesh and denim are sourced overseas. However, the single knit jersey fabric is sourced locally as much as local cotton growers can supply. The majority of single knit jersey is used for character basics in Edgars for example. You can find out more about that on the Cotton SA website. There is a focus to grow local cotton production. I loved just knowing this.

This campaign continues to speak to me”. Now that I am a mom of girls, I hope that I am a good role-model for them. And when I’m not, I hope that there are icons that are picking up the pieces.

Barbie has changed.

I don’t mean the outfits and jobs, but she has evolved into different sizes and cultures which is much more relevant to our little ones living in a modern society.

The Barbie Fashionista range has its roots in 2015, which saw the launch of a brand new Barbie crew featuring 23 dolls with a range of skin tones, facial structures and hair colours. The popularity of the new line saw the official launch of the Fashionista label in 2016, with the introduction of three new body types – tall, curvy and petite – seven skin tones, 14 facial structures, 22 eye colours and 24 hairstyles. Plus, of course, countless new on-trend fashions and accessories to suit each individual doll, from casually cool and boho bold, to elegant evening wear and pretty much everything in between!

Today, the Fashionista range features over 100 dolls of diverse appearance, and it continues to grow.

View this post on Instagram

You can be anything. Love this too much #barbie #youcanbeanything #mattel

A post shared by Tonic & Tiaras (@tonic_and_tiaras) on Mar 8, 2018 at 10:55pm PST

The Power To Choose

The 2018 range will bring with it even more variety. They are introducing another four body types, nine skin tones, 13 face-sculpts, nine eye colours, 11 hair colours and 13 hairstyles.

The choice, as children have come to expect from the Barbie brand, is limitless.

“Barbie has always given girls choices – from her 180 careers, to inspirational roles, to her countless fashions and accessories,” says Andrea Ziella, Head of Marketing and Trade Marketing, Mattel SA. “These new dolls represent a line that is more reflective of the world girls see around them – the variety in body type, skin tones and style allows girls to find a doll that speaks to them.”

Barbie fans can now choose their Barbie to look just like them, or create a group of friends to mimic their own friendship circles.

Diversity

By allowing our children to choose a Barbie in their own image, or in the image of their best friend, or favourite actress, singer, movie star, or sporting hero, we are encouraging them to see the beauty that not only lies in their own shape, colour and style, but also in the various shapes, colours and styles that surround them. A truer reflection of the diversity of modern society as a whole.

We live in an increasingly diverse world, it is not only natural, but crucial, that our children’s imaginary worlds represent this diversity.

Barbie Dreamhouse – The Reality

I stumbled upon Barbie: Life In The Dream House, and suffice it to say, I’m hooked! It has tapped into the whole reality scene craze for me. Barbie just leveled up as not only witty and cool but super fun. She even has her own Youtube channel with around 4.8m subscribers!

Barbie’s Birthday Bash was definitely an eye-opener for me. She is one of those toys that has truly managed to grow through the ages in her own unique and timeless fashion, whilst being a icon for little girls that really does reflect the diversity of life now.

Imagine The Possibilities Barbie-1

This may come as a slight surprise to you, but I may have the ability to SOUND dramatic.

In a world (Benoni, South Africa) where the need for a car is a necessity, having problems may be the norm but having car problems well that is where I resort to ugly crying.

Having grown up in a family of mostly girls the over-analyzing need to not sound or be dramatic fails me constantly.  So I will tell you my story whilst giving the facts and to the point. I will try not to be dramatic and keep to the facts. The following story is a recount of the life of Ms Chanaynay.

It is August. I have been trying to do a year round up every month since 2017, so I am pleased to advise that managing this post makes me simply unstoppable.

Between the chaos and the WTF moments, 2018 has had some wonderful moments. However, I do not want to focus on the good. The crazy moments that I have endured make me funnier.

Last night, we watched the kick off to the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2018 held in Russia. Robbie Williams sang and for me, it will already be one of my favourite World Cups thus far. Now as an avid all round watcher of any big sporting event I realise that some partners may not have my enthusiasm – even though I have no clue on a good day. I thought it was best to write up a “How to Survive The Soccer World Cup  2018″

Saudi Arabia and Russia met on the field for the opening game. Russian scored 5 goals and I went to bed with the knowledge that Putin would be a very happy President. My prediction would be that there will be no oil deals in the near future with these two countries. I guess it brings in surviving into a whole new context.

As we head into the next few weeks soccer fever will escalate. Potentially so will most wives tempers. I approached 2 friends whose husbands are quite the avid soccer watchers.

An idea that became a reality.

My fellow co-founders and I still sit back in awe of what we created at the #GirlMomsMeetUp.

More so now that we have had a chance to catch our breath and reflect back on the #GirlMomsMeetup event.

Did we achieve what we set out to do? Did what we hope to achieve get conveyed to our readers and followers? Looking forward to feedback.

Our mission

Get a small group of  mommy bloggers who have daughters together to start a conversation and review products and activities during a morning together.

Here is my feedback.

This past Saturday my girls and I had the pleasure of being invited to a Build-A-Bear workshop at the Toy Kingdom in the East Rand Mall

It all started with a pre-event gift unveiling of their Disney Princesses.

Once upon a time two little princess received a gift from the land of Toy Kingdom. So these princesses squealed with delight, not realising what was in store for them (I made a funny). They were about to embark on adventure with their mom.

It has been one week since the South African Mommy Blogger Awards were announced and I am still walking around like a boss. My children partially listen to me. My husband thinks I am hilarious, well that is what I tell him to think about me.

What’s Going On? to be sung in the same tune as 4nonblondes.

I won Best Comedian Writer at the 2017 SA Mommy Blogger Awards!!! That’s what’s going on!

Today is one more sleep and then it is school holidays.

Am I scared?

A little… and that is a rookie thing to be. Scared, not a rookie at parenting.

The first rule of parenting, or taking care of the children, is that those snot-flickers can smell fear. It’s part of their DNA, so we can’t really blame them. It’s mother nature’s fault.

Back to first rule: Do not ever tell your children that it is a special day and that they must behave. Something ticks over in the brain and then there it is. The glazed look and twinkle in their eye … CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

“I will do everything opposite to what my lovely parent has asked of me”

Said in an evil whisper.