Whenever anyone asked Fairy Girl what she wanted for Christmas the answer was always… A Marm-o-set. "A Marmoset?" everyone was puzzled… except me. LOL. No she did not want a pet monkey, thank goodness, she wanted a MARBLE SET.
She was of course delighted when Santa brought her one. It has become a family favorite… although marbles in a house with a 2 year old is a bit of a challenge. Fortunately Pixie seems to be a bit beyond her age in terms of her play. Survival skills of a third child I guess… ’cause once Legos are brought into the house there is no such thing as a baby safe room. Those little pieces get everywhere!
I thought I would share one of Fairy’s Marble Runs (yes I helped) for this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme Ball.
On the topic of toys (since I am sure there are many still looking for good holiday gift ideas) let me share another favorite around here… Only Hearts Club Dolls. I’m not a huge fan of Barbie and there is no way I want those Bratz dolls in the house. So a while back when Fairy started showing in interest in fashion dolls, I went on a quest for suitable replacement for the mass marketed brands and came across the Only Hearts Club dolls.
These dolls are of a similar size to the leading fashion dolls but have soft, flexible bodies. They are proportioned and styled as ‘tween’ age girls (along with some baby sisters). Their fashions are acceptable (ie I would actually let my girls wear most of the clothing) and they have corresponding character building books. Ahh… much better! They only downside is that they are made in China but they are available at Target (not usually with the other dolls though – so ask), which is nice since it makes it easy for Grandma to add to her collection.
Santa just delivered the coolest blocks. It is very hard to have to tuck these away. I want to play with them… they are absolutely gorgeous! I highly suggest checking out these Made in the USA, highly detailed, castle blocks. The Village Blocksmith does some amazing work!
I was watching my 2 year old play with our chess set a couple days ago. She was carefully putting the figurines to bed on beanbags and whispering Shhh to anyone who came by. It got me thinking about true multi-tasking toys. I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Alton Brown from the Food Network… Good Eats/Iron Chef host but he has an abhorrence of any single-task kitchen utensil. I’ve tried to apply a similar criteria when considering which toys take up room on our shelves.
One of our best investments has been this King Arthur Chess set shaped like actual knights, kings, queens, etc. So many ways play with that toy. My son got is last year for Christmas when he started showing an interest in chess and it has become almost a daily play item. Chess of course, but paired with a set of Haba blocks the perfect sized characters for castle play. They are a bit more fragile than say Holztiger or Kathe Kruse dolls so I try to have the kids keep them in the carpeted rooms to reduce the chipping from falls. But overall this has been a super hard working, multi-tasking toy for us. I just thought I would throw it out there for anyone looking for holiday shopping ideas.
