Miffy Swim Ring

I have loved the character Miffy since I was very, very young. I remember treasuring my 'Miffy in Hospital' and 'Miffy at School' books as a little girl. The sweet and simple illustration of the character and her books offer children a visual to go along with a clear and simple story, with bold, bright colours that also capture the imagination.

Miffy is one of those characters that I have passed on from my childhood to my daughter and I feel it really says something that she stands up on her own two feet against some very exciting competition like princesses and Japanese cats.

Now that summer has hit, there's a whole shed load of new items in the Miffy shop and we we lucky enough to get the swim ring and beach ball to try out for the summer. Living a five minute walk from Eastbourne beach, we were very excited and I had originally planned to review the two items together, however, between the weather (whenever it's beach weather I have plans and whenever I don't, it's raining) and my pregnancy, we are yet to get the beach ball to the actual beach!so today I'm going to tell you about this lovely, colourful swim ring!

Coming in a choice of two colours (yellow or orange), it's a small-child-sized swim ring with an opaque bottom layer and a transparent top layer decorated with Miffy illustrations; three of the lady herself, a walrus, an octopus, a seal and a few bits of beach-themed things. The illustrations are keeping with the books, still with bold block colours and simple lines, which makes it easily identifiable as a Miffy product. The ring itself is the perfect size for under fives, not too big that you lose them in it, but not so small that it offers nothing. It was a great size to go around Moo's waist, though she is tiny and so kept slipping down. My niece was also a fan and enjoyed splashing in the pool with it.

A fight did break out between the two over who would get to play with it and it did take a good tugging here and there, but withstood well against a couple of grouchy toddlers. It inflated very quickly (even with my baby-squashed lungs) and deflated at speed also which is handy if you were to take it to the beach, making it easy to fold-away in your beach bag. The stopper wasn't one of those tiny diddly or stiff ones, it was easy to plug and unplug as well as blow in to, super handy when you've got little people in an excited and desperate scrambled around you.

The ring pictured is the yellow option (which is Moo's favourite colour), here are my pros and cons...

Pros.

- Easy and quick to inflate and deflate.

- Perfect size for pre-schoolers.

- Folds up neatly.

- Attractive to look at.

- Brightly coloured so good for public pools and the beach.

- Came with puncture repair patch.

Cons.

- The packaging wasn't in English. 

All in all, I can't really fault this lovely toy/swimming accessory. Moo was very happy with it to play with and I was very happy, as a parent, to allow her to play with it.

The Miffy Swim Ring is available from the Official Miffy Shop for £5.99.

If you're interested in Miffy and her creator, Dick Bruna, his first illustrated book 'The Apple' has just this moth been republished along with two others of his older titles, in hardback priced at £4.99 each from book stores (there's currently a 3 for 2 promotion running on all of his books). The Tate are celebrating this event with a display of Dick Bruna's artwork at Foyles Cafe in Charing Cross, London from the 6th-29th August as well as offering themed activities and meals at all branches of Foyles Cafe and Tate Cafes so if you're close to one with the children, do pop in to relive 60years of charming illustration!

Clare

Please note I was sent this item for the purposes of review, however all thoughts and opinions are those of my own and I was not compensated in any way. The information given in regards to Foyles and the Tate was discovered by myself and not promoted by the Miffy brand. This is not a sponsored post.

Our 2013 Holiday

For our holiday this year we went caravanning just outside of Paris. The husband and I went to Paris last May which was an amazing experience and we were eager to go back, this time with Moo and do Disneyland. We did it through the Sun which is something I've never done before but he's been with family. My mother-in-law does them every year and is always really satisfied with them.

Speaking from this experience, it was fantastic value for money. Five of us went in the end, including Moo. My mother-in-law and her partner came (which I was grateful for as being this pregnant I needed the extra help). We drove from Eastbourne to Dover, stayed in a hotel and then got the early morning ferry. Moo's behaviour was absolutely fantastic all week as was her sleeping and I was really, thoroughly impressed and proud of her. Even exhausted and in Disneyland she still managed to not throw any tantrums or strops. There was a lot of driving involved and she didn't get fussy once. I was really proud of her.

I've not really done caravanning before. I remember staying in a luxury static with my parents in Swannage when I was younger and a couple of years ago when I was doing some training for my husband's business, we stayed in the family caravan because it was cheaper than the local hotels.

I'm not a fan.

Honestly, I know that sounds really snobby but I'm not. The first morning I woke up cold and shivery and just could not get warm and what is the deal with the bathroom. Everybody can hear you pee! That's not pleasant. I was really anxious to go to the toilet, I didn't want to ruin anyone cup of tea. Our shower was tilted at a funny angle so the only way you could get water onto your body was by tilting the head up with one hand and using the other to brace yourself against the wall as you lent into it. Awkward.

The camp site was pretty basic, however we were hardly there and it had a small playground as well as a shop and a pizza restaurant. Round about and copious amounts of pizza...nothing cold possibly go wrong.

Our first day didn't start off fantastically...Moo lost her toothbrush in the house (still not found it) and on his way to work, my husband blew a tyre...in the car we were taking to France. Hands up if you have a newish car? Yeah...they don't give you a spare tyre anymore, huh? They give you that stupid foam stuff. You don't even get a jack anymore!! But yet our car has the space for a spare...£110 later, we had four tyres again though he missed two hours of work and we were stressed out.

The last few paragraphs seemed to be a bit of a moan, but genuinely, I would recommend the Sun holidays now that I've been on one. It was cheap, cheerful and we had a lot of fun exploring France. I would've enjoyed it more had I not been this pregnant but you live and learn...I don't plan on having anymore babies so this is something I can just shrug my shoulders and move on.

I did discover that there are a few perks to being 'with child' when visiting Disneyland Paris which I'll be blogging about soon, but until then I hope that your 2013 holidays are as fabulous as mine (though without the blown tyre and dislike of caravans).

Clare

Oh, and my husband is never allowed to pack a suitcase again. It was SO FULL going out, I packed it to come home and magically there was more space. Never. Again.