Little People Land

Monday was my Mom and sister Tracy's birthdays so Sunday we celebrated with lunch, cake and presents at Mom and Dad's.  I asked Mom while we were there if she minded if I had a look through our toys that we grew up with and maybe take some of them to the day care.  I wound up coming home with a load of good stuff!  I brought the Fisher Price Little People school house, barn and village along with people, furniture, animals and vehicles.  So awesome!  I also came away with a big tub of Lego's and a set of Lincoln Logs.

Monday morning I cleaned everything when I got to work and set it all up on the kitchen table.  When the kids got there they thought Miss Laurie's new toys were terrific and I quite agreed!  I'm saving the Lego's and logs for later in the week when the weather won't be as good to be outside.

It's amazes me at the things that my mother has kept from when we were little.  I'm almost afraid that I don't know the half of what she's still got.  I did see my old Fonze sweatshirt in the attic yesterday!

As you can see, some of the stickers aren't stuck so swell anymore and have bubbled up due to storage and heat and such... not to mention they're forty years old!  I found a dealer on ebay and bought and entire new set of decals for the village!  I'm so excited about that too.  Not all of them need to be replaced right away but when they do I will have extras ready to go!
HERE's a link to the listing.

My sister Marty's initials on the school house.

Little Journals

You are never too young or old to begin a journal, in my book anyway.  Whether it is something you write in everyday, an art journal with drawings or a style journal (which I am desperate to begin for myself) a journal is a great way of tracking... well... yourself.  In this case, we are at the day care.  I had the thought a couple of days ago that instead of throwing away old colorings or storing them in a box, wouldn't it be neater to let them begin a journal?  That way when the notebook is good and full of whatever we want to put in it we can see how far they've come with their drawings, colorings and even writing.

I am super excited about this idea.  These books will eventually go home with the kids so that their families can see how far they've come.  And the notebooks are cheap.  I actually bought these around back-to-school time for seventeen cents a piece. 

This morning, we broke out pictures, stickers and glue sticks and decorated the outside cover of the kid's journals.  I made sure to pick a color that each of them would like.  They do have their favorites.  For story time today we read a library book called "All Kinds of Families" by Mary Ann Hoberman.  We talked about what a family is and named people in each of our families.  Then we broke out our journals and filled up the first page with pictures of people in our families.  They did great. 

I am looking forward to filling up these books with the kids and seeing how far they've come by the end of the book.