Cheekeyes at Oompa

Have you heard Laurie Berkener's song "We are the Dinosaurs"?

That is Arielle and Linnea's absolute favorite song. We listen to it many times a day. They love pretending to be dinosaurs as they sing along, and the first thing they wanted to do when we unpacked the Wooden Animal Dinosaur Set from Cheekeye was to have the dinosaurs march along with the song.

Cheekeye Dinosaurs ($29.99)

Did I say yet that these are just adorably cute? Even Tyrannosaurus rex looks sweet and cuddly.

In addition to Tyrannosaurus rex, the set includes Triceratops (Arielle's favorite), Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Velociraptor.

The Cheekeyes are made in Sri Lanka and designed in the Netherlands. They are made of hard wood with paint only for the faces and edges. The dinosaur volcano ($16.99) and prehistoric trees ($16.99) are sold separately. They average about five inches in length.

Here are the dinosaurs getting ready to march....


and taking a rest....


and marching again.



Cheekeyes are available in the U.S. exclusively from Oompa. They also make a Farm Set, African Animal Set, Forest Animal Set and Polar Animal Set ($29.99 each), as well as (completely optional ) accessories ($16.99 a set). They would work really nicely with a set of playsilks.

Arielle says more than anything, she hopes Santa brings the "Antarctica Animals". She's been asking every day. If you are reading, Santa, then you know.

UrthChild

I love hearing from our readers, and Anthia, who has been a reader for a while, recently opened her own toy store, UrthChild. Her store is stocked with the most wonderful wooden natural toys, as well as organic clothing, toiletries, bedding, furniture, and accessories - just about everything a child needs.

Of course, the toys are the best! They include the brands Camden Rose, Joy's Waldorf Dolls, HABA, Holztiger, Plan, Selecta, and more. I'm getting some organic play dough for Linnea's birthday, and I'll let you know how the kids like it.

Over the Rainbow organic play dough (case of 6, $23.99)


Anthia has offered our readers a discount code, "STB1208" which is good for 10% off (excluding gift certificates) until 12/15/08.

BellyLaf in the Bath

BellyLaf offers two fun and very practical products for bathing children, Grippees™ ($16.95) and MiniMitts™($9.95).

Like all good ideas, the products are mom-inspired. Chris, one of the partners in BellyLaf, has twins who are now almost 5. When they were born, they were very small and slippery and like all of us, she always worried that she was going to drop them in the bath. She looked for something practical to help with holding them, but all she could find were bath puppets. From this, the idea for Grippees™ was developed.

Grippees™ are bamboo (oh so very very soft and eco-friendly and naturally resistant to bacteria) bath mitts with gripping dots that do not irritate a child’s skin, but still help in holding slippery children as parents wash them or move them in and out of the tub or shower. The upper portion of the Grippees™ is designed for washing, not gripping. So the parent doesn't have to put the mitt down to grab a washcloth.

As the kids got older, they wanted to wash themselves so the moms at BellyLaf came up with the idea of MiniMitts™, miniature bath mitts sized just for children.

Grippees™ and MiniMitts™ are decorated with SmartShapes™, geometric designs that feature brightly colored sea creatures. We especially like the crabs.

BellyLaf's wash mitts have earned award from The Toy Man and from iParenting. But, more importantly, the have earned Linnea's seal of approval.



Linnea enjoyed trying out MiniMitts™, but I have to admit she enjoys pulling the "glubs" on and off far more than washing.

Ten percent of profits from the sales of BellyLaf products go to The Hide and Seek Foundation, a non-profit organization raising money for research into fatal childhood diseases. The mitts are available through the BellyLaf website.

Sorry!

Daddy was home on leave for two weeks and many of the toys were ignored while the girls played their favorite game"Hop on Pop!". Now it is time to catch up with reviews of Cheekeyes dinosaurs and alphabet blocks from Oompa, natural toys from Down to Earth Toys, a dollhouse stacker from A Toy Garden, Lilly Bean Play Foods, Urthchild, The Silver Penny, an affordable wooden stroller, stocking stuffers, and some bamboo bath mitts from Bellylaf. And lots lots more...

And the winner is....

Mandy is the lucky winner of our first ever toy giveaway!!! She wins one Large Flatout Koala Bear and one Flatout Baby Koala Bear from Bright October. Congratulations, Mandy!

We have another giveaway (Lilly Bean felt food!) coming later this month.

More Treasures from North Star Toys

We reviewed a few of North Star Toy's wonderful wooden playthings last year, and we are back with an update and a few new favorites.

Camera ($23.00)



I'm a mommy who takes a lot of pictures. Picture for Daddy overseas, pictures for Grandma, pictures for the blog, pictures to preserve all those sweet moments... So, I shouldn't have been too surprised to see Linnea pretending a block was her camera. And, I definitely should have been prepared for Linnea to try out my camera.

When I unpacked the North Star Camera, there was a little fight about who would try it out first. Linnea went first, but fortunately she has a short attention span because Arielle is the one who really enjoys the camera.



Every week, Arielle cuddles with her 17 year-old big sister and watches America's Next Top Model. Not great TV for preschoolers, but bonding with a big sister before she goes away to college - that's way more important.

Well... after watching last week, Arielle grabbed her camera and ordered us to pose. "Now you look like real models."


The camera is made of wood with a button that can really be pressed down, a focus and lenses that turn to be adjusted, and a red strap. Say "cheese"!

Happy Hybrid ($16.00)



Linnea loved the People Mover ($25.00) that we reviewed last year, and this year we got to try out the new eco-friendly Hybrid. It's a compact vehicle with five rainbow-passengers that runs on energy-efficient kid power.

Last November, Linnea was just turning one, and she enjoyed scooting the people mover and was just trying to fit the people into the little holes. This year, she names the peg people after her and Arielle's friends -- Ross, Piper, Emma, Coral, Ari.... -- and she pretends to buckle them all into car seats. Instead of just "Brmmm... brmmm...", the little cars have destinations. They are going shopping or to school or to the beach.

We also talk about the colors of the rainbow people -- but in Linnea's world, they are all "pink!"






Sometimes, I find Arielle very quietly playing with the rainbow vehicles while Linnea is napping.

North Star Toys have been made in the USA since 1979 by the Long Family. They offer simple toys that stimulate creative, imaginative play and that are made in the most eco-friendly way possible. North Star also makes rattles and pull toys, toy telephones, rolling dinosaurs, play sets, magic wands and all sorts of vehicles.

Thank you again, Tim and Connie, for making such wonderful toys.

Beautiful Sevilla Blocks - from Moolka

I love blocks. Blocks were the first toy that Arielle and Linnea were really able to play with cooperatively. My older children played with their blocks until they were nearly in their teens, and neighbor children would come over to play with their block set which was embellished with wooden findings from craft and hardware stores. And, I remember playing blocks with my own siblings, spending hour and hours building cities and towns. But, our blocks weren't this nice.

Building Blocks SevillaBuilding Blocks from Haba ($59.99)

This set of 25 beautiful wooden blocks is inspired by the work of the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, who designed the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona. These building blocks depict Gaudi's famous unique style and highly individualistic designs and cylindrical structures.

The blocks are made in Germany of beechwood and are stained with non-toxic, water-based paints. The bright colors and unique forms of these blocks allow for all sorts of building possibilities. Here is Linnea building a fairy house.

Like many Haba blocks, Sevilla blocks have interesting features like mirrors, magnifying glasses, tinted windows, bells, and prisms. Arielle is looking through the red magnifying block.


And she is building her own palace for fairies and unicorn and their friends.

"Pictures again!"





Of course, Sevilla blocks are compatible with all the other sets of Haba blocks for all kinds of building possibilities. Smaller block sets inspired by the work of Gaudi include Building Blocks Cordoba from Haba ($39.99) and Sakrada Building Blocks from Haba ($22.50).

Thank you, Moolka, for letting us try out these fun blocks!

Happy Birthday, Sara's Toy Box!

It's been a year and almost 25,000 visitors! Thank you!

The Magnifying Glass

I got quite a few questions about our magnifying glass that was shown in the A Toy Garden post. Ours is an old one from Magic Cabin. They aren't sold anymore.

I found a few other options.

The best is this wooden magnifying glass ($9.99) from Three Sisters Toys. But, it is temporarily sold out.



The second option is the Haba Magnifying Glass ($12.90) which can be worn on a string.



Finally, Carolina Biological Supply has a basic model for $4.

Another Fun Game: Djeco at Petit Baby

Another enjoyable learning game for preschoolers is the Djeco Animal Lotto Matching Game ($16.99) from Petit Baby.



The game consists of five nicely illustrated cardboard boards and thirty animal cards. To start, all the cards are placed upside down. Then each player chooses a board. Arielle chose "Pets", Daddy (home on leave, woo hoo!) chose "Sea Animals", Linnea chose both "Farm" and "Forest", and I was left with "African Animals"




The first player turns over a card. If it matches one of the images on her board, she puts it on top of the image. if not, she turns it back over.


The first player to find all the cards to match the images on her board wins.
"Yay!" Arielle won!



The game says it is appropriate for ages two and up. And Linnea did have a good time, but she had difficulty with taking turns and wanted to match the pictures she turned over to the appropriate board, regardless of who it belonged to. So, we ended up modifying the rules.

Djeco makes beautiful the most beautiful learning toys and games. They are a huge favorite in our house, both because the illustrations are absolutely delightful and because they really stand up to a lot of play. We have a set of Djeco Stacking Blocks that has been played with daily for more than three years. Arielle loves making apartment buildings or caves or cages for her puppets.

Djeco Picture Stacking Blocks ($19.99)



So, when I saw the Djeco Topanimo Stacking Cubes ($23.99), I thought of Arielle right away. And Arielle enjoyed them a lot, but Linnea did too.






Another favorite find are the Djeco Fancy Children Wooden Magnets ($19.99). These sturdy wooden magnets portray children in costume. The pieces can be matched to make a cowboy, pirate, knight, princess, mermaid, fairy, Native American and bandit, or mixed to form silly new combinations. My only complaint, is that the children are all white. Some diversity would be nice.



Djeco Toys are designed in France and made in China. They conform to European and American safety standards. You can find a safety statement here.