We love to picnic!

We are year-round picnic-ers! Now, I KNOW that in my last post I was saying how nice the weather has been, but here we are in our winter coats - 2 weeks ago - having a picnic. Our ONE cold day was when we had a picnic planned. No matter - we have all kinds of Thermoses to keep things warm/cool. The big surprise was the park already has put away the picnic tables for the winter, but the tailgate makes a good substitute.
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For Mother's Day this past year Little Boy proudly presented me with a very cool picnic bag... and here it is during one of our summer picnics. This is a great bag because the front has plates/cutting board/silver/glasses/napkins/salt/pepper, etc. And the back has a very roomy pocket that holds a surprising amount of food.

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Here is a photo from one of our day road trip picnics this summer. For this picnic I planned ahead for a slightly "gourmet" picnic. I steamed baby asperagus for asperagus roll-ups, we had several different cheese/crackers and crusty bread, roasted potato salad, marinated vegetable & pasta salad, clementines, rum cake, cookies and I am sure we had several other things too but it was awhile ago so now I can't remember. Thank goodness for photos to jog our memories! Often we will add a few packaged salads from the grocery store... it all depends.

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It is pretty simple - picnic-ing. Of course, when it is hot you have to be mindful of foods staying cold. I really love picnic-ing when it is cold out though - those warm foods taste so extra yummy for some reason. There are some basic things to remember to bring - which I usually just keep in a box - ready to toss into the back of the truck at a moments notice. Let's see... charcoal, lighter stick, grill brush (no grill needed because I've already scouted out the area for parks that have stand-alone grills!), plastic table cloth and clamps (or at least a spray bottle of cleaner/paper towels), old picnic quilt (sometimes we go where there are no tables!), paper towels, sunscreen, bug spray, a jug of water for cleaning, empty plastic bags for the plates, etc... and a ball. I think that about covers it - you might need more or less. All that is left to pack is the food/drinks/cups/utensils...

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If you don't have any Thermoses about your house - get some! Plan a brisk fall walk in the woods or a bike ride and then enjoy a nice hot picnic afterward. It is handy to have an assortment of plastic containers, plastic cups, ice packs, coolers.

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We picnic a fair amount - even if we just go down the street a few miles, it is a fun event. We actually sometimes picnic right in our front yard in the summer. Little Boy adores a picnic - I often think that, for him, half the fun of any outing we go on is all the food we pack! After eating we always play a rousing game of ball. Fresh air and exercise, plus good food. Perfect.

Our apple trees

Our area has many old, tall, leggy apple trees (like the one in the top left photo). This time of year, since it is deer season, some people with these trees put out big containers of "deer apples" for $10. You can also buy deer apples at fruit stands. I've never seen "deer" apples for sale in the US, but I guess it is common practice in Canada! The apples from these tall trees aren't very tasty for eating, but, ah, well - the deer like them! We don't sell our apples, but there is an older man who comes every year, paper bag in hand and politely asks if he can collect some off the ground to feed "his" deer.

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In addition to an assortment of tall, leggy apple trees, we have a goofy, little apple tree - the one pictured in the right photo. Every spring we think for sure it didn't survive the winter because it is the last tree to get leaves. But eventually it does leaf out and then in the fall - when the rest of the trees have long ago dropped their apples to the ground, this little apple tree is still full of small apples! That would be - small, tasty - very juicy and a bit tart apples!!! Yum! Most of the apples in this little tree are green, although some are tinged in red. It is a nice short tree so Little Boy is easily able to pick the lower apples all by himself, and let me tell you - he is a champion apple picker! This time of year - he eats lots of apples!

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I've tried to figure out what kind of tree this is and the best I can come up with is that it is a crabapple variety. The undersides of the leaves and stem have the tell-tale white fur.

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Our little job for today will be to pick the apples we can reach off the tree because finally, they are starting to drop to the ground. And maybe, just maybe - we might get around to making a little bit of apple butter with our very own apples this year.

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And just for fun - a little photo collage of my Little Boy - almost always in constant motion! Please do notice that he is wearing shorts and sandals and it is almost November and yes, we are in Canada!!! The weather has been so nice - it has been a wonderful fall. Well, a few cold days here and there, but believe me, I have nothing to complain about weather wise. He is running in our YARD - as we have stuck to the beach and playing in the yard during hunting season - no long walks in the woods for us right now.

Little Boy's new sleep sack!

Little Boy has slept in a sleep sack since he was an infant. In North America you can buy infant sleep sacks, but just very small sizes. In Austria sleep sacks are very popular for toddlers/pre-schoolers too... houses generally are not heated as warmly over there (especially at night!) and when the kids are zipped in their sacks - you know they are snuggy wuggy warm even if they do have a tendency to kick off the covers. The kids are so used to sleeping in them that they are made in winter and summer weight fabrics for wearing year round. Getting into the sack is part of our bedtime routine and no matter where we are - I always make sure we have at least 1 sack with us. Once he "sacked" he hardly ever gets out of bed.
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Yes, Little Boy is very good at unzipping and getting out of it - but he often prefers to waddle around like a penguin when he first gets up... and since we often sit out on
the porch first thing in the morning when it is still a bit cool anyway that works out just fine, keeping his toes nice and toasty. Here is a photo of him (with the ever present Elmo) out on the porch in his old sack - you can see that his feet are right down to the bottom. Yup, time for a new sack. Bye the way - he absolutely loves his own little chair - just his size - for porch sitting.
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I knew that Little Boy would be outgrowing his current sack before long and earlier this summer I found this super nice double sided quilted flannel so I bought enough for TWO sacks - I've never seen double sided FLANNEL (the other side is lavender) before and since my son loves all things soft - I bought enough fabric for two sacks - thinking ahead to the next sack - and a long zipper. I had to make bias binding because the size I bought was too narrow for the puffy fabric. The design is pretty simple - it is 1 piece of fabric with no side seams - the seam is up the center zipper. So, nice and flat. The bottom is squared like a paper bag so his feet have room. There are darts under the arms to make it fitted up top. And - I made his new sack with extra length - but not too long because I don't want him to be tripping as he walks around like a penguin, but he should at least get the winter out of this one! Sleep sacks in Europe can be very expensive... 60 Euros and up - so I was very happy to find this nice fabric and make one myself.
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Here is a photo of my "serious" model.
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*Got that done! Now onto making new PJ's, letting down the hems on his pants (see how much has grown since this spring! - smart Momma made these pants with big hems to let down), new fleece pants and new fall weight fleece mittens and maybe a few other odds and ends. He loves everything I make for him and I really enjoy sewing for him!

Hanging things up - my magnetic board

I don't have enough "fall" blocks to make a sampler, but I do have enough to put on my magnetic board to admire! Most are from swaps, but I made a few myself... and that Jack-0-latern is from an old Fons & Porter issue - I liked him so much I made two! The corn block is being held with an "E" magnet - in case you are wondering about that!

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Someone (and I do apoligize for not remember WHO) in Bloggerland posted about her very nifty magnetic board last year. Well, I saw it and my heart did desire one, so I asked my handy DH to build me one... which after some time and prodding - he did! This is made out of sheet metal, backed with plywood and framed with narrow framing. It IS a bit heavy, but is very sturdily mounted. It fits in this wall space perfectly - got to love custom measurements! Cool, huh? I usually use it for photos (my favorites are now over on the right) and odds and ends, but it also makes a great spot to display blocks.

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Maybe, just maybe - by next fall, I will have enough blocks to make a sampler of some sorts.

Knitting on circulars instead of dpn's

One of my sister's showed me this great trick - knitting on circular needles instead of double pointed needles. Yes! It works great for very small circumfrances - I did this entire sleeve - with multiple colors at the cuff - using circular needles - shorter ones at the narrower part and then switching over to longer ones as the sleeve got wider. OK - so I am at the very top of this sleeve where it is the wide part, but it should still give you a good idea... hopefully.

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You feed some stitches onto the left needle and "bend" the loopy part of the needle to feed the other stitches back over to the right - you need to do this when you don't have enough stitches to go around - bending and feeding those extra stitches not yet on the knitting part of the needle over to the right will give you the slack you need. Knit the stitches on your left needle over to the right.
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Push all the stitches on the right needle all the way over to the right - you probably will have to pull the tip of the right needle to get the stitches over there - this will at the same time pull the left needle back toward the remaining stitches that need to be knit. Be careful not to pull the left needle through the stitches! In other words - be careful not to drop the stitches as you pull the needle through.
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Now you needles are in position again to start the process over.
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The best part - your stitch marker never falls off the back of a dpn! All you sock knitters out there might want to give this method a whirl - just get a short circular needle because one that is very long will be too long to feed the stitches around. I am not sure those snap on/snap off connector needles would hold up to the bending part because I don't have those kind of needles.
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So - here is a photo of my knitting basket - and lookie there - it is almost full! That would be full of knitting - not full of balls of yarn. Yup, after FOUR years, I am on the final sleeve for this sweater and that sleeve is just a few more rows away from being done!!! Obviously it is a pick up every now and then or once in a blue moon project for me. But, I did start this last sleeve the end of April and have been pretty good about doing 5 rows here and there this summer and it looks like I might actually finish this sweater in time to wear THIS winter. Yippee!!! Stay tuned for a photo of the finished sweater, I just can't promise when that will be.

Doodling a doll

I used to make dolls... and lately I have been thinking about them. So today I sat down for a little bit to sketch. I start with tracing paper and do only 1/2 the body. On the partial sketch on the right you can see my marks to move the chest down and to shorten the upper arm - except on the 2nd sketch now I think the arm is too short - so I will re-consider. Not bad though considering I haven't even attempted to draw a doll in a few years!
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I was happy enough with the 1st sketch that I went ahead and did a 2nd one - there was still work to be done - especially the 2nd hand and the position of the fan she is holding, but basically, a good start. After Little Boy went to bed I made a 3rd sketch - the photo is of the 1st and 3rd sketches.
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Tracing paper works for me - I sketch in pencil and then use a Sharpie marker to mark in what I like. I can stack a few different layers on top of each other and see if I like different components together.
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I would like to make her into a flat doll - think fancy paperdoll, but made out of fabric... eventually. I don't have any super stiff interfacing, for one thing, but maybe I will just go ahead and use some cardboard. And maybe someday I will fiddle around with her, making her more dimensional - in a larger size. Someday...
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Oh, and yup - I am the high school art student that had to drop art because of a D average and it was dragging down my GPA.

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P.S. - when I 1st wrote this post I decided to delete 1 photo and exchange it for another - but Blogger wouldn't upload the photo and I had already deleted the 1st. Good news though - this morning Blogger let me put a photo in the post. Phew!

My Red Puzzler!

No, no, no - this is not a red and green Ocean Waves... rather it is a completed GREEN ocean waves with pieces of a RED ocean waves - in progress - laid on top - checking size. And guess what? Surprise - the size of the red blocks is different than the size of the green blocks! Yes, I amaze myself - not sure how that happened since I used the same pattern 2X. Must be that 4 year old distraction, otherwise known around here as Little Boy, LOL!
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The green quilt I made last summer and I was so happy with it that I started the red ocean waves in early March - and SEVEN months later I now have successfully completed the 288 pieced triangle units!!! Who knows - maybe Ocean Waves will be an annual summer project - there are still more colors in the color wheel! When in doubt about color selection - I just go with 1 color family - all scrappy. I know, I'm lazy! Anyway - you put 4 units around the setting square and then 8 units around that... so 12 units per setting square. I haven't been working on this steadily, but it is a nice little project to work on here and there - piecing maybe 10 units a time. Even if I am very tired or just unmotivated - if I have something all set up and ready to go - chances are that I will work on it - slowly, yes, but progress is progress! One thing I did - I precut all the triangles ahead of time so they were all set to mix and match and sew. Bit by bit - it adds up you know?

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Here is a close up of 12 units set around a setting square (yes, the setting squares are already quilted because it is from the green quilt underneath! - quilted by Judy L!). You can click to enlarge if you want to see the fabrics - a mixture of some old red prints, bright red prints, oranges, pinks... well, I like variety! Some of these fabrics looked perfectly awful when I started cutting them, but look how great it all looks together, as a whole!

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I still need to buy the 2 border fabrics AND the setting squares fabric. I am thinking about a bright pink skinny inner border with a red outer border - maybe an orange binding. The setting fabric will be a bit more difficult... the green quilt has a light pink-ish feathery batik - very subtle. For the red quilt I am thinking of either a large/bold red print - maybe a toille or something, OR a light yellow batik. Then again, it usually boils down to what the fabric store has - because in my book a finished quilt is soooo much better than looking for the most perfect-ist fabric (and, yes - I know that is improper grammer, but I just couldn't help myself). So, yes, sometimes I compromise and in the end, I am always thrilled to have a finished quilt rather than collection of blocks in the closet waiting for that perfect discovery.

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Puzzler you ask? Well yes... the green ocean waves top went together fabulously well. For the red one - I must have been a BIT distracted because I cut the triangles not only a different size but a different way too than the directions called for. My slight little variation has caused a big difference in the size of the finished segment!!! Check out the photo below to see the size difference between the 2 quilts - keep in mind you have to subtract out the seam allowances so it isn't all that bad. But instead of cutting setting squares 7.5" I will cut them 9.5" and I still need to figure out the math for the edge/corner triangles. When in doubt - cut bigger and cut to fit! That is my motto! The good news - I would have NEVER thought to double check the sizes before cutting the setting fabric, but curiosity got the better of me and I just had to see how the red looked on the green, phew! I have no idea how big the finished quilt will be (if I use all the segments, obviously it will be larger than the green one, which is already fairly large!). I guess if it starts to get too big I can just stop and set any extra pieces aside for another project. Or, maybe I can get 1 big quilt and 1 crib quilt out of these blocks? And, even though I cut the pieces all the wrong size - it doesn't really matter in this pattern as long as all the pieces are consistently the same size! All the triangles are the same size so I only need to re-figure the background fabric.

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Little Boy's observation for the day: "Look Momma, not only are my feet getting bigger, but my socks are shrinking too. See Momma - it's true!" What a coincidence - don't you think?!

Anchor's Away!

My husband brought a huge anchor home this week... to go with his on-going nautical decorating theme... (right - I MUST remember to take a photo of the humpback whale skull skeleton that is out back and then there are an assortment of old lobster traps, giant lobster claws, smoked herring on sticks, various lighthouses.... well, you get the idea). I decided to make a remembrance quilt block of the occassion and got to work making this little quilt block (3.5" paper-pieced - I Googled (10 years ago - who ever would have thought that Googled would be a verb!!!) - paper pieced anchor quilt block and came up with this free pattern - also in 4" so I will have to give that a whirl). I might embroider the date on the anchor too. Isn't it cute?

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It wasn't until AFTER I had the entire block pieced and then was looking at the actual anchor before I realized that the blue and yellow are reversed at the top - the top of the anchor is supposed to have a hole for the rope to go through. Oh well, Little Boy loves it just the way it is declaring excitedly - Momma, it matches the anchor in our yard. Yup, Sweetie Pie, it sure does. Gotta love your biggest quilt fan!

Oh - and Little Boy's wisdom of the day... Mom, if I mix my spit with apple juice, my spit turns into apple juice - isn't that neat? Ah, the excitement of discovery! And, when oh when did he ever start calling me Mom??? Almost always I am Momma, but I've noticed a Mom here and there lately.

Ah, That's Better

I am happy I asked for advice because after reading everyone's comments and thinking about them - I've arrived at this! OK - so, this is a small segment because I have just a tiny bit of that maroon batik. It sure does make that 1 maroon block pop! If I push out the Flying Geese strips and add maroon to the top and bottom and then surround the entire top with a wide matching maroon border (maybe with 4 smaller pieced blocks for corner squares)... I think I've solved all my worries about this top!

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By keeping maroon as a wide outer border, it should all blend nicely and it won't seem so obvious that I am trying to add length to a square top! I get the extra length by the skinny top and bottom maroon border and the top and bottom geese. I get to use my Flying Geese which are all made. And, now I don't think they look sooooo big (keep in mind that there will be a 6" wide maroon border all around them too) now that they will be off-set by the maroon.

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Perfect. I just need to buy maroon fabric. Other than that, this entire quilt was from the stash! Thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts to my question!!! I just had a feeling that the geese were too big, but I really wanted to use them (since they were made). Sometimes it is easier to see your own project through someone else's eyes!

Slow Progress... but still progress!

Very little in the way of "new" quilting going on around here. First off, Little Boy is very busy. 2nd) Summer and Fall are my busiest times of year, 3rd) it is NICE out and 4th) I just have a very hard time concentrating on anything lately, but perhaps that is a whole different blog post. No matter, life continues onward!

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But, I am still plugging away on this top - part of Judy's May(?) challenge to use a piece from stash - my piece is the navy blue- so I am using the navy blue for sashing and now for the edges of the Flying Geese and then the final border. That should use up almost all of this fabric! An added bonus - I started with "left-over" blocks.

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The Flying Geese units might be a bit large, but I like them (well, of course I like them - they are all made!)! Seriously though - do you think they are too large for the scale of the blocks? Because I do have enough fabric to make a smaller set and use these for something different. The only thing I am afraid of, if I decide to do that, is that I might lose all momentum on this top altogether and it won't ever get done! What do you think??? I might do a row going right and then a 2nd row going left - top and bottom... not sure exactly what the final layout will be. I am trying to get the quilt a little longer than it is wide. The center part is all sewn together - the Geese are still individual units so I can play around with them as I make them. I have the rest of the Geese 1/2 done so I am almost there.

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The method is "no waste flying geese" - just google it and you will come to the link for the directions. Very easy and fast method. Darlene at Dazed Quilter posted something about it a ways back... I had never heard of this method before, had to take a look and now I am wondering what took me so long to try it out! Go ahead - cut a few squares and try for yourself!!!

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The one other thing I've managed to get done is to cut all those fabrics I was working with into strips. It took a bit of time, some days I would just do a few and eventually it got done. Now, they are all neatly cut and in labeled totes just waiting.... told you my progress was slow!

Thanksgiving dinner takes time!

Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians!

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For those of you who have been yearning for my rum pound cake... the recipe is now posted over on http://www.starfishyskitchen.blogspot.com/ - my little cooking blog. I started that blog last summer when I was trying to be inventive and come up with good menus for a small child - so don't go expecting anything gourmet over there... but I do like to cook and have been thinking about adding more recipes. Well, actually I cook a fair bit - just don't have the time or inclination to blog about it. Except, I think - that as we head into the holiday seasons that I will be posting more about, well holiday cooking. Because, to me, a big part of the holidays - is food!

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It is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend. From a sit-down dinner point of view, this MUCH earlier date than USA Thanksgiving (end of Nov.) is practical. Although, it seems a bit odd to my American point of view to be having Thanksgiving before the Halloween decorations come down! But it also means you don't have to cook or eat 2 turkey dinners a mere 4 weeks apart from each other (assuming you do turkey again for Christmas). In my family, years ago we switched over to lasagna for Christmas and DH's family likes fondu for Christmas, but that is a bit beside the point.

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The photo you are looking at - is a photo of a meal that would have been impossible for me to make in my early cooking days. Because, quite frankly, it took my YEARS to master this meal - the 1st turkey was a frozen 20 pounder and I took it out to defrost ON Thanksgiving morning (for all of 2 people). Much to my dismay the thing wouldn't fit into the microwave to defrost!!! And, coming from a BIG family - I really had no idea that a turkey came in any other size but 20 pounds!!! The next year I was smarter and bought a young, FRESH turkey - a SMALL one at that - the directions said to rinse inside and out with water and pat dry with paper towels. And, when the gizzards and neck and liver and all slithered out with no warning what-so-ever - and you have to admit - if you have never, ever seen such a sight before in your life it can be a bit gross and a shock to your system and I am sure you will completely understand 100% if I told you that I immediately threw up all over the bird. Sigh. Yes, it's true.

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I'm happy to say - my cooking skills have much improved over the years and now I even have stomache enough to boil those innards and use that water for my gravy (but, I draw the line at cutting them up and ADDING them to my gravy - no sir, as soon as they are boiled, they are thrown out!).

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So, what was on the menu? Salad - 1st course, which was already cleared away. Hot buttered bread with garlic/herb butter. Turkey, 2 kinds of stuffing, peas, mixed green beans with carrots, mushroom gravy, mashed potatoe, baked squash, cranberry sauce, home-made apple sauce, apple pie and pumpkin pie. 20 dinners later and there are still some left-overs. Take a good look at the photo - a crockpot is a great way to keep the gravy hot and an electric frying pan is good for vegetables - you can even put 2 different veggies in there. Pre-heat your crockpots (just ask everyone to bring one of theirs and have a surge protector with multiple plugs handy) and as each dish is finished - move it into a warm crockpot. I just use 2 because I have a commercial warming cabinet for everything else, but trust me - the crockpots and electric frying pans are great for buffet style.

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And while I was cooking yesterday (yes, in my small commercial kitchen - you guys are so clever to figure that out from a few photos!) it got me to thinking about how one would go about cooking this meal at home... for a family meal.... So, here are a few of my thoughts and hopefully I will add more cooking thoughts as the holiday season approaches - maybe it will help someone out! At the very least - please know that it takes 3 days to defrost a frozen turkey in the refrigerator!!!

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There are a few things to consider when serving a BIG family meal. I was surprised at how much a turkey costs in Canada at $4.34 per kg - or $41.14 for the one we cooked. Which divided by 20 plus people isn't ALL that bad, but for families on a grocery budget - it is a consideration. So, if you are HOSTING a big family dinner - assign different people things to bring - pie to one person, drinks to another , icecream to a 3rd... well, you get the idea. If you have a normal household oven, you probably don't have room to make the turkey, stuffing, squash, pies, etc. in your oven. Go ahead and accept if someone offers to help. It might seem like a goofy thing, but ask someone to bring the mashed potato - it takes TIME to peel potatoes for mashed potatoes for 20 people. Besides - you don't even want to see the pan I had to use to make that much potato. Or, consider those thin skinned red potatoes where you can just mash them, skin and all! At the very least - set the men outside around a big garbage pan with a few peelers and set them to work doing the peeling for you. Invest in a few extra vegetable peelers ahead of time so you have a few to pass out! And, if someone brings the stuffing - even better - 1 less thing in your oven. It might not be the exact same stuffing YOU would have made, but at the end of the day, I am sure it will be just fine. If you don't 100% trust a person to show up with their assigned dish, you can plan on an emergency back-up... just in case. Nothing wrong with Stouffer's Stove-Top stuffing or a frozen pie in a pinch. In my own families case - once I was assigned salad and then I was late - forever after - I was always assigned dessert!

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It probably is not a good idea to try out new recipes that your entire meal hinges upon at a big dinner. Try things out in advance. And, if you really want to try something new, than hopefully it is just 1 small dish and if it doesn't turn out great - there are other things for people to eat so it won't really matter.

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And remember - no matter what - the turkey is probably always going to take longer to cook than you think.

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Plan on way more gravy than you ever thought possible (probably 1 cup per person). If you don't know how to make gravy - start out with a good gravy mix. If your gravy clumps (gasp), you can always put it in the blender or a food processor and it will fix the problem - trust me - whisking it to death will not work. But - nothing beats one of those hand-held stick blenders! And only 1 to 1 1/2 potato per person. And squash - I made 3 acorn squash yesterday (cut them in 1/2, put them on a sprayed baking sheet, add a few tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar and bake for at least 1 hour - when they are done - scoop the squash out of shell with a big spoon and mash - soooo much faster than trying to peel butternut squash). We have plenty of squash left-over.

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It is an fairly easy meal to make, it just takes much more time than you think. Plan for extra time. Pre-set the table. Make the pies the night ahead. It is OK if you don't make EVERYTHING you want.... I could have easily made at least another 4 side-dishes, but you have to draw the line somewhere... and besides - I don't think people could have eaten another bite.

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You might want to consider setting up a seperate area for drinks.

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Dishes? Do I dare mention dishes? Try to have someone else do up all the pans, etc. AS your cook or BEFORE you sit down to eat. Afterward - run all the glasses, coffee cups, BIG things first - plates are easy to stack up into nice neat piles, but the other stuff makes a huge clutter of your countertops. The other thing I do - I fill a big container with hot soapy water and all the silverware goes in there to soak and is cleaned last. Dare I mention paper plates? I don't like them, but...

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And finally - the left-overs. Go to the Dollar Store ahead of time and invest in some cheap plastic containers. Have paper plates and saran wrap on hand. Send the left-overs home with everyone! The turkey carcus went into the soup pot.

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Did I mention - if you are lucky enough to live near a Joe Trader's they have an absolutely delicious frozen pumpkin cheesecake??? You've got to try it!!!

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Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians!!!

A little rant about toys...

THIS is the toy that Little Boy has had his eye on for the entire summer. A pricy little thing - including the re-chargable battery and 14% Canadian tax it was somewhere around $113 - don't quote me though because I am just terrible at exact numbers, but it was in that range.

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So, I told my son - he had to help save the recyclables, could ask other people to save their recyclables for him, he had to bring the recyclables to the dump with DH and at the end of summer he could get the toy. Everytime we would go to the store he would run over to this box and admire it - and I would have to tell him that he didn't have quite enough money saved up for it yet. But finally, the end of the summer did come and true to my word, off we went to get said toy. I am almost positive that he did not have that much money saved yet, but since he happens to think a piggy bank full of pennies is worth much more than 1 piece of paper money... well, the point is that he had been working and saving for this toy all summer.

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Anyway, I charged the battery. I read the directions. In itty bitty tiny small print - it said that the average battery would last ummmm 5 to 8 minutes. And that it might die suddenly - like as in poof. HUH??? The battery alone cost over $20. It takes HOURS to charge the battery. This IS a hoover craft type boat - what am I supposed to do - go swim out to the middle of some yucky bog to retrieve said boat when the battery all of a sudden dies??? Gently, ever so gently, Momma had to break the news that we could not keep this toy. Much crying and big tears (all of about 5 minutes) ensued, but Momma would not change her mind. I had to explain that this toy simply was not a good value, it would get out into the middle of the water and die and then how would we get it back? We could get something different and I would even help him find something suitable.

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After some looking and thought, it was decided that he could get a remote controlled dragonfly - it looked pretty good on the internet. And it was even 1/2 of the price. Ummm, that went back too - I think it had a battery life of about 5 minutes too - what's with this 5 minute battery life? Are battery companies in ca-hoots with toy companies???n And fragile - did I mention how flimsy and fragile this dragonfly thing seemed? Except this time, I prepared my son ahead of time, telling him that the store had told me that we could bring it back within 30 days, if we had to, like - as in - if it didn't work. We had to. Sorry, no 2 ways around it. But hey! We could exchange the dragonfly for a Backyardigans video -which he loves (at a fraction of the cost of the dragonfly and he has already gotten his moneys worth out of it. He loves the Backyardigans!).

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What can I say? DO NOT be fooled by slick advertising and nice packaging (you have to admit - that hoover craft LOOKS pretty nifty!). Toys should be fun and should last more than 5 minutes a whack - I mean really, can you imagine having to charge your sewing machine for hours after using it for a mere 5 minutes? How fun is that? I think it is OK to teach your kids what a good value means and bring back a crummy toy. Exchange it. Get something different. And yes, this is just as hard for Momma as your teary eyed angel. "We" worked at getting this toy all summer and it should have been a happy purchase. Yes, in the end, he was happier with a video, but it would have been much better if we had just skipped the 1st 2 toys altogether.

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I'm thinking I am going to do his Christmas shopping from the kitchen supply store, maybe he really does need his very own cake pans, cookie cutters, measuring cups - or maybe just the household isle at the hardware store - mopping certainly takes him more than 5 minutes, and he loves to "help"!!! An extra bonus - I get a "semi" clean floor in the process, and the exercise has to be good for him too?