Top 5: Stocking Fillers for Casper

Hey! Just a quick post from me, thought I'd do a top 5 stocking fillers perfect for Casper (who is 4), to give some ideas!

1) Little Brian Art Paint Sticks - we were kindly gifted some of these and we absolutely love them. They are so easy to use, from those first timers all the way up to old timers. We enjoy them as a family and love how the creative ideas are limitless with them. 

Currently on offer on amazon for £4.95 for a pack of 6 or a pack of 12 minis for £5.94 making them a perfect stocking item.

2) Galt Water Magic Colouring Books -
These are colouring books where you fill a pen with water and use it to make a hidden picture appear. They are reuseable and come in an array of themes and topics, from dinosaurs to the farm. They are a fun product and easy to take out with you with no mess. At just £5.99 on amazon they are a perfect stocking filler with a design to suit everyone.

3) Shrinkles Shink Art (Mini Pack) -
This is another creative item for children, which they draw, trace and colour pre-printed pictures, the designs are then cut out and adults place in the oven to bake. The pictures shrink to 7 times smaller and thicken to 7 times thicker. Once baked they can be used to create badges, magnets, keyrings, and more. The options are endless. They come in a variety of designs, so perfect for everyone. They are available for just £5 and you can find them at many places including Hobbycraft.

4) Orchard Toys Mini Games -
We went crazy with Orchard Toys for Casper's birthday and we love them! They are perfect for learning whilst you play. They do an array of games which aid with maths, literacy, memory and more. Their mini games are only £4.99 and they are perfect to keep them entertained whilst learning, and we enjoy taking them when we go out for dinner - so we can play whilst we wait. Casper currently has Llama's in Pyjamas and Penguin Pairs, and will play for hours, and we definitely recommend them and are excited to add some more in his stocking. You can find many on amazon, and definitely look out for them going on offer (my sister found them in Tesco for £3.75)!

5) Lush Bath Bomb -
Something completely different, every year we get Casper a Lush Bath bomb. They have a couple that are great for children, and so they are sensitive on their skin with kind ingredients. Casper loves dropping it into the bath and seeing it dissolve and I love how it makes his skin feel afterwards. The Ickle Baby Bot is just £2.25 at Lush and definitely something a bit different to include.

Just thought I'd mention that Hobby Craft have a 3 for 2 on a lot of their gift ideas for children and some perfect options for stockings. Additionally, Ocado have a 4 for 3 on their stocking fillers. Some of the items mentioned are available on them :).

Those are my top 5 for Casper this year, though I'll also be including the traditional chocolate coins, Clementine and socks. What things will Santa be putting in your children's stockings this year?

Thank you for reading :).
Natalie x

Review: LiteCup

For the last few weeks both Casper and Tabitha have been trying a new cup - the LiteCup - and so I thought I'd bring you a post of our thoughts and opinions of them.

The LiteCup is the only non-spill baby and toddler cup that lights up in the dark. It has a patented 360° spill resitent rim, which allows the drinker to drink for any edge of the cup without worry of spilling. The light is light sensitive, meaning it will only show in the dark and there is also a switch on the bottom allowing you to switch off the light. It has an attractive design and available is many different colours (from bright colours to a more muted colour). They can be used from 4 months up to adulthood.


There are three different cups available, the LiteCup Baby, Little LiteCup and Regular LiteCup. The difference between the Little and Regular LiteCup are the size and liquid capacity, with Little holding 250ml and Regular holding 330ml. The LiteCup Baby is design for the younger child, and perfect for weaning, as it comes with handles and a handy security ribbon which can be clipped to a pushchair or highchair. The security ribbon means that if the child tried to throw the cup of if it dropped, it will not hit the floor - perfect for those younger, new drinker (it is recommended you remove the ribbon if leaving the cup with the child unattended, especially overnight).

Both Casper and Tabitha took to their cups really quickly. Casper enjoys having a cup with no handles, as he feels more grown up whilst Tabitha got to grips with her handle straight away. They both found the 360° rim really easy to drink from and had no issues at all.

At night time Casper has a drink next to his bed, and so having the light up feature made this the perfect cup for him. He doesn't have to shout for mum or dad, as he can see it himself. We also took it to the cinema with us and he was amazed that it lit up and he loved that it was different from other cups.

It has made it easier for myself at night, because Tabitha wakes up multiple times and it is so much easier to find during the night when I'm still mostly asleep.


Tabitha is a cup thrower and we go through so many cups because she throws them on the floor and they break and so having the safety is a major positive for us. It has a long enough ribbon, and elastic, so that it can be clipped on the hood of her pushchair and she is able to use the cup herself. It is definitely helping her with independence of drinking.

The cups both come apart really easily, to make for quick cleaning (and reassembling) and those who are have dishwashers will be pleased to know they are dishwasher safe (if you remove the safety ribbon, clip and Litebase).

The cups range from £9.95 to £11.99* and are available to buy directly from the LiteCup website. You can also buy spare light units (in blue and red) and a spare silicone valve seal if yours is lost or damaged.

Overall, we are loving the cup. It has a fab, fresh and bright design and is a great cup to take out with us on days out as we don't worry about spills. We would highly recommend and will definitely look at getting Tabitha a bigger one when she's older.
Let me know what you think!
Thank you :)
Natalie x

Top Five: Tabitha's Favourite Toys

Hey guys! I love seeing people's top 5 favourites and disappointments, so I thought with Christmas just around the corner it could be handy doing Tabitha's top five toys. Tabitha is 18 months and so it may be helpful with people buying in this age range.

1) TOMY Play to Learn Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs - RRP £11 available here.

This has to be her favourite toy and it is so cheap! It is a simply designed toys, with many characteristics to help with play and learning. There are 6 eggs, that have shells that can be removed, and chicks inside (which you can push and they squeak). Each chick is a different colour and it matches with the faces on the outside shell. The faces on the shells have different emotions and to top it off the bottom of the eggs have different shapes to fit into the egg carton.
Tabitha will literally play with this toy for hours and loves squeaking the chicks. She can spend ages taking the shells off the eggs, and then fitting them back inside the carton.
It's definitely a winner in our house.

2) TOMY Toomies Shake and Sort Cupcakes - RRP £12.99 available here.

Ok so I know this is extremely similar to the first but Tabitha loves this one too. It differentiates that it there are 6 cupcakes in cupcake cases. The cupcakes have beads inside and they make a rattly noise. Like the eggs they have differing facial expressions on the cupcakes and the bottom of the cases have different shapes to slot into the box. This one comes with a plate, which you can stack the cases on and tower them up. It is bright and colourful.
Tabitha loves sorting the cupcakes and shaking to make the noises. It provides so much entertainment for her and definitely a big thumbs up from us and well worth the money.

3) Rocking Horse

This will just have to go under the title of generic rocking horse because my mum found Tabitha's for a bargain £2 in a charity shop! I definitely forget to explore charity shops but there are definitely so bargains to be had. Tabitha's in a brown rocking horse, which when you press it's ears makes either a neighing sound or a song (which is super catchy and I find myself singing constantly). She has had it for a good few months now (maybe coming past half a year, total mind blank how long to be honest) and she still plays with it as much, if not more, now as she did then. She has always been able to climb ontop the horse herself and loves rocking back and forth. I feel it's going to be a well loved to for quite a while longer, as Casper is still able to fit on it and he also loves riding it.
Obviously we got it for a bargain price but if I would definitely repurchase one at full price if anything ever happened to this one, as it is definitely well loved. I love that there are so many different designs and styles out there, that there will be one to suit everybody.

4) Fisher-Price Dance and Move Beatbo - RRP £39.99 (though on offer a lot for £24.99 and under!) available here.

Tabitha adores dancing and singing, and so any toy which she can dance to she loves. We actually bought Beatbo for Casper 3 years ago when it was first released and it is still in perfect condition! Casper liked Beatbo but he never loved it, I remember wanting him to love it but he got bored of it pretty quickly, which was disappointing. However, when Tabitha got to around 10 months and she was outgrowing the toys we specifically bought her I whipped it back out of storage and she found love. She loves the bright lights and that can press the buttons herself (though she seems to press the record on repeat and gets frustrated there's no constant song coming out, haha). She will sit watching the toy or stand up and dance with it. It's not too heavy for her, meaning she'll carry it around the room with her.
I am so glad that Tabitha has loved playing with it and honestly it's the cutest thing watching her dance along to it. Also, if you're considering buying one look at for sales on them as they come about so often!

5) Cars, cars and more cars...

I should have predicted this one, because Casper is car obsessed, but I do think Tabitha may love them more than Casper did at this age. She loves car all sizes, and she is so adorable pushing them aroud going brmm brmm. She doesn't own any of her own cars yet, as the love for them was after her birthday and Casper owns literally hundreds, however she is getting a wooden car transporter for Christmas from her auntie and I cannot wait to see how she reacts.
I love how they are helping with her imaginative play, and also with words and sounds.

These are just a five of her favourite toys and I have to say I love watching both her and Casper play. I love seeing how they are both changing, developing and learning through play.
What are your children's favourite toys and what would you recommend?
Thank you for reading :)
Natalie x

Dad's Review: World At Your Feet

World at your feet, is a self-funded and self-published project, written by Rob Parker and illustrated by Lawerta. Our family enjoy reading together so when we were approached to give world at your feet a try, we were intrigued and excited to have something new to read with Casper.

The synopsis describes the book as the following:
"The best goals, on the biggest stage, scored by you.
World At Your Feet takes 16 of the world’s most iconic goals and make them yours.
Each goal is brought to life by a commentary written in rhyming verse, plus vivid illustrations befitting the colour and drama of the beautiful game.
In every case it is you, the reader, who gets to celebrate putting the ball in the net."

I am a big fan of football, a massive Portsmouth fan and despite the lack of skills many of which are covered in the book, I used to be partial to a kick about twice a week. It was decided I would read this to Casper and would be the best person to review this.
The book is a very unique concept, written in a first person perspective it describes the movement and skills used to score some of the world’s most iconic goals. It does this very well with great attention to detail, for example one of the verses describes the movement between the shadow and the light, which is a great description of good old fashioned wing play.
The illustrations are bright and colourful, and seeing them alongside the rhyming commentary for a massive football fan was rather nostalgic. These are all goals most football fans are very familiar with, even if you weren’t alive when they scored you will have seen them through the power of the internet by now. Casper enjoyed looking at the pictures more than listening to the actual story.
Whilst the nostalgia was great for myself, the story was somewhat lost on Casper. The recommended age for the book is between 3 and 10, but unfortunately Casper struggled to remain attentive to the story and I believe this is due to his lack of understanding and young age. I would recommend the book for between 6 and 10, by this point your child may well have started playing football and will be more capable of relating to the commentary.
The positive is that Casper will hopefully grow up to be a big fan of football and even bigger fan of Portsmouth if I have my way. We will be able to read this story again in years to come, and through the power of youtube I can show him the goals being described to help with his understanding.
I enjoyed reading it, even if Casper didn’t enjoy listening to me read it all that much, and would definitely recommend for any football fan.
The book costs £8.99* to buy is available to buy on Amazon and directly from World At Your Feet website. You can see more reviews and sneak peaks of the book over on their instagram page.
Thank you for reading,
Jamie!