March 11, 2009 · Filed under 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old, Family Life, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged books, cats, Jenny Linsky, red scarf
Today we read some Jenny Linsky stories. Jeny Linsky is a cat. She lives with Captain Tinker, she always wears her red scarf and she can ice skate. She can be found in a marvelous series of stories by Esther Averill. The kiddos and I were reading some this afternoon. When we were done the boys wandered away and the Princess claimed ownership of the book.
She read it on her own for a while, then began reading out loud to me.
Here is her version of the story:
“Cat outside. All snowy. It so cold, time come inside. Kitty so happy to see me.” (this series of events was repeated for a while).
They are really great books, especially for cat lovers like Speedy. There are tons of them , including an I Can Read book called The Fire Cat. We love Jenny around here, I am eagerly awaiting the requests for matching red scarves, just like Jenny’s.
March 9, 2009 · Filed under 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, Kids Gift Ideas, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged burglars, playmobil, safe cracking
There are a lot of traditional arts and activities that are being forgotten by our modern culture. Things like remembering phone numbers, developing film and good old fashioned burglary. Sure the kids know all about identity theft and internet scams, but who will teach them the fundamentals like safe cracking? Plamobil safe cracking toy to the rescue.
I’m just glad someone is thinking about the children. Any idea what the compressed air is for?
March 8, 2009 · Filed under Family Life · Tagged first ponytail
The Princess turned two last month and she still has no hair. Well, we think she has a lot of hair, but only because she has so much more than she used to have. But compared to the average two year old, she is an adorable little baldy. Here is her very first ponytail!
I think it fell out after 20 seconds, but here is the proof.
March 7, 2009 · Filed under Family Life, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged snow day
Recently we had what I sincerely hope was the Last Snow Day of the winter. A couple of friends came over and helped make snowmen. I am told it was perfect snowman snow.
The last snowman:
And yes, that is a hand knit hat the snowman is wearing.
Good-bye Winter!
March 5, 2009 · Filed under 3 year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old, gifts for a 2 year old, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged chalk board, chalk board mural
I just saw these Chalkals chalk board murals at Little Birdie Secrets and had to share. Aren’t they the coolest chalkboard murals ever? I mean, if you had ever seen any other chalk board murals, I am sure these would be cooler than those other ones. Or something.
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March 4, 2009 · Filed under 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old, gifts for a 2 year old, Kids Gift Ideas, Toddlers · Tagged dinosaur mosaic, dinosaur stickers, dragon mosaic, dragon stickers, sticker mosaic review
My sister gave the boys these two sticker mosaic sets from The Orb Company for their birthday last year and we’ve been breaking them out about once a month when we’re stuck indoors and need a project to keep busy with.
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February 19, 2009 · Filed under 3 year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, Family Life, gifts for a 1 year old, gifts for a 2 year old, Kids Gift Ideas, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged baby doll, doll, penelope peapod
A very dear friend gave this Penelope Peapod to the Princess for her birthday. It is cleverly designed, great quality, oh so cute and one of her favorite presents. It is a little basket with cloth attached all around. You can close the drawstring and it becomes a purse or travel case. Then you can open it and fold it around the basket to create an instant baby bassinet. It comes with a little baby doll, the kind with a cloth body and plastic head and hands. The baby doll comes dressed in a matching outfit and hat. The clothes and hat are removable, this is important if you are a newly minted two year old who would prefer to be naked all the time.
We are delighted by this well designed toy, I recommend it to anyone with a little one who loves babies. I think it will be great to have on our next car trip. Here are some of their other beautiful color choices!
February 17, 2009 · Filed under Toy Recalls · Tagged bakugan recall, bakugan toys, Spin Master
We get large numbers of visitors from various search engines looking for Bakugan information here at The Toy Report and looking through the logs we’ve been getting a lot of hits for people searching for terms like like “bakugan recall” and “recalled bakugan”
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February 16, 2009 · Filed under Family Life, Unique Kids Gifts · Tagged birthday, cake
The princess turned 2 last week! Or in her words, “Two! Two! Two!” We had some family and friends over to celebrate the day. It was actually a double celebration since my birthday is two days after hers. She had a lovely time at her party, although she preferred the chips and dip to the cake. I made two cakes (one for each of us), both from Smitten Kitchen. I made a pink lady cake for the Princess and an icebox cake for me. They were both delicious, although I recommend checking out Smitten Kitchen’s pictures. Her cakes are much prettier than mine.
I made the pink lady cake with raspberry puree instead of strawberry, since darling Remo is allergic. The seed straining was a bummer, but it was yummy and quite pink, no food coloring required.
The icebox cake can’t properly be called a cake since there was no actual baking involved. It is layer upon layer of store bought chocolate wafers and yummy delicious whipped cream. It sits over night and the wafers get soft and the whole thing tasted like a big mushy Oreo, but better because it tastes like real cream instead of the hydrogenated Oreo filling.
Happy Birthday Princess!
February 15, 2009 · Filed under Family Life · Tagged movie musical, mustard
I walked into the kitchen a few days ago and saw that the camera was sitting on the counter and it was on. I believe I mumbled something about not playing with the camera and turned it off. Little did I know that I was interrupting the next Sondheim at work (aka Speedy). Remind me to get the kid a video camera. Oh, and I apologize if you are singing The Mustard Family song all day, it’s catchy!
