Hey Rocky , watch me pull a gift out of my hat!

Ahh..... the topic was bound to come up eventually. Gift giving, parties, toys oh my!

Do you have a gift closet? For those from frugal this needs no explanation, but for others new to the subject I will explain.

A gift closet is a spot where you pick up items you see at considerable discount, in anticipation of using it later for an event. for example. I have a lot of toys in my gift closet that are age appropriate for friends of my daughters age group or friends of my son's age group. so I a party comes up unexpectedly or there are several at the same time and multiple presents are not in the budget. or Even if shopping for presents can represent a time crunch for you.

So in a nutshell that is a git closet ( can be a tote a box does not have to be in a closet lol) it can be one geared towards kids, Christmas, charity, ( I buy toys throughout the year that is good for the toy drive at Christmas)


now my gift closet is an area behind my furnace room door and it is messy there right now because I was searching for something yesterday. but I will brave all this and post a picture. it will be a little later on this morning, I challenge everyone who has a gift closet to post your pics.

In amongst my gift closet I also put the items I have for goody bags for parties I throw or things I use for gift baskets (another favorite thing of mine to do) will post more on that in the future.

Lunchmate code up for grabs.

The last time i posted a code it was used without the courtesy of a 'i used it" so this time I am offering a code and but will email the code to the first commenter that wants it.

I hope this works out better.

You should be the Einstein in your babies life.

Do you remember that feeling you had when you found out you were going to be a parent for the first time ahhhh such excitement, such happiness, such joy such ......spending.....

i was sparked to think about today about all the silly things we filled the nursery with when we were expecting our first. Almost like we were not prepared unless we had a bottle warmer, diaper genie and baby Einstein videos.

and for the moms and dads reading this that went on to have more than one child we all know how very little you really need to prepare for baby's arrival.

my own nursery for my first had, enough clothes for ten babies., 12 towels for example, i washed clothes so often i only ever used two of the towels that kept getting put back on top. it had bouncy chairs , swings, jolly jumpers, 12 bottles of shampoo, bottle warmer machine, bottle sterilizer for the microwave, and so on and so on.

what i really needed was some diapers, a tub, food, crib and blankets plus a bit of clothes.

So where do all these messages come from that we need this and that. ? it isn't from our parents, they never had half of these items either. Is it from our friends that have a year of baby bliss down. probably not, because i they were anything like us after our first year being parents, We looked around the nursery with such regret for everything we bought that was unused. And we passed this along to any new parents to be. Buy as you need it. you do not have to have a nursery like a picture out of a magazine in order to tell yourself you are ready for parenthood. That comes from within not from making sure you have a Noah's ark comforter set with a matching lamp, curtains, diaper bag. Not saying that is wrong just not necessary.

so that leaves the various forms of media, print radio and TV. they are showing us all these wonderful ways to be good parents to our babies. or at least it is showing us how at a very young age to be trying to buy our kids happiness with fancy toys, pricey learning videos, and name brands upon their chests. I fell into this thinking with my first but i could not be brainwashed with the following two, i decided that i would try to be the best parent i can be , by playing with them instead o expecting them to be happy with new toys, and I (how novel) would be the one to teach my child it's alphabet. ! insert gasp!

I think we, as a society, need to get back to basics forget the doodads and start be the DO--dads and moms

okay moms , lets talk.........playdates!

My daughter is going for a playdate today. her first one. and although i am not nervous for her. but it does give me reason to stop and look at my daughter and give her that look that says

" my little baby is growing up' my questions are do you like to host play dates? would you prefer to have your child go out for a play date? how old would your child have to be to go on a play date without you?

My daughter is going to a friends house so i know the mom so that takes a lot of the worry out of it. but i would be less inclined to send her to another classmates house of a mom i did not know on an outside of school basis. Am i being silly with that? I imagine that it will start becoming less of an issue the more parties she is invited to an the more parents i meet. Surprisingly there have been no invites home yet. i can hardly wait to send hers out they are so precious. little fairytale princess books. trust me there will be lots of photos of that in the future. i guess i just wanted to gauge your thoughts on play dates. please share your experiences