Experimental MumScience + Children = Fun + Mess

Sometimes the simplest ideas make the best inventions and the Trolley Dolly is just one such item.

This surprisingly small handbag contains an amazing 21 reusable bags enough for even a mammoth food shop!

The designers ZPM really have thought of the little details too: the Trolley Dolly features a slide in pocket for your shopping list, a zip pocket for your keys and purse, even a trolley token.

The bags are very durable and versatile. As well as the weekly shop, I’ve used mine to return books to the library, bring home a ton of goodies from the school fair and carry home 3 litres of glue from Early Learning Centre!

Ecover Stain Remover

Ecover Laundry Products

Now, I’m sure like me you do enough loads of washing a day to find laundry products about the least exciting thing on the planet. However when Ecover sent me their Stain Remover, I knew I had the perfect tough stains to test their product.

First up was my brand new pair of jeans that had been delightfully decorated by my darling daughters (see yesterday’s post!). Mmmm…metallic paint and really dark denim, as I scrubbed on the stain remover with the little brush, I didn’t hold out much hope. I was sure I’d be left with a faded patch at best. Amazingly they survived and the stain was gone – result!

Oil Stain?

Next up was my daughter’s pink jacket. It’s had this dark stain on it for months, really not sure what it was but it looked like oil. I’d tried to remove it a few times using Oxiclean but with no luck. Although it took two washes at 40 degrees, it removed the stain almost completely with just the tiniest suggestion of a remaining mark. Well done Ecover – I’m very impressed! A 200 ml bottle costs around £2.80 and you can buy it here.

Hotter Terra Walking Boot

Hotter Shoes

I reviewed the Terra GORE-TEX® Walking Boots from Hotter, who claim to deliver happy feet.

Well, they truly are the most comfortable boots I’ve ever owned and the lovely teal colour is wearing up well to the harsh weather we’ve had.

Tiny niggle – I do find the laces get a wee bit loose during the day maybe that’s because they tend to focus on wider feet.

That said, they are still so comfy I’m planning to purchase some sandals during their current 3 for 2 offer for our upcoming holiday (Orlando –  5 weeks to go – yeah!).

Kids Party Quiz

Kids Printable Party Quiz

These are children’s party quizzes, which are sent to you by email in a PDF format.

The price is £7.99, which initially I thought was a bit steep, but you do get 10 quizzes and you can print as many copies as you need. Although the quality of the quizzes was good, I did think that some of graphic quality was a little on the weak side but this doesn’t affect the play quality.

I printed out the file and took it along during our weekend caravan break. The forecast was for rain and I was sure we’d soon need indoor games. On the first afternoon we played the bingo quiz and the girls loved it, taking turns to be the caller.

After a couple of games  the sun came out, the girls made friends and spent their time cycling until bedtime, so the rest of the print outs are still in the caravan locker awaiting another rainy day. I’m sure I’ll be glad of them!

UMI Tabitha

UMI Children’s Shoes

My youngest daughter was sent some lovely sandals from Umi’s Spring/Summer Collection. Erynn has a high instep that gives her a wide foot and so getting shoes that don’t rub and cause blisters can be a problem. These sandals are very padded and soft and they are so comfy Erynn has already had loads of wear out of them considering until recently it was still very wintery in the North of Scotland! We’ll be packing them for our summer hols, comfy footwear while trawling the theme parks will be a must!

Umi’s Autumn/Winter collection will be released shortly and you can follow updates on their Facebook page.

Don't waste a drop

Fairy Liquid – 50 years old!

To celebrate 50 years of Fairy, we were kindly sent a craft kit to decorate the vintage style fairy bottles. My kids firstly thought the “old” bottles were hilarious but then decided them super cool as they would make cool dog squirters for Fern, our loopy spaniel who loves all things water.

Before the mayhem ...

I left the girls enthuse enthusiastically decorating away and pottered off to do a bit of housework, thinking that at 7 and 9 years old they didn’t really need my input and the finished result would be “all their own work”. OMG – when I returned there was paint, glitter and glue everywhere! I couldn’t believe it, it was on the couch (thankfully leather, so wipe able), underneath the table, the carpet, even the cupboard that was on the other side of the room. After lots of swearing, “how b****** old are you” comments and baby wipes, calm was restored…

Until I went to bed, took off my brand new jeans and found that somehow in the clean up I’d managed to sit a puddle of purple glittery paint. Scrubbing my jeans with stain remover at midnight, not my idea of Saturday night entertainment. Grrr …

P.S. Was so busy cleaning, I forgot to take an after photo of the finished creations – the dog enjoyed them!

Fairy’s site has had a retro makeover and it includes a great range of craft, outdoor fun, music and recipe ideas and you could win a dishwasher too!

According to a recent survey carried out by McCain’s the food producers, out of 1500  7-11 year olds questioned, 10% of them believed that potatoes came from chickens!

In a bid to educate children about our food sources they have set up an excellent website with great resource sections for kids, parents and teachers. It includes everything from recipes to lesson plans.

Throughout the month of March they are also touring schools with the Potato Bus which judging by the photos looks a lot of fun! Here is the Scottish School Itinerary – hopefully your children will be getting a visit.

McCain’s kindly sent my girls their own gardening kits and seed potatoes, which are sprouting happily by the patio doors. This ” tattie holidays” my kids will hopefully have their own crop to pick.

P.S. Here’s a definition of  the tattie holidays and here’s a very Scottish description!

Thank you to Tom at Shine Communications for sending us the brand new Nintendo DS Flips to review. Flips are a new range of interactive books designed to get children exicted about reading.

The video below gives an overview of the cool features.

We received the Cathy Cassidy Flips and here is Freya’s unedited review:

I love Flips, I think there very good.

My mum got sent a Flip for free and they asked me and my sister to try it out.

Flips is about making kids enjoy reading by the more you read the more games and puzzles you unlock, plus you probably want to play games.

Also if you’re not a big fan of reading like me Flips will help you enjoy it.

I’ve been reading Scarlet and I think it’s very good. It’s so good!!!!

My favourite bit about Flips is when you read more you unlock more games and puzzles…

My worst bit is nothing, I like all of it.

That’s why I enjoy Flips and I think they’re very good!!!!!!!!!

My Mum hopes they makes some adult ones too, she thinks they’d be cool at her bookclub!!!

Writing by – Freya Riddell (age eight)

About a hundred years ago I replied to a request on British Mummy Bloggers to put Ecover cleaning products to the test alongside some well known brand name cleaning products. Ecover have developed a range of ecosurfactants that they claim to be extremely powerful and supremely ecological. They have a cool website too, love the wipe effect!

Although I like the environmentally friendly idea of Ecover products I was sceptical that they could work as well as the petrochemical alternatives. I know it’s clever marketing but brand name cleaning products like Flash are so shiny looking and clean smelling they just “appear” as if they will work better.

Now where to start in my cleaning spree! First up was the gas cooker top and hood which was in need of a good scrub. In this test I compared Ecover Power Cleaner with Cillit Bang. I’ve always been rather wary of Cillit Bang after once leaving a permanently “clean steak” while over zealously scrubbing a plastic shower cabinet. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the Ecover product worked equally well in this test even on the greasy cooker hood. I did take before and after photos but managed to delete them seconds later. Which is probably just as well, it was pretty embarrassingly crusty!

Time for a tougher challenge…Next up was the very grotty jacuzzi bath vents. I had only just realised (after 3 years of use) that they were removable so they were revoltingly manky and I can’t quite believe I’m posting this photo! To tackle the grot I used both Ecover Multisurface Cleaner and Flash Multisurface Cleaner. Both effectively removed all the hidden grot pretty easily, in fact I had to fill the bath and run the pump to get rid of all the scale which floated away. I had a bath that night to celebrate it’s shininess! I must admit I did prefer the stronger fragrance of the Flash product, although I notice both are fragranced with Liminol. Again clever marketing makes us believe if it smells clean it is clean!

Bath - Before

Bath - After

Lastly I tackled the back door, which has a glass panel that is constantly marked with our spaniels muddy paws. This time I compared Mr Muscle Window & Glass Spray with Ecover Window & Glass Cleaner. This time Ecover won hands down, it polished the glass up really quickly and without any streaks, unlike Mr Muscle and lots of previous products I’ve used. I’ll definitely buy this one again.

 Shoe shopping in our household is a tad tricky; my eldest daughter is just ridiculously fussy and turns delightful girly shopping into such an ordeal I’m tempted to send her to school in wellies. My youngest daughter although much more amenable has strangely wide feet and often there isn’t a single pair of shoes in the local Clarks to fit her.

So when Umi asked if I’d like to review their Autumn collection, I was delighted to say yes and postpone the need to shoe shop for another few months!

The girls were super excited to receive their goodies in the mail and wanted to write their own review, so over to you girls! (Mums thoughts in italics).

Erynn (age 6): Teaberry (Red)

• They are really soft (nice and comfy for wide feet!)
• I really love the colour (so do I)
• They’re not too big Mum (mmm…they are a bit)
• Can I wear them to the party on Friday (okay, then you can put them away till they fit you!)

Freya (age 8): Rhapsody (Black)

• I think they are going to be too narrow (before trying them on)
• They are cooler than the web picture (after closer inspection)
• I like the laces and the flowers pretty cool (progress…they are on the feet now)
• Can I wear them to school tomorrow? (that’ll be a winner then!)

 So very well received by the girls. I too am delighted with the quality and fit of the shoes. The styles are that bit different too.

Umi are branching out into the UK market and are hoping to have a UK stockists link on their website shortly. In the meantime, here is a small selection of the UK stockists: Trotters Stores in London, Little Piggys in Ireland, Maddie and Mark in Edinburgh.

If you fancy winning a pair of Umi children’s shoes, click on their Facebook page, where they run a monthly competition. Good luck!