CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER!

Mom and John wanted to spoil the kids as all grandparents do, and so we decided to have an early Christmas. This served many purposes, the kids will get more play time out of the toys they received, Mom and John don’t have to send expensive parcels by mail, and they got to watch the expressions on their faces when they received their new toys! So Mom, Wyatt and me went out to Target and Toys R Us and did as much damage as we could.

So without further ado, each of the kids received a hooded towel as shown. These are a big hit at bath time and have already been used at the beach and the pool with great reviews! Wyatt is Lightning McQueen, Cooper is Thomas the Train and Maddy is Dora.

The other HUGE hits have been the plastic trikes with trailors that Cooper and Maddy received for their b-days. These have improved the quality of all of our lives more than can be expressed in words. Prior to this purchase, we were living with one hand-me down ride-on from my friend Kerri (Kerri, we finally recycled the one without a steering wheel as it was a great source of frustration for the kids) and Wyatt’s tricycle. The twins are too small to ride the tricycle and because there is no competition for the trike, Wyatt prefers to claim the only ride-on they can all use as his own. Now that everyone has their own vehicle we can often find them all driving around happily, chasing one another and crashing into one another and various objects around the yard. The big surprise for the was Wyatt’s selection. I tried to persuade him to select a 3rd vehicle, something a bit different but similar enough that he would have a “new” something to ride on. He passed on the Batman cruise, another super cool scooter in favor of a large Megablocks Automobile Transport Truck with 3 Megablocks trucks. He loves this truck, drove it around the store for at least 20 minutes happily and just now is starting to request that I return to buy him the Batman ride-on.

Other presents included a foam paddle and ball set that Cooper adores, as well as a lawnmower than is more often used for duels with the stroller than for pretend mowing. The Dora lego has been a big hit with all of the kids. All this to say, our plans to keep the toys to a minimum have failed miserably but WE have managed to spend very little on toys, instead accepting hand-me downs from friends and gifts from visitors! They are lucky little buggers – as are we!