Toys – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Squishy Craze

In case you’re still living in a fidget spinner or slime world, squishies are brightly colored foam toys that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from a tiny panda face on a key chain to some fake-but-looks-real sushi. The shapes and varieties are endless. Some are scented with bakery-appropriate flavors like strawberry or peaches and cream. As the name suggests, their most important quality is their immensely satisfying texture. Squeezing a squishy is like crushing a loaf of Wonder Bread between your fingers, only to watch it magically re-inflate back to its original form. I have to admit that I am inside the squishy bubble now, joining Cass and Drama Queen!

Squishies are on their way to becoming the next big toy craze in the US, according to toy-store owners interviewed by New York Magazine and the New York Times. So far they’re being marketed, much like fidget spinners, as a way to relieve stress and anxiety.

When we were back in Ipoh during the recent school holidays, I brought Cass to Kinta City shopping mall to claim her reward. Apart from some novels and a few rounds of claw machine games, I also bought her a squishy as her reward. The squishy stall is on the first floor concourse of the shopping mall, outside Aeon. It’s been there for at least 2 years. Drama Queen shopped for her primary school bazaar’s lucky draw prizes from this stall 1.5 years ago. The range of colorful and oh so squeezable squishes is pretty wide and not only can a child go crazy at the stall, adults too.

Cass’ pick was this little pink paw, which is extra squishy, soft, squeezable and highly re-inflatable. No wonder Cass loves squeezing it, I love it too! After paying for the paw squishy, we both had a tug of war over who gets to squeeze the paw 😆

Super satisfying! Good stress and anxiety buster too.

No. of times viewed = 25

Lego Nexo Knights Launch 2016 @ Mid Valley Megamall KL

Lego Nexo Knights has finally landed on our shores!

LEGO Malaysia proudly and grandly launched the Lego Nexo Knights at the Mid Valley Megamall on 12 March 2016. It is Lego Nexo Knights’ maiden appearance in South East Asia and you know what? We are the first few in South East Asia to own a few boxes too. The girls, especially Cass is SO happy!!

The LEGO Nexo Knights, depicting a medieval kingdom set in a futuristic world, where five young brave knights “download” special powers to their shields in order to battle the royal court’s evil Jestro and a cast of monsters to restore peace.

The LEGO Nexo Knights set enables children and LEGO fans of all ages to relish an augmented play experience in both online and offline realms as they immerse themselves in the world of Knighton to be the best knights!

Can you spot Cass in this picture?

It was an event of great fanfare with attendance by a converge of media and bloggers, including yours truly, ahem!

This unique multi-platform product line which integrates a modern story line and technology with the timeless enjoyment of building blocks, should capture the imagination of children and parents alike, empowering them to learn together in a new fun way through play.

To extend the story and increase playing fun, more than 170 unique LEGO Nexo Knights powers represented as knight shields, have been scattered across the kingdom of Knighton. The powers can be found existing in both physical and digital forms, including building sets, print ads, books, comics and even the new LEGO Nexo Knights animated television series using the LEGO Nexo Knights: Merlok 2.0 apps which is now available for free via App Store and Google play. Once added to a digital power collection, children can creatively and continuously find new ways to join the knights to defeat the enemy with their ‘power ups’.

You can help your child to register at the NEXO Academy website at . Cass registered herself on our iPad and obtained some shields / POWER UP when she scanned the shield sticker on her Lego toy shield and Lego card bearing a shield using the iPad.

The media and bloggers were treated to lunch at Olive Garden. Cass’ eyes lit up instantly when she saw more complimentary Lego Nexo Knights on the dining table awaiting her! She was tickled pink!

While waiting for the food to arrive, Cass managed to assemble all the complimentary Lego Nexo Knights miniature sets. I must say that Cass is really GOOD with LEGO. She must have inherited the genes from her daddy, who is a big fan of LEGO. And it’s no wonder he so patiently waited for the entire event to be over. I think he enjoyed himself more than us!

Below – Yummy Italian food, courtesy of Lego Malaysia.

In under 1 hour, Cass managed to fix these Lego Nexo Knights.

After lunch, we were brought to a Virtual Battle Tour, where the kids had the chance to play with the Merlok 2.0 App game on iPad.

Below – Cass all soaked up in the Merlok 2.0 game on iPad at the Battle Zone while totally oblivious that she was being filmed by the media!

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Below – Cass trying her hands on the LEGO NEXO Knights SKU interactive game in the Power Zone @ the Center Court, Mid Valley Megamall yesterday.

Check out the shield she’s holding to obtain ‘power ups’.

From 8 March through 20 March 2016, these limited edition LEGO NEXO Knights 3D/hologram cards are exclusively yours when you make any purchase of the Lego Nexo Knights. There are 5 characters, available on different days.

Below – Cass waiting for a free print-out of her photo, which I posted on Instagram.
If you post a picture of yourself/kids/etc at this event on Instagram, you’ll get a FREE print out too!

Below – Our free print-out photo posted on Instagram, courtesy of Lego Malaysia.

Below – Cass receiving her new Lego Nexo Knights! She’s one very, very happy missy!

Back home, Cass was glued at the table and within 2 hours, she managed to assemble the entire set of LEGO Nexo Knights Beast Master’s Chaos Chariot (314 pieces) on her own.

Below – Cass is scanning a toy shield from her Lego Nexo Knights set with the iPad to obtain ‘power up’ for her Merlok 2.0 game.

Below – Macy (a female knight) now has more ‘power up’ to fight off Jestro and the monsters!

Cass thoroughly enjoyed herself at the launch of the Lego Nexo Knights as well as assembling the Lego and playing with the Merlok 2.0 app game on iPad.

That’s the sweetest thing to hear from your child when you know that you are only an imperfect mom!

Well, I must say that I enjoyed myself at the event too 🙂

The Lego Nexo Knights launch event is happening at the Center Court of Mid Valley Megamall from 8 March through 20 March 2016. Since it’s the school holidays, do bring your kids to check out the range of awesome products while letting them try their hands on the free interactive games, while getting some cool freebies too!

No. of times viewed = 35

The Girls’ Mega Holiday Project

This is the girls’ first holiday project…

To construct a row of 4 Lego shop houses!

A friend of the girls’ aunt in Hong Kong gave this to the MIL. And now the MIL has delegated the girls to construct this mega project 😀

Today is the 4th day the girls are hard at work. They take turns constructing the shop houses.

This is the girls’ first project and after 2 days, they completed the first floor.

Chief contractor with the sidekick at work…

This morning, Sherilyn constructed a part of the second floor of the first shop house before she left for the enrichment center. Cass is now taking over. There are 3 floors for each shop house! This is by far the mega-est Lego project for the girls!

I am amazed with the patience that my kick-ass girls have to patiently sit for hours looking at the legend and finding the pieces. I know I have absolutely zilch patience for something like this ha! I see stars looking at the thousands of Lego pieces, especially those button-sized ones! And I feel woozy just looking at the thick booklet of legend. No way can I sit for hours on end hurting my fingers doing this!

Lego is a toy that requires absolute patience, endurance (for harder ones) and some brains to do! I fail in the patience department, miserably!!

I wonder if the girls can complete the entire mega project before they leave for New Zealand in 7 days…

No. of times viewed = 224

Vanity Is In The Air

Cass is indeed a lucky girl! A few weeks ago, santarina sent her another set of toy. For the vain pot who has always been pestering me to apply makeup on her face, she finally got her own makeup set! A wooden toy one that is, haha! Cass is so so happy with this toy!

Her Sevi vanity set (designed in Italy) is made from wood and consists of lipstick, nail polish, blusher, eye shadow, comb, mirror and perfume. This is Just an awesome toy for little girls! Even her 9.5-year old second sister likes it! I always think that there is a little child in all of us and sometimes it takes our favorite childhood things to unleash the childishness in us and let our imagination run really wild 😀

Princess Elsa wannabe applying nail polish. Finally she’s got her own bottle of nail polish! 😀

” Squeeze squeeze some perfume on my armpit too!”

“Let me put some colors on my eye lids too!”

” And finally, the pink lipstick and I am all set to go for a ball” Cass always pretends that she is a princess who is going for a ball 🙂

I should have gotten Sherilyn this set of pretend make up years ago. Did you know that she had broken a handful of my lipsticks and eye brow pencils over the past few years? In fact, she broke my eye brow pencil again just a couple of months ago!! She has a very inquisitive mind, a pair of very itchified hands and vanity is the name of her game!

Christmas has definitely come early for Cass and she will be expecting another gift from Applecrumby & Fish soon. Thank you so much santarina!! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 309

Cute Wooden Animal Alphabets

Another surprise parcel awaited Cass when she got home from school yesterday!

When she ripped the parcel bag apart, she found three stacks of wooden alphabets. I helped her to unwrap the stacks of alphabets. While doing it, we were both guessing wildly what to do with the wooden alphabets. They are similar to those wooden alphabets that are stuck on Alycia’s bedroom door, making out the word “WELCOME”. But there was no instruction with our gift this time. We were even more baffled when we found out that there were 3 pieces of the letter ‘S’, 5 pieces of letter ‘A’ and the other letters were also redundant. It was not a complete set of 26 letters of the alphabet. Hmmm, what could it be? Santarina must have wanted us to work out brains hard to solve the mystery of the mysterious gift, ha!

No mysterious is ever left unresolved for us. Very soon, I figured that the set of wooden alphabets were actually for the names of Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra! Jeng jeng jeng…. mysterious solved!!

Cass used her blue tac to stick behind the wooden alphabets and plastered up the 3 names onto the wall. See how pretty and vivacious Cass’ little play corner is now!

Cute, bright and happy colored wooden animal alphabets to liven up your walls. Perfect for toddlers to learn their ABCs too! Thank you Apple Crumby & Fish once again! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 355

Le Toy Van Blender Set From Applecrumby & Fish

Cass received another big surprise yesterday!

When she got back from school, her face lit up with glee when she saw this cool toy set on the floor…

I think the owner of Applecrumby & Fish has some kind of sixth sense and read my mind. I had always wanted to buy the girls a wooden ‘masak-masak’ set with sliceable wooden fruits since their toddler days but never got to do so. So, when I ripped open the box and found this ‘dream toy’ for my girls, I was delighted myself!

Cass has been playing with her new toy since yesterday. When her 2 che ches returned from school, they joined her in the play too! It has really been a while since the girls have a new toy and I have not seen them play with toys with each other for yonks! It is really heartwarming to see them put aside electrical gadgets and get down to the floor to really play like kids should.

Cass also handmade some ‘fruits’ from colorful Blue Tac for her ‘smoothie’. This is what I call imaginative play and I love to see kids stir up their imagination to come up with something new each time.

The Le Toy Van Blender set features:

1) a blender with detachable jug & movable settings button
2) six sliceable wooden fruits
3) wooden play knife
4) two wooden tumblers with removable toppings & wooden straws

Thank you very much Applecrumby & Fish for this cool blender set. Cass loves it very much 🙂

Applecrumby & Fish is having an ongoing Anniversary Sale from now until Saturday, 4 October 2014. All items are off 20% except for clearance items. Do check them out!

No. of times viewed = 499

When Will The Rainbow Loom Bubble Burst?

My baby girl woke up even earlier than I did this morning. She knocked on my door at 6:30am and when I saw her, she had already gotten herself ready — teeth brushed, clothes changed and hair nicely tied up. She must have woken up at 6:15am or even earlier.

So why did she wake up so early this morning? Babe, it’s a Saturday and mummy wants to catch up on her beauty sleep!! I felt pissed off a wee bit that she woke me up from my dream… albeit I cannot really remember what I was dreaming about haha!

So this is the motivating factor…

To hook her loom bands for her teachers… she said that she wants to give her teachers and besties each a loom band before she leaves kindy for good in 3 months’ time!

Rainbow Loom has such a phenomenal influence worldwide. Kids and adults alike love them and wear them. Even the plumber who came to our house to fix our kitchen tap two days ago, who claimed that he is illiterate was seen wearing a loom bracelet.

In case you do not already know, the creator of Rainbow Loom is Ng Cheong Choon, a 45-year-old Chinese Malaysian, who until recently worked as a crash test dummy safety engineer in Michigan. At home, he noticed his daughters making rubber band bracelets on their fingers. Eventually, vague trappings of an idea began to form in the recesses of his head: a plastic loom toy that would help weave the rubber bands into bracelets. Unlike most people, who think of innovative ideas but never act upon them, Ng got to work on it, visualizing the toy that would become the Rainbow Loom!

Ng Cheong Choon and his family.

When will the Rainbow Loom bubble burst I wonder? Every Tom, Dick and Harry on the street and mall is seen wearing a loom bracelet. What am I going to do with all these colorful rubber bands when the Rainbow Loom bubble bursts and my girls no longer want to have anything to do with them? I think I should keep them in a box and keep them like how my mum has been keeping all my most-loved-collectibles since I was a little girl. When my girls re-discover them again many, many moons down the road, I hope that these will give them the warm fuzzies of their happy childhood days. Till today, I still love my 3-decade old Sanrio collectibles. I love them to the moon and back and will never give them away 🙂

No. of times viewed = 1236

Looming Danger In Rainbow Loom?

My girls have finally been bitten by the Rainbow Loom bug! When Rainbow Loom first landed in Malaysia some time last year and became popular amongst kids and adults, I did not buy my girls a set. Reason being this el cheapo mummy said it was just too expensive. I ain’t going to splurge over RM100 on colorful rubber bands!

Now that the Rainbow Loom bubble is almost bursting and is sold very cheaply almost everywhere, I bought them 2 packs, which cost less than RM10 a pack for a few hundred bands. I got the Rainbow Loom bands from Art Friend @ Gardens Mid Valley.

Cass was immediately addicted to it. The moment we brought the Rainbow Loom bands home, she quickly hopped over to You Tube to search for online tutorials on how to tie them into bracelets. Within an hour, she made 2 bracelets! This girl sure has nimble fingers and good dexterity.

She made over 10 bracelets and gave them to her 2 che ches, teachers and friends.

Cass bugged me to buy her more Rainbow Loom bands in other colors but wait, there is looming danger in these bands!

Just a few days after Cass got hooked on these colorful bands, news on a boy who got blinded in one eye by the Rainbow Loom and another boy’s finger turned black after a Loom band was tied to his finger flooded Facebook and the media. I showed the pictures of the 2 boys who got injured to Cass. My mil also read the news in the Chinese newspapers.

Do you allow your kids to play with Rainbow Loom? This hobby is way healthier than being hooked on the idiot box and other electrical gadgets. But there is a looming danger too in these pretty Rainbow Loom bands. Sigh! Cass told me that she would wear goggles should she want to tie the Rainbow Loom bands.

So how now brown cow? Loom or no loom now? What say you?

No. of times viewed = 904

More Angry Birds Loot

One reason why I don’t like to go to the Pasar Malam with my hubs or to any shopping mall for that matter is because the 2 older girls will take advantage of their daddy’s softie heart. They would surely ask him to buy them stuff – just about any stuff and the ever yes-man daddy will oblige. The girls don’t even have to pester him, unlike getting things from their mummy. Whenever we are out at the Pasar Malam or shopping mall, none of the girls want to follow me as they know they will not get anything from me. All 3 will stick to their daddy like a leech, sucking him dry!

While I was busy buying fruits at the Pasar Malam 2 Fridays ago, the 3 girls were leeched on to their daddy and this is what they had sucked out from him:

The only thing that I was willing to buy was the Angry Birds shoes for Alycia, which only cost RM12 a pair! What a price to pay for! And because the price is too good to say no to, my girls each have more than 3 pairs of these Crocs look-alike shoes, each with different Disney characters on them.

No. of times viewed = 361

Pretty But Scary!

Baby received this toy for her 3rd birthday recently, that has completed her new miniature hair saloon set:

It’s the head of a doll with long hair complete with a whole range of cool hair accessories for the 2 aspiring hair stylists. No prize for guessing who the 2 budding hair stylists are eh? I would not be a wee bit surprised that in future, these 2 sisters will badger their ever yes-man daddy to send them to the world famous Crystal Lake beauty school in the U.S. to pursue their interest in the field of coiffuring and cosmetics. Would I mind my daughters dabbling in this field? Oh well, maybe not if they attend a good school like the Regency Beauty Institute.

And this head can really scare the sh*t out of you at night when only one light is lit and in your state of grogginess, you stumbled into the head in the middle of the living room, YIKES *creepy*!!

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 5657 Northwest Highway – Crystal Lake, IL 60014

No. of times viewed = 1336

A Toy Parrot That Responds To You

This battery-operated toy parrot is no ordinary toy. It will chirp in response to your voice, to vibration and to loud noises. The hubs bought it at only RM9 from a street peddlar at a coffee shop. Ever since he bought this parrot 2 days ago, everyone in the family has been clapping hands, banging on tables and chairs and raising our voice kakakakakakaka!!!! This parrot also helps to douse away our anger. Each time my mil or I scream and scold the 3 rascals, the parrot will chirp too, as if telling us to shut up LOL!!

If your kid wants a real bird as a pet, go get him/her this toy parrot. It’s an awesome toy.

I am expecting my next batch of clothes from my supplier very soon. Head over to Old And New Stuff For Sale to see the new arrivals. Prices are nett, with FREE shipping 😀

No. of times viewed = 405

Guess What They Are Doing?

When daddy came to pick us up from Ipoh last week, he brought along the gals’ belated X’mas pressies. Here, daddy is having fun with the gals with their new toy and guess what they’re doing? Any idea?

My 3 gals were fighting to get hold of the gadget so that they could have the first view of a ‘creature’ inside the gadget. Baby the cili padi got to view it first. Whenever she screams “peeeeeeeash, I wan, I wan”, she gets it her way….

Tadaaa……

This is a toy magnifying glass and there’s a real worm inside. Daddy brought the gals to the garden to catch a worm to put it inside the gadget for the gals to have a magnified view of it. Cool toy indeed!

No. of times viewed = 328

Super Cool Magnetic Toys

This morning has been really hectic for me. I didn’t have the time to eat a proper breakfast as I was pacing up and down. I spent almost an hour collecting Baby C’s pee, then had to supervise the contractors who were at my condo to fix the toilet floor and then later had to go down to the lobby of our condo to wait for Alycia and Sherilyn. Hubby was busy today, so we had to trouble a relative to pick the girls up from school. I really have to get a good gift for this relative’s daughter who will turn 6 years old next month. We have been troubling her for transport each time hubby is unable to pick up the girls from school or send Alycia to the ballet school.

I would like to get my relative’s daughter a birthday gift that’s both educational and can stimulate her imagination, such as the Icoaster from MagNext. The MagNext range of toys can be purchased at MegaBrands.com. Icoaster is a multiple-award winning toy made of magnet in usa. The Icoaster is an impressive, buildable, state-of-the-art 64-piece magnetic roller coaster that combines sight, sound and speed with extreme magnetism and ultra-cool physics. An MP3 can also be plugged into the Icoaster for music. It is an ideal toy for kids age 6 years and up. I am pretty sure this little girl who is quite a talented child will love this magnetic toy. If you have a child who is 6 years old or older, you really have to check out the Icoaster range of toys at MegaBrands.com.

No. of times viewed = 278

New Pink Scooter

Aly and Sher finally got what they had longed for when daddy bought them a pink scooter last week. It was the 2nd day of Hari Raya and daddy had brought them to MegaKidz @ Mid Valley Megamall. I stayed home with Baby C…. as usual… sigh…. Daddy didn’t want to bring Baby C to crowded places as he was worried she would get sick easily.

I knew daddy would surely get them something from Toys R Us coz that’s the only time he could buy them toys… without me around to stop him! They left the house at 2pm and only got back at 6ish pm! No need afternoon nap, no need to drink milk, no need to drink water and no need to take bath too. With daddy around, everything is ‘no need’! Never mind lar, since it’s a holiday, I let them off the hook…

Once back, they ripped open the box and took the scooter out… which came with a matching pair of sexy pink sunglasses and cool pink helmet.

Girls in pink… how cool and cute hor?

Best of friends now… but “I don’t friend you” later when a tug-of-war ensued over the helmet and sunglasses.

No. of times viewed = 464

More Christmas Pressies

When Raymond kau fu (my eldest brother) came to KL last week, he brought X’mas gifts for the gals. He got them more play dough, a lunch box play dough set and a banquet set play dough set. That added to their collection of play dough to three sets. Alycia who loves food and cooking loved the gifts but not mummy coz that spells trouble and more work for her! Those of you who have toddlers will know what I mean coz the mess they make after the play session is really terrible, especially removing the play dough stuck in their finger nails. Anyway, thank you very much Ray for the pressies!

No. of times viewed = 300

Alycia’s Birthday Pressies…Part 2

Here’s another toy that Alycia received for her birthday and is one of the gals’ favorite too. For the longest time, Alycia has been bugging me to get her a play doh set but I’ve always hesitated as I know how messy it’s going to get, especially with Sherilyn. When Alycia saw this pressie on Sunday, she was beaming with joy as she finally got what she wanted.

When we returned from the birthday party on Sunday, the gals were so excited with the pressies that they did not even nap though they were exhausted. Instead, they spent almost 2 hours hours playing with their new toys. Alycia who loves cooking pretended to be making bread and food with her play doh and spent a good 1 hour playing with the doh. But after they were done with it, I had to spend a good 15 minutes clearing the mess they had caused on the table, on the floor and on their hands.

BTW, I did not even have a chance to see who gave Alycia this pressie as the gals ripped open the present papers as soon as they got home. Whoever you are who gave this to Alycia, thank you very much for this lovely gift.

No. of times viewed = 269