Interesting Discoveries: A Trip to the Toy Store

My mother lives in Florida and, for Christmas, she sent each of my children $25 so that they could buy what they wanted instead of guessing what they might like.  First, they were THRILLED to receive mail and then they were thrilled to find cold, hard cash inside the holiday cards.  They're thoughts raced of possible purchases... 

So today was the day.  We loaded up and headed to Toys R Us.  Normally, I would take them to a lovely little toy store right in our town (to buy local) but they don't carry LeapFrog products and I was hoping my son would buy a language arts Didj cartridge so he could practice his spelling words.  (If you have a son, age 5-10, who is really into video games but you hate the thought of him wasting away in front of a screen, you MUST check out Didj by LeapFrog.  Fabulous graphics and MATH and SPELLING that you can adjust via the Internet.)

My son did not, in fact, decide on a Didj cartridge and upon removing his choice from the packaging, I was quite disappointed.  My son chose the Indiana Jones and the Lost Temple of Akator playset by Hasbro (photo to right from Amazon.com).  This toy retails for approximately $42.00 but he paid $24.99 plus tax.  The deal was good but the product?  Beyond being more plastic junk (my opinions about buying more plastic junk were quickly vetoed), we already have this toy.  Did my son own it before today?  NO.  Did my son own the Star Wars Lava Mountain?  Yes.  Are they the same toy?  YES!  Can you believe it?  Hasbro has simply regurgitated the Lava Mountain toy, in a new color and with a few minor scenic adjustments.  The balls of lava that shoot out of the volcano's mouth are now giant boulders that roll from the top of the mountain, the lava pit is now a pool of quicksand and the nubs for electrical towers (not shown) now hook up to trees.  I'm thoroughly disgusted.  Take a look for yourself:

  

My daughter's choice redeemed the day's experience, thankfully.  She choose a Barbie Thumbelina doll ($12.99 at Toys R Us, $15.99 at Amazon.com).  What I love about this toy is not that it's more plastic (can't avoid it altogether) but the packaging is environmentally friendly.  The box even discusses the fact that the cardboard can and should be recycled and it offered a little green tidbit ("Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a TV for three hours.")  And, believe it or not, there were no twisty wires holding the doll in place!!!  Just a few tiny threads held the doll in her packaging and let me say, after working my fingers raw removing toys from their packaging on Christmas Day, I was thrilled.

I'll be honest... I've never liked the way toys are made to "supplement" movies but this new approach to packaging by Mattel impresses me.  I already love the Barbie movies for their positive messages and gentle themes and now I actually appreciate their toys. 

Philanthropy Boy

My oldest son made me very proud today. He walked into the kitchen after school and said, "Mom, can we have a hot chocolate stand?" I said, "Sure, hon," thinking this was a great way to spend some time outside since it wasn't actually freezing (a welcome break from our recent weather). But then, my boy said, "We're going to donate half the money we earn to a homeless shelter, a quarter to an animal shelter and then who ever works at the stand will split the rest." Seriously? My seven year old son thought of this? My son thought of this instead of making a Christmas wish list to mail to Santa? My heart filled with love and pride as I thought, "That's ma' boy!"

So I put on the kettle of water and scrounged up some holiday mugs and cocoa mix. He brought up a kid-sized table from the basement and called our neighbor for a marshmallow donation. Within ten minutes we were set. And the timing was perfect... it was just dark enough to really see our Christmas lights shining bright!

We're lucky to live on a court full of children eager to help. As employees, they were entitled to a share of the profit, of course. Each took their duties seriously whether it was advertising (knocking on every door), measuring out the cocoa mix, stirring the water, adding marshmallows, taking the money or babysitting the youngest staff member (my 14 mo. old).

Considering they were out for just an hour (before it was too dark and cold) and only 4 out of 7 houses had someone home, they did pretty well. After deducting their salary, the children made $12! Not bad considering their customers were 2 adults and themselves. How sweet it was that after setting everything up, they all ran into their houses to fetch a dollar and buy a cup of hot cocoa from themselves.

The math went out the door in the end; the proceeds will be divided in half. We plan to donate $6 to our town's homeless shelter and visit our county Humane Society with our $6 (plus lots of love for the animals). Sure, it's not much but isn't the point just that he had the idea? I love that he's ready to make a difference and already believes he can.

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And as if the evening weren't rewarding enough, I was even able to finally snap a picture worthy of a holiday card. Here it is - our holiday card 2008 photo - da da da dum: