14 July 2020

SUMMER FUN IN THE GARDEN WITH SMOBY | AD


Summer has arrived and we're spending a lot more time in the garden and going for local walks. With using public transport a lot trickier and with the current climate meaning we should be staying home more we're using our garden a lot more! We recently moved back in March to our new home and we've finally got a useable garden again... our last one resembled a jungle.
Our littles are absolutely obsessed with the garden and the outside, we're very much the outdoorsy type which means garden toys are usually top of the birthday present lists.

Lucas has just learnt to ride a bike and has a huge love for role play and being creative, Iris is very much about playing with her dollies and role play too and Rufus well you can find him playing with cars, sand or hiding in a play house. So they all have a love for different things and different areas but also SOMETIMES play nicely together... Miracle ey? Parents.

Finding out Smoby wanted to work with us on some of their garden products was such genuinely exciting news as their products are perfect for our little family. We were sent 3 products and all 3 have been heavily used already, thank you British Summertime. We were sent a Smoby Trike for Rufus, A kitchen and a car, slide, sandpit, extravaganza basically.


Car Sand Pit and Slide - RRP £219.99

My absolute favourite item is the Car Sand Pit and Slide. It does so much more than just be a sand pit and slide in the shape of a car. The wheels are a tunnel, bonnet is a sandpit, it's an actual car and it has a slide that turns into a water slide too. WHAT? 

I'll take you on a little virtual tour of the item via photos.

Tunnel Wheels



We'll start with the wheels, it's a really fun area for the littles. Its a built in tunnel which is a really simple feature but with three energetic children, it can be fantastic for a fun game. Down the slide, run through the tunnel and back up the slide and repeat... 50,000 times to get them to finally sleep through the night. Thank me later. Ha.


The Car Part

The car part of course doesn't involve a moving vehicle but that's not the purpose of this particular toy. The car has a movable steering wheel, a key that clicks when you turn it and a horn of course! Rufus LOVES horns. The car seat  is big enough to squeeze all 3 in too, so that solves half the arguments, it's the fact that the car doesn't have 3 steering wheels... apparently "CARS DON'T HAVE 3 STEERING WHEELS SO YOU MUST SHARE" Doesn't satisfy under 6's, who'd have guessed. Smoby, I do not expect you to change the design to fit the needs of my very needy children, Rufus likes it just the way it is. 




The Slide

The slide is amazing, not only is it a regular slide, if you attach it to your hose pipe it's a water slide. I am so excited to get the paddling pool out and to attach them both together for more fun. The steps for the slide are the back of the seat inside the car and tested on all 3 children to see how easy it was for them to climb and all 3 including the biggest and the smallest can manage them. I was interested to see whether a 6 year old would be too big and whether a 18 month old would be too little ut both managed it with no concerns. So great for all ages. 


The water slide is great for those days when you just cannot be bothered to pull the paddling pool out and fill it up. it's great for that. It also managed to water the garden too, so that's a plus. 
We've had a plastic slide before and still have it and it's great for rufus' size but the other two were starting to out grow it quite a lot so it's great for them to have a higher slide but not one too high where I am panicking about Rufus breaking his neck. I find most plastic slides go from 0-100 with no middle ground most of the time for sizing, its either for babies or older children, which isn't great for a parent with 3 children ranging in ages but this slide is great and Lucas in particular loves using the handles to give himself more speed, he's the daredevil.

As for the water slide part, it's so easy, just attach the hose and turn it on, the faster the pressure the higher and faster it squirts so for your neighbours sake slowly turn it on for the perfect flow. 





 

I am yet to fill the sandpit yet due to not having any spare sand but they're already using it as storage. As for the putting together of this item? It looks a lot more daunting that it is. I built it solo and it was the easiest thing to put together, a screwdriver was needed once I think and the rest of it is screwed in with a 2p coin and I truly will never want to buy and build a competitor brand again. This was so easy and didn't require me to need Stephen Hawkins, a high IQ and half a tool kit to build, yet is so sturdy and safe and well made. GO SMOBY.

SMOBY 3 IN 1 TRIKE - RRP £94.99

My second favourite product of the three! I was hesitant about a trike but knew Rufus would love it as he's obsessed with cars, "Choo choos" and well anything with wheels. We've had a competitor brand in the past and truthfully I hated it so much I sold it basically brand new, the wheels would just spin in any direction possible, it would lean to one side and nearly fall over and was impossible to push so you couldn't take it out for a walk as you'd find your baby heading for the road. 

Building this trike was so easy, don't ask Brad as he'll say the opposite but that's on his DIY skills not Smoby. I built all 3 of these and the quality is amazing, we could tell instantly this was miles better than the other two we've had in the past and when we took it for a walk it was so easy to steer, cross roads and I can push it with one hand when needed, great with multiple kids and crossing roads. Honestly, I LOVE IT. 


It has a little basket on the back for water bottles and snacks (usually bananas) and the little bag on the back slots on and off and can actually be taken off and has a strap to use yourself as a handbag if items inside are heavier or make it unbalanced. I tend to chuck my phone in here, a water bottle for myself and a lip balm. 

The sun shade is amazing too. Rufus has a habit of knocking his hat off so it protects his little noggin just that little bit more and stops him over heating. I think it also looks a bit fancy too. Its easy to adjust depending on the suns location too. 


The other thing about this that I love is the foot plates. Currently Rufus is too little to peddle but Iris is at a stage when she fancies using it that she can and the foot plates are easily adjustable and can be moved in seconds but when in use don't move at all. These means there's no worry of getting Rufus' feet caught in the peddles and causing an issue but if Iris fancies a turn she can peddle to her hearts content without taking anything apart. 

The trike is overall one of the best on the market and I would genuinely highly recommend it overly any of the other brands out there. It just feels so safe, secure and sturdy and of course as time goes on and he grows up we can adapt it with him. Currently we have it on the first stage, the second stage includes removing the handle we use to push it and the foot plates and the third stage is removing the plastic bit around the seat which stops them falling out and hurting themselves. 



Tefal French Touch Kitchen - RRP £85


The last item of the 3! Not my most favourite item as a few of the bits could have slotted in a bit better but it's so minor and the littles love it nonetheless. We currently have a wooden kitchen in the playroom but when the weathers nice they want to play with it but I also want them to play in the back garden and moving one kitchen to the garden and back can be a right ol' pain so this is fantastic and being plastic unless it's raining it can just stay outside no problem. So it's a versatile indoor/outdoor toy. It is primarily an indoor toy but there's no rules with role play toys except don't break it. 

The Kitchen is a lovely red colour and has a few super cool, mind blowing bits with it, which the littles love as they feel like magicians.




I love a few parts of this which I think are really clever like the ice part which you can dispense little ice cubes out.
I also love the coffee machine too which you get little coffee pods to put in and Lucas gets very excited for making my coffee and will put the milk in and then the coffee and waits and makes the noises. Got a little barista on my hands I am sure. Hopefully he'll own a cake and coffee shop of his own one day and I can sit and be his taste tester when I'm retired and old. Dreams.



Watching the littles teach Rufus how to cook on the BBQ part and making pancakes, with Iris washing up in the sink. You have the magic pot, magic meats and the magic pancake too, well that's what my children have been calling them.

So with the magic pancake you can flip it in the pan and it cooks, the same with the magic meats, you flip them and they start red and turn brown and the magic pan... well that blew minds. You put the lid on and its empty, you say "bibbidy bobbidy boo" and BAM, pasta appears. Honestly, don't ask questions and we''ll keep the magicians secret. They never do reveal their secrets (joking, you pop the lid and it drops in)



The kitchen is great and comes with lots of food bits, stickers, ice and the Lucas likes making food in the oven too. The kitchen could be a little sturdier and a bit easier to click everything in but overall it does the job and is a lovely little kitchen.



Smoby has been such a fantastic brand to work with and the products truly are fantastic. Its definitely a brand I'll keep buying from now. We already owned the Smoby playhouse and it's been going perfectly for 5 years without a single crack, break or anything falling off so I have high hopes for these. The trike and the car are my two favourite products and are my highly recommended products out of the 3. Thank you Smoby.



*This is a paid partnership with Smoby in return for honest content in the form of a blog post and 3 social posts. All words and pictures are my own and honest. Smoby have had no creative control over the post and all creative control was my own*



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