Hello, friends. Please meet our two newest toy acquisitions, fresh from a trip to Barnes & Noble this morning. It sort of looks like Bernard (the Wild Things monster) wants to eat Sophia (the Unicorn) for lunch, no? Oh pretend play, how I love thee so.

Now before you start clucking your tongue and shaking your head at my weakness, and propensity to give into my children’s every desire, please understand the facts here.

1) We all have the day off because of the holiday
2) I desperately wanted to go to the gym which has a daycare center that the girls really really hate
3) It’s possible I bribed said girls with a trip to Panera after my workout (the low fat chicken noodle soup is only 3 Weight Watchers points!)
4) Barnes & Noble is in the same shopping plaza as Panera and since they were home from school I said they could each pick out a work book or coloring book AND THAT WAS IT
5) They spent their allowances on the above toys. I swear to you they did.
6) The Wild Things monster was on sale for 75% off of $20.00, so Ana got it for a mere $5.00

So you see, I ended up spending $30, $13 of which the girls paid me back with their allowance money. Ana’s work book (a 3rd grade math book) was about $8.00 and Emily picked out two coloring books for $4.00 each. She got a third coloring book free! FREE, I SAY!

But getting back to the above animals…aren’t they so cute?? I love the stuffed animals at Barnes & Noble even though I kind of resent their ubiquitous presence next to the books. I’ve denied many a request for a stuffed horse or dragon during a routine trip to Barnes & Noble to pick out a book. Over the last year or so, I’ve actually avoided the store altogether because, frankly, I’m sick of navigating the stuffed animal alley of desire to try and get my children some reading material (our town library has a pathetically small selectionof books). That said, I have to admit that the stuffed animals themselves are actually very cute. Most (or maybe all) of them are made by Douglas Toys and they’re the sort of super soft plush that kids love to sleep with and hold. Emily’s unicorn was $8.00. She still has no concept of the value of money, of course, but she was overjoyed when I said she could afford it.