I have only two kids in elementary school, but between them they’ve gone to a couple dozen birthday parties so far. When the other three are in school—-whooooo, that’s a lot of parties to bring gifts to.

My goal is to spend about $10 for a party gift, and I can get a pretty good gift for that, even though I’m a somewhat fretful person and so my mission is complicated by my wishes to please the child and to please the child’s parents; to give a gift that won’t make a huge mess or end up with little tiny pieces lost all over the house or require intense parental involvement; to avoid sending the message that we watch too much TV and/or that we make inappropriate gender generalizations and/or that we are cheap cheap cheap. Ideally, I like the gift to be the child’s favorite present from the whole party, but also to send the message that we are a Quality Family.  And did I already say I want all that for about $10?

Here are some gifts that have been pleasing successes:
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My three youngest children have their birthdays in the same week and a half: this year, twins Elizabeth and Edward will turn four, and youngest child Henry will turn two. STAY WITH ME, because I need your help with Henry’s presents.

I am not much worried about the four-year birthdays. I idly asked what they were hoping to get for their birthdays, and Elizabeth answered that she wanted
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First, a quick shout-out to all of you who gave me ideas and atta-girl you-can-do-it comments about traveling with my preschooler—everything worked out perfectly, and we had an absolutely wonderful time. Thank you so much!

Today I’d like to talk about evening routines, and what sorts of things help mitigate the chaos. As a quick primer to my thrilling home life, we have two boys: a 3.5 year old and a 15-month-old. Here’s our typical end-of-day routine, along with the items I’ve come to rely on:
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Lately I’ve been realizing that even though we’re trying to cut back on our expenses, it’s worth the cost to plan for eating dinner somewhere other than our house at least a couple times per week.

I don’t know about your household, but mine drops straight down the rabbit hole between 5-8 PM or so. The kids are restless, the baby is cranky, my husband and I are wiped out, and yet life must march on, hopefully with a minimum of screaming. So it’s in our best interest to get the heck out of Dodge, and since spending time outside isn’t a great option yet, this usually means heading out for a meal.

We usually go to a nearby mall, because that’s the easiest place to manage small, loud, messy children, but even in the noise and chaos of a food court it’s a real challenge to keep the kids at least marginally entertained (and stationary) long enough for the adults to bolt our teriyaki bowls or whatever. Assuming we ever ate in a real restaurant like civilized people, I’m sure it would be even harder to keep the distractions coming, and as most of you probably know a baby will only play quietly with a spoon for so long before everything goes to hell in a (tantruming) handbasket.

So, are there products that can help make dining in public with kids a little easier? Happily, the answer is yes:
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This is the second in a series of periodic posts in which I test out easy, low-mess, low-parental-involvement activities for young children to do.  In the first, I tested, um, dry pasta in cake pans.  Today’s somewhat more promising test:  using paintbrushes (instead of the included water pens) with Aquadoodle mats.

Intention
The children will paint using water, and therefore satisfying their painting instincts without making me crazy with THE PAINT THE PAINT MY GOD IT’S EVERYWHERE
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So, it turns out an 8-month-baby is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ENTITY than, say, a newborn. In many ways they are a vast improvement on their squashed, red-faced little counterparts, but unlike a newborn, an 8-month-old does not sleep all day. Nor can you plop an 8-month-old on their back, dash out of the room to use the bathroom, and be confident they’ll be in the same spot when you get back. Which, um, I may have learned the hard way recently. What? He was fine, just a little tangled up in some chair legs.

Also, they want stimulation. My god, always with the “learning” and “developing” and all. My son Dylan is in constant movement: grabbing at this, pounding on that, eyeballing all the many, many items he plans to shove in his mouth. He gets frustrated and squawks if he’s left in one place too long, because the world is quickly revealing itself to him in its many sights, sounds, and flavors, and he’s got stuff to DO.

Much as I might want to, I can’t always spend every minute of the day engaging him in Baby Einstein calculus flash cards and immersive Latin lessons, so right now I’m pretty interested in various baby-appropriate distractions. What, OH WHAT, can I give my baby to occupy his time for five or six minutes in a row? Here are my current top picks:
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My boy Riley is going to be three years old at the end of this month, which sort of freaks me out every time I think about it. He’s getting so BIG! And wait, I thought all this bratty behavior we’ve been experiencing recently has to do with being three, are you saying I’ve got more than a YEAR of this to go?

With birthday presents in mind, here are the things we’re planning to gift his way this year:
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Every summer I buy a few new things for the kids to play with.  You will notice that the toys on my Summer Toy List are OUTDOOR toys.  I am sure this is just a coincidence.  Ahem.

My two older boys, ages 9 and 7, each have one of these Super Soaker Aquashock Sneak Attacks.  Evidently these are awesome, but I am only going on hearsay:  what do I know about water guns, other than that they take children OUT of the HOUSE?  We have one main rule about water guns:  even if they are called Sneak Attack, you may not Sneak Attack anyone who is not playing water guns.

The Backyard Safari Bug Vacuum is…a bug vacuum.  The child or children take it OUTSIDE with them, and they use it to suck up bugs. (The child or children can also be asked to suck up bugs that are inside the house.)  Then they can examine the still-living bugs in the little capture vial, which includes a magnifying lens.  When they are done freaking the bug out with their peering, they can release it unharmed.  We have one main rule about bug vacuums:  release the bug OUTSIDE.

Even knowing small boys as I do, and even with my husband Paul’s enthusiasm for the purchase, I was still unprepared for the amount of fun the Stomp Rocket is.  I was like, “Oh, I get it:  you stomp on it and the little nerfy rocket thingie pops up in the air. Wooo.”  But man, that thing LAUNCHES.  It goes so high, you can stand around and WAIT for it to come down.  We have one main rule about stomp rockets:  if they go over the fence or get stuck in a tree, please write down the location on this notepad and do not bother me about it until you’ve lost three.

What are your kids playing with this summer?  It is only just barely July, and I could use a couple more ideas.

It’s been a month since my baby had his first birthday, and it’s time to call the winners of the Best Birthday Present for a One-Year-Old competition.

First prize goes to the Fisher-Price Baby Gymtastics Bounce and Spin Zebra.  My parents gave this to Henry, and he lovvvvvvves it.  So do his 3-year-old siblings:  the twins are a little big for it, but can still play on it.  It spins
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I recently discovered that my 3-year-old LOVES having tea parties. His play is an uncomplicated exercise that basically involves repeatedly pouring out pretend tea for those in attendance, while asking over and over and over (AND OVER), “Want MORE?”. If these parties were based in reality, his stuffed animals would be long expired, their bladders having burst and their systems succumbed to electrolyte imbalance triggered by water intoxication — but as long as he’s not practicing for any upcoming fraternity hazing activities, I find the practice fairly charming. 

Well, for the first ten minutes, anyway. It tends to get a little old after that. Oh, did I mention that I am a Honored Invitee of these events? And that I am expected to say “YES PLEASE” over and over and over and over, while knocking back cup after cup of invisi-tea? Not only that, but I must supply the squeaky voices of the bears and so on, because they too would like some tea, MORE PLEASE!

Anyway! So: tea parties. We’ve been using random cups and things from around the house, but I’ve been considering the option of giving him his own tea set. I know, a tea set for a boy? WHY NOT JUST BUY HIM A BRA.

In poking around online, I came across a number of cute sets that aren’t too, well, girly. Not that there’s anything wrong with a boy using a girly tea set, mind you, but some are even too foofy for ME. In case you happen to be looking for your own Non-Floral Tea Set, here’s what I found:
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