Birthdays

I've been looking all over Ebay for the kids birthday gifts. And all over the internet. Andrews leapster died, so we're going to get him another one, with a few games. There are a ton on Ebay, but I'm just watching a few to see what they are going for right now. At Walmart, for just the actual system, it's $50. And each game is about $20. Not sure what we'll get yet, but I'm hoping for a system with a few games. For Lucy, I want to get her a play kitchen. But the ones I like are WAY too expensive. So, I was looking into some smaller things, and I found this on the Land of Nod. I love it! It is small, easily put away, and it comes with the cutest wooden cooking things. I'm trying to convince Matt it is a better choice than getting some plastic kitchen thing. I'm trying to get toys that will last a while, and not have just cheap stuff around the house. (need to go through and throw stuff away too) So, I thought it would be good to get some wooden play food. And Melissa and Doug have some play food that I was thinking about getting. But then I found this website. I love this place! The shipping is pretty reasonable, and they have the coolest toys. And they are German toys!!! I fell in love with German toys when we lived there. I was thinking about sending some friends that still live there some money so they could get me some cool stuff. But now I don't have to. I love the wooden play food on this website. I'm going to order a fairly large order, and then save half of it for Christmas for Lucy. And get Andrew a marble run. Because when we were in DC, he found one at a gift shop, and really wanted it, but I knew I could get a better one online. So, I convinced him to get something else. And I found this. Only $3 more than the plastic one he wanted, but made of bamboo and much cooler because it comes with wooden marbles, not glass ones.

I spent a lot of time yesterday morning searching around for this stuff. I found some of the wooden food on ebay, but it was actually cheaper on this website. Can you tell I'm excited about it? We have some wooden blocks that I bought in Germany, and we love them. I also bought some at Tuesday Morning. They have buckets of blocks that are German made, and we love them! And they'll last forever.

I also sent an email to their grandparents, telling them what we're doing, and letting them know they are welcome to contribute to what we're getting them. Or get them something that goes along with it. No one has said anything, but that's ok. It was just a suggestion. Hopefully they don't take offense. I did say that if they didn't want to contribute, or get something that goes along with it, to please remember that we move a lot, and that stuffed animals take up a lot of space and just get full of dust mites. I really hate stuffed animals. No kid needs more than one or two. And the last ones his mom sent shed dark fuzz all over the place. We threw those out pretty quick. If his mom has a problem, I'll just tell her that Matt was the one who told me to just throw them out. (he did) Sometimes I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with his parents because someone as outgoing and opinionated as I am just kind of rubs them the wrong way. Heaven forbid someone actually says what they think.

Do you like what we're getting the kids? Leapsters are awesome. We had one, but Lucy got to my Mrs. Meyers cleaner and sprayed it all over it. And I'm talking half the bottle. I had to rinse it off to get it all off. So, it died. We only have two games for it. (darn games are so expensive) Hopefully I'll find a good deal on Ebay.