If you have kids of various ages, it’s hard to find presents for both of them that are along the same lines as one another.  K’nex has solved that problem for us parents.  They offer product lines for the younger kids and the older ones too (including parents!)

For Will, we have the Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection Building Sets. These are for kids 2-5, and it is perfect for the younger set.  With these sets, you can easily play with your favorite Sesame Street characters be it Elmo, Cookie Monster, and/or Ernie.  Each neighborhood words together too, so you can have a single set or an entire city.  There is the 123 Brownstone Building Set, the police car building set, the ice cream truck building set, and the police station building set.  We tried out the police car building set and Will loved it.  The wheels on the vehicle actually move, so he was able to push this around our living room.  The parts are also very big, so I didn’t have to worry about him putting them in his mouth.  They also made it very easy for him to work with them because of their larger size.  In the set, they also have additional ideas for you to build.  These sets help with hand eye coordination, encourage imaginative play, thinking and problem solving.

For the older kids, there is the 400 piece tub.  This is literally hours and hours of fun.  There are building ideas for 20 different things in here plus whatever your kids can come up with on their own!  The models you can build have a lot of movement that you can do.  The wheels on the car we made worked.  I love that K’nex works with the other brands out there like Lego.  You can take the Legos you may already have and easily incorporate them into this set.  I love toys that are self contained.  I love that the storage tub is small enough to easy fit under your kids bed and small enough to easily be taken on trips.  With a price tag of $20.99, this is a must have for the kid who has everything.

With both of our K’nex items, we are very happy.  My kids have had countless hours of fun, and I can only highly recommend them.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

I remember K’NEX from when I was a child. I am so glad to see that my kids will actually be able to enjoy their toys too! They have expanded the ages that their toys are for, so I am excited to be able to show you (and review) some of their new product lines.

The Abby Cadabby Building Set is designed for kids two to five years old. It is a 30 piece building set. It also comes with a play and learn activity sheet.  This set has everything a little girl needs for for Abby. There is a tulle skirt and pink fairy wings. There is also a flowery wand and a pigtails.  I love the size of the pieces in here; I don’t have to worry about Madison’s little brother getting into this and trying to eat it.  Madison could easily put the set together.  This is very reasonably priced too — only $14.99.  This building set also teaches hand eye coordination, role playing, and cognitive skills.

This Elmo Building Set is super cute too. It’s for ages two to five. This is a 14-15 piece set that also comes with a sticker and activity sheet.  Though I have to admit,  my favorite piece of this kit is the fishtank.  I can’t get over how cute it is!  This is available in four fun sets:  Elmo with Dorothy, Ernie with his rubber duckie, Cookie Monster, and Oscar with Slimey the Worm.   What I love the best about this is that the packaging looks like Elmo too, and the pieces all fit back into it.  You don’t have to worry about losing pieces.  Pricewise, this building set is $10.99.

You now can also build a fleet of trucks or even an amusement park too! The Road Rig series has four separate models that you can get:  Semi Truck, Pick-Up Truck, Dump Truck, and Tow Trick.  You even get a guy to drive the truck too!  Now, you can combines sets to create new and bigger trucks.  If you combine all four, you can make a ten wheeled hauler!  The semi truck building set has a motor, so it does require 2 AA batteries.  This is for kids five and up.  I love that it comes with instructions and shows you how to build all these cool things.  This set will run your about $19.99.

This DoubleDare Dueling Coaster, I swear, was making my husband salivate. It is for 9 year olds and up, and I will even admit it is really cool. The set is over 950 pieces and even has a motorized chain lift! Two chrome cars and 32 feet of track are included too.  You basically build two seperate tracks with this kit and then you can race them.  This does take a bit of time to get set up.  However, when you do, it is worth every minutes.  This should be about $39.99 which is an excellent price for this.

K’NEX is one of those brands that we know and that we love.  I am so glad to see that they are still around for my children to enjoy them.  They truly have something for every age group now, and it really doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl.  You just need to have an imagination and be willing to have fun.

In my house, the question of when is my birthday is asked often — usually weekly.  Madison is dying to turn 5 years old.  I am not sure what she thinks happens when  you turn five, but she can’t wait.  The book When Is My Birthday? comes in handy after being asked that question a hundred times in one day.  The book starts off with Elmo helping his mom get ready for Daisy’s, Elmo’s sister’s, birthday party.  Elmo gets jealous and wants it to be his birthday too.  He finds himself jealous that daisy got a toy truck.  However, we find out at the end of the book that Elmo’s birthday is close by, so he doesn’t have to wait for long for his turn.  Daisy also shares it with him too while he waits.  I find that this book helps Madison, somewhat, with patience and sharing.  Plus, kids always enjoy reading about parties, presents, and cake.  When Is My Birthday? is a great book for impatient little ones waiting for their birthdays.

The Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland is one of cutest kids movies I have seen a while. Elmo won’t share his blanket with Zoe (his friend) and ends up losing it in Oscar’s can. He journeys to Grouchland to get back his blanket and along the way he learns a lot about taking others feelings into consideration. Huxley (the villain) has his blanket, along with a lot of other things that don’t belong to him and Elmo tries to get his blanket back. It definitely teaches the kids about sharing without them even realizing it. It is a little over an hour, so it perfect for little ones attention spans. There are even a few jokes thrown in there for the adults! However, this is truly a kids movie.  It is a Sesame Street classic with all the gang.

Ever have a diaper that you know just works for your kids? I do. They are called Pampers Swaddlers. We started using these when Madison was little. Madison was my beanpole child (still is). It was hard to find diapers that I could get tight around her waist yet not be cutting off her circulation. It seemed to an uphill battle. If the the top of the diaper was not tight, she had a constant leaking problem. That was until we discovered the Pamper Swaddlers. These diapers have flexible sides so you are able to pull the diaper as tight as needed yet still give your children the flexibility to be able to move such as children do (might I add that I have monkey children who roll to get across rooms, climb up everything, etc).

Now Madison is 3, and we don’t need diapers for her anymore. However, Will was born in June, and I knew what diapers we were going to go back to using. I let Bill talk me into buying other brands and even the store brand! Guess what?!?! They leaked. Now, Will isn’t the beanpole that Madison was. Yet, we still have leaking issues. However, once we got the Pampers Swaddlers again this hasn’t been an issue at all. I like that the diapers grow in size with your children. You are able to purchase them in the regular sizes such as 1, 2, 3 and so on. However, they even make the in between sizes where your child isn’t quite ready for the next size even though according to their weight they are. You are able to also purchase the sizes 1-2 and 2-3. I know this, because I have done it myself.

I took pictures of this handsome gentleman last night in his Pamper Swaddlers:

I am not sure if you can tell, but the top of Swaddlers have Elmo on them. The diapers have all of the Sesame Street characters on them. They definitely are children friendly.

In my opinion, buying these diapers is a no brainer. They have worked wonderfully with both of my kids to stop leaks. They do their job even when your kids are peeing machines and little monkeys (why do both my kid fit that description a little too well?). I know there are a ton of products out there, but the Pamper Swaddlers are definitely worth every cent.