Sharing some of our favorite toys from the past year! If you’re like me, you are starting your Christmas shopping early to avoid the December madness. I’m going to be doing most of my shopping on-line this year (which is a first for me!). I LOVE being at the mall in November/December, but I just don’t have the time to do my usual frequent trips. So Amazon is quickly becoming my new best friend. :) I’ve added links to most of these toys if Amazon is your best friend too. Hope this gives you a few ideas for Christmas! (You can see
our favorite toys from 2011 here.)
This isn’t a great picture, but I’d have to say my girls’ number one favorite toy this year was their
Razor Scooters. They have LIVED on them. Ride them almost every day. My girls have the red ones (they come in all different colors) and they only cost around $30 each. Perfect gift if your kids don’t already have them. But I bet they do. :) My mom bought these for my girls the last time she was here watching the kids. I told her she shouldn’t have spoiled them with such a big surprise, but she of course said that’s what grandmas are for and I of course was grateful because these have kept my girls so entertained. Grandma’s know their stuff. :)
Of course
helmets make the best fashion accessory (when mom remembers them). :)
A new bike is always a fun surprise on Christmas morning. This was our year to say good-bye to training wheels! Woot Woot!
Several of you have asked where I got my play kitchen from. It is called the Kidkraft kitchen and we’ve had it for years. I found the newest model on-line and it is really similar. I love the fun pastel colors. Every penny we spent on this play kitchen was well worth it! (So were the hours we spent assembling this thing. It is quite a project to assemble so if you buy it give yourself plenty of time!)
Every little one needs a little table with little chairs. :)
My kids all love these Boogie Board LCD writing tablets. I only get them out when we are traveling so that they are a fun new thing to keep them entertained in the car.
Out of all of the bath toys, the biggest hit with my girls are still their
Barbie Mermaids.
They have played with these in the tub every night for YEARS. I will be so sad when the day comes that they don’t want to play with them anymore. I can’t tell you a favorite because they play with them all. (And that’s saying a lot since we have collected an embarrassing amount of these over the years!)
Another fun toy my girls have played with a lot this year are their La La Loopsy dolls. Kenny’s mom bought them each one last year for Christmas and the girls loved them so much that she bought them more for their birthdays. (It seems both grandma’s love to spoil!) :) These dolls above aren’t in their original clothes by the way. Another bonus is that they are skinny enough to fit in the barbie clothes. My girls are all about switching up the outfits! This crew was just settling in to watch the new Tinkerbell Secret of the Wings movie last weekend. Another fun gift idea for little girls. Of course Kenny and I couldn’t wait until Christmas. The two of us were more excited to see it than Ellie and Addie were. True story. (It didn’t disappoint!)
My girls have loved and played with their
pink canopy doll crib for years. I love that this set has baskets underneath for doll accessories. Kole destroyed the mobile, but the rest in still in tact. He isn’t quite as gentle with the dolls either, but we’re working on it. :)
I think a chair is such a fun gift idea for little kids too. My girls still sit and read in this chair and Kole loves to rock in it. I think kids love having a comfy chair that is just their size. I couldn’t find this exact one on-line, but
Pottery Barn Kids always has darling chairs for kiddos and you can have their name personalized on the chair.
My girls have been obsessed with
Littlest Pet Shop toys this year! To tell you the truth, I think they are kind of ugly. I wasn’t that excited to buy them last year at Christmas when the girls asked for them, but I did because that’s what they really wanted and they have played with them non stop. In fact, that is what they want again this year. More Littlest Pet Shop stuff!
My girls LOVE the
Littlest Pet Shop Treehouse Playset. They have played with this thing so much that I finally stopped putting it away in their closet. It is just out on their floor all the time.
Another Littlest Pet Shop house of some sort.
Guess we will be seeing more of this kind of thing Christmas morning!
My girls love crafts of any kind and this was a fun birthday gift they have really enjoyed. It’s a
Mosaic Jewelry Box and they are having so much fun putting it together. They work on them a little here and there and keep their jewelry inside. A fun gift for Christmas or a birthday party.
Other fun toys we play with a lot around here are kept in Ellie’s closet. I didn’t have time to get individual pictures of everything, but here are a few items they love:
Polly Pockets
Jenga
Lincoln Logs
Zhu Zhu Pets
Magnetic Dolls
Disney Figurines
Of course I can’t mention all of those “girl” toys without sharing what my little dude has loved this year.
Here are a handful of Kole’s favorite go-to toys.
A My First Set of Legos. Sounds like from all of you “boy moms” I have a lot of legos in my future??
A simple set of stacking/nesting blocks. Funny how the simplest toys are often the ones played with the most. Kole has LOVED this basic set of blocks. He stacks them, crashes them, lines them up, nests them back inside each other, and then does it all over again.
Gotta love the Fisher Price Cash Register. Kole loves it and my girls still play “store” with it. I bought it because it brought back so many fun memories for me. I was “queen pay lady” in my hood growing up. That’s right. I had mad cash register skills and was proud of it.
Kole is getting too big for this now, but the Fisher Price Piano was beloved by all three of my kids at around age one. It’s perfect for when little ones are just learning to pull themselves up. My kids would “stand” at this and play music for over 10 minutes. Which is huge at that age! I’m keeping this one for the grand kids. :) (Again check around because Amazon’s price is high on this one.)
K – if you have a little boy age 1-2 this is my NUMBER ONE toy recommendation! It’s the iPlay Fun Time Tractor and Kole LOVES it. You push the orange thing in the front to make the tractor drive. When you lift the farmer out it plays “Farmer in the Dell” and when you take out or put in each of the animals, it makes their sound. A great toy for teaching animal sounds which is why I bought it for Kole. He honestly played with it every day for over six months. Such a fun toy!
My sweet Kole is obsessed with “choo choo’s” and this Melissa and Doug Wooden Farm Train is his current favorite. It is such a cute train and comes with fun things that ride inside. Who knows where they all were when I took this picture? I’m sure the pieces will turn up under couch pillows or in the girls’ beds.
Of course
Thomas will always be a popular choice as well.
I know I mentioned this in a previous post, but I have to include my ALL – TIME favorite book for toddlers. This Wheels on the Bus book with movable parts has been such a hit with all three of my kids. It’s my go-to gift for baby showers because it is just such a fun book and all little ones love it.
Each page is so interactive and fun. I’ve bought a new copy with each of my three kids because this book has been so trashed from each child reading it so many times. A great Christmas gift for any toddler.
And last but not least, our Little Tykes red toy car. Supposed to be for the toddler but always ends up carrying an extra heavy load. :)
Whew! That felt like a lot of toys. No wonder I am constantly re-organizing them! They have taken over my house! I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few so I’ll add them to future posts. I’m also going to post a few of the things that Santa might be contemplating this year for Christmas so more gift ideas will be coming soon.
Hope this was helpful to some of you!
Happy shopping everyone!
:)
xoxo, Erin
