Review: CBeebies Play Time DVD

At home, our TV channel of choice is CBeebies. It’s packed with all of his favourites and he loves to wind down after a hard day at school with a snack. We were sent the CBeebies Play Time DVD to watch and the small boy didn’t take long to decide that it was already one of his favourites.

The 2 hour long CBeebies Play Time DVD from Abbey Home Media features all of his CBeebies favourites and for over 2 hours of fun-filled entertainment. With 12 episodes in the collection; including Teletubbies;Twirlywoos; In The Night Garden; Peter Rabbit; Topsy & Tim; Mike the Knight; The Furchester Hotel; Octonauts; Q Pootle 5; Ruff–Ruff; Tweet and Dave; Chuggington and Cloudbabies.

CBeebies Play Time DVD

The CBeebies Play Time DVD is a great way of entertaining young children with its familiar, well-loved characters and diverse range of fun and engaging shows.

Although we didn’t sit down and watch the whole DVD in one sitting, he did enjoy the variety of programmes on this DVD. He even liked watching the shows more suited to younger children. I think maybe he’s watching them from a slightly different perspective and getting something new out of them.

Naturally he had some favourites –

Peter Rabbit – The One That Got Away. When Peter and his friends encounter the legendary “Jack Sharp”, a large trout that even Peter’s father failed to catch; they try to reel the fish in once and for all. But catching a fish is a lot harder than it looks.

Topsy and Tim – In New Pet Topsy and Tim love caring for their new pet rabbit but struggle to agree on his name. When they notice how wiggly his nose is, they know just what to call him.

Mike the Knight – In Hidden Garden Games. When Mike, Evie and the Queen have a competition in the Hidden Garden, Mike learns that it’s good to let everyone have a turn to play. But it’s even better when everyone plays together.

Octonauts – In Mimic Octopus Peso is gathering red algae to cure the sick vegimals but needs the help of a Mimic Octopus to scare off a Moray eel. The eel uses its striped tentacles to pretend to be a group of poisonous sea snakes.

Chuggington – In Koko’s Puppy Training Koko Koko finds a lost puppy and wants to keep it. Koko soon realises a little girl is looking for the puppy and decides that she needs to take him home.

The CBeebies Play Time DVD is another great collection of CBeebies classics and ideal for keeping the little ones entertained this summer!

Order your copy of the CBeebies Play Time DVD today!

CBeebies Play Time DVD

Charity: Children in Need Pudsey and Friends DVD

This year Children in Need is on 18th November. Our favourite fundraising bear Pudsey has teamed up with Cbeebies and Abbey Home Media to put together a very special Pudsey and Friends DVD compilation, featuring 15 episodes from some of CBeebies’ best loved shows.

Pudsey and Friends DVD

The Pudsey and Friends DVD has over 3 hours of pre-school fun and includes the following episodes –

Twirlywoos – Turning
Peter Rabbit – The Tale of Old Rusty
Something Special – Circus
Bing – Hearts
Teletubbies – Conga
In The Night Garden – Upsy Daisy only wants to Sing
Mike the Knight – The Snoring Dragon
Charlie & Lola – I Can Train Your Dog
Timmy Time – Timmy’s Picnic
Sarah and Duck – Sarah, Duck and The Penguins
Chuggington – Trainee Camp
The Furchester Hotel – Peckity Woodpecker
Octonauts – Porcupine Puffer
Cloudbabies – Rainbows Orchestra
Q Pootle 5 – Pootle’s New Spaceship

The Children in Need Pudsey and Friends DVD is a great way to raise money to help disadvantaged children and young people throughout the UK. A minimum of £2 from the sale of every DVD will go towards helping children and young people across the UK have a safe, happy and secure childhood and the chance to reach their full potential.

Pudsey and Friends DVD

Compilation DVDs are always very popular with us, and the Pudsey and Friends DVD is no exception. I think we both appreciate a DVD with a variety of things to watch on it, and this DVD is jam packed with Cbeebies fun. It’s great value too, it’s currently just £5 on Amazon (with £2 going to Children in Need).

The Pudsey and Friends DVD is a very special compilation and a great way of entertaining young children. The DVD is full of familiar, well-loved characters from a whole range of Cbeebies favourites, all brought together to help raise funds for a fantastic cause.

The Pudsey and Friends DVD is rated U, it runs for 180 minutes and is widely available online and in the shops now.

Disclosure: We received a Pudsey and Friends DVD for the purposes of writing this review, all opinions and images are our own. Contains Amazon affiliate links.

Review: CBeebies All Stars DVD

One of the best things we’ve ever bought for the small boy was a small portable DVD player. During our annual 7 hour schlep to Cornwall it provides an excellent back of the car entertainment service, plus it means that if he fancies watching his favourite shows in our TV-less cottage he can do so.

He’s a massive CBeebies fan, and though his tastes have changed as he’s grown up, he loves to watch The Octonauts, Peter Rabbit, Mike the Knight, Chuggington and The Clangers, amongst others. So the CBeebies All Stars DVD seemed a good bet.

CBeebies All Stars DVD

He was almost beside himself when the CBeebies All Stars Bumper Collection DVD popped through our letter box. Released on 7th September, and rated U, the CBeebies All Stars DVD contains over two hours of CBeebies fun, including the Twirlywoos, Peter Rabbit, Octonauts, In The Night Garden, Mike the Knight, Chuggington, Furchester, Dipdap, Cloudbabies, The Clangers and Topsy and Tim.

The CBeebies All Stars DVD is a great DVD for any CBeebies fan, with all of their favourites in one place – and it certainly kept him entertained on our long journey!

Follow CBeebies on Facebook here.

CBeebies All Stars DVD

The In The Night Garden Ride 1st Birthday Party at Alton Towers

As party invitations go the invitation to the first birthday of the In The Night Garden Magical Boat Ride at Alton Towers was pretty much up there as one of the best yet! The small boy (and his parents) were invited to Alton Towers to meet Daisy, Iggle Piggle and co and to party like only they can In The Night Garden.

It seems strange to me that Cbeebies Land and the In The Night Garden magical boat ride is only one year old, it feels like it has been there forever. We went last year when it hadn’t been open for very long and we had the best time, so we were excited to be returning to Alton Towers.

We arrived and the party was already in full swing, with the chance to actually meet Daisy and Iggle Piggle as well as join in learning a dance routine, try your hand at some In The Night Garden themed crafts, get your face painted or get a balloon model of anything you wanted (he went for a magpie – no idea why).

Alton Towers

There was lots to see and do and the staff were amazing, the small boy loved colouring in a stone for Makka Pakka and covering it with glittery gems and he liked putting the beads in a bauble which you made into a rattle, he was very careful to pick out beads with the letters of his name on, which made it a bit special for him.

Alton Towers

After a few hours of partying we were ready to go and explore Cbeebies Land – he couldn’t wait to get back in Postman Pat’s van and was keen to explore the brand new Octonauts Ride, and we couldn’t possibly leave without having a go on the In The Night Garden Magical Boat Ride!

Alton Towers

We went on as many rides as we could manage before we had to set off home. I like Cbeebies Land because I’m not a lover of huge scary roller-coasters and the smaller, calmer rides of Cbeebies Land are about as much as I can cope with, the boys however do enjoy the thrills and spills of a theme park.

A particular favourite is (and I’m not just saying this) the In The Night Garden magical boat ride, it’s a lovely restful boat ride around the night garden where the characters appear around corners and sing to you from the trees, it’s a lovely bit of serenity for the adults and for the children it’s a chance to spot their favourite characters.

As part of the birthday celebrations the Cbeebies Land team with the help of Dreamtex Ltd managed to break the world record for the world’s biggest polar fleece blanket, the blanket was an exact (but giant) replica of Iggle Piggle’s blanket and it is adorable! Well done Iggle Piggle!

For more information about Cbeebies Land at Alton Towers, visit their website.

Note: We were invited guests of Cbeebies Land, we were not asked to pay for our tickets and all opinions are our own.

In The Night Garden live

When my Mr suggested we take the boy to see his favourite thing in the world my heart sank a little. It’s not that I want to deny him fun, but thanks to BBC iplayer I get “treated” to about four episodes a day and I cannot bear it.

So many months ago I reluctantly agreed, took out a small mortgage and bought some tickets. We refused the horrifyingly expensive add-ones. £15 to meet Daisy. No thanks, if she was going to come back to ours and get cracking with the ironing maybe. But no. £20 for a goodie bag? No! He’s 2 he doesn’t really care.

So we arrived early and we were ushered through the massive inflatable theatre in the car park of the Trafford Centre. The boy didn’t really understand what was going on but did get excited each time he saw a picture of a character. We found what were excellent seats and settled down. As I said, we arrived early and we waited half an hour for it to start. But no worries, they had fabulous projections on the walls which kept the little ones entertained as well as In The Night Garden (ITNG) sound effects. The half hour passed quickly, punctuated only by being mugged for £6 for a twirly light with Iggle Piggle on it, admittedly it kept him entertained for the rest of the evening and beyond. But tat all the same.

The show started much to the boys delight, it was colourful, entertaining and true to the TV version. Both husband and I were horribly bored after about 20 minutes but we were both enchanted by the delight on our sons face. He loved it, every second, every song, everything about it.

It lasted about 50 minutes and much to the boys disappointment we had to leave. In the car on the way home he was shouting “Again, Daisy, again!” Bless him.

Would I go again? Yes. But I do feel like I’ve been spanked for cash, but pretty much anything you do with your kids feels like that these days.

You can find out more about the show here – http://www.nightgardenlive.com/

Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid or asked to write this post, I went of my own accord and paid for the tickets and everything else myself.