Sweet Pups review

I have to be honest - when I first showed Juliette the latest toy to arrive for review, she didn't look impressed. Then again, I did tease her and tell her it was a fake croissant.

Which is perfectly true. In real life, it looks a lot more realistic than it does with the camera flash and it has the same soft, squishy texture as a croissant fresh from the bakery, as well as a lovely sweet smell.

After putting it on a plate and telling her that we could serve it to Pierre or Sophie as an April Fool's Day breakfast, I relented and showed her the packaging. It was, in fact, a Sweet Pups, a new range of ultra-cute collectibles with a gorgeous cuddly canine hiding inside  a sweet treat.

She was still dubious, but her expression completely changed as she started to turn it inside out.

Once it's completely inside out, there's a little velcro strip to stick the two sides together.

Not quite invisible but you'd never guess that this was a croissant two minutes ago !

It's quite unbelievable when you see the decent-sized, perfectly formed soft toy that was inside the croissant. Juliette was particularly impressed because it has big eyes and reminds her of her beloved Beany Boos.

There are twelve different poochy/pastry pals to collect, including macarons and sticky buns, and Juliette would happily buy the lot. They're great fun and it's truly magical when you start turning them inside out and revealing the hidden toy inside. The only thing we would possibly change is the name - we joked that they should have called them Pet-isserie Pals !

I just want to give a special mention to the lovely people at Wire PR, who, on hearing the sad news from The Madhouse, sent a lovely package of extra goodies to help put a smile back on the kids' faces.

Pierre was most impressed with the Tumblstix because he'd seen his favourite youtubers playing with them in videos, and we've all been trying to master the Zing Dama Flip 'n' Catch - a high tech, light-up version of the old-fashioned cup and ball game that I remember playing with in my own childhood. 

We've also been having great fun with Stik'Em, which combines the best of both traditional and hi-tech worlds - a good old-fashioned "snap" type game with the addition of using a tablet for double the fun, matching the cards with their sound effects and being the first to grab them with a sucker on a stick. Hilarious fun whatever your age and it's amazing how competitive everyone gets !