It’s rapidly coming around to Izzys 4th birthday and like every other parent I’m asking myself how did that happen? It seems like just a moment ago that she was a newborn snug in my arms. Yet here she is, nearly four years old. As happy, funny and full of life as I could have hoped she would be.

We are starting to plan her birthday party, no grand affairs here just a simple tea party with her family and friends. Last year it was Frozen themed. We pulled the projector down and screened the film with popcorn and in the garden we had cakes and sandwiches with a visit from Olaf ( we have family connections 😉 ). This year she is yet to decide exactly what she wants but we will figure it out.

What to get the girl who seemingly has toys coming out of her ears? Well first of all a good clear out of her existing toy stash. Some passed onto family and friends, others passed onto the charity shop and some only fit for the recycling bin.

These are some of the gift ideas she has thrown at me, others are things I like and also items we have previously been sent to review:

She has asked for a camera. It’s one of the only specific things she wants. She tries to use mine a lot of the time and I’m undecided as to whether to get a child specific camera like this one:

Or just a basic cheap camera. What would you do?

This years must have on the Christmas toy list is My Friend Freddy and I think Izzys face would light up if she opened this on her birthday. You can tell this clever teddy up to 50 details about your child so that it can astound them with how well he knows them. It can be tailored to the age of your child and can also be paired with a phone or tablet. Pretty cool huh?

Sometimes it’s nice to buy/give gifts which won’t fall apart when dropped, gifts which look pretty yet natural and feel almost like an educational aid. We love this Noah’s Ark from Born Gifted:

Pip Ahoy is one of the TV programmes that Izzy has recently started watching and just in time they have brought out a fabulous selection of character based toys like this:

Izzy has lots of hand me downs from her numerous cousins so we don’t often have to buy clothes for her but when we do I like them to be cute and functional as well as comfortable.

I also love this Paul Frank Tee – Izzy calls it her shiny Monkey top:

We love wellies, the last year we have worn and worn and worn these awesome Bogs boots:

Unfortunately they have now just about outgrown them and we have moved onto these ones from Brantano which are cute and easy to pop on.

If your children are anything like mine then sticker books, play doh and colouring books will go down a storm. We like these painting with water books from Aldi ( a bargain at 99p ) which reminds me of my childhood. Do you remember being amazed at how the water changed the colour of the pictures?

Also from Aldi and great for any Frozen fans are these activity tents. They can be used separately or together and my two will have hours of fun with it I’m sure:

Even 4 year olds can be scared of the dark, although actually Izzy has no problem with it during the night but after her bedtime story she likes to have her light on for a little while when she’s all dozy. For the past two years we have used an Owl nightlight from Lindam which I can highly recommend. Haven’t had to change the batteries yet and it’s used daily. We are now passing that onto Chloe and Izzy will be using this bear nightlight from PK Green Shop:

Now just the cake to consider..which of course she insists I have to make. No pressure then after she declared last years to be the best cake ever in the world.

* some products in this post have been gifted to us for the purpose of a review.