While looking for swing sets online, I went to Toys R Us and noticed a new toy exclusive to their them. It’s called Natural Toys.

There are six toys that are made of natural wood. The toys are decorated with a wood burning technique, so there is no paint. Just all natural wood. In a day when there has been so many recalls of toys because of lead paint, it’s refreshing to see natural wood toys sold on a massive scale. And unpainted wooden toys is an added bonus.

Rae has a ton of toys that have broken simply because they just don’t stand up to being played with. Wooden toys last and are also are good for the environment. It’s definitely a section that I will steer up to the next visit as I’d much rather buy her something that will stand the test of time.

Summer is right around the corner, so I have been looking at the different outdoor toys that I might could buy for Rae. I picked her up a toy golf club set. While she is a long way from enjoying a round of 18 holes at Branson golf course, she seemed to enjoy playing with the set.

The set comes with three plastic clubs, 3 balls, plastic golf bag, and 2 putting holes. The set only cost $4, so I was expecting great quality. The driver has already broken. In fact, it broke the first day we had it. She has been playing with it for a while and really didn’t care for the driver anyway.

So, for $4 and at least a week of entertainment, the kids golf clubs were a good deal. Quality might not be great but maybe it will outlast her interest in the toy.

To say that my daughter loves bath time just doesn’t seem to describe how much she enjoys it. She has a ton of ducks and other bath toys. Her favorite by far -both inside and outside the tub - is the Smart Splash Color Play Penguins.

It’s a set of 6 penguins each with their own color ring. Each penguin has a shape on it’s top hat that matches their ring. Raegan loves to take them out of their tube and place them back in it during bath time. When she is not playing with them in the tub, the penguins can usually be found in her play doll house or even in her bed as she sometimes go to sleep with them.

The penguins have been a great toy for her. They have helped teach her colors and shapes. Plus she has so much fun playing with them with her other toys.

We just bought Rae a sand/water table that the penguins will probably migrate to this summer. They have been a very versatile toy, entertaining Rae for hours on end. Overall it’s been a fun toy for both bath and any time.

I picked up Rae a cute die cast car at the store. It was so cute that I just had to get it. Take a look:

It’s from the Little Tikes Land series. The bigger version of this toy is seen in yards across America. They also had more like a train and other vehicles.

Rae loves cars and so getting her one made for her age group(2 years) makes me feel better about her playing with them. Ever since I gave it to Rae, she has been playing with it nonstop. So, I think the little $3 car is a hit.

To say Raegan has a lot of toys would be an understatement. I can’t pass up a good deal on toys, so I’ve picked them up by the trash bag at the local thrift store when they have a toy sale. I’m always on the lookout for educational toys as well, so when I was given the chance to review the Animal Crack-Up Smart Snack toy from Learning Resources, I couldn’t resist. I knew I could offer my opinion on the product, but the real test would be how well Raegan liked it.

She was very excited when I showed her the box and couldn’t wait for me to open the box. One of the reasons I liked this product was that each animal is a puzzle. There is just two pieces, so it’s easy to put together. I had been wanting to get Raegan more puzzles to help develop motor skills and coordination.

The set contains 10 animal puzzles and a cute cardboard animal cracker box to store the pieces in when they are not being played with. Each animal has a different colored back, so you can either solve the puzzle by finding the front and back of the animal or finding two pieces of the same color. Or kids can get creative and put together part of a pig with a horse or any other combination their imaginations can conjure.

Raegan really enjoyed playing with them, and I was impressed with the sturdiness of the animal puzzle pieces. I was also happy to see that the pieces came with their own storage container in the form of an adorable animal cracker box. Overall it’s a fun toy that will help her learn colors, have creative play time, and develop motor skills.

My little one has a love for horses. It’s partially because her cousin has one, so she has been around one for some time now. When she saw the Fur Real horse Butterscotch at Target, she was enamored.

The batteries must have been worn down, because Butterscotch didn’t respond to getting her hair brushed or being fed. When we ran across the horse at Toys R Us that was working, she wasn’t so fond of it anymore. With a price tag of right at $250, it’s a little pricey to buy as a play thing she doesn’t like when working. Too bad there isn’t a version that does nothing. I’m sure it would be much cheaper.

The Fur Real horse does look cool especially since it comes with a hair brush and a carrot. It’s also a nice size to for a child to sit on. When you brush her hair, her tail wags and she turns her head. I can’t quite remember what she did when you fed her. I know her head moved. It was enough to spook my two-year-old, or at least at first. When we go back, she may be just fine with it.

It’s an amazing stuffed animal with a hefty price tag. I will have to keep an eye on it to see if the price drops anytime soon.

The Tickle Me Elmo is 10 years old and to celebrate 10 years of the happy go-lucky monster that refers to himself in third person from Sesame Street, Fisher-Price introduced TMX Elmo. There is no doubt about it that Elmo is a popular character on Sesame Street with every episode ending with Elmo’s World that runs at least 10 minutes. That’s a lot of Elmo over time, so it’s no wonder that toddlers recognize the red monster in stores, on TV, and everywhere else.

TMX Elmo is Tickle Me Elmo taken to the next level. Elmo still laughs when tickled but also will being to shake from laughing so much an eventually fall over from laughter. It’s a cute toy that has also prompted the release of TMX Cookie Monster. I’m sure the future holds many other TMX toys of our favorite Sesame Street characters as well.

We bought the Leapfrog Fridge Farm magnet set for Raegan for Christmas since she had started taking an interest in the refrigerator magnets. It was a very smart move on my part since she loves playing with the toy.

The set comes with 8 different animals, each has a front piece and a back piece. Place each piece in the right spot on the front and then press it for sound. If you just do have an animal, you get the message “blue sheep” or whatever color and animal magnet it happens to be. Put both halves in and you get a little song about matching a match. If you put in the front of the cow and the back or a horse, you get a personalized song for your creation. First the voice will say in a questionable tone, “A cow horse?” Then she will sing a little rhyme song about the silly cow horse.

You can also press farmer Tad sitting in top of the barn to listen to his banjo. This is Raegan’s favorite button of all since you don’t have to put the magnet pieces in for it to work. She really loved it before she could get those pieces into the magnet. Now she is a pro at putting those magnets in and out of the right slot.

There is on off button and volume control, two big pluses if you ask me. It’s been a great toy to keep her occupied while I’m cooking or just whenever. She will forget about it for a few days, then it’s like a new toy. Leapfrog makes some fun toys and this the Fridge Farm is definitely one of them.

Housewife Rating — 6 out of 10

Cute guitar and fun music. It’s a very loud toy that can become very annoying really fast.

The Backyardigans is a cartoon on Nickelodeon that my daughter for first exposed to this weekend. It’s colorful and has a lot of music which kept her attention. Their line of toys include a guitar. Since Rae loves the guitars of Guitar Hero we wanted to get her a guitar of her own. The Backyardigans guitar stood out because it has buttons on the fret and has a strummer.

It plays a couple of songs. While the songs are playing if your you can strum along or press the fret buttons to add a guitar riff or interject words into the song. It’s a cute guitar, and Rae loves it. My only complaint is that there isn’t a volume control. The speaker is located on the backside of the guitar, so when it plays music it is extremely loud. It can become annoying. The guitar would be so much better with a volume control since Rae loves playing with it but Mommy can only take so much.

DonorsChoose.org is an organization that helps teachers across the United States. By donating money you can help teachers get the much needed supplies they need. It’s amazing how many school items teachers will buy with their own money and never get reimbursed for. Imagine if you needed something at and had to purchase it but your company didn’t pay for it. It’s a practice in business that is practically unheard of but for teachers they have to because they are only given so much money to spend on their room that is apparently in inadequate amount.

The BlogCatalog community is uniting to bring recognition to this plight. The donation page below will tell you how you can help a teacher out. There are several requests listed, and you can choose which one to help with your donation. A lot of the requests are from teachers in Louisiana whose school was affected by Hurricane Katrina. The goal is to raise $25,000 to fund 9 proposals. Have a look and help a teacher in need.

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