Friday, June 10, 2005

Battle of the Kids Meal Toys

I have to say, I think most toys that come in 'kids meals' are a companies way of punishing you for not spending more money on a regular combo meal. It's a conspiracy.

Example One: Mini video racing game. This toy appeals to the Dad more than to the kid. We had to make several fast-food runs when these little goodies were the bait. When I tried to throw them out, I put them in a box and told Nathan that they were the junk toys that Josh didn't play with anymore. Thanks to the game going off with it's annoying repetitive sounds... Nathan heard it in the box and decided my ideas of junk toys and his ideas might not be the same. He rummaged through the box and pulled them out and took them to a "safe location" (aka: his office). I doubt I will ever see or hear the last of those annoyingly loud toys that are cousin to those freaky furbie dolls. And apparently it doesn't matter what the game is, YOU DO NOT THROW AWAY VIDEO GAMES. So I've been told. I'm doomed in that department.

Example Two: Buzz Light Year Action Figure. Now when we first got this toy I was very surprised. A decent toy that wasn't just a flimsy piece of junk. It got me thinking, I bet Josh would LOVE to watch Toy Story. So we loaded the kids up and headed to Best Buy, all excited about getting a new movie. No such luck. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are no longer in print. Lame!!! Lame!!! Lame!!! Why promote a toy for a movie that you can no longer purchase?

Example Three: Jimmy Neutron cardboard computer. This little beauty is a total piece of garbage, actually several pieces of garbage. It comes with a card board disc that you can put in a little card board sleeve that is supposed to look like a computer. However, the lure of putting this cardboard disc into more practical places is apparently quite great. Yes. Josh put it into our DVD player. (At least it wasn't our computer). Just when I think I finally got all of the different parts- I find another one- jammed into my DVD player.
Now Burger King has Star Wars toys in their kids meals. You can collect all THIRTY something of them! That is a butt load of crappy cheeseburgers!

I fear this is a battle I'm going to lose.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Road trip: Round two

This weekend we drove to Washington, DC. I know I said I didn't want to drive any farther than the grocery store but I really wanted to go before we left NC. We left early Saturday morning and got there about noon. We took the boys to the National Zoo. Josh loved it. We only had time and energy to see a small portion of it. It's a huge zoo.









After that we drove to our hotel (only a mile away). Our hotel was great. The room was huge and it had a nice big bed. A big bed is essential when you have to share it with Josh- he sleeps horizontal. Nothing like getting kicked in the small of your back. After we checked in we walked down Connecticut Ave and ate dinner at Buca De Beppo. YUMMY!
The next morning we woke up early and hit the town. We started with taking the metro to the Eastern Market. That was fun. We got some apple fritters and ate them in a nice shaded play area.
We got back on the metro and headed to the Natural History Museum. Josh loved that too. Although by this time, he started to get quite cranky. So we buzzed through that and then got some lunch.



Next on the agenda was the Lincoln Memorial but, being we started walking the wrong way...we never made it. By this time it was about 92 degrees with about 75% humidity. YIKES!! Our poor little boys were melting. We stopped to take a break in some shade and that was nice. Josh really enjoyed being able to take his shoes off and tackle Daddy.



By this time though, Josh was done walking and insisted that he get his turn in the stroller. So I held Nikki and made a little do-rag for him out of his burp cloth so he wouldn't get sunburned. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that. It was just too stinking hot to stop and do photos. We busted our butts to the nearest metro and went back to the car.
Of course by the time we reached our car we had cooled off from our ride on the metro. And being we were parked right by the White House... We threw Josh in his stroller, put Nikki back in his stroller, and headed off to see more sights. Both boys promptly fell asleep and we were able to enjoy our stroll around the White House and even get a few pics in.





After that it was about 4:00 and we decided to head home. We would have driven by the Iwo Jima monument but, we took a wrong turn. Oh well. We had a great time anyway.
When we got home poor Josh was so tired he didn't even want to go with Nathan to pick up our dog. (Thank you again to Liz and Rick for watching Grr for us). Josh just ran up the stairs giggling and jumping- happy to be home. I got his pj's on him and he ran to his room to go to bed. If only he was that eager to go to bed every night. Ah well. Another successful road-trip. Next trip: Salt Lake City!!! (BY AIRPLANE- WAHOOOO)