My tip of the week!: Do you have a little artist on your hands? Buy this and thank me later!

Do you have memories of getting caught (and scolded) over drawing on the walls?

With new Color Wonder products by Crayola, parents (and kids) no longer need to worry about messy ink ending up in the wrong place. The special Color Wonder markers only work on the Color Wonder drawing pads. The ink is invisible until it hits Color Wonder paper. It's just like magic but even better!

Dora Color Wonder Colouring Pad

Disney Cars Color Wonder Colouring Pad and Markers

Color Wonder On the Farm Mini Colouring Pad and Markers

Disney Princess Color Wonder Colouring Pad and Markers

Color Wonder Mini Markers

They recommend these products for 3 years and up but my son started using these before his 2nd birthday.

We have the "On the Farm" Mini Coloring Pad and Markers. It comes with 3 markers and a mini pad in a easy to reuse box. I carry it with me whenever we go out to restaurants and such. It keeps him busy without the mess of real markers. I'd say this is definitely a must have and at under $5 quite a deal!

These products can be found at Walmart and ToysRus.

Hello Monday!: Winners for Christmas gift shopping!

A second visit to Winners this past week-end and I am...(drum roll please)...done my Christmas shopping (well, ok almost...I still need to pick up a few gift certificates and finish up some online photo gifts)! I'm not certain if it's because I went early this year but Winners has a fantastic selection of gifts! The majority of what I bought was for children which was perfect since they carry a huge assortment of Melissa & Doug products.

If you have not heard of Melissa & Doug it's a brand that makes great quality wood toys.  They're sold at Toys R Us as well as many online stores. See below for most of the Melissa & Doug items I saw this week-end.  They were for ages ranging between 1 & 4 years. I've posted the recommended minimum age recommended for each product below each picture.  At Winners, these gifts all ranged between $4.99 and $19.99, now that's a great deal! Most of the ones I bought were $7.99 & $9.99!

Cutting Food - Wooden Play Food (3+ years)

Dinosaur Stamp Set (4+ years)

Dinosaur Sun Catchers Kraft Kit (4+ years)

Bear Family Dress-Up Puzzle (3+ years)

See Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle (3+ years)

Pound & Roll Tower (2+ years)

First Bead Maze (1+ year(s))

Bead Bouquet Deluxe Wooden Bead Set (4+ years)

Best Friends Forever Magnetic Dress-Up Playset (3+ years)

Barnyard Animals Jumbo Knob Puzzle (1+ year(s))

Wooden ABC/123 blocks (2+ years)

Magnetic Chalkboard & Dry-Erase Board (3+ years)

Caterpillar Gears Toddler Toy (18+ months)

Pattern Blocks & Boards Classic Toy (3+ years)

Wooden Shape Sorting Clock (3+ years)

Alphabet Nesting & Stacking blocks (2+ years)

Wooden Dinosaur Magnets (2+years)

Decorate-Your-Own Door Hanger (4+ years)

Doorbell House (3+ years)

Maggie Leigh Magnetic Dress-Up Set (3+ years)

Rubber Duck (4+ years)

Farm Sound Blocks (2+ years)

Decorate Your Own Wooden Fashion Dolls (4+ years)

Under Water Floor Puzzle (3+ years)

Scoop & Stack Ice Cream Cone Playset (3+ years)

Fold & Go Mini Dollhouse (3+ years)

Rainbow Stacker Classic Toy (18+ months)

Sticker Collection (3+ years)

12" Tabletop Paper Roll (3+ years)

Stacking Train Toddler Toy (2+ years)

I also found a great $20 gift for my Secret Santa at work which I can't share just yet ;)...but it's definitely value for your money!

Last but not least, I found gorgeous Cynthia Rowley and Elie Tahari mirrored contemporary jewelry boxes for my teenage nieces. $14.99 for the small ones and $24.99 for the large ones.  I will add a charm bracelet in each and voila!

You gotta love it when a store makes it this easy on you (and your budget) to give the perfect gift every time!

I swear by this product!: The Frog Pod

We don't live in the biggest house and I love to use space efficiently (this is why I like European style furniture as they really do think of making use of all space while keeping it clean and looking good - I digress!).  For that reason, I really have to be smart about how I store all the baby "stuff".  I still haven't managed to control most of the little guy's toys but I certainly have a good handle on his bath toys and toiletries given that I use the Frog Pod by Boon.

Via Booninc.com

I received this at my baby shower and really swear by it.  It comes with adhesive bands and screws and you can use either to mount it to the wall of your bathtub.  We used the adhesive bands as we didn't want to screw into our tiles and it holds perfectly even with a bunch of bath toys, a shampoo bottle and a soap bottle.      The scoop allows us to gather the toys, rinse them and leave them to drain while hanging on the wall.  It is functional, looks good, and takes barely any room in the bathtub.

Via Booninc.com

I would recommend this to any new mother or any mother of young children.  Even a child would be happy receiving this as it looks so fun again the wall!  I think this will stay with us for years.  You can purchase the Frog Pod online at Indigo or Toys R Us or Cheeky Monkey, to name a few.  In Ottawa, this was purchased for me at Kiddy Town.

The Boon bath pod also comes in other styles.  I loved the Frog as it looks appropriately stuck to the wall!  But the other styles are nice too!

The Bug Pod - comes in Red and Magenta

Via Booninc.com

The Whale Pod - comes in Blue, White and Grey

Via Booninc.com

Hello Monday! Choo Choo! Fun is full steam ahead!

This past week-end was all about picking the perfect train set which will be our Christmas gift to our little man this year...

Our little man had a Thomas and Friend's 2nd birthday bash :)

He has been obsessed with Thomas the Train and Friends for the last year now.  His second birthday this past August was of course a Thomas themed party & he was so excited to be Thomas for Halloween. 

Our little man's Halloween bucket filled with too many treats from trick or treating!

We recently stopped by our local Indigo bookstore and discovered the children’s section where he was delighted to find a complete train set displayed for all the kids to play with. There’s no doubt in our minds that a train set is THE perfect Christmas gift for our son this year. The challenge was finding which one! 

via ToysRus

After much research and comparison shopping I felt victorious walking out of Toys R Us last week-end with the Imaginarium Mountain Pass Railroad on sale from $129.99 to $69.97 score! But price was not the only factor...

1. We did not want a train set which came on a table as we lack space and wanted to be able to put it away. 
2. We wanted to be able to build the tracks in different ways to change it up each time.
3. We wanted to be able to buy additional tracks and pieces if we wanted to add on to the set at a later time.
4. We wanted the tracks to be compatible with the Thomas the Train sets' trains.
5. Lastly, we wanted good quality wood pieces. 

We will have to see if it delivers on each promise...will report back after Santa makes his visit ;)!