Toys my Boys are Loving Right Now!

I am so thankful for our big back yard and the fact this pandemic hit during the best weather in Southern Texas! I can’t imagine this hitting in July. We would be stuck in the house all day!

I thought I would share some of the toys my boys are playing the most with right now. My oldest is 5 1/2 and the youngest is 20 months. These toys are great for both ages.

Duplos

G got this Duplo Set when he was around a year old for Christmas. This is the exact set we have, but doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon. There are lots of other sets to choose from - 1 / 2 / 3

G still plays with these all the time! Cash loves them too. They like to build towers, stacking them on top of each other, build a sky scraper and they ask me to build the exact items on the box!  One evening I took this entire box and dumped them in the bathtub with the boys. They LOVED it!!! The legos got a good wash and the boys had a blast!

Picasso Tiles

My boys LOVE these! They are a magnetic tile that stick together. I should buy 1 more set because there is a lot of fighting over them. G loves to make buildings for his star war characters and dinosaurs.

Cash loves when someone builds something to smash it down. A lot of times this causes problems because Cash doesn’t understand G just spent 10 min making his creation perfect. I try to make a few little buildings for Cash to crash, so he leaves brother alone.

A friend bought these for the boys for Christmas. They are played with every single day! I have added to their wish lists the wheels to be able to make cars with the tiles. I should probably add another set of these to the wish list too.

Magformers

Apparently building items are the best Christmas gifts because all of our sets were gifts. lol These are so magnetic and work with the Picasso tiles. Often times we have both sets out to build large creations as G likes to call them.

It’s nice these sets interact with each other, so the kids can create large things.

Nugget Comfort

I heard about the Nugget from a friend who ordered one last year. I wanted to get one for the boys for Christmas. Well everyone else had that same idea. I was able to get ours around February. Another great item I am so happy we have during this time! 

I bought the koala gray color. We keep it in the boys room against the wall when it's not being used. The boys are able to drag it out on their own. They practice their ninja and gym moves on it. We build houses, use it to climb, jump, flips, relax and sleep on. It's actually REALLY comfortable to sleep on. 

If you want a Nugget it's going to be very difficult to get one. They are closed during the pandemic, but you can get on their back order list. I was able to get one by ordering one in December on their back order and we received it about 6 weeks later. They did say it would take up to 14 weeks for delivery, but we got it much faster. They run about $250. I can see us using this for years! This is one of my favorite purchases we have made for the boys in the past year. 

Outdoor Toys

Bubble flash light

The boys love bubbles!!! I found this adorable bubble flash light at Target for Easter. This is a perfect toy for Cash. He can easily use it and loves it. 

Big Wheel

When the grandkids on Art’s side of the family turn 2 Art’s parents buy them all a big wheel  car. G picked out a fire truck. We moved this car across the country and man am I glad we did. We had nooooo yard for this thing in California. He could go in a circle in our back yard or down the sidewalk. It wasn’t used that much.

Well now we have a huge yard! G drives it and Cash rides in it. G has been trying to give Cash driving lessons. It’s rather entertaining to watch.

I feel I’ve been able to teach them a lot of vehicle safety with the fire truck. Why we need to look all around before we back up. Why it’s important to sit down when someone else is driving. How doors are always kept shut when driving. All of these things sound like something a mom is yelling at teenagers. Lord help me!!!

Solo Cups

Veronika from Veronika’s Blushing posted on Instagram her kids playing with solo cups and building towers. I ordered a big bag from Amazon for around $7. The kids love to stack them up and crash them down with super hero’s or drive their cars into them.

One night I built a tower around the coffee table for them to wake up too. They love finding things I’ve built them the next morning. 

What have you been doing to keep your kids entertained during this pandemic? Are there certain toys your kids have played with for years? 

Front Yard DIY Rock Work

We have finally finished the front yard! Art has been working on cleaning the rocks for a couple months. We needed to add in additional rocks for awhile. We debated for awhile on what to do. When we made up our mind to get more rocks we ran into an issues regarding endangered rocks. Well we haven't been able to get the same rocks, so we went with another color to mix in with the old rocks. 

First load of rocks - half ton for the first load. The second load we bought three quarters of a ton.

We sorted through all the rocks pulling out all the dirt clumps, weeds etc. 

Art did most of the work above by sorting the rocks and laying down the fabric.

The rock company would have delivered the rocks to our house, but they charge $50. I am waaaaay too cheap to pay $50 when we could do it ourselves. 

I shoveled about 75% of the 1.25 ton of rocks we bought. I looked like I had been rolling around in the dirt for a month by the time we were done. I was soaking wet, muddy, and sore. 

We washed all the dust off the rocks. There was soooo much dirt in the rocks. I told Art he was a city boy to think of washing rocks before we lay them down. On the farm there is no way we would have washed any rocks. lol

DONE!!! 

It felt so amazing to have this job done. Next up we will be finishing the backyard. We have finally agreed to level the backyard and plant grass. My goal is to have it done in the month of September. Unfortunately I do not have the energy like I did before surgery/cancer. I was exhausted for an entire week after the front yard job. I just have to learn to do a little and rest. I barely rested while we were doing the front yard because I just wanted the job DONE. It was worth it in the end. 

We bought our rocks from Clark's U Save Rockery. It cost us about $80 for 1.25 tons of rock. If you are in the area I highly recommend checking out Clark's. They are very friendly and reasonable. 

Endangered Rocks!

Art has been working hard to get the front yard in better shape. He has raked up all the rocks, sifted through them to get rid of the dirt, laid a tarp down so the weeds can't go through. We needed additional rocks to fill in a bare area, so we went to buy some rocks. We have Ginger Rocks or something along that name. I feel like some of these things only happen in California. The rock guy told us the quarry was shut down. He has no idea how long the quarry will be shut down because they found an endangered lizard. 

We possibly might be able to get the rocks we need in a month or in 3 months. No one has any idea when the quarry will open again. Unbelievable! Lesson learned again. Stop procrastinating and get a stinkin job done!

These rocks are available, but they are NOT the right color!

I have no idea what these machines are, but Art wanted a picture of them! I guess they had something to do with yard work or rocks.