Worth a Tinkerin'

Here's the kiddos, plus their fair haired cousins, sitting around great-grandma's slippered feet playing with Tinker Toys. The funniest thing... that day my kiddos played with quite a few toys that I played with at my grandma's house when I was a kid. Right now.... I can't even think of a toy that is going to leave my house in anything other than a garbage truck. Ok, some of the outside toys I will give to someone else because the kids grew out of them. However, my point is that it is true... most toys today don't make it through their first year. Maybe I am just purchasing the wrong versions... I need to go back to the wood stuff that took some power to break, all the plastic doesn't seem worth it.

The picture was taken on Christmas Eve day - this picture doesn't show the full effect, but my children really make my sisters boys look like albinos. She has the fair skinned, blond headed lil' cornhuskers. Mine are the two that are going to be tall, dark and handsome! hehehehe! That day - Tinker Toys rocked! I hadn't even thought about getting them for the boys. My grandma takes the cake!

Today (in Norfolk, Ne): Good day despite the weather. We went to Kings Lanes... who told us we couldn't bowl because their computers were down. What a crock - remember the old way... gotta' paper and pencil? Whatever, the kids were so mad that we ended up taking them downtown to walk around. Johnathan and I figured the wind would be blocked by most of the buildings and we were right! (Score one for mom and dad.) We went in to Anderson Bicycle and Fitness - they rock! They let the kids get on the bikes to try them out, fitted all of them for helmets (even though they knew we wouldn't buy little girl helmets for the boys - they were out because of the Christmas rush), even pushed them around their indoor path in the tri-cycle racer thingy. It was a cool little contraption, but bicycles are their newest love. DD did get her helmet though - man she is cute with those ringlets sneaking out from under the ends of her helmet and that big cheeser smile. And they had just sold their last 16" boys bike - otherwise John and I agreed that they would have had our business because they were so customer centered. Sure they cost more than Wal-Mart, but they were a couple (with his little girl on his hip 90% of the time we were their!) who knew their stuff and were down to earth. The down to earth part is one thing that seems to be really hard to find when talking to a wally world employee about their bike selection.

We have just over a week to find the perfect set of bikes for the boys birthday. Wish us luck!! (We thought we were being smart and waiting until after the Christmas rush - everyone seems to be sold out in what we are interested in... minus one mom and dad!)