Gift Giving Occasions

My son is about to turn 2 years old. He's is just starting to pay attention to opening gifts, and actually giving a crap about what is inside the Elmo wrapping paper. With that in mind, it's time for us to come up with some real birthday gifts!

I am amazed at how commercial we have become. I am just as guilty as many...I worked very hard to find TMX Elmo this past Christmas. I found it at WalMart, and my son has played with it one time...lesson learned! So as we planned what to get our son for his birthday, we tried to adhere to the commercial stuff he likes, without breaking the bank.

I have no idea how Geoffrey The Giraffe (of Toys r Us fame) found out, but every year he calls the house to wish our son a happy birthday. He also sends a birthday card with a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon. Thank goodness. So off we went to Toys over the weekend to seek out a Thomas train set. Holy moley. Not only do trains occupy more than one aisle, they are verrrrry pricey. This area of the toy industry takes a la carte to a new level. There are a ton of trains in the Thomas line, and each one sells for $10-$20 EACH. Then a train track runs from $30 to well over $100. Without much effort, you can easily spend $100 on not much. Here is how we got to mission accomplished without breaking the bank:

We bought a track of a different brand. I see nothing different other than the price. We got a 60 piece set for $49. To put this in perspective, the closest I could find in the Thomas line, price wise, was $53 (on sale) for a 28 piece set. The closer I look at what we bought, it's way more than we needed. My mother bought a very basic set of the same brand for about $20. These sets come with train cars, a wood track, and many other props. It also states right on the packaging that these sets work with all of the Thomas products. And this is true...our son has the same name as one of the cars, so we had to buy that car...I told you I don't always spend wisely!

The other gift we're giving our son is a little rocking chair. It's more because we think it's cute, but I've had my mind set on this since Christmas. Breeze through any kids catalog and you will find you can easily spend over $100 for a painted wood rocking chair. Here is what I did:

I bought an unfinished wood rocking chair at Michael's Crafts. It was $40, but I used a 40% off coupon, which show up almost every week in the mail and/or newspaper, so that saved me $16. I painted the entire chair a golden color...reminiscent of the "old school" Green Bay Packer gold - my husband feels the team colors have changed a bit over time. I had the can of paint from when I painted the letters of my son's bedroom before he was born. So the paint cost me about 8 bucks 2 years ago and got me through two projects. It may have cost me 5 bucks if I used a coupon then, I can't remember. I am using scrap booking letters to put his name across the back, and a scrapbook sticker of a football. The stickers will run me less than $5 because I will get them at JoAnn Fabric and use another 40% off coupon. So this awesome chair came together for about $30.

Our son has us wrapped around his finger, so he would have received these gifts regardless. But to save well over $30 on items we would have bought no matter what sure feels good.

Pass the birthday cake!