Friday Fabulous Find: Scholar's Choice

In my neighbourhood there is a store called “Scholar’s Choice”.  I have lived in the area for 4 years and I pass the store almost every day and never visited.  At first I thought it was a store for school teachers, educators, etc. but then I heard it sold toys to anyone.  So yesterday, I needed to kill some time as my son was taking a quick nap in the car (of course, I left him with my husband) and decided to take a peak in the store to see what this place is all about (for those of you who are very familiar with this store, this probably sounds silly and maybe a little ignorant on my part – too brain washed to just go to Toys R Us for toys).  As soon as I entered and saw all the educational and craft like toys and activities, I was so excited!  I immediately starting thinking of all the kids I know that are on my Christmas list.  It was like a great discovery...I even saw craft kits I would like to buy for myself.  The best part is that Scholar’s Choice has a website, a member's savings card and gift wrapping on site. 

Here are a few of my favourites.

Thinking I would like this for my 10 month old son.  He loves music and banging on things!

Via Scholar's Choice

I purchased this hair band making kit for one of my girlfriend’s daughter’s for her fifth birthday; I would love to try the kit myself.

Via Scholar's Choice

I know there are a lot of DIY projects you can do with your children, but not many mother’s have the time to come up with ideas or have the DIY in them, so I think craft kits like the following one by Alex is great for toddlers.

Via Scholar's Choice

This one I will definitely get for my 18 month old nephew who loves to look at pictures of animals, so this should be fun for him and very stimulating.

Via Scholar's Choice

I definitely recommend this store and I am happy I finally took a peak!

My tip of the week!: Gift of the five senses

When I first met my husband and was just getting to know him, I found it hard to figure out what to buy him as a first birthday gift.  A thought came to mind that when I was in elementary school we sometimes gifted what we called "combo" gifts.  It was a box full of little items that had meaning instead of one or two bigger items.  So I thought I would get creative and do a gift of the five senses.  This involved me finding a relatively small gift that would represent each sense (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) which also had meaning for him and I.  This was almost seven years ago and unfortunately back then I didn't think of taking pictures of what I put together - I didn't think I would be blogging about it and sharing it with the world!

What I do remember are the items I gave him:
TOUCH - A soft scarf that I purchased from the Bay
TASTE - His favourite chocolates - Reese's Peanut Butter
SIGHT - A DVD of the first movie we saw together (Hitch with Will Smith!)
SMELL - Massage oil with the essence of vanilla (his favourite scent)
HEARING - A CD with a collection of all the songs we liked (back then I wasn't using an iPod!)

I placed the items in a nice box and had a note describing what each was, what sense it represented and what it meant to me or us.  The only thing I have left from the gift is the actual gift box I used, as it is being used to store cards received from friends.  Here it is...I had wrapped it with a nice royal blue ribbon:

I searched online to see if I can find anyone else that had the same or similar idea and I found this great post on The Dating Divas' site.  I love what Tara has done.  She really went all out by nicely tagging each item and I love the name she picked for her gift "I Love you with all of my senses".

Via The Dating Divas

  And her gifts were individually tagged as follows:

Via the Dating Divas

Great job Tara from The Dating Divas, the gifts look wonderful!

For all those men reading this blog, this would also be a great idea for your significant other...she will love you for being so thoughtful and creative.  Plus this gift idea can be adapted to suit any type of recipient.

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 ;)!