BIC KIDS review and COMPETITION info!

We've been sent BIC Kids products to put to the test and as Miss T and D love to draw and colour - I knew they'd be the perfect testers!

We were sent the following:

• BIC KIDS Evolution ecolutions colouring pencils - Amazingly these are wood-free but you really wouldn't know it as they look and feel like colouring pencils but are brilliantly easy to sharpen. No more pesky splinters from wooden pencils either! 

When J went back to school after our homeschooling years, I remember the teachers being really impressed with how much academic learning he'd achieved whilst at home but were rather surprised that he was unable to sharpen pencils.

Whilst part of that is down to his Aspergers and his struggles with manual dexterity, part of the problem also lay with just how fiddly regular colouring pencils can be to sharpen. So just to save time and make life easier, I would always be the one who had to sharpen pencils.

Thankfully with these ones from BIC, Miss T will be able to learn to do her own sharpening from a young age!

• BIC KIDS Kid Couleur felt pens -  Their Ultra-washable credentials gives these felt-pens massive mummy appeal whilst the bright colours and brilliance in ease of use made them a hit with the kids. 

When Miss T was younger, I remember being in tears over one of her gorgeous outfits being totally ruined by felt-pens used at the childrens centre. They just didn't wash out. Thankfully these BIC KIDS ones were super easy to wipe off the table and wash off hands and clothes. Phew!

• BIC KIDS Plastidecor Crayons - My kids have generally outgrown crayons. They think of them as too 'babyish'. However, these crayons looked like 'posh' crayons - none of the paper you have to peel away to get to the crayon. They can also be sharpened and don't break as easily - so no more annoying stubby bits of crayon. Longer and brighter looking than regular crayons these ones really did appeal to Miss T. She decided to use ALL of the BIC KIDS products in her creation!

With D's stationery fetish, he regularly loves to do complicated colouring pictures as well as doodling and drawing pictures of his own so he loves to have a good supply of colouring equipment that works well.

Often colouring pens and pencils can be disappointing - just lacking brightness and vividness in their colours or having to press really hard to get a decent amount of colour. Not so with these BIC KIDS products. D really enjoyed using them.

Miss T knew she wanted to design a dinosaur so she got to work straight away with the outline.

Then she started to add oodles of colour...

A bit of grass and a splash of sky along with a sunshine were her finishing touches. 

She was incredibly proud of her creation - I love it at this age when there is no 'wrong' or 'right' to their creativity. No limits to their imaginations. I always think us grown-ups can learn a thing or two from this attitude.

As D loves to doodle, he used the BIC KIDS Evolution Ecolutions pencils to doodle an image which he then added colour too. I'm not exactly sure what they are - but they look like pretty cool characters to me!

Here's a little video to hear directly from the kids just how much they loved the BIC KIDS range of products:




COMPETITION INFO:
Over on Mumsnet, BIC is running a fabulous competition with a totally awesome prize! If your child is aged 5-11 and dreams of having their artwork seen by all, then this is the comp for you. 10 winners (as judged by a panel of experts) will have their artwork created into a billboard poster and displayed on a billboard in a town near them. What a unique and amazing prize!

ENTER THE COMPETITION HERE.

It closes on 6th August 2017 and you need to be registered with mumsnet to take part. The full details can be found here.

Disclosure: 
"I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. I have received a voucher as a token of thanks for this post."

 Thank You BIC KIDS and Mumsnet for sending us the BIC KIDS products to try!!!

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Miss T's 5th birthday - Great Ormond Street, Pescatori and The LEGO store

After writing up J's belated birthday post the other day, I realised I was even further behind with writing up Miss T's birthday from way back in April! I did write up her Miffy cake blogpost but not what she got up to on her actual birthday...(Warning...this is a photo-heavy post!)

Peter Pan Statue at GOSH

One of the downsides about having Juvenile Arthritis is hospital appointments - and lots of them. I recently wrote about how a week in the life of a child with JIA can look and it's often filled with appointments with various doctors, eye consultants, physiotherapists, and more.

Miss T's podiatry appointment at Great Ormond Street hospital came through for the same day as her birthday. As appointments there are in such high demand, you take what you're given and even though it meant paying a small fortune for peak train tickets as the appointment was in the morning, and spending part of her birthday in the hospital, we knew we had to go rather than risk a big delay in trying to change the appointment. Her podiatry appointment was actually due in January so it was already later than scheduled.

As it fell in the Easter holidays, we decided we would all go to London and make a day of it. We booked a meal at Pescatori for lunch (which was a wonderful prize I'd won with SquareMeal last year but we hadn't found a time we could take it until now). Pescatori is an Italian seafood restaurant in London's Fitztrovia district.

This obviously isn't a review post so I'll let the photos speak for themselves...in short the food, service and ambience was fabulous at Pescatori. It's also worth mentioning that even if you're not a big seafood fan, then there are enough other amazing choices on the menu to have a wonderful meal.

Olive fan!

The zucchini / Courgette fries are a MUST! 

a birthday message and candle for Miss T was a lovely touch! 

Magical private dining room downstairs! 

In the afternoon, we took Miss T to the LEGO store in Leicester square after seeing it featured on the LEGO Christmas programme, as Miss T ADORES all things LEGO. She loves the visits we've had to LEGOland and our hotel stays there (you can read about them here, here and here and she's desperate to go back again), she loves making things with LEGO with daddy, she loves watching the LEGO movie, I think you get the picture!

I'm on the mailing list to get LEGO press releases and although the things that get sent are interesting, they rarely really catch my eye amongst the 300 or so emails that hit my inbox each day. But one recent one really did...and as this post talks about Miss T's JIA, it seems relevant and hugely worthy of a mention here. It talks of an inspiring young lad.

I was impressed when I read that he was a blackbelt at age 8 - the World's youngest! Both J and D used to do karate sessions when they were younger and I know how much effort and discipline it takes to do well in it.

And then when I read about this amazing young lad, Jake Frood (or should I say Master Jake Frood), having Juvenile arthritis, well the tears started flowing.

Just like Miss T, "At just the age of 2 years old he was unable to walk without experiencing extreme pain." the press release read.

It is such a massive encouragement for parents and children with JIA to see kids like Jake. He is a huge role model and we applaud him for overcoming so much and doing so well.

At the CCAA conference we attended recently, there was a fair bit of chat about how kids with JIA need a role model, firstly to help raise awareness that children can and do get arthritis. Secondly to give them hope - with successful treatment and a positive mindset, they can achieve anything!

Finally it was time for a spot of present opening at home. The amazing Dick Bruna parcel from our friends at Gifts from the Pirates was a massive hit with Miss T.

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