Ebeanstalk.com v2.0

I have had the pleasure to work with ebeanstalk.com a few times in the past and I have to say, they are still one of my favorite sites to find top selling toys for 3 year olds! (Oops, my 3 year old is now 4, I guess that's my next post!)

Both of my kids are curious little creatures. Sean loves taking things apart and putting them back together again. His favorite thing lately is to carry around various cables and plug them in to things. Don't worry, my outlets are all covered! He'll take a cable for my ipod and stick it into the aux jack on the laptop or the media center computer in the living room. I think that's fantastic for a 1 year old! So my favorite commercial toys for him are the wooden games that ebeanstalk carries. The wooden puzzles, magnetic mazes and shape sorters are perfect for his little fingers. The Melissa & Doug toys were some of Kaelin's favorites and those have been handed down to Sean to love now. So, one benefit to the wooden toys is that they definately hold up to the abuse kids inflict on them! So much better then cheapy plastic toys that break apart after the first time they get thrown around a bit. Plus, with these around, all my cables and cords can get a rest from being jammed into everything!

Kaelin loves all kinds of experiments and projects where she gets to learn how to make things and how they work. I will be going to visit family in a few weeks so Mike will be home alone with Kae for almost a week. They are planning on hitting the beach, the zoo and (of course) Jump'n Jungle in their free time. But I am seriously eyeing these fun science kits as another activity for them to do together. A few months ago we bought a kit that was a solar cell that could be made into a dog, a robot, a sailboat and a wind mill. She thought that was the coolest thing ever and I know Mike loved getting to geek it up with his princess. She carried a flash light around with her so she could show everyone how it turned on when she shined the light on the solar cell. I think she would love the butterfly garden after we had such success with our lady bugs this past year. And I would love to see her playing with any of the Magic School Bus kits! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I loved that show even when I was a freshman in college! (Shhhh!) The microscope would go perfectly with her mini microscope and magnifying glasses! I love that we have a little one to pass our nerd genes to! :)

So, if you haven't checked out www.ebeanstalk.com yet, do it now! You know, Christmas is only 6 months away. Just saying!

Dress A Doll Magnet Set Review

We have all been cooped up in the house for the last few weeks while we had a nasty cold bug. Pair that will the cold rainy weather we've been having and you get some super grumpy kids and a frazzled Mommy. So when I opened the door one day last week and found a box from ebeanstalk, I got excited! So did Kaelin, she couldn't wait for me to open it and see what she got! 

Inside we found a Dress A Doll Magnet Set! 

Dress-A-Doll offers hours of open-ended fun with one magnet doll, plus plenty of clothes and accessory pieces to place on the included 9 x 12" double-sided magnetic playboard. It′s packed in a reusable vinyl storage envelope and includes a booklet with suggested activities and design ideas.

So basically, it's a set of magnetic paper dolls. How cool is that? We've attempted paper dolls before and it wasn't pretty. Kaelin gets frustrated when she can't do things by herself and all those little tabs on the paper dolls just don't work for her. We immediately opened the super cool carrying bag that it's in and popped out all the pieces. There are 29 pieces in total and it's enough to make 8 different outfits or endless amounts of "silly suits" as Kaelin calls them. It comes with a magnetic board to put everything on so she doesn't even have to take the magnets off of it, she just slides the pieces she's not using to the side. So I don't have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the ballet shoes, or the raincoat, or the teddy bear. Well, you get the point! Nothing frustrates me more then having 1000 little pieces and no way to contain them all, so I love this! 

She sat and played with her doll set for quite awhile! This was such a nice change from all the whining and fussiness that goes with a cold. She really had fun with the fact that she could dress the doll and change her outfits with no help from me whatsoever. I can't stress how important that is when you have a very independent kid like mine! Plus the carrying case allowed us to take the set with us in the car and to Grammy's house. As long as she doesn't accidentally drop any of the pieces I don't have to worry about them being left behind or ending up in the floor boards of the car after she's played with them!

We give the Dress A Doll Magnet Set 5+ stars!! Happy kiddo, happy Momma!

Disclaimer: I was provided the Dress A Doll Magnet Set for free from ebeanstalk for the purpose of conducting this review. Ebeanstalk is a toy website that does their best to provide you with the best toys out there. They like to stay informed about the best learning toys and toys by age by having people like me and you tell them about their favorites! What are the perfect baby gifts? Is their a toddler toy that your kiddo just won't put down? Head on over to ebeanstalk and tell them what they are!

See and Spell Review

About a week or so I got a lovely little box on my front porch! I love that! Inside the box was a See & Spell by Melissa & Doug from http://www.ebeanstalk.com/. So exciting, I love getting new, educational toys for Kaelin. Plus, anything Melissa & Doug is awesome! We were on our way out to run an errand but Kaelin and I were so excited that we had to put off leaving so we could check out the package!

If you missed my last post about ebeanstalk, lemme catch you up! They are an awesome website for great educational toys for 1 year olds, 2 year olds, and they even have super awesome baby toys! Win, win, win! All the items have descriptions that tell you what skill your kiddo will be working along with detailed safety information. Super awesome prices too, which means alot in this economy.

The See & Spell is a wooden puzzle set that teaches basic three and  four letter words with bright colored, solid-wood letters in the self correcting cut-outs on two-sided wooden boards. Kaelin was so excited when I opened the box and pulled it out. We have a few other Melissa & Doug toys that she plays with frequently, so she recognized the style right away. I love the wooden sets because they are well made and last a really long time, so I know Sean will be playing with this same set in a few years too. The eight word boards not only have the letters cut out, they also have a picture of the word on them. You also get a bunch of letters with this set! We hate toys that don't have enough letters to spell more then one word at a time. I like that the words are easily recognized and Kaelin knew what they were instantly. The possibilities are really endless with this set. Not only is it a puzzle, but your kiddo will learn their letters, the sounds of the letters, plus as your kiddo becomes more adept at language it will help them on the road to reading! It comes packaged with a card that has a bunch of different ideas for games to play with the See & Spell.

The only thing that frustrated Kaelin a little bit was that there are letters in the set that don't get used on the word boards, such as l, j, z, v and x. But I'm not too concerned about it since we can still use the letters to spell words on our own. I'm excited though that she figured that out on her own while I was reading the card that came with it. She said "Momma, these letters don't have anywhere to go!" before I even got a chance to play with it. So smart already! I think my favorite thing about the See & Spell is that it's so pretty in it's wooden box, that I don't mind it sitting out on the table in the living room! Bonus points! :)

Great site for fun learning toys!

I was recently came across a great website for quality education baby toys and kids toys! If you haven't been to www.ebeanstock.com yet you gotta check it out! 


One thing I like when I visit a website is to see that they are well organized with easy to search categories and I know when I'm shopping for baby toys and kids toys, I have a hard time remembering what works best for different ages. Ebeanstock has taken the guess work out of the equation by having a toys by age category along with many other options for finding the perfect toy! Love it! Every toy has a detailed description, safety information and tells you exactly what areas your kiddo will be working on by using that toy. Plus their team of child experts hand-pick every toy that is on their website and conduct their own tests to ensure that that the toy is age-appropriate. Many times a toy will be for ‘AGES 3+’ and their experts will move that toy to an older age group. Additionally, they conduct their own ‘wear-and-tear’ tests. If they don’t think a toy will stand up to the tough, daily grind of being a toy, they don’t want the toy. It's so nice to have a company that is looking out for not only our kids' safety, but for our pocketbooks! No more wasting money by throwing away crummy toys that just don't last. 


Ever get stumped when you're trying to pick out a fun, educational and safe toy for your kiddo? Not anymore! Ebeanstalk list what their best sellers are, so we can peek at what other moms (and dads!) are getting for their kiddos. And since they are committed to selling only the best educational toys, they also have a page dedicated to expert advice. And who doesn't need some of that from time to time? When Kaelin had her birthday last week, I got so many calls and e-mails asking me what she wanted. With ebeanstalk you can get online (with or without your kiddos help!) and create a wish list that other people can view and shop from. Imagine that, not having to return gifts that are all wrong for your kiddo! You get to be in control of what others are getting them. No more loud, pointless toys! I would much rather point my friends and family to Kaelin's wish list and know that whatever they pick is going to be perfect!


One last thing I want to mention is that www.ebeanstalk.com has a chat feature! So if you are having problems finding the right toy, or just have a question about their shipping or return policy, there's someone right there to ask! I hate playing the waiting game when you just want to know what to do if your kiddo doesn't like the toy you're about to buy. Let's face it, time is way too precious for us parents, why waste it trying to hunt down answers or phone numbers? 


Speaking of precious time, mine is up! Time to get the munchkins bathed and into bed. Tomorrow is picture day!