I Can Be... Barbie

I have to say that I grew up loving Barbie and all her friends! I never had the huge mansion in stores, but my dad built me a BIG house with pieces of wood to separate each room and make a roof, carpet swatches for the floor and a huge attic. It was better than anything I saw in the stores, plus my dad made it! Shoeboxes made great convertibles back then. :) I did, however, have tons of accessories and anything else Barbie that I could get my hands on!

My old dollhouse looked a lot like this, only an attic at the top and a lot more "homemade" looking:
Just recently we took a trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis (the biggest of it's kind by the way) and they have a HUGE "Barbie the Fashion Experience" going on there. It is perfect for girls of all ages. They had everything from dress up like Barbie for a fashion show, fix Barbie's hair, use Barbie's that they had there to do a pretend fashion show, Barbie collections you could view, areas to create your OWN Barbie fashions and so much more. It was great for me to take a stroll down memory lane and also to share with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. While I know she is still a bit young, I thought she would enjoy walking into the area with the dolls and all the pink..oh she fell in LOVE! She didn't want to leave! She liked playing with the Barbie dolls themselves the best, though she was sure not to miss anything from fixing Barbie's hair to drawing clothing. She and I

TRIO Building System

At Christmastime last year I was gathering up presents to go under the tree(along with the ones Santa would be bringing, of course!) and we always try to be sure our kids have the same amount to open- that way they can open at the same time. So, I was doing my research on the internet and I came across a great deal for TRIO blocks on Amazon, at a really great price. I had honestly not heard of them before. The deal was for a large "King's Castle". It looked really neat, but I decided it was a bit big for a final gift to throw under the tree. I took a mental note of it and found another to to buy him instead.

Fast forward a few months and you will find us in our local Target, going up and down the toy aisle(as we ALWAYS do, lol). We checked out the Lego aisle and I noticed the TRIO blocks as well. I had seen them a few times since Christmas, but this time they really caught my eye! Target had a TRIO Building Set on sale for