Thursday, April 26, 2012
My family recently moved into our new home. We moved at least 25 boxes of toys for our two boys. Where did all these toys come from?
In my teenage years, I was lured into being a nanny by a family with five children. My pay was a whopping $6 an hour. They had moved into the neighborhood and, looking back, the mother must have been a tiny bit overwhelmed. One of my duties was to organize the playroom. The empty 10' x 10' room in the basement was filled with 35 moving boxes marked "toys." What family has 35 boxes of toys? After my family's move 9 days ago, I now know that family wasn't crazy for having 35 boxes of toys for five kids. We moved at least 25 boxes of toys for our two boys, Ethan and Quinn. How on earth did this happen? We packed a storage POD two years ago with lots of toys that the boys wouldn't miss for a few months...we planned to be in our own home by …
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
'Tis the season for gift giving. When it comes to children's toys, you'll need a glue gun, and the toolbox...preferably one that is stocked with wire cutters, screwdrivers of all sizes, box cutters and lots of batteries in all sizes.
I'm sure most of you parents are having some of the same feelings I am. Looking around the playroom or toy box, the garage, the yard and under beds and seeing all the neglected toys, broken toys, never used toys, toys the kids might play with one day but forget the next, I wonder what to get rid of what to keep? What will they notice missing and what won't they miss? What is worth actually giving away and what should just be tossed? Why are we feeling this way? Because Santa is coming! Ugh. I love Christmas, playing Mrs. Santa and all that good stuff, but nothing pains me more than picking out the perfect toys and my kids not playing with them. My biggest let down was Ethan's first Christmas. He loved Elmo. It was the year of the 'Tickle …
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Kill up to 99% of germs on the items your kids touch daily.
This week we maintain happy, healthy kids by helping to banish germs. Anyone with infants or toddlers knows the never ending battle of keeping toys and pacifiers clean. They never seem clean enough. Do you drop them into a pot of boiling water? Do you use microwaveable cleaning products? How about bleach? Many parents simply give up on the battle against germs. But the thought of your little one dropping something on the mall floor and then putting it into his or her mouth is really gross. Or what if your child is in the "licking phase" and licks the couch where the dog slobbered? One way to sanitize toys is using the Germ Guardian Toy Sanitizer which has been proven to kill 99.9% of germs. It retails for $59.99. Clean bottles, tooth …
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Felt Playful toys are handmade by women wanting a safe alternative to traditional plastic toys.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Julie Paulk
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Thursday, December 23, 2010
Local moms designed a new line of safe toys called Felt Playful, made from Eco-Felt. The line includes fruits, vegetables, breakfast foods, cakes and more. Osborne High School graduate Valerie Phillips and her cousin Shanna Greve, a graduate from McEachern High, are Marietta natives. They are raising families in the area. As parents, they wanted to design safe toys for their children ages two months to nine years. Greve uses her training as an apparel engineer to design the toys made from felt. "It is challenging and exciting to take a three dimensional object, figure out how to make it a flat pattern, and then when put back together it looks like the real thing," said Greve. Friends began coming over for playdates and the interest grew …
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Kids find their own way to play with "snow" during the freezing temperatures.
The temperature has been below freezing for the past few days. It's entirely too cold for kids to play outside without wearing multiple layers of clothing. My son came up with an alternative. He said, "Mommy, can I make my toy trucks play in the snow using flour instead of going outside?" I remembered a few weeks ago that his teacher sent home a rubber glove with students to have them fill it with flour and seal it with a rubber band to be used as a stress reliever during class. It seemed harmless to play with flour. We weren't going to cook with it since we don't use bleached flour for cooking, so I figured it was a clever idea. We took an old sheet and laid it on the ground to prevent flour from getting on the floor. We found the lid …
Joshua Groves
4:54 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Hey, check out Smooth Move Supplies for all your moving concerns! They have some great boxes that can be quite helpful in the moving process- check ‘em out: http://www.smoothmovesupplies.com/ more ›