toys Archives - Caitlin's Happy Heart

Triplet's 3rd Birthday – 3rd Birthday Toys

October 7, 2014 9 Comments

Three year old triplets! It has happened! Yesterday was the triplet’s 3rd birthday so now there are three three year olds in our home. Can you believe it? It doesn’t seem like that long ago I was in labour and then giving birth to triplets by caesarian.

The triplet’s have been excited about the upcoming birthday. Imogen especially has been right onto it. The boys took a little bit longer to work out what a birthday was. While they were figuring that out, Immy was literally figuring out what she would wear on the special day. During a road trip last Friday night, I heard her musing aloud in the back, “On my birthday I’m going to wear a pretty pink dress.” She actually received a fairy dress from Target and was very excited to put it on yesterday. (Until she had a little accident in it.)

I was exhausted by the end of the evening last night. New toys are so exciting, but when there are three different sets of toys and three three year olds, fights are inevitable. Learning how to share and how to be gracious is such an important life skill, but oh my, it’s a wearying lesson to teach! Most of my morning talking through fights and meltdowns and building toys that kept falling down and apart, (I’m sure The Accountant would not agree, but I was wishing I had spent triple the price and bought some toys that were more sturdy. Honestly, quality can be such an issue these days!)

For their birthday they didn’t receive anything particularly extravagant. They each received two presents. I had bought a very large bucket of mobilo and split it into two boxes for Toby and Jayden. The older two boys have spent hours playing with mobilo at Kindy, so I thought the next two would probably love it too. The big boys were very excited that it was in the house and built all types of contraptions which the little boys played with happily. The little boys haven’t quite worked out how to clip it all together, and it is a bit hard for their little fingers, but I’m sure they will get the technique down very soon.

Playing with the mobilo.

Toby, who is mad about drumming, got a Wiggles drum kit. Hopefully he will stop emptying the Ikea buckets of toys and turning them all upside down and banging away with kitchen utensils now! It was a big hit yesterday and there were lots of fights over it. But every spare moment he could, Toby was clicking the sticks together in his intro and then banging away. I have to admit I had a headache at the end of the day, although I don’t think I can solely blame the drums.

Drum away Toby!

Jayden got a marble run. These are great for creativity, problem solving, science and, as it turns out, learning about gentleness and patience, because the silly thing was very easy to knock over and fall to pieces.

Opps, over and out.

Once again, they were unable to construct it at this point, but I have no doubt that throughout their third year they will be able to piece it together to make runs. In the meantime, they loved being mesmerised by the marbles rolling down the various tracks.

Ready to go!

In addition to her dress, Imogen received two Lottie dolls. I had first seen these on Instagram and I loved Kelly’s review of the dolls on Be A Fun Mum. I really loved that they were dolls that would fit inside Imogen’s dolls house, yet the dolls looked like girls rather than adults, they had flat feet to walk in and no boobs! Plus their clothing and accessories were modest and super cute! I couldn’t get any in Toowoomba, but luckily I was able to pick two dolls up on a recent visit to Brisbane. Immy was thrilled with them and immediately wanted to undress them, it may take a little while for her to get used to putting such tiny clothing back on the dolls though!

Miss Im with her dolly.

Her other present was an ice-cream stacking game. They are having a small little ice-cream party on Sunday for lunch so I thought this game that I picked out of the Kindy Scholastic book club would be good to play then. I really liked playing it with the triplet’s yesterday. It comes with sounds and teaches following instructions and listening skills as you need to listen to the pre-recorded voice telling the player what colour or how many scoops to pile high. It also requires patience, motor skills, carefulness and turn taking.

Stacking the ice creams

In the evening the triplet’s had chosen (influenced by their big brothers) pizza for dinner. I would have liked to let them make their own pizza again, but with such a busy day playing hard and having only arrived home the evening before, it was a relief that Daddy picked up pizza from the shop. I made some wonky cupcakes so they could blow out some candles.

Nanny and Uncle Peter had come over for dinner, I suspect they too went home with a headache. It was lots of fun, but oh so noisy. I think we need to do a little more work on demure table manners.

I was taking a photo of Immy here, but hasn’t Toby done the cutest photo bomb?

So today, we are off to playgroup where they can share their marble cupcakes (I thought it was fitting to do three colours for the three children who are turning three) with their friends. When we come home again, I’m sure it will be more lessons in playing nicely. It’s hard work, but it is so worthwhile to learn multiple lessons through play. Buying gifts that the children can grow into also means that they will get a lot of value and use out of them. I look forward to seeing how they develop and get better at using them.

What type of games/toys do you like to give as birthday presents?

Sweet Elephant Review – Eye Spy and Mother's Corn Bubbles

I have recently discovered a very sweet children’s store online called Sweet Elephants. Over the weekend my children have had lots of fun playing with two products from Sweet Elephants. The Mother’s Corn Bubbles and an Eye Spy pack that we were sent for us to review. I am delighted to share about these products with you since my kids have really loved using them.

Eye Spy

Do you love it when your child is sitting still and deeply engrossed in a screen free activity? I certainly do, which is why I have immediately become a big fan of this toy. (I have to say, I have been far more impressed by these little bags than I thought I would be.)

When we received our parcel from Sweet Elephants the Eye Spy Bag was wrapped up in brown paper and string. (How quaint!) The triplets loved opening ‘the present’, even if there was a little anxiety when one of the others had their turn as each waited anxiously to open it.

They were instantly captivated by holding the bag full of beads and searching for the little surprises that would appear in front of the clear panel.

It is actually a great manipulative for their age group, and they really had to concentrate, think, problem solve and use fine motor skills to work out how to get new objects to appear in the window.

I also had peace of mind that the triple stitching was safe and the little ‘beanbags’ wouldn’t escape.

Because it is a quiet activity, it’s a great tool to have for trips in the car and is also easy to throw in the handbag for periods when children need to be quiet like in waiting rooms or shopping. It also has the extra benefit of no meltdown when you take it off them, (unlike electronic games, iPads and phones)!On the weekend, I took it with me when we went to church. My 7 year old niece particularly loved it. She had never seen it before and picked it up. Because of the handy tag clipped onto the bag, she immediately knew she had to search for the things listed on the tag and she studiously became engrossed in making sure she found everything.

Eye Spy Bag is good for playing with during church

We went out to a restaurant afterwards and once again the eye spy bag became handy to give to children to keep them occupied. Mind you, it’s not necessarily a quiet activity if you have a two year old enthusiastically calling out the names of the objects he sees! Great for language development though! When the kids were finished with the bag, it was actually passed around the table and all the adults had a play! Even the men! One man commented that he would like to play with it in church, but commented that he would have to sit down the back so the pastor couldn’t see!

Some iPhone snaps my sister took yesterday as the kids were playing. Can you see how interested Toby is as Jayden discovers the hidden objects?

I’m definitely thinking of getting another one or two for my children, the only hesitation I have is that some of the things inside the various bags overlap, so there won’t be as much interest for them when they swap bags. I think it will be an excellent stocking stuffer and maybe even getting some to put away for gifts for others. I think I might buy some to put away for gifts also. They are a great first birthday present or gift for a toddler. I think the Mummy will be very grateful for this gift as well as the child! Older children like it as well, but I don’t think I’d give it as a present. Just have it available for them to use at the right time. My sister commented yesterday that she thought it would be a great product to have as a calming activity for ASD children or children that might be tense.

Mother’s Corn Bubbles

Bubbles are always fun for children. We also reviewed Mother’s Corn Stackable Bubbles.

Wow, these are really bubbles with a difference! You blow them and when the glistening rainbow colour starts to fade into a pearly white, you can catch the bubbles in your hand!

It actually makes the bubbles ideal for older and younger age groups. We didn’t get any nice photos catching the bubbles in our hand, it was all a bit fast paced with the triplets around! I will definitely get these out again when the older necies and nephews are around, I think they will all love playing with them. It was funny that a host of bubbles got trapped in the trampoline net like bugs on a windshield!

We also found that the white bubbles would rest on the grass, get caught and be suspended in silvery spider webs and delicately sit on the branches of trees or on bushes of flowers.

The bubble blower is exceptionally well designed with a tray included and a place to stand the blower when not in use. The blower was easy for children to use and they couldn’t backwash into the pipe. It was also comforting to know that they are safe and eco friendly.

The blower great design also meant that when the children blew through it, there was an enormous supply a bubbles that they blew! There were a few squabbles over whose turn it was. Quite understandable really, because normally the children are too little to be able to blow bubbles properly, but with this product they were making hundreds of bubbles!

Mostly the children blew small bubbles. Jonty started to learn that the more slowly you blew, the bigger the bubble would be.

We played with the bubbles on Saturday afternoon

and also Sunday afternoon. Daddy was giving rides on the motorbike, so the children were happy to blow and catch bubbles as they waited for their turn.

For those who saw my Facebook post during the week about The Accountant’s pride and joy, please note new tyres.

Learning how to get my camera off auto and onto manual is a goal of mine, just as so as I can find the time to learn! Photographing bubbles, even on auto was a lot of fun! When I do learn, I can’t wait to have a play photographing bubbles. I think there is a lot of room for creativity with bubbles and cameras. Mother’s Corn Bubbles are actually a really good choice for photographing bubbles also because the bubbles last longer than ordinary bubbles. I think I will recommend them to my sister to use at her wedding in a few months time. The refill prices were quite reasonable also.

This is not a sponsored post, Sweet Elephants gave us these two products to review. Of course I was more then happy to do so after my children so obviously enjoyed them so much. They get a big thumbs up from us all!

As a special bonus for Caitlin’s Happy Heart readers, you will receive a 10% discount if you buy an Eye Spy Bag or Mother’s Corn Stackable Bubbles at Sweet Elephants if you enter the code iheart10 at the checkout.

We are linking with Eva today at Multi-Tasking Mummy