Last Monday, my eldest daughter turned four. A big milestone, this is the age where things suddenly start to get a bit more grown up, with just 3 months to go until she starts the world of education! *Sob*

I love reading about what other people have bought their kids for inspiration so here’s the lowdown on some of the gifts Erin opened up this birthday. This year, we wanted to maintain a balance of education and fun, and as Erin is a big Disney fan, the princesses inevitably made an appearance!! 🙂

Puzzles & Games

Erin loves puzzles and jigsaws, and she loves being creative too. I fell in love with these double sided Puzzle & Colour jigsaws from Jumbo Games* – large floor puzzles which they can colour in on one side! These giant floor puzzles (1) are available in lots of different designs featuring some of Erin’s favourite characters such as Peppa Pig and Frozen. Erin is still as obsessed with frozen as she was 12 months ago – I am amazed that the novelty hasn’t worn off yet – God help us when the next one comes out! She is finally getting to the point where she can colour in a more tidy fashion and stay within the lines, so I think she will really enjoy this as a rainy day project!

Erin has loved Happyland since she was tiny and loves the fact I have got it back out for Neve to play with! When I saw a Guess Who style Happyland Who Am I? Game (2) in the Early Learning Centre, I couldn’t resist. Guess Who is a classic game that I played as a child back in the 80’s, and I used to love trying to guess the characters by describing their physical characteristics like glasses and hair colour. On opening Erin didn’t really understand what it was, but I am looking forward to teaching her how to play. I know she will love knocking down all the characters as they are eliminated! 🙂

Also on the games theme, were these fab games from Drummond Park Games – Barbeque Party* (3) and Wordsearch Junior* (4) The Barbeque Party was a real hit – a fun activity game where you are challenged to build up your burger with tongs without making it pop. Warning though you have to be realllllly careful -as one false move and the rack will catapult the food off and you will have to start all over again! Erin absolutely LOVED this – and found it hilarious when all the pieces flew into the air. Wordsearch Junior is great for helping Erin learn to recognise patterns of letters, and has various stages of complexity from picture recognition to first readers.

Lego

Erin loves to build. For her first birthday she had Megabloks, her second, Duplo and now proper ‘grown up’ Lego. At four, she has much more patience and enjoys making much more intricate designs, building towers, creating shopping centres and garages, and building princess castles. This Lego Junior set* (5) is perfect for this, with smaller pieces and easy to follow instructions so that we can build the designs together whilst her sister naps! 🙂 Suitable for 4-7 year olds, the set we opted for includes  detailed accessories such as a mooring rope, fridge, fruit, blender, life jacket and flippers! 🙂

Princess Role Play

Erin LOVES to dress up, having accumulated a fairly broad selection of princess dresses shoes and accessories over the years!! We’ve treated her to a Jasmine outfit (6) this year to add to her collection, which comes with it’s own little genie bottle and tiara. With this fabulous little pop up princess boutique (7) from Prezzybox, Erin will love acting out being a shop keeper to wannabe princesses and helping her friends decide which outfit to style themselves in for the day!

Erin has started to collect Itty Bittys* (8) having had a few of them sent to us earlier in the year for review. With Disney Princess versions launching later in the year (EEEEK!), for now Erin is loving the Wizard of Oz characters including the Dorothy and the Glinda the Good Witch! 🙂

Unicorns

What is it with unicorns all of a sudden? They seem to be everywhere?! Erin loves them and with her starting school in September we thought she would love the unicorn bag (9) and accessories from what2buy4kids. There’s definitely no forgetting which bag is hers with this bold and bright design, and it even has a little side pocket for her to pop her drink!

DC Comics Dolls

Finally, a real hit from Nanny were the WonderWoman and Bat Girl DC Comics Dolls (10) It’s great to see a female superhero and from a personal point of view, its nice to see her play with dolls that are a bit more tough and brave than some of the traditional ‘damsels in distress’!

Erin had a fabulous day out for her birthday at Drayton Manor’s Thomasland (review coming soon) and a big family party at home. I am sure she will be talking about this birthday for many months to come!

*Disclosure – Items marked with an * were sent to me free of charge for inclusion in my feature. This post also contains some affiliate links.*