Barbie, Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare, and a GIVEAWAY!

I stood near the open door of my bedroom chatting with my husband who sat on the far side of our bed. Two neatly stacked boxes sat on the edge of the bed nearest me.

As we chatted, my soon-to-be-six year old daughter wandered into the room. I have the nosiest children in the world so I KNEW Ellie would pick up the box and look to see what it contained.

Curious how she would react when seeing the Barbie Doll inside, I watched her.

Ellie pulled the box off the bed. Her eyes scanned the Barbie doll (Australia Barbie from the Dolls of the World Collection), then shot in my direction.

Next her eyes grew wide and a guilty expression appeared on her face. She quickly returned the box to its position on the bed. As she made a beeline for the bedroom door, she glanced at me one more time to see if I had noticed her actions.

After leaving my room Ellie walked directly to her brother's bed, sat down with her hands in her lap, grinned from ear-to-ear, and bounced up and down. As she bounced she quietly said, "I'm getting a Barbie Doll for my birthday! I'm getting a Barbie Doll for my birthday!"

Hearing her sing-song announcement I burst into laughter and called her back into my room. Her guilty expression caused me to laugh even more.

I'm not sure if she felt happy or disappointed when I informed her that Mattel sent the Barbie for me to blog about and that it was NOT her birthday present. Either way, opening the box and playing with Australia Barbie later that afternoon eliminated any negative emotions she might suffered!

Ellie, Australia Barbie, and Veterinarian Barbie

As you can see, Ellie enjoyed playing with the Koala Bear that came with Australia Barbie. Unfortunately, the Koala fell ill and required a visit to Veterinarian Barbie (who she already owned). But don't worry! He made a full recovery.

In addition to Australia Barbie, Mattel sent Team Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare for my boys.

Ben, Sam and Ellie put together the track without help!

Team Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare is cool!! (According to my sons.) My 7 year old son snapped the whole thing together in about 20 minutes. Then the fighting began.

Fighting? Oh, yes. The set only comes with one car but the tracks make a double loop. Naturally the boys fought over who used the new car and whose turn it was.

It didn't help matters that not all of our other Matchbox cars worked on the 2nd track. Many of our cars are older models so the metal is heavier. Heavier cars fall to the floor part way up the loop.

But we turned lemons into lemonade and used the plummeting cars as an opportunity to teach about gravity and physics. We even had fun testing to see which cars were light enough to complete the loop and which were too heavy and fell to the floor.

Once we worked out a system of sharing the cars the fighting stopped and everyone enjoyed playing with the new track. In fact, my 3 year old surprised me by playing with the track for several days in a row. It really captured his attention!

If you are attending a million kid's summer birthday parties like we are (OK. Only 5.), I recommend you give a doll from the Dolls of the World Barbie Collection or the Team Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare! Both are sure to be a hit with the birthday girl or boy. They were with my birthday girl!

You can receive some awesome toys from Mattel as well! Just enter on the Rafflecopter below to WIN either a Girls' Prize Pack or a Boys' Prize Pack! 

*Note:  

Girl Prize Pack Includes: Barbie Dress & Design Studio ($21.99 APR), A Barbie Doll of the World ($29.95 APR) & Barbie I Can Be... Fashion Designer ($13.99 APR) 
 

Boys Prize Pack Includes: Matchbox Big Boots Fire Truck ($25.99 APR), Hot Wheels Wall Tracks ($24.99 APR) & Hot Wheels Ballistiks ($24.99 APR)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out Mattel on Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you visit the following ladies from RI Digital Media Women (#RIDMW) as well to see their fantastic reviews of Mattel Products!  
 

Baby Gators Den, Savoring the Thyme,  Cira's Lyrics,
Learning to Juggle,  When The Kids Go To Bed,

Blush Mamas, 30 Something Mother Runner,

Mama Luvs Books, Keekoin 

Disclosure: Some of the products in this post were provided to facilitate my review. The opinions and stories are my own based on our experiences with the toys. Thank you, Mattel, for allowing us to review your toys!