Fun roadster facts about Mickey and the Roadster Racers

Mickey and the Roadster Racers logo

Mickey and the Roadster Racers is coming to Disney Junior, with the premiere on Saturday, 22 April at 9:30 am, DStv Channel 309.
It is a a madcap car-racing adventure series for pre-schoolers led by Disney's No. 1 star, Mickey Mouse, and his pals Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy and Donald.

The series takes Mickey and the gang, along with their unique transforming vehicles, on humorous high-spirited races around the globe, as well as hometown capers in Hot Dog Hills. Off the racetrack, Minnie and Daisy also run their own successful business as Happy Helpers, solving problems for anyone in need of a helping hand. Geared towards kids 2-7, the stories are designed to impart social and emotional lessons about friendship, teamwork, optimism and good sportsmanship.

We were invited to a special screening on Saturday of Mickey and the Roadster Racers. Little Miss is already 8 years, but she enjoyed the four episodes just as much as the rest. She was quite bummed when the last episode got stuck, and we were told to catch the last bit on Disney Junior. (It's too long to wait! ;-) )

Some fun facts about the vehicles in Mickey and the Roadster Racers

All of the transforming vehicles in Mickey and the Roadster Racers are inspired by the characters' personalities.

• Mickey, being a classic character, drives a classic American hot rod – the Hot Dog Hot Rod.
• Minnie's car, Pink Thunder, is a 1930s French inspired car – it looks like a bow and was inspired by Delahaye.
• Goofy - being Goofy - drives a car made out of a bathtub called the Turbo Tubster.
• As Donald Duck is a sailor, his vehicle is a cabin cruiser – the only vehicle that can go on both land and water.
• Since Daisy loves flowers, her car is a Snap Dragon dragster.

All of the numbers on the Mickey and the Roadster Racers cars have a significance to each driver.

• Mickey has the number 28 on his car for the year of his debut in Steamboat Willie.
•  Goofy's car has the number 8 which refers to the that Goofy is always behind the 8 ball.
• Daisy picked the number 4 in honor of her four friends – Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Goofy.
• Donald's car sports the number 3 - referring to the Three Caballeros, which Donald is proudly one of.
• The number 89 was picked for Minnie's car to represent that it has been 89 years since she was created.
• Pete's car is number 9 which is a reference to the nine lives of a cat.

For more info:

Facebook: @disneyjuniorafrica

Twitter: @DisneyJunior

Stunning spread at Mickey and the Roadster Racers screening

Minnie gets the photo op

Making her own Roadster Racer - this was a hit!

A Nickolodeon Festival coming to Silverstar in June #NickFest

Nickelodeon (DStv channel 305) is teaming up with Tsogo Sun and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust to stage its first ever family-centric festival, NickFest, in Johannesburg at The Globe at Silverstar on Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 June.

Nickelodeon has been a firm and "save" (with regards the content) favourite in our house since Little Miss was small. She loves all the characters!

This festival partners with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust by way of The Celebrity Slime Challenge! Well-known celebrities will get doused in slime to raise funds for the charity, which is currently constructing the second paediatric hospital in Parktown, Johannesburg.

The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital began construction in April 2014, and is targeted to open in the second half of 2016. The Trust continues to fundraise towards its R1 billion target, of which R620 million has been raised. NickFest will donate 10% of the ticket funds to the Trust.

NickFest will showcase live music from SA A-listers, character shows (at 10:00 am and 14:00 pm) and appearances by Nickelodeon superstars SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There will be designated activities for pre-schoolers, primary school kids, tweens and teens. The best of all: There will lots of Nickelodeon’s trademark slime – tons and tons of gooey green stuff…in the awesome Slime Area! (I don't know if it's good news to Moms?)

Tickets have already gone on sale from 11 May via Computicket, priced R110 pp (children under two for free)

For more information on NickFest please go to www.nickelodeon.com

Twitter @NickAfrica
Instagram @Nickelodeon_Africa
Facebook NickelodeonAfrica

Disney's brand new Doc's World for little doctors in the making now live

The Walt Disney Company Africa today announced that a brand new online destination, Doc’s World, which is inspired by the animation series for preschoolers, Doc McStuffins, is now live.

Doc Mc Stuffins airs daily on Disney Junior (DStv, Channel 309). Kids are able to access the game via desktop, tablet or mobile here: Doc's World

The site launched in South Africa today and will also become available across the rest of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) throughout December.

Little Miss is loving this

- Doc McStuffins allows the player to become her right-hand assistant in helping to fix 'ouchies' or broken 'boo boos.'
- Kids create their own avatars in their own chosen doctor apparels.
- They can also choose one of the helpers from the show; from the familiar Haille, Lambie, Stuffy and Chillie.
- They also help design the interior of the medical areas that they are "working" in.
- Little ones can design their own posters from existing templates or from scratch.
- The children unlock rewards in the "My Clinic" area.
- These activities support early learning skills while encouraging a healthy lifestyle and caring for others.


This is great when they want something to keep them busy!

Season 2 of Doc McStuffins is currently on air, every day at 08:45 and 19:20 on Disney Junior (DStv, Channel 309).

A birthday party at the Spur - recommended!

Party girls

Little Miss always has a late December birthday, and usually no one of her school friends are around.

We decided on a whim to invite a few of her school friends to Wild Falcon Spur at Heathway (Blackheath) on Saturday. It's a relative new Spur with a very nice playground, and a very high slide which Little Miss took a while to conquer. (The "beast")

We had a lovely relaxed time with the birthday meals for the kids, and platters for the adults. I only had to make the reservations! My favourite kind of party!

Fairy cake
(Cake from the Home Industry, and Fairy from Disney)

Party girls / "Leopards"

Party girls

The children had a lovely time playing and getting their faces painted.

It was especially lovely to walk away on Saturday afternoon without having to do anything! (Except paying, of course!)

I can highly recommend this if you want to have a stress-free party. You can also bring all your party goodies and cakes if you want to make it extra special!

This post is not sponsored! 
We had a very good experience!

Grade R graduation and future plans!

Little Miss had her graduation ceremony and end-of-year concert last night.

They all had to say what they want to become one day.
It was a toss-up between a veterinarian, a dentist or a singer, but she said that we would have to wait to hear...

We were very surprised indeed!
She wants to be a teacher one day!
(Guess what the best friend wants to be? A teacher also!)

I was very surprised that Little Miss  could go and stand on stage, and do her thing. (She said before the time that she was a bit shy, and I was worried that she would freeze... )

She did her thing on stage!




After the graduation, the ugly ducklings did a great job shaking on "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood and The Destroyers, one of the scenes from the "Fairy tale" concert.

Photo by Dad

Grade R, mostly done and dusted!

Mysmartkid Christmas box winner

And the winner of the perfect Christmas box...

A smartbox by Mysmartkid is...

(Sorry Lynette, the answer is up until 6 years.)


Drawn via Random.org:

The winner of the Mysmartkid smartbox is

Congratulations!

Adele

Please send me your details that I can forward it to to the MSK store.
They will contact you to send an age appropriate smartbox!


Related post:

Give your child the perfect Christmas box, a smartbox! Giveaway

Road safety fun

Children's Road Safety Centre in Martha Avenue, Fontainebleau

The 6-year old Voortrekkers had a road safety outing to the Road Safety Centre in Randburg.
It is in a state of disrepair because the gardens need some serious attention.

But the children still had their fun, and learnt some valuable road safety lessons.

Petrol stop

The bicycles at the centre are still okay to use, and most of them still have the extra wheels. I don't think this is for much older children than 6-year old's, but the small ones had a great time!

Little Missy took her own scooter along

Stop!

I would not recommend going there on your own, as there are a bunch of shady characters hanging around across the street, but going in a group helps.

You can also make an appointment for a Road Safety Officer  to address the group before they ride around. (It is for free!) Our Voortrekker Officer had to take over the lesson because no-one was available on Friday. 

There was a surly looking officer in attendance, but she got a bit friendlier when she saw the cake...

I hope they do something about the place and the service!
It's got a lot of potential!

Frozen still huge here

How cute is this party bottle "Melted snow"

Little Miss does not get tired of Frozen and everything that goes with it. Her friends share her enthusiasm, because she has attended two Frozen parties in the past month.

Little Miss also loves singing "Let it go!"



(I have to save this. It is very precious!)

Maths for little ones: CMaths

Little Missy has been going to a Semas Maths (CMaths) class each week from the beginning of the year. It is Japanese maths, and they start them very early. It is very inspiring to see the little ones doing maths (with an abacus, but also in their heads) and doing it with a great speed as well!

Little Miss was a bit apprehensive going to the yearly championships. We had to motivate a little bit lot. We still owe her a rhyme book...

Dad with a little bit of inspiration

Little Missy did very well in the end! (According to two very relieved parents who thought she would have a melt-down or refuse to sit down and do the sums.)

They had to work through two exam papers. (TWO papers:  One of six minutes with an abacus, and one of two minutes without an abacus. There were a lot of children finishing even before the time! Totally amazing!!)

We were just impressed with the fact that Little Miss tried and did her best!

She had a bit of a melt-down later when she was expecting a trophy. We had to explain that she actually had to finish her papers, and that you really have to work hard to get that trophy.
But they all got a medal for taking part!

Hopefully it will help next year in Grade One to give her a bit of an edge...

Little Hoots of the week

Friends and play dates

Friends!

They were counting the "sleeps" until their play date on Saturday! They were both as excited as could be.

I had to remind Little Missy not to announce it to everybody at school, because her other friends would feel excluded, but I don't think it helped! That was all they were talking about!

The friend were allowed to do gymnastics with Little Missy, and after that we did a McD's on the way home.

They kept themselves busy the whole afternoon, and all we heard was the giggling from the bedroom.


It reminded me how important these play dates are, and that we should try and schedule more of them. Especially for single children who don't have the regular interaction with brothers and sisters!

A weekend camping with the Voortrekkers #thingsyoudoforyourchildren

On the dirt road to Hartbeesfontein

Little Missy had a blast this past weekend.

She told us that she could have stayed camping with the Voortrekkers until she is a grandmother herself! She also wished that her friends could have experienced the same!

Some of the photos:

She told her dad today that the best thing of the weekend was the jungle gym in front of their sleeping quarters!

Beautiful sunsets and sunrises!

No problem in getting them to eat this whole weekend

Fun stuff

Peekaboo!

Learning how to make popcorn on the fire

Popcorn on the fire

Foam fun

A forest creation from dough and leaves

A number of these 

In concert - the Grade R Suikerbekkies
("I was so shy, Mom!")

A last key ring creation

Lots of tree climbing, and rescuing

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Some of the things the Moms and Dads had to do this weekend: (For future reference, of course)

- Camping in the cold and dust.

- Hanging around children who tells you that you are not needed! You can go!

- Doing camp duties such as a night walk with the children, or a 12 - 2 am security watch. (Although I have a strong suspicion that the dads enjoyed the standing-around-the-camp-fire-with-wine-stories!)

- Standing to attention 6 times and singing the National Anthem.

- Being woken by Afrikaans songs being played over loudspeakers at 6 am on Saturday and 6:30 on Sunday.

- Having to remind the little ones they need to go to the toilet, or brush their teeth, or change clothes! (Not a priority in their lives!)

- Having to do a dust load of washing after the weekend.

- Having to contend with very exhausted children on Sunday night.


Yes, the things we do for our children!