Never-ending Play With Sylvanian Families...

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with Sylvanian Families, from the cute little animal families to the various houses, vehicles and shops, she will no doubt own all their products by the time she's ten! Last week we were lucky enough to receive their gorgeous Seaside Ice Cream Shop and Toy Poodle set to review, and Molly couldn't get enough of them!

I love how minimal the packaging is, as you can see from the Seaside Ice Cream Shop, it's mostly cardboard and hardly any plastic is used. It was easy to take all the pieces out and Molly unpacked most of it without my help (even though I was keen to take part!). 

The Toy Poodles are an adorable set, with their cute faces and teeny outfits, even I couldn't wait to play with them! Their outfits are so cute and you can swap them between different families to mix and match. 

As for the Ice Cream Shop, it had lots of lovely quirky bits and bobs to fit together, and it was easily completed by Molly (age 6) without any help from me (again!). 

You simply slot all the right pieces into the right holes and you have the basic structure of the shop complete. The set comes with  all the pieces and stickers to make an adorable shop as well as accessories to pop into the shop plus a Striped Cat Mother character! I particularly adore the little ice cream scoops...

There's a lot to keep your little one(s) busy, from scooping ice cream to dishing out cones and sitting on the lovely furniture supplied within the set.

I also adore the little story books provided with both sets; they give a little background to the toys and offer you a way into the kind of play children love. I think the stories help us adults delve deeper into the world of play, because I think it's safe to say the majority of adults have sadly grown up a bit too much. Even I'm guilty of not getting on the floor and getting stuck in with play, and I have a daughter that could spend every waking hour doing just that! 

 

As soon as Molly had set up the shop, we read both stories and really enjoyed them and then it was time to play! We both chose our characters and lost ourselves in floor play, you know the kind of play where you find yourself lying on your stomachs and putting on different voices as your characters interact, and in that magical moment you feel like a child again…

As you can see from the photographs, the set is absolutely gorgeous, high quality and brightly decorated with gorgeous colours and shapes. You can take the pieces out and play with them, or place them into the shop and use them. You can seat up to four characters, but you can also spread outside of the shop and there are other sets you can purchase to attach to the shop, such as the Seaside Restaurant and other connectable sets.

You can purchase the Sylvanian Families Seaside Ice Cream Shop and Toy Poodle Family from many stores, such as Hamleys, Smyths and Argos. I found the shop for £24.97 from Asda and the family set from Jacinabox for £13.50, such good value for so much play time!

Molly (and I!) adore the Sylvanian toys sent out way; they're fun, interactive, cute and encourage mass amounts of play. I think the quality is unquestionable, and the joy gained from playing with these cute little animal families in these gorgeous themed surroundings is absolutely priceless.


Disclosure: I received Sylvanian Families toy sets in exchange for review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.