Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Day's Tasks

The task at hand for each child--and this was before 8 am.  (hence the terrible lighting)





Now, it is after 4, and Ada is in their room playing with her kitchen, and John is playing with his "choo-choo."  We have done other things in between then and now, but those two activities do seem to be their main task each day.

On that note, as we are forced to once again guess about which toys to buy for Christmas that the kids will actually play with, Ada's play kitchen and each of her melissa and doug food sets have been everyday toys.  Every single day.  Her Bitty Baby, (American Girl baby doll) on the other hand, spends most of her time in the doll bed that also never gets any play time.  It's such a guessing game, isn't it?  

Most likely, Ada's main gift this year will be a bicycle with training wheels (a princess one of course), and John is getting a fisher price ramp/car garage thing.  I looked at the train sets at Target forever (because John only has a hand-me-down set right now), but I am opting to wait until he is older to decide which train set to go with.  I need to see if it is a lasting interest.    Plus, his birthday is in February, and I need to save a gift for that.  Other than that, I am not sure what little things the kids will be getting.  I am not on top of things this year.  I have bought their stocking items from the Target dollar section (I waited until closer to Christmas last year, and everything was picked over), but other than I am still trying to come up with some sure way to know that they will actually play with the things that I buy them.  What will the big gifts be at your house?  I might find some inspiration from you.  And anyone who has children a bit older than mine, can you recommend toys that have consistently been played with at your house?  I really don't want to add yet more clutter to my house, but I feel it is almost inevitable.

Okay, off to do a quick house "pick up" before I face the dreaded 5:00 "witching hour."

5 comments:

Deanna said...

I am so stuck on presents for my girls this year. I have no idea what their "main" gift will be, unless we decide to do an outdoor playhouse, which will most likely wait until their birthday. I just can't think of anything I think they would absolutely love right now.

I did see a starter Thomas the Train set at Ross the other day for a good price. It's a small track, but they are all connectable, so you can add more later. (We are thinking about getting the girls a train set too.)

Who would have thought it would be this difficult to pick out presents for our children??

Jess said...

Micah goes through phases where he plays with his trains daily,and then he puts them down for a few months. Now they are a big hit again! We found a train table on craigslist right before Christmas last year. The table and a TON of trains and track pieces were posted for $50 bucks. It was a great investment,since all the ones we looked into new were 100-300 bucks! Jeremy comes up with all these cool tracks for him. On the girly note, I have no advice because I am surrounded by legos, trains, and pirates...not that I am complaining. SO with that being said, could I come hang out and play kitchen with Ada sometime?????

Lauren said...

I am having the same problem this year!! Noah is really into cars, trucks and trains like John so I think we will be investing in a train table and set for him this year. Noah's birthday is December 16th and I had thought I was going to buy one of those car ramps/garages too. Then I was at my sister-in-law's this past weekend and she pulled one out of her attic for him as well as a knight fort :-) A huge blessing but now I am clueless on what to buy him. Olivia is going to be the hardest to buy for this year. We has thought about buying a LeapPad or Leapster Explorer but I wonder if it would be a big fight over when she gets to use it or over Noah wanting it too. Maybe I'll just add to her dress-up collection or Barbies with clothes???

Christie said...

Little People and My Little Pony were great toys at my house for my three girls. From my oldest at age 7 down to my youngest now 2 1/2, these toys are still getting use. What is nice about Little People, especially, is they can be gender neutral. They have pink houses and cars, but also dump trucks and police cars etc...something maybe they could play together!

Christie said...

I wanted to add that every year at Christmas my kids have each gotten a new piece of the Little People nativity set and Christmas village...we only let them play with them at Christmas and then pack them back up for the next year! They LOVE them!!