My Review of FAO Schwarz Elephant Walker

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The Elephant Walker from FAO Schwarz is jam-packed full of fun! Designed to resemble an elephant, this wooden walker features a push handle, wheels and storage compartment; nine rotating wooden circles on the front are decorated to teach your little one about colors, numbers, shapes and more!

FAO Schwarz Elephant Walker

Huge hit! Perfect! Multifunctional!!!!

By The Nester from Camp Lejeune on 12/10/2010

 

5out of 5

Pros: Colorful, Lasting Fun, Easy To Use, High Quality, Easy To Assemble

Cons: Only comes in orange

Best Uses: Home, Outside

Describe Yourself: Parent

Was this a gift?: No

I bought this for our 9 month old daughter but our son who is 3 and tall loves playing with it also. Gender neutral, super easy to put together. The center part has room for toys or dolls to sit in. Excellent quality like you would expect from FAO and we got on sale so great price too! With it being solid wood we plan on keeping it for years and hopefully one day grandkids way, way, way down the line.

(legalese)

Black Friday Deals

Black Friday was chaos but the people were amazing. I decided since it was really warm out to try out Black Friday lines at ToysRus. I met alot of really nice girls. The kids all got along and had fun with each other waiting in line. I'm officially a Black Friday junkie :)

Not only was everything wonderful but we snagged some great deals. The kiddos are only getting one gift each for Hanukkah and a new book. I was able to buy most of their gifts for next year.

Here are our deals.



1 Transformers Helmet $9.99 regular price $39.99 (This will be our son's 4th birthday gift)
4 Disney Collection books $5.99ea regular price $15.99ea. The plan is to give both baby A & B one book each and then one for their birthdays next year.
FREE Coloring Book & 64ct Crayons. This was the Black Friday deal at ToysRus. We're going to use this as rewards for baby A.

After ToysRus I took the kids to Walmart. The whole site was appalling. The store apparently had never closed so everyone had there carts packed and were just waiting for the prices to kick in so they could leave. I heard some people say they had been there since 5!!!

I couldn't find the item I went there for so I going home and putting the kids to sleep. The walmart black Fridays didn't kick in until midnight west coast time so I stayed up until 3am. Snagged my Leapster 2 for $25, regular price $59.99. This is Baby A's Hanukkah gift for this year.

I'm a big fan of the Leapster 2. It seems a perfect learning item and fun too. I can't wait to see the new things Baby A learns. You can track their progress which is what made me chose the Leapster 2 over the vtech version. I really want to know the progress and have activities to focus on activities he is learning. Hopefully the progress goes well :)

Mr. Right scored some awesome black friday deals online also. I can't share my deals I found for him on here since he reads my blog. Soon though ;)

Birthday Boy & MIA

So I've been MIA for the last few days. It has been a busy last few days. Baby A turned the big 3 and his Nana was visiting for the event. She always makes it a point to be here for his and Baby B's (birth)days. They are going to grow to love and appreciate that just as much as I do.

Birthday boy had so much fun telling everyone how he was 3 now.

To get ready for his birthday, Mr. Right and I had started prepping in the summer. Baby A is dino obsessed like most 3yr old little guys.

Here's how we did....



The Melissa & Doug Jumbo Puzzle *new & sealed* $1

Various Dinosaurs totalling to $5 for all. Didn't get a good pic of all these but there are over 12 and many were those big imaginext ones.

Then our crowning jewel for his party took some digging. I am all for posting wanted ads all over Craiglist and local yard sale sites. Time and time again I find something we'd like to get in the store but its too much for our budget. I go home and post a picture of the exact one I want and how much I will pay. More often then not I have an email within the day with someone who has the item and in more cases than not they ask for even less than I have posted to pay!!!

Well his Jewel was this bad boy.....




He retails for $129.99 at almost all the big box stores around here. Jake's "My Parents Rock" price $30.

Yup you read that right $30. Barely played with too. The lady I bought it from had bought two for her nephews but they cannot be played together due to frequency issues so this dinosaur was just taking up space in her closet.

Its worth noting that at the garage sales we bought enough things to resale to cover the costs of what we bought. So Baby A essentially got free toys including spike. :) Nothing beats that.

We love you kiddo, can't believe your the big 3 already. So proud of you.

Happy Veterans Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful veteran’s day! Thank you to all who have served for those who can’t or won’t. Also thank you to all of the wives and children who go with out Daddy being home.



We're missing Mr. Right today! We are SO PROUD of you babe!

Garage Sale Find!

So today was FREEZING out. They also were doing the veteran's day parade so garage sales were slim. I was suprised by how expensive things were too. I guess it's Fall and they know people are planning for Christmas. I did manage to find one amazing score! Baby A has his big 3rd birthday coming up in a few days.

His party is going to be Dino themed. We got all sorts of great gifts over the summer. I will do a post after the party with all our deals. Its unreal!!!

Anyways I spoted this Fisher Price Garage w/little people vehicles and people. I just saw it and it screamed 3 yr old!!! The lady was asking $10 and I got her down to $5!!! I tried to play it cool and hide my glee. My two yr old upon seeing it as I opened the car door let everyone know just how wonderful it was. The people we bought it from couldn't have been smiling bigger. Really who couldn't smile at a 2yr old seeing an awesome toy and then realizing it's theirs?



Thats the only deal I got today. I plan on giving out board games this year. Mr. Right has a rather large family so giving out gifts that we think the whole family can enjoy are how we chose to deal keeping a budget but still letting everyone know we're thinking about them and giving them something they can do together. Last year we did the 4 dvd holiday pack from Walmart.

Family Photos

I'm so excited. The kids and me snagged an awesome deal with some great photography. I always am checking out our local yardsale site, they have all sorts of amazing deals and the good ones go quick.

I paid only $15 for family photos! Thats right only $15 and I'll be getting a cd to print as many photos as I like. This is a great deal. The photographer, Amanda Lee Photography, was wanting to expand her portfolio so she was offering a great deal. I was able to get a few family shots, the kids solo and together and halloween pics!

Below is our photo preview. We love it so much!





Sweet Baby A is almost 3 and Baby B just turned 8 months. She is finally wearing size 2 shoes. I know the precious tiny feet! Baby A came out wearing size 2 shoes and was in size 4/5 at 8 months. Baby A is potty trained (officially accident free) and wearing his big underpants with no accidents.

I'm going to be printing some off and sending them to Mr. Right.

Progress so far!

Well it has been a couple weeks since Mr. Right left now. Things are slowly getting settled into a new groove.

On the bill front I have made some huge progress. Our electric bill has been cut by 60%!!!! Our water bill has gone down some mainly due to not washing all those cammies everyday. We're working on getting our cell phone bill lowered. Our plan will be up soon and we're going to be looking at other providers to suit our needs. Most of our friends pay only $100 or less for their couple plans. Its embaressing how much more we have been paying especially since we don't have a cool iphone or something similiar.

Things are looking up and the babies are adjusting. Baby B threw a tantrum for 48hrs after her Daddy left. She had never been without Daddy since she was born and did not like it one bit. Baby A is our little trooper. He kisses Daddy's photo every night. It's so cute because he tells him to be say, that he loves him, and night, night.

We're so proud of you, baby!