Pittsburgh Nesties
amyjoy18
member
a>
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Christmas Gift Strategy for Kids
Do you have a strategy for making sure the gifts your kids get don't end up in the bottom of the toy box? I cleaned Brinley's room this weekend and in the anticipation of Christmas we purged a few toys. Including the Dora barn (and extra horses) that she just HAD to have last year for Christmas and then NEVER played with.
Her list is a mile long (like most kids, I guess) and I keep telling her to only tell Santa the stuff she REALLY wants because he can't get her everything. Then there are a few things that DH and I are getting the kids that aren't on their list--but we think they would enjoy and will keep us sane (like plasma cars for zooming around the basement and burning off the extra winter energy), board games.
Things on her list I'm debating:
Barbie Camper--she does play with Barbies a lot--but the Barbie toys are so junky now I cringe at paying $60.00--the cheapest I've seen it--for junk
Doc McStuffins check-up thing--most likely a no--we don't need another huge plastic toy :-)
Also--I was going to take the gently used toys to Goodwill--but is there anywhere I can donate them where they would go directly to kids?
Her list is a mile long (like most kids, I guess) and I keep telling her to only tell Santa the stuff she REALLY wants because he can't get her everything. Then there are a few things that DH and I are getting the kids that aren't on their list--but we think they would enjoy and will keep us sane (like plasma cars for zooming around the basement and burning off the extra winter energy), board games.
Things on her list I'm debating:
Barbie Camper--she does play with Barbies a lot--but the Barbie toys are so junky now I cringe at paying $60.00--the cheapest I've seen it--for junk
Doc McStuffins check-up thing--most likely a no--we don't need another huge plastic toy :-)
Also--I was going to take the gently used toys to Goodwill--but is there anywhere I can donate them where they would go directly to kids?
a>
Re: Christmas Gift Strategy for Kids
We try to purge before Christmas and that's about all we can do. I try to buy things that I know will get use and try to do sales. Dd loves dress up so I just got a bunch of clearance Halloween stuff. I have been doing this the last few years. She loves them and they get a lot of use.
Have you looked at consignment stores for the Barbie van? $60 does seem like a lot! Our once upon a child had a Barbie van a few months back.
Oh we also have been doing board games the last couple years. Those get a lot of use. So we try to steer her towards things that we know will get use like those.
I'm debating whether to take them to Toys'r Us or Target the next time we need a birthday gift or just shop alone and go with my gut.
I haven't done a toy purge yet, but I'll be home alone on Sunday night, so it's coming!
Interestingly, I had noticed that Woody and Jesse (fave Xmas gift from a few years ago) hadn't seen much action in a while. Then after we watched the Toy Story Halloween special, they both got played with. Maybe you just need to have B watch more Dora. ;-)
DD does go on spurts with her toys too--which is part of what makes it so hard, but there have been plenty of duds through the years too. I try to balance what she think she wants, with what I think she wants and am afraid I'll miss the #1 (which changes from day to day).
I worry about this every year, and every year they seem more than satisfied.
Nolan's interests basically fit into 2 categories right now. Cars and bugs.
Most of her list also came from the Target toy catalog. She sees some stuff on TV--but it's on HUB (My Little Pony) which has nearly all the commercials saying, "Must be 18 or older to order..."Which DD takes to mean that it's for kids 18 and older. I have not taken the time to correct that misconception. :-P
EJ has been asking for an American Girl doll for over a year. So Santa will bring that. then maybe another bigger lego set. She plays with her lego girls a lot. usually just building new creations of her own then playing with them. But we also have fun building/playing with the sets as designed.
For anyone that needs a drop off site for Play It Forward, my church is a drop off point and we have 2 upcoming drop off dates:
Wednesday, Nov. 6th from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 16th from 9 to 11 a.m.
The church is Hope Lutheran Church on Rowan Road in Cranberry Township. it's very easy to get to and right off Rt 19. I know that I wasn't able to do any drop offs this weekend, so I plan to use the upcoming dates. Hopefully this will help some of you too!
PS - Play It Forward takes stuffed animals too! The ONLY organization I know that does that!
We don't really have a strategy either. Like others, we try to make the best toy choices but some times miss the mark. Last year the only thing dd asked for was a stuffie. It has been played with maybe 3 times. I really didn't want to get it in the first place but it was literally the only thing she asked for.
We are thinking of getting this for dd this year. Does anyone have it?http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00705JGXK/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LWVB4NPPCDYP
How do you all get rid of toys? Are the kids ok with it? The girls go through phases where they play with some things and not others but I they would miss whatever we got rid of.
I've never even seen those. At first I thought it was pricey--but then I saw how big they were. Looks like fun.
DD is OK with getting rid of some toys, but others not so much. She received some Winx dolls as a gift (which I despise). I know they were pricey, but their hair was almost immediately matted and DD says she doesn't play with them because she doesn't like their legs/feet (can't blame her they look deformed) but yet she wants to keep them.
We did have a family discussion about getting rid of the duploes since the kids basically only play with the Legos now. And sometime this month I'll try to motivate the kids to each pick about ten things to purge. They usually only give me broken things or one toy with ten pieces, but it is better than nothing.
Thankfully, we really only have significant toy influx at Christmas and birthdays. Most other presents are art supplies or books or clothes or the little toys that are easy to purge. I still get annoyed about managing their stuff, but I feel like it is reasonably under control at the moment.
I have two different kids - the older never has a clue what she wants (last year I had to "suggest" an American Girl doll) b/c otherwise she wanted a journal. And then I have the middle girl that will grab the catalog(s) out from your hands and declare she is GETTING EVERYTHING in the catalogs! They don't get many ideas from tv or ads.
For all the kids I try to think of a "big" gift (bike, AG doll etc...) and then some small ones or things they have mentioned in the last few months. For the one that wants everything, I just tell her that she can ask for it all but Santa only brings what he thinks is appropriate & that she will really enjoy and want to play with all year long. Her birthday is early Jan so it helps with the long list.
How time flies! Caileigh (9), Keira (6) & Eamon (3)
Jake got his hands on the target toy catalog when it came in the mail the other day and went to town with a marker. Had to have the whole "Santa can't bring you everything because there would be nothing left for other boys & girls" talk with him, so now he told me he "needs to think about his real list"...so we'll see what comes from that!
8-|
His main gift from us this year is a new set of skis (he outgrew the hand me down set he's been using) so Santa will bring some other stuff but i'm off the hook for having to do much shopping for him!
Jake - 1.15.08
Liam - 5.17.11