For the past year or so we've been trying to reduce the amount of junk our kids have. What I'm referring to are junky, plastic, cheap toys. I don't think that we will ever completely get away from junk entering our house, but I'm trying my best to keep it to a minimum. I'm just tired of spending money on the latest fad and having it end up destroyed within months (or sometimes days) of entering our home. The one nice thing about cheaply made toys is that they are cheap.....better quality, longer lasting toys are generally a lot more expensive. But, if you think about the longevity of a better made toy, the added cost really is worth it in the long run! With that in mind I tried my best to buy good quality Christmas toys for the girls this year. They got a wooden train table, a PlanToys circus set, a wooden (vintage) doll cradle, American Girl dolls and a very fun wooden bowling set. I'm sensing a material theme......wood withstands the test of time! Another awesome thing about better made (often wooden) toys is that they have less bells and whistles which more often than not facilitates more imaginative play. What do you do with a kitchen set that doesn't make running water sounds and sings to you when you open the oven? You make the sounds yourself....you sing your own songs!
Right after Christmas we did a huge purge of toys and donated 3 garbage bags full of stuff. It is so nice to have even less junk in our house. Less little pieces, less randomness. We also did a lot of reorganizing and now everything has its own place. It is so much easier to put things away and because of this the girls are getting a lot better at cleaning up. Even when they get their toys out and make a big mess its not so hard to get it back under control because there is far less stuff and what we do have, has a home. I feel really good about the state of our house and the amount of junk we have. I'll address this subject again in a few months and see if I feel the same!
For your viewing pleasure.....bowling fun!
P.S. I've been letting the girls use my camera (supervised of course) so some of these pictures were taken by the littles. They are actually quite good.....although I do have to set up the settings for them since my camera is only ever on manual anymore. Oh, and Charlotte took like a bazillion pictures of bowling pins. If you want to see the collection, just ask! :o)
Photo courtesy of Maddie
Charlotte makes the best faces while concentrating!
You better watch out pins.....she means business
Maddie is very serious about her bowling
Photo courtesy of Charlotte
Take that! (She ended up getting a strike)
Photo courtesy of Charlotte
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