  Last weekin Taos we stopped by a toystore I've been meaning to look at for months. It's called urlLink Tiovivo Toys , and it's just a few blocks off the plaza. It's basically a huge, rambling, hacienda-styled house converted into a toystore. Each room is crammed full of every toy you could ever imagine. Of course my eyes were bigger than my cashcard. I found a great (my favorite toy brand) urlLink wooden block farm , but it was $35!
I called John, who was waiting in the car with the kids, on the cell in an effort to be talked out of my madness. Sure enough he said $35 was ridiculous for toys. He advised me to get the big wooden abacus (Ella developed quite the affinity for Aunt Becka's abacus), $15, and the small lego set, $5, only. The clerk must of listened in, because at the counter she began knocking everything down in price. I ended up paying $20 for the barn, $10 for the abacus, and she threw in a set of animal figures for free. I walked out having spent $40 and still had the legos plus a set of vegetables for their cooking playset! Since we got such a deal, I really wanted to plug the store. When I got to the car, John was shocked at all the toys. We have strict rules about toys, that the kids' room cannot become overloaded with them, that the kids have to be interested in the toys they have or else they go away, and so on. Mostly, we don't want the kids to be surrounded by materialism. So right away I began to sell him on my purchase by promising to rid the room of an equivalent amount of detritus.
We could get rid of the big plastic Fisher Price barn now, and Ellie's really outgrowing her duplos quickly now that she's seen Aidan use real legos. At home, the toys are still being played with, so I think they were good purchases. Everything but the legos and vegetables was wooden, and I highly value wooden toys.
The vegetables are becoming a really big deal. The kids love to play cooking. They have a very small Melissa & Doug stove, an urlLink Ikea pot and pan set , wooden spoons, urlLink a cutting food set , and an urlLink Ikea tea set . But it's been hard to find play food to go with it that consists entirely of food I'd actually allow them to eat, and at least mostly of food they eat regularly.
In other words, I wouldn't want pizza because that's a splurge meal for us, and I certainly wouldn't want play ice cream, pie, or cake because those aren't for kids at all! We treat them like alcohol, since we think they're just as damaging to growing bodies. Today's a rainy day, so I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of these toys in lieu of playing outside! Now, what else can I get rid of? 
