Toca Boca's New 'Toca Life: City' App. Smix Brix Gives You a Guided Tour.

Smix has grown up playing  Toca Boca game apps. Their creative play games are not only fun, but your child will be learning as they interact with the various locations or act out the jobs Toca Boca brings to life on screen.

The majority of the apps have no instructions, so if your little one can't read yet, they can still enjoy Toca apps. Game play involves tapping items on the screen to see what reaction they have.  

For example in Toca Town, and now also in Toca Life: City, combining food items can reveal a surprise. Drag an image of say a prawn onto an image of some rice and poof! it transforms into a sushi roll. Select a sausage and a bread roll and they'll turn into a hot dog. In the lab game you experiment with different combinations of elements, and lab equipment.

The original Toca Kitchen was one of their earliest app releases. In it your child can cook for their character using various foods, and food preparation methods. Toca apps are a modern day version of playing house. It's fun but your child will be picking up little life skills along the way. 

Another of the latest releases is Toca Life: School. We are yet to try it, but will do soon. I think the maximum price of any of the apps in the Apple AppStore is £2.49. A lot of the games are available on Android and Google Play too. 

The app we are looking at today, Toca Life: City is £2.49 which I was happy to pay because of our previous experiences with Toca Boca apps, you are guaranteed that it's worth buying. Smix gets a lot of play out of them, and City is a great example of why. Each location on the map has different stores to explore. 

You click on any of the items shown and some of them will react, for example lights turn on or off, the ATM dispenses money, but there are more impressive results than just those. If you enter the hairdresser location on the map, you'll find a whole working salon. You can place a character under a machine which scrolls through various hair styles, then you can transform your person's look. Then drag your character to the sink section and shelves of hair dye in a rainbow of colours, select one and your person's hair will change.

As with most Toca Boca apps there is no wrong way to play the game. It inspires investigation and creativity. With the AppStore version you can now record little stories from inside the game, with your characters and locations. That's a whole new way to play, your child can play out situations or stories and play them back for the family to see. 

The Kindle App Store version which Smix is playing hasn't got that option yet, but here is his video taking a quick tour of Toca Life: City and showing you some of the interactions, but not all of them as that would spoil the surprise of your child discovering them by themselves.

Don't forget to like & subscribe to Smix Brix for toy reviews & Minecraft videos. 

Here are the other Toca apps. Some are free on the AppStore right now and also available are multi-app bundles which are cheaper than buying each game separately.

Hair Salon is great fun and you can use it with your own images. 

Toca Tailor is a fun fashion app. Toca Band is a unique choral game with different layers to add and remove until you have the ideal song. Toca Train is a straightforward enough app, and the countryside you travel through is gorgeous. 

Kitchen Monsters is a version of the other Kitchen app. The difference is the monsters love all sorts of gross foods which you can chop, microwave, boil or fry. Serve it up and your Monster will tell you if they like it or not.

We also have Toca House which is fun, but if you're only getting one Toca app to try, I'd go for one of the newer ones, like Toca Town, or indeed the Toca City. 

We haven't played the Birthday Party app but it seems to be another 'playing house' type of gameplay with cakes to cut and decorations to choose. It's free to download on AppStore right now, which is even better.

Toca Hair Salon Christmas Gift is a free version of the Hair Salon app. You can cut, dye or grow Santa's hair.

Toca Store is a two player game. One person takes the role of the shop keeper, the other is the buyer. The shopkeeper first chooses which products they want to sell, then the customer picks what they want, then pays the correct number of coins at the till. It's a super way to teach nursery or even pre-nursery children to count to five, as they count out the coins in their purse to match the total the shopkeeper has requested. 

Toca Doctor is another simple role playing game, and IPad Tea Party is a lot like Birthday Party I imagine. 

Toca Boca also have an  online store. I'm a fan of their cute periodic table. They also sell t-shirts, paper crafts and even socks. 

Christmas 2015 Has Arrived in Marks & Spencer's Food Hall

Tis the season to eat all-y! Christmas has arrived in Marks & Spencer with  3 for 2 offers across party food as well as gifts & beauty departments. Stock up now, freeze and avoid the crazy rush in late December.

I called into the Belfast city centre branch to pick up some of the Christmas food that's just hit the shelves. 

There are lots of party food favourites back in store, with some cute additions like mini chicken buckets and chorizo cups. 

Again Marks and Spencer are partnering with Shelter with their Christmas lunch products. You can eat & be merry while also helping the Shelter charity. 

The orange and clementine juice tastes like childhood Christmases with a baby orange in your stocking from Santa. 

Christmas dinner is my all time favourite meal, so I'm glad M&S have a sneaky pre-Christmas roast turkey dinner for one. 

The glitter poinsettias caught my eye.  

That is one big walnut whip. The hot chocolate flakes are part of the 3 for 2 offer on Christmas trimmings. 

My favourite part, the party desserts. They are all mix and match on 3 for 2. 

This is a nifty little idea. Ice your own letter to Santa. I don't quite know the logistics of how Santa reads it if it ends up in your stomach, but we can put it down to Christmas magic. 

They've a range of Christmas crisps on a two for £2.70 deal. I have to be honest and say I wasn't keen on these parsnip ones. 

More from the lunch selection, very cute mini traybakes. 

Stunning macarons you have there, M&S. 

I wish I had picked up this parsnip drink now. Can't imagine what it might taste like! 

Tiger Stores Have Opened in Belfast & It's a Real Life World of Kitsch

Scandinavian brand Tiger have opener their first Northern Irish store, in Castle Lane in Belfast (near Lush). We discovered  Tiger in the summer in Dundalk, and spent a small fortune on bits & bobs for crafting, homeware, toys, etc. and the best thing is the price, it's tiny!

Here is a snap shot of just some products Belfast has on sale for the Christmas season. I got two rolls of tapestry print wrapping paper, £1 each! The matching advent calendar is for me too.

I've picked up an advent from Lidl which you build yourself into a little village of Christmas houses. So I was able to buy some little fillers for that for Smix in Tiger, growing elf washcloth, set of stamps etc. I also have some fun stuff from today for him to make a vlog about. You can find it at the end of this post.

These are sweet. You stuff them with your cotton wool balls that poke out the back as the bunny's tail. 

Dozens of quirky napkins got Christmas and all year round, £1. 

Also a great selection of bargain cards. 

Tiger don't have an online store, but they do show the items that are new in store that month.

I brought Smix a bag of goodies, here is his latest video. The audio is overlapped at the start but evens out quite quickly.

The Power of Play, IKEA Ideas Festival : Smix Brix's Mysterious Delivery

IKEA  Ideas Festival is this month, encouraging families to 'play everyday'. One of the fun events is the Toy Design Competition. Kids can enter by drawing their dream soft toy and the winning designs are made into real toys to be sold in IKEA stores nationwide.

Here are last year's winners. For every soft toy sold, IKEA donates €1 to Save the Children.

One of last year's toys made its way to Smix in a mysterious parcel, his first time receiving cool things to vlog about on his YouTube channel, I'm a proud first generation blogger! 

Check out his video to see what awesome items he was sent. Thank you, IKEA Belfast! 

Dr. Martens: Do You Remember Your First Time?

Last week, Dr. Martens got in touch and wanted to offer Michael his first ever pair of DMs. They currently have an  Adventure Time themed collection, in kids' and adult sizes.

Fans of the quirky cartoon will love these, and you can even wear your Adventure Time fandom subtlety with the Marceline design in black & white. 

So as it was half term, Michael and I took a trip up to the Belfast Doc Shop so he could choose a pair, and of course pop into Yo Sushi, it would have been rude not to. 

The Cornmarket sited store is packed with designs for all the family, right down to newborn sized booties. 

Belfast Dr. Martens store downstairs.

Belfast Dr. Martens store upstairs

Also blue patent on the top shelf out of shot

So Michael had a lot to choose from, but after looking at the designs online when we got inside, he just threw a bit of a strop and wouldn't even try them on. I think he was dying to get to Yo Sushi, so instead the staff suggested I pick myself a pair. I know, blogging is tough sometimes ;-)

 I was pretty peeved off that Michael wouldn't choose a pair, as it's a really great quality boot to have, and go only has trainers really. But what can you do? I wasn't going to force a pair on him. Although when he found out later his best friend Connie has a shiny black pair, I think he wished he hadn't thrown a strop?

I actually am 'well stocked' in Dr. Marten's boots myself. I have mid-calf high zip up boots in black, which still are as new despite being worn for three winters of icy school runs and coastal path danders. Before them I owned the same design in brown.

My newest pair I wore along to the store visit. I got them last October and chose a design with a little more height, ox blood, matt, knee-heigh zip ups. That's them below.

The leather used in these casual, daily wear style boots, is a lot softer than the classic Dr. Marten eyelet boot. There's no 'breaking them in' process, and they keep their shape and don't slouch, even on matchstick legs like I have (spindly legs yet still have a double chin in this photo!) 

In the store's flash sale they had this ankle boot, Gayle, down from £95 to £65. I think for the quality and longevity of a pair of Doc Martens, that's a very decent price. You could look at it this way; they last so well that in 7 years time when you are still using them for Autumn and winter, you'll have paid less than £10 a year. It's simple, shopping mall mathematics, or rather any excuse to buy some lovely boots.

The tweed print is what drew me to this pair, which is also available in black. The buckles are adjustable, but with my tiny ankles I don't need to undo them to put them on. I'm not a huge fan of ankle boots, but these I like.

Detail on the Gayle boot in brown

And to keep them looking new every autumn, they included this water & stain spray, which I can use to liven up my existing pairs, and even leather handbags, or suede, or nubuck.

So I was disappointed that Michael didn't want to play along and receive his first ever Dr. Martens, but it made me remember MY first pair. I was about 13 or 14, so it must have been the early 90s.

EVERYONE had Dr. Marten boots. I remember one non-uniform day at Sullivan Upper, my schoo, and at least half the class proudly sporting the cherry red, ox blood red, or black boots. I really, REALLY wanted a pair. 

It wasn't the price that was the problem, my Mum didn't mind paying that sort of price for winter boots, but my parents really didn't want their little 13 year old girl, stomping around in big boots that they were used to seeing punks wearing. 

My first Dr. Marten's, bought around 1993 when I was 13

Finally they gave in, but I couldn't get leather, or black, or loads of height. My first pair were suede, green, six eyelet boots and I LOVED them. 

So, thinking Michael was supposed to get his first ever pair, and thinking about my green, suede wonders, I decided to ask Twitter did they remember their first pair of Dr. Martens.

So many people replied, with fond stories about them at that age, or what they got up to in their first pair. Many, like me, had to convince their middle class, church-going, Northern Irish parents, that Dr. Martens weren't just for punks or naughty boys & girls. Now we would think nothing of getting a child a pair, there's even newborn baby size!

So it's clear Dr. Martens as a brand means more than just fashion, when people have such clear memories of their first pair. Signing off, here's a selection of the replies. 

Introducing Michael's Own YouTube Channel 'Smix Brix'

I can hardly believe it, but may I introduce my son's own vlog  Smix Brix. 'Brix' because following in the footsteps of Stampy & that Squid fella, Smix started making his own Minecraft videos about a month ago, which I edited a bit and uploaded to my own channel.

The viewership so far has mostly just been his school mates, so to save him having to direct them to his embarrassing mum's channel, I set up his own. I've always been too mortified to make the leap from blogging to vlogging, but with millions of kids tuning into daily videos from Stampy & friends, talking to camera seems to come much more naturally.

The man himself in action

Michael usually gives me an 8-10 minute video which I crudely chop and cut down to about 3 mins. It's not a professional job, but it sort of works enough for what he wants it to look like. 

It would really make his day if you clicked through and add to his views or even subscribe! If it doesn't interest you, it certainly might be a winner with your kids. As well as Minecraft he has showed us his Playmobil Fun Fair waltzer his Granny got him for his birthday. 

His  latest video is about more birthday gifts he received, including Minecraft Lego, a replica torch, red stone ore lamp, Minecraft Hints & Cheats annual, and finally Stampy's Lovely Book.

Surprise Kitsch Birthday Dinner

It was Michael's 8th birthday yesterday and my whole family went to Wolfes in Dundonald. It does giant amounts of food, so I ordered a starter for my main, nachos.

And look how they showed up!  

I now feel a total lack of nacho donkey in my home, everyone should own one! 

Half-term Cool Looks for Cool Kids at Heatons

I do enjoy a wee browse in Heatons' Bangor store every so often. Their clothing section for women can often have some fab items like the royal blue & white striped sailoresque jumper which is on special offer right now.

They are also a good place to stock up on jeggings, they often have them in bright colours too, not just blue or black denim. I'm after a bottle green pair myself, so I'm keeping an eye out. 

But it's the kids who take centre stage this half-term with trendy floral dresses at £10 and little boys’ casual tops from £4. Timeless denim staples like the boys’ denim jeans range and a cute denim dress will kit the kids out for a fun-filled week of activities from just £10. Theres Heatons’ stylish outerwear like the little girls’ longline parka (from £15) and boy’s puffa jacket (£14) that will keep them trendy as we transition to the colder months!

Shop these looks online at www.heatonsstores.com with free shipping on orders over £30.