My little ones love water play. Ever since they were babies, everything from baths, paddling pools or playing in the sink, water has always been so much fun. I think there’s something about being able to splash, get a bit messy and watching how things work with water that really entertains kids. When we were sent the SMOBY Aquaplay Mountain Lake to review, I knew it was going to go down swimmingly well!
It’s a large canal system with a mountain in the middle. It’s made up of lots of segments that are put together with little sponge-like supports so leaking is minimal, if not non-existent. I have to admit, it’s bigger than I expected too. If I was surprised, can you imagine what the kids thought! In terms of putting, it together, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out what we had to do, but once I’d sussed it, it took about 30 minutes.
I let the boys help me fill it with water, you can put in as much or as little as you like, but I think the more water it has the better it works. There’s lots of interactive play too, including a paddling water wheel that gets the water moving, a lock system that stores water using a pump and when you open the lick gates… woosh… the water comes out. (Great fun!)
It also comes with some cute toy characters, Nils the Frog and Bo the Bear. Along with a speedboat, a container boat and a container. I’m so glad it comes with two boats because it meant no arguing between the boys! They love sending the boats down the waterfall slide and running around the canal trying to move the water along. Because it’s so large, they must move one side of the toy to the other side to move their toys and boats, so they’re not stationary, Marlo has been running around the canal all morning today!
Because this is a water play toy, it will come into its own in the summer. It will be brilliant for keeping the boys entertained, cooling down with a splash or two and just having lots of colourful and easy-going fun. BUT, I also want to say that it’s great indoors too! We’ve had rubbish weather this week, so on the weekend, we popped a blanket down and put the Mountain Lake on top of it, we didn’t fill it up with quite so much water, but the boys had just as much fun! Yes, the blanket got a little wet from the splashes, but it made us realise that actually, it’s pretty leakproof!
It’s been great to see the boys use their imagination to create stories with the characters, exploring the canal, mysterious cave and how water generally works to move things! It’s fun and looks incredibly impressive too.
You can get your own AQUA Play Mountain Lake at Amazon or John Lewis.
