Recently I was sent from Ellie's Eating 'The Real Food for Kids Cookbook'. It is a unique cookbook designed for parents to share with their children and cook together.

The recipes in the cookbook are simple and easy to follow covers all different types of meals and snacks.  

The author Eloise is a professional chef and has over 20 years of experience working in commercial kitchens. This is her first published cookbook. 

Alyssa's Little Opinion: I love cooking in the kitchen with mum but its not so much fun when I have to help clean up the mess!!!!!
My favourite recipe was the Kiss Biscuits, we put ice cream between them and they were so yummy!
I also liked making my homemade pizza and choosing my own toppings.
I cannot wait to make more things.

Ellie's Little Opinion: When we received the cookbook it was lots of fun flicking the pages  and finding recipes that I would like to make.
Top of the list was the Kiss Biscuits I had so much fun making and eating them. I also liked how mum let me help her with the electric mixer that was so fast and noisy. I cannot wait for another free weekend so I can cook Banana bread.

Mum's Big Opinion: When we first received the cookbook the girls where so excited and quickly picked out their favourites.

We have cooked around 6 meals from the cookbook and yes I closed my eyes to the mess and the girls helped make all of recipes!

Under supervision they had turns on the hand held blender and helped with the mixing, pouring, measuring and of course licking the spoon!
It has been fun and yes messy cooking with the kids, but lots of laughs!

I like the idea the kids get to participate in the cooking and watching what goes into their meals and watching them eat their own creations.

I have a feeling we will be referring to this cookbook often in the future for more ideas to cook!

Key Information:
- The Real Food For Kids Cookbook is now available and retails for $29.00
- You can purchase the cookbook online at www.eloiseemmett.com

Recently I attended a cosmetic “Home” party. The party was about a skin care and make up range.

The party consisted of my friends and family. We all sat around the table enjoying a glass of bubbles, whilst having a facial and checking out the products.   What I wasn't aware of, my Little Opinions were spying on the party and making notes on the event.

Here is their point by point outlook from 4 kids aged between 5-8, on cosmetic parties.

• They are talking about different makeup and were it’s from
  
  
• They are now taking off their own makeup
  
  
• They are all laughing at each other
  
  
• Now they are trying out cream on their face
  
  
• They are saying they can really feel the difference
  
  
• Now they are putting water on their face
  
  
• They are saying funny make up jokes
  
  
• They all look funny
  
  
• Here comes to the lipstick
  
  
• Ohh I just went over and they smell funny
  
  
• Now they are reviewing the prices
  
  
• They are laughing about how old they are
  
  
• They think they look younger with the makeup on (they look older)
  
  
• They think they are so young but they are so old especially grandma
  
  
• They look really weird in the makeup and so different
  
  
• Oh they are getting suspicious time to abort.
  

Doh Vinic is made by the same people as Play Doh. It is promoted as creativity that pops off the page. 
Doh Vinci,  can be used on their templates or on wood, metal, cardboard, glass, paper and duct tape.

You create your master piece by using the different deco pop coloured tubes along with the sculpting tool. Squeeze the sculpting  tool for the colour to come out and start creating your piece. 

You then leave your newly  created design out overnight to dry.

Ellie's Little Opinion:  I was really excited to receive my Doh Vinci as it looked just like the ads on TV. When I opened it I thought it would be more like paint, but its like soft Playdoh.

It was fun to use, but at first I found it very frustrating as the doh was hard to get out and tricky to use. Because it is soft doh and not paint, it's hard to get the doh on the lines and follow the patterns how I want.

The more times I used it,  the easier it seems to place the doh where you want it.
It is easy to swap the colours and pop them into the sculpting tool.

Mum's Big Opinion: It sounds great, it looks great ,but I am not 100% sold on the final product.

Even after a few days the doh doesn't seem to completely set and when you touch it, it does still move around and is not set hard.

At first it was very frustrating for my 8 year old as the doh just wouldn't go in the places she wanted it or too much doh came out or just made blobs. It does seem to get easier after several uses, but looking at the ads and then your product it would be very hard to replicate.

If your kids are interested I would suggest buying only 1 as after they complete that project I don't think they will be in a hurry to do another one.
Great concept but it's really not as quick and easy as it looks.

Key Information:
-Doh Vinci is recommended for ages 6+.
-You can buy separate coloured refills for your creations.
-There are many different types of creations to buy, eg: Flower Tower, Memory Masterpiece to name a couple or you can use it on other materials.
-You can buy it from Uncle Pete's and Target. 
-For further information you can visit the official Doh Vinci Play-Doh site

Disney Dodo Pop is an app where you need to MATCH & COLLECT gumballs to launch the dodo bird on an island-hopping adventure!

You need to tap a group of matching gumballs to feed them to the dodo. Each level needs to be completed before moving onto the next island!

Ellie's Little Opinion: Dodo Pop is so addictive and so much fun. I cannot keep my hands away from it. As you go up in levels it starts to get harder, and if you don't complete the level you get locked out and have to wait, sometimes up to 30 minutes.
When I get locked out I get very annoyed as I want to keep playing it, but mum says I cannot buy the coupons to continue straight away ,I have to wait it out !!!

Guest Blogger Ebony's Little Opinion:  I like this game and cannot stop playing it. It's so exciting trying to get to the next level. As the levels get harder I don't like waiting when I get locked out to try and finish the level.

Mum's Big Opinion: Dodo Pop, I am not a real game fan but this is sooooo addictive at the moment. I have it on my iPhone and my iPad, when I get locked out I can play the other one.
You do need to be careful of the In app purchases, they seem to give you lots of opportunities to purchase coupons. So far, I have only used the coupons once when I was locked out for 24 hours !!! The game can also be very frustrating when you get caught on a level, if you don't have enough lives' you will get locked out !!! Be careful, once you start popping you will not be able to stop !!!!! 

Key Information:
-There are more than 80 fun and challenging puzzles!
- There are five awesome game types! 
- The app is easy to learn, but challenging to master, especially when you get stuck on a level and get locked out.
- Watch out for the In App purchases that are consistently popping up.
- There are certain levels where you are locked out for a period of time unless you buy in app coupons.

Little Opinions has come across some unique dinnerware, which has been specifically designed for kids and has an educational focus.

The dinner set has mathematical questions for various difficulty levels ,  it includes subtraction, addition, division and multiplication sums to keep kids of all different ages problem solving.

It's a great opportunity for the kids to learn whilst eating and keep them occupied instead of just moving their food around on the plate!!!!

Ellie's Little Opinion: I have never seen plates, cups and bowls like this before, they are so different to anything I have eaten out off. I have really liked eating my meals from the plates as it was fun to read the questions and remember the answers for next time I use them.

Alyssa's Little Opinion: I love picking out the numbers in the bowl, the colours are so bright and colourful. I cannot wait to learn my sums so I can go to Big School !

Mum's Big Opinion: The dinner set which includes a plate, bowl and cup was delivered to me all wrapped up securely to ensure no breakages in the post. 

When Little Opinions used the dinner set it opened up lots of discussion around meal time on the maths questions and everyone was having a turn at answering the questions - ok so Alyssa was guessing, and I accidently  got one wrong .  

We have used the dinner set several times and washed it in the dishwasher and it still looks new. But, it looks like I'll need to buy a second set. With 2 kids they are always discussing who will use it  i.e. fighting over it.  

This dinner set is a great concept. A dinner set with letters or key sight words would be a great addition.

Product Information:

• The dinnerware is owned and designed in Australia by The Busy Mum's Store.
• The product is made from 100% melamine, which is BPA free and can be used in the dishwasher.
• The plate is 25cm in diameter, the bowl is 1.5cm x 6cm height and the tumbler is 8cm x 10cm height.
• We have the pink dinner set, it's also available in blue.
• You can purchase the items as a set or individually . They can be purchased online or The Busy Mum's store also attends markets. For further details you can check out their website The Busy Mum's store or pop over to their Facebook page.