Tryazon Cozy with Cocoa Kids Party

During CT's birthday week, I hosted a Cozy With Kids Cocoa Party with Tryazon and Meribel Jamco. My kids all love hot cocoa and we tried a new recipe in the crockpot.

Meribel Designs makes novelty mugs and adult slippers. Either would make a great gift. I gave the two slippers they sent as door prizes for my guests and kept the unicorn mug, which my daughter loves.

Jamco Brandz makes Peek a Boo Palz which are cute puppies that play Peek A Boo and sing Do Your Ears Hang Low. I think they are kind of annoying and a little too babyish for my kids (ages 3, 5, and 7) but the kids LOVE them. Would make a nice gift for a baby or young toddler, maybe. Though it would probably annoy their parents.

Jamco Brandz also makes Walkie Talkies which is not what it sounds like... it is a stuffed animal that "walks" and repeats what you say. It is a weird design-- the animal only makes a few steps (our elephant often falls over as it "walks") and you can't set it to record a certain thing by pressing Record and Play, you just turn it on and then talk and it sort of anticipates when you are done talking and repeats it, in a high pitched, fast voice. Then it turns itself off (or I think you can turn it off by pressing the button again) so it won't always repeat everything it hears. Ours did not come with any instructions. The button makes a high pitched BEEP which is annoying. We've noticed that the toy repeats our youngest child the best- probably because of her high pitched voice- and she LOVES the thing. We have to tell her to turn it off sometimes because she would play with it all day. I would NOT give this as a gift.

Both toys have a battery pack which allows it to be turned on and off. Typically I do not purchase toys that make sounds, but when we are given them as a gift, we wait till the battery runs out and then don't replace the batteries, or sometimes, take the battery pack out (if it is a stuffy). These plushes both have "robotic" limbs (plastic or metal skeletons, I'm guessing) so I don't know if they would really be a good toy once you take the battery pack out- you would be able to tell that something is missing.

Overall, I thought the mugs and slippers were better holiday gifts than the toys. Thanks, Tryazon and Meribel for allowing us to test-drive these products with our friends!