Hank’s school had an auction benefit a little while ago, and I asked some Internet friends for donations. As a thank you to the folks who donated, I thought I’d do some giveaways here as well.
Wee Wood of the Month Club from Little Alouette
These pretty wooden toys and teethers feel good in the hand, encourage imaginative play, and aren’t finished with paint or varnish that will make your baby ill. Bonus. Some toys are unfinished, others finished only with a light coat of organic flax seed oil, so all the toys are utterly chewable.
Strongman from Dria Peterson
Dria Peterson’s handmade strongman protects your little one from nightmares, and encourages him or her to hang out with carnies.
Happy Trails Felt Doll Journal from Suzy Ultman
If you kept a journal as a kid, you know the pleasure of paging back through your gift wishlists, childhood heartbreaks, and lemonade stand earnings. This diary doesn’t have a lock, which saves parents the trouble of picking it.
Hand-Knit Pony from Woolies
This tiny hand-knit pony is just right for chubby little fists. Twice the appeal of My Little Pony, with none of the offgassing.
Play Scarves from Birch Leaf Designs
Simple play scarves to use as capes, forts, or baby doll blankets.
A Leaf Puzzle from Just Hatched
This handmade wooden puzzle has the names of the tree behind each corresponding leaf. Yeah. Your kid is gonna be smarter than you.
Letter Flashcards from Pollywog Learning Products
Tactile letter flashcards are made to help little ones trace the letters with their fingers. The letters are fashioned from sandpaper with a starting-point dot on each. Literacy! Hells yes.
Please leave a comment with your favorite childhood memory to enter, and please only enter once. I’ll announce the winner on Monday. Tune in next week for a science toys giveaway, and big thanks to all the artists and merchants for their donations.
Mighty Girl 
My Grandma used to give my sister and I a giant “trunk” (papered cardboard box) full of garage sale dance costumes/Halloween costumes/crazy cast-offs ever year for Christmas. We finally accumulated enough dress-up costumes to clothe the entire neighborhood and we had a circus that traveled to each backyard. It was so much fun and the pictures, complete with me trying to boss the other kids around, are hilarious.
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during the summer all the cousins would spend a week at my house, play, watch movies and swim in the pool all day. My father used to hook up the hose to the top of the house, so that the water would fall into the pool like a waterfall. We would take turns jumping “through” it. To this day, I still LOVE waterfalls…
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I remember sitting on our backyard swingset by myself writing classical music in my head. It was the purest happiness I can remember! Sort of my “happy place” now. 🙂
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Visiting my grandmother in south Texas when I was 8. The first time I was away from home without my parents – my grandmother and I drove from Orlando, FL to McAllen, TX. On her farm, we rode horses, ate citrus off the trees, tended the cows, etc. Even 30 years later in New England, I occasionally experience certain smells and am brought right back to that hot, dusty summer. It was wonderful.
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I lived in a town so small, I could ride my bike from one end to the other, and was allowed to do so! We also had a big field with a ‘dirt hill’ in it to play war games, so awesome! Yes, I was a tomboy.
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Cooking with my grandmothers.
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My mom used to take us (me and my sister) to thrift stores so that we could buy old hand-me-down formal dresses (like from pageant contestants, I guess?) and strappy high heels (that were always too big). Then we’d make these too-big things fit SOMEHOW (I recall shoe laces being involved) and we’d put on stage performances in the front yard for our neighbors. Embarrassing memory? Absolutely! Still good, though.
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Waking up on a bright and snowy Sunday morning to hear to my parents making breakfast and phoning friends. From my warm bed, I know that the day is going to be great.
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I remember laying all my toys out and trying to “sell” them to my parents and older brother. My pitch line was “FREE FOR SALE!!”.
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We lived in a summer beach town, but were year-rounders. Some of my most vivid memories are of the beach in winter, and the thousands of seagulls that were there. All it would take is one yell, or a few steps in their direction, and they would take off as a group. Amazing.
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Helping my dad in his shop and seeing the looks on people’s faces when they saw a little girl using his tools (most of which were bigger than I was).
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Standing on the top of the hill and doing “plays” for all of our imaginary fans, while looking into our reflection of the neighboring home’s window.
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Floating the Yellowstone River with my cousin and her family… so much fun!
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Going camping with my parents (who were NOT the camping type), and all 6 of us running screaming into the minivan when the black bear sauntered down to munch on our lunch on the picnic table. Good times, which I hope to relive with my own kids (minus the bear).
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When I was a tween I stayed home sick one day and spent the entire day in my parents bedroom on their waterbed watching TV. When my dad came home he brought me 1) my favorite movie to watch (Mine, Yours and Ours starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), 2) a king-sized Nestle Crunch bar and 3) some movie star teen magazine. It was completely out of the ordinary, sweet and made me want to be sick more often!
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Diving off the springboard at the neighbourhood pool over and over, while burgers grilled and “Who’s That Girl” played on the radio.
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Playing the memory game with my sleepy parents and legitimately winning.
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Being outside from dusk and dawn daily from the day school let out for summer vacation until the first bell rang in the fall. Life is good!
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My sister and I packed up crackers, raisins, and apples into a little plastic lunch basket, that had two cups with bears on the side and lids with ears. We put the basket, a thermos of water, and a blanket into a little backpack, and walked to the park with a stream and ducks that required crossing one busy street. Then she and I enjoyed our lunch.
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Oh, I shouldn’t have looked at the other commenters first. Now I’m torn between making Christmas candy with my entire family at my grandmother’s house or my father encouraging me to jump off the (very) high dive at our neighborhood pool. Lovely childhood memories.
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My favorite memory is of my summers on Cape Cod at my grandparent’s house. I would ride this old one speed blue bike everywhere around town, to the beach, the nickel candy store and back. The best part was hitting the downhill to the drawbridge, standing straight up on the pedals and letting the salty air whip through my hair.
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My favorite childhood memory is probably climbing into bed with my parents on Saturday mornings. The best was when they’d call for me, and I’d run down the hall and get a flying leap onto the mattress before snuggling in.
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My hot pink Huffy bike with white wheels!
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Collecting warm fresh eggs from our chicken coop and gingerly transporting them back to the house like treasure!
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too many (which make me a lucky girl). Working in my great grandparents garden, being allowed one piece of candy from either my christmas stocking or easter basket before mass. Countless trip to the ER for stitches because of doing crazy stunts.
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Singing Carpenter songs with my mom while we cleaned the house.
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From childhood: Lamby Pie – a lamb wearing a sweatshirt bearing his name. My dad gave him to me, and also called me Lamby Pie. I still have him. I was going to give him to my kid, but now I worry about what’s living in the stuffing. I’m too afraid I’ll ruin him to open him up and replace the stuffing, so he lives in my closet.
My husband gave me one of those cheesy vermont teddy bears for valentines’ day when we were dating. He’s dressed like Elvis. It was the first time I ever got a big present on Valentine’s Day. I love it.
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one of my favorite childhood memories is building block castles with my dad.
what a cute giveaway — thank you, maggie!
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We made a club– the California Raisins– and took ourselves very seriously. I was the secretary.
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I remember one particular day on the farm when my younger brother, Jacob, and I ran across the barnyard and down the hill to the creek. There was always a fallen tree we tightroped across to get to our swimmin’ hole which consisted of a deep spot of about three feet and a slightly sandy “beach”. We soon found ourselves in an intense mud fight, but when Jacob got some “mud” in his mouth, we discovered that the cows had been swimming in the creek before us! After running home, we were given a thorough hosing down outside before our mother vigorously scrubbed us down in the bathtub.
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Running through a snow storm with my two favorite stuffed animals tied together and hung over my shoulders. I pretended they were my co-pilots and the white flakes speeding past me were the stars as we reached hyperspace!
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Building birds’ nests out of mud and grass and installing them in trees. Believing birds would lay eggs there and thank me.
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Having dance parties in the living room with my brother, sister, and dad. With my tu-tu on, of course!
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when i was about 10 to 12 my parents and i would ride our bikes to the little, local dairy queen for treats in the afternoons. it seems it was so long ago. but i remember every detail: the fierce illinois wind, the gravel stretch just before turning into the dairy queen parking lot and the sunny park benches where we would sit and enjoy our reward.
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That unicorn is awesome!
My favorite childhood memory: completing a 2,000 piece puzzle with my Dad. We weren’t very close when I was growing up, he much preferred doing “boy” activities with my brother, but one day he brought this huge thing home and announced we would be working on it together. We cleared off the dining room table and the family ate in the kitchen for over two weeks while we worked on it after dinner every night. I remember exactly what it looked like still to this day.
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Playing in the woods behind our house with my sister.
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My favorite childhood memory is having pancakes on Saturday morning.
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My favorite memory is trying on snazzy Sunday hats with my mom and grandma at the mall. We would try on practically every hat on the rack. Actually, this is still my favorite thing to do!
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Just *one* favorite? This is the first one that popped into my head. I was sort of a picky eater as a kid (now I’m a great eater!! (albeit vegetarian…) I promise!). We had sliced wheat bread with our meal, as usual, and I just did not want to eat it anymore. I snuck it up to my room and threw it out my window. Thing is, my bedroom faced the front yard and was right over the front door–I threw the bread right onto the sidewalk. I should have just skipped the middle step and handed it to my dad, since he found it not long after dinner anyway.
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Going every Thursday in the summer to Sunshine Lake. We couldn’t take our shoes off until we saw the Wise Potato Chip owl.
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Taking a nap with my mom, dad, and sisters, on the living room floor atop a huge blanket, with the front door open, on a hot, summery day.
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Ages 9-11, weekends with my grandmother: watching wrestling over pizza, stirring brownie mix, playing with her vast makeup collection, endless mall arcade adventures, eating burnt french toast, and sneaking into a (usually purposely horrible) second movie at the theater.
A life tip I learned early – always hold napkins to the bottom of the popcorn bag before you douse it with enough butter-like liquid to give an elephant a heart attack, lest you ruin your pretty new sundress. I still do that to this day, even though I try to be a bit more conservative with my application of the stuff. Old habits die hard.
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My first memorable Easter was spent at my Grandparents’ in Montana — it snowed! We hunted for Easter Eggs in the snow which was so much fun. Apparently, I was very confused the next year when we just hunted in a clear open meadow. Those eggs were too easy to find.
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My dad used to take me rollerskating with him every week (am I dating myself to admit that there were roller rinks back then??). It was awesome dad and daughter hangout time.
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I remember being about 3 or 4 and taking a trip to Maine with my dad. One night he woke me up and brought me down to the lake where we laid on our backs in a row boat and watched shooting stars together. It is my all-time favorite memory!
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my favorite memory is playing with my brother and his heman toys. My brother had the whole heman collection and castle and the only thing he was missing was Xiera. And guess who had Xiera? Yup, me!! his annoying little sister! Ha! The things my mom did to get us to play together! genius 🙂
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my favorite memory as a child would be using the GIANT pine trees in our neighborhood as forts. We’d pack up our dolls, some food, etc. and spend all day climbing and hiding in those trees.
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One of my favorite childhood memories is hiding things in the nook of an tree in my great-grandmother’s yard whenever we went to visit her.
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When I was three years old, living in Maryland in the DC Metro area, I went for a hike through the field behind our house with my big brother. It must have been fall, because the grass was starting to go straw-yellow.
We came over a rise to find a few trees around a little clearing, in the very middle of which was a pepper plant with a fat, green bell pepper hanging from it. I picked it myself and carried it home, just as proud as anything; clearly, with such expert foraging skills I was ready to set off on any sort of adventure I could imagine.
My mother was suitably impressed and sliced the pepper up to eat with dinner. I’d never liked bell peppers before then, but I’ve loved them ever since.
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My favorite childhood memories are playing hours and hours of Cribbage and Yahtzee with my Grandpa (Pop)
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