My Favorite Toys

I was talking about Christmas shopping with Crystal and Catherine last week and we are all motivated to get started (and hopefully finished!) early. We decided to compile lists of our favorite tried and true toys to help each other out. Here are a few of the toys our kids have loved. I hope you find some ideas here that you can use, and I hope you can suggest some ideas I can use! The Quadrilla marble run is one of those toys you imagine preserving for your grandchildren and they will all beg to come to your house so they can play with it. It's a little more expensive than other marble runs but the pieces are all wood and each color of block processes the marble a different way so the kids have a lot of fun experimenting with different set ups. I posted a picture of the basic set and there are tons of other sets and individual pieces you can add to your collection.


We also love geotrax. Again, you can buy a basic set and then add more and more pieces as you go. Our setup can fill up our whole living room now, and the kids (and dad) like making it wind around and under furniture. This train set is cheaper than the wooden ones (it's plastic). It's great because it's really sturdy, and pieces are easy for little hands to snap together. It has remote control engines and lots of little stations for loading things into the cars in various clever ways.

Board games are always good -- we like Stratego, Monopoly Jr. (the kids call it "Mini Monopoly") Carriboo (made by the same people who made Cranium), and the old classic, Sorry.


We don't actually have this, but look how cute it is! Vivian is always following me around with a squeege or a feather duster, so I'm thinking about getting her something like this and who knows -- I may end up with a slightly cleaner house! (I suppose I can also just recommend feather dusters and squeeges for Christmas fun).

Sports equipment and books are also big hits in our house. I'll post some of our favorite books soon. We will be moving (just a few blocks up the hill) starting tomorrow, so I won't be around much for a few days. Happy shopping, and please suggest your favorite toys!

Pucker Up!

I actually snatched this out of Suzanne's blog, but I just thought it was hilarious. It's a video of babies eating lemons.

Corndog Chaos

Today has been filled with little explosions of chaos, the most intense one being the dinnertime circus. Being "one of those days," plus the fact that Theron was working late, I decided to cop out and feed the kids corn dogs. So, the corndogs are heating in the toaster oven and suddenly I am accosted by a brilliant display of sound and motion. All at once Vivian (who is somehow mysteriously half naked and covered in green marker) is climbing up my leg and repeating a rhythmic "A see a whood? A see a whood! A see a whood? A see a whood!" (For those who don't speak her particular dialect, that's "I want to see the food," with her tone alternating between question and command). At the same time Seth launches into the ever popular "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" -- each "Mom!" punctuated with approximately three finger jabs to my arm. To complete the frenzy, Theron is giving an animated demonstration of the Pokemon scenario he and Calvin acted out at recess today. So, a little blaze of craziness and then the toaster oven dings, I put the cordogs on the plates, and peace is restored. Of course then the boys say "Hey! We had corndogs for lunch today!" Great. Well, you do have the bread group, the meat group, plus all the other groups that are probably represented in the "meat" that makes up a hotdog. They each had a glass of milk, no one wanted applesauce, and I am calling it good. Now I'm getting pajamas out and heading for the home stretch!

Look what I found!

After lunch today Vivi and I went to try some shoes on at Nordstrom (at one point we were actually fighting over the same pair of ankle boots) and then... I found these little beauties! I read a book once called The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. There's a character named Faye, who's arguably the most unlikable character ever written. She's completely self-absorbed, immature, and oblivious. Anyway, she goes out shopping one day while her husband is dying in the hospital and brings home a pair of new shoes which she proudly displays on the mantle. Of course Theron isn't dying in the hospital or anything, but if I had a mantle I might be tempted to put these on it for a while. I know that's sort of shallow but they're purple suede!

Foxy Lady

This morning Vivian and I were getting ready to meet Theron for our weekly lunch date. In the amount of time it took me to rub the moisturizer into my face, this little darling managed to get up into the make-up cupboard and fix herself up for an afternoon on the town. She's a girl after my own heart, but with a slightly less steady hand.