A Hawaiian Woody and Jessie doll set that’s what!  And / or a Hawaiian Buzz of course!  These are some of Disney’s Top 10 Christmas gifts for 2011, amazing value at just £25 and are fab in lots of ways, let me tell you how much Woody, Jessie and Buzz are loved at our house.

Toy Story has been big news in this house since, well forever, just look how tiny my Lil H is here in my post “Just call me Woody“.  In 2009  Lil H requested from Father Christmas a Woody doll and a Buzz Lightyear, that wish was fulfilled and they were joined by Jessie for Lil H’s 3rd birthday and now aged 4.5 years these guys are still firm favourites.  Of course Woody, Buzz and Jessie have new playmates but they remain faithfully involved in all superhero rescue missions and the movies Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 are still popular requests.

The dedication, loyalty and love shown to Woody, Buzz and Jessie over the last two years makes them possibly the best value for money toys we own, they have been played more times than there were pennies in their price tags which makes them highly recommended from the Lancaster house of play!  If you don’t have a Woody, Buzz or Jessie in your Toy Box perhaps its time to add one to the letter to Santa.  These dolls also remain in good condition, especially given what they have been through, For example, despite not being a flying toy, Buzz has been flown to infinity and beyond down our stairs more times than I care to remember.  Woody is really the favourite *shh!* his hair is showing a little bald spot where he has been squeezing through small gaps under sofas, beds etc. on rescue missions and he lost his voice following an momentary lapse of parental supervision at bath time.  Jessie remains beautiful but has had a small admirer in Diva G who has drooled and sucked her hair as a baby of inappropriate age will do with her big brothers favourite toys.  The joy of having a new Woody, back from hols with a new singing voice and a Jessie all of her own for Diva G will make our Christmas very special this year.

Toy Story reappeared on the big screen with an animated short “Toy Story Hawaiian Vacation” with the Cars 2 and now the new range of Toy Story Dolls are available with the Hawaiian Woody and Jessie doll set and Hawaiian Buzz making the Disney Top 10 Christmas gifts.  They are the same dolls underneath their Hawaiian outfits which given them an extra outfit and “dress up” element for imaginative play.  We were sent the double pack with a talking Woody & Jessie dolls sporting fun and colourful Hawaiian attire.  Wearing their hula outfits they say over 20 songs and sentences, new and related to the Hawaiian movie and I have to say they amazing value now online at the Disney store where the Woody & Jessie Talking Hawaiian Vacation Double Doll Set is available for just £25! 

Thank you Disney for remembering that Lil H was a massive Toy Story fan and sending us these brilliant toys dolls.  If you haven’t seen Toy Story Hawaiian Vacation which screened with Cars 2,  here’s the official trailer for you – you can find more links to fan pages at the bottom of the post too.

Related links
Web:  http://www.disneystore.co.uk   http://www.disney.co.uk/
You  Tube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/WaltDisneyStudiosUK
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/DisneyMoviesUK
Twitter:  @DisneyMoviesUK

Back in July we went for our first viewing of the, in my opinion, awesome Toy Story 3 

Below is My Lil’ H and his best mate Woody waiting, I’ll be honest not that patiently, by the front door to go and see the movie for the first time. 

I have been twice and Lil’ H has been 5 times every time delighted to be the excuse for a wide selection of grown ups to go and see the movie.  We now have every feasible Toy Story 3 related product, of course we have the toys Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Zurg, Slinky Dog, Mr Potatoe Head – boy ones, medium sized and little versions.  After the obvious we have the fancy dress outfits, Buzz wings, T-shirts, under pants, duvet & pillow, the kitchen towel, tissues, even drinks and yoghurt’s – Lancaster Towers is as close to a Disney Pixar production as you can get without heading across the Atlantic!

At last the email I have been waiting for from the Mouse has landed with the exciting news that the DVD release date has been announced and Toy Story 3 will be available on Disney Double Play, Triple Play and DVD all with lots of great extras from Monday 22nd November 2010

I have to admit I cried at the movie, of course the reality that my own children are growing up and eventually will feel the nest but also I’m not sure I was always that nice to my own toys.  My doll Francesca (is it just me that thinks this is a slightly odd name for a child to choose for a toy?) where is she now?  I remember finding her once underneath my little brothers bed being held hostage by Eagle Eye Action Man – eek toy torture!

So did what did you think of the movie?  Did you too cry at the movie?  Were you kind to all your toys all of the time?

So I am just back from a London weekend by train and I have a pile of things on my desk that I want to blog about so they are going in this post and my desk will be a whole lot clearer!

I have had the more lovely letter from Sam Pointon, Director of Fun at The National Railway Museum, which kind of inspired my decision to take the children to London by train rather than driving. H loved it, of course he did, kids love trains! I must mention that Sam (who in my opinion has the best job title going!) as Director of Fun is a mere 6 years old, bless him he sent me a stick of rock to enjoy while I had a browse through all the fantastic stuff going on at The National Railway Museum over Summer and beyond – I had no idea there was so much going on and most of it for free. This weekend is Wizard Weekend with the flying stars from the Harry Potter movie providing the entertainment – there is tonnes on right the way through to 5th September and beyond so head over to http://www.nrm.org.uk/summer and I bet you will no longer be wondering what to do with the kids for the rest of the Summer holidays.

I went to The Baby Show ages ago and met up with loads of lovely bloggers and tweeters. I bought Lil H this fab icecream/icelolly holder and it rocks! I just wanted to share it my readers as people have stopped me in the park three times now and asked me where I got it and right now there is 30%off over at www.lessmessproducts.co.uk and I shall be ordering some more as presents.

Back in May I went on a First Aid course specifically for parents of babies and children, best £34 I have ever spent whilst I hope I never need to use any of what I learnt I now feel prepared rather than scared. The course I attended is run by www.bumpsandbashes.com

A new childrens play … I’m going to say environment rather than centre as I think its more appropriate. Glo Family has opened in Cheadle. I took my munchkins down there to check it out as they were putting the finishing touches to it. I am looking forward to popping by and seeing it fully up and running, it’s certainly worth a visit.

We continue with our Baby Led Weaning approach as inspired by Nick at My Daddy Cooks who’s support has been fantastic, and by the way he has a book coming out soon! Baby G is a great little eater, cups and drinking she’s less great at – although I know it just a case of perseverance, the Baby Born Free Training cups we have been sent are great because she can’t pour the contents all over the place as much as she does enjoy a good splash! I’m changing her highchair and will be reviewing the new Cosatto Yumi very soon – think Trip Trap but for more like £80 – if you’re after a wooden highchair I can’t think why you wouldn’t check it out. My Lil H has been as bad an eater as Baby G is a great eater but so much better for being involved in shopping and cooking the food, the guys at Little Peoples Plate wrote to me about their new site www.littlepeoplesplates.co.uk it’s all about helping parents feed their toddlers a healthy diet, it had some useful reminders on there and they have just launched a new resource called ‘Ten Steps for healthy Toddlers’.

Baby G now has teeth! Two bottom and four top teeth to be precise and the rest of them seem to be “in progress” we are testing a number of different teething and feeding products that Nuby have sent her, the Bug A Loop and IcyBite Keys are particularly popular!

Baby is G is working her way through teethers and Lil H is working his way through shoes, we are due a re-measure and new shoes for school and Baby G won’t be far behind with her first pair I expect as H was up on his feet by one year old. The lovely people at Clarks have sent me a voucher towards some shoes so I am going to be off to get H measured before holidays, then order the styles I want online, have them delivered and fitted in store – its great service. They have some great boys and girls styles and a big aw to the first shoes.

In other news locally there is a new womens clothes store opening, BlackWhiteDenim, given that is pretty much my wardrobe I am intrigued to see what’s going to be on offer and working hard to lose the baby weight to fit in it!

This week I am hoping to go for my second viewing of Toy Story 3. I was given tickets to one of the regional previews just before its release and it was nothing short of brilliant in my opinion and I am not surprised to see that it has rocketed into the history books to become the UK’s highest grossing animated movie of all time in just three weeks since its release, the movie has passed the previous record holder, ‘Shrek 2’, with four weeks of summer holidays still to go! If you haven’t been yet I’d totally recommend it.

So three weeks down and at least two more solo weeks to go – I love a clicky post – leave me a comment and let me know if if you liked this one or leave a link if you have posts with stuff you recommend too.

Claire x

P.s. This next link is one that of you are only going to click one, click this one – http://bit.ly/aQRRlV its the link to sign a petition for The Body Shop’s “Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People” campaign. The petition calls for the UK Government to offer safety and wellbeing to young victims of trafficking launches specifically calling for greater care and protection to child victims of trafficking by ensuring every child is provided with a guardian to look after them. One last time Here is the link to sign up to the petition http://bit.ly/aQRRlV

Just four days to go til the release of Toy Story 3 on Monday 19th July and The Mouse has sent me two more featurettes to share.  On a serious note, our Woody is missing, no joke, we didn’t take him on holiday and we can’t find him – off in search again but running out of places to look and yes I am panicking – will report back!  Enjoy the clips!

OLD FRIENDS, NEW PLACES

BATHROOM ESCAPE

There is less than a week to go to the release on Monday 19th July 2010 – I am SOOOOO excited!  Anyway on the final countdown here’s 3 minutes and 39 seconds of Toy Story 3 insights and at last we get to hear the voices of the new faces – Timothy Dalton is a very British Mr Prickle Pants the lederhosen is an act!  Enjoy!