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 
Driving out to visit my grandparents, laying down in the backseat and looking at the clouds, waving at the truckers to see how many would wave back. Swimming, roller skating, sledding, going out for Chinese food with my parents on Saturday nights and coming home to watch The Golden Girls – a late night treat.
LikeLike
Spending time out at the “BIG LAKE”. Lake Micigan, there is nothing like it after a long winter.
LikeLike
My dad had a rubbermaid garbage can that was JUST used for leaves in the fall — no garbage. When the leaf can came out every fall and dad was distracted with the rake, my sis and I would take turns climbing in the can, putting the lid on and rolling each other around the yard. HOURS of fun!
LikeLike
Picking veggies out of my gma’s garden with her, while she told me stories!
LikeLike
Trying to fall asleep at the cottage in the littlest bedroom while listening to the adults sing and play piano and gut-bucket on the other side of the door.
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory is floating in the ocean on a beautiful sunny day, just stretching my toes out and letting the water support me entirely as my much-beloved little brothers and sister built sandcastles nearby on the beach. It was the summer before my parents announced their divorce and I think the safety and happiness of this simple moment has become a bittersweet bright spot during this (soon-to-be) tumultuous time.
LikeLike
On the hottest day in summer, I’d go curl up in the unfinished basement with a book. It was cool and quiet there and I could stay until someone found me, which often took hours. I’d get lost in imaginary lands, protected from the heat and the noise of the rest of the world.
LikeLike
Thanks! My fave memory is the summer I spent in Homer, AK, at age 4, running through fields of Fireweed taller than me, spying on moose, living in a log cabin, riding horses with my neighbor friend, my Grandma teaching me to read, eating fresh shrimp on the spit and going on long walks with my dad.
LikeLike
The crisp fall midwestern air hitting my knees, bare between the tops of my knit socks and the hem of my new plaid smock-dress. The polyester snap-top backpack emblazoned with my giant, ironed-on initials, soft and empty, resting gently on both shoulders. Fat curls in my long piggy-tails from the pink sponge rollers I slept in. Well, barely slept in. Too excited for the first day of school!
LikeLike
Gosh, on the spot I can’t come up with a *favorite* childhood memory. Summers stand out as good times: spending afternoons by the lake, birthday parties, and family vacations.
LikeLike
One of my fondest memories is going to my grandma’s house for holidays. As soon as we got our bags unloaded from the car, I’d jump up on a stool in the kitchen, and my mom and aunts would sit at the counter while my grandma got dinner ready, drinking wine coolers, talking, and laughing.
LikeLike
What a great question (and fabulous giveaway). Camping…. sleeping in a tent… and being at home when the power went off (and we used candles and it felt so very mysterious + special). Thanks for the chance!
LikeLike
Making “fairy lands” on the old farm we lived on for a short time. There were 32 acres marked by a stone wall. I would frequently find my way to a new perfect spot and start all over again. Of course I would write notes and leave a little food and [my mom] would write back which I thought was pure magic!
LikeLike
I was maybe 8 or 9, sick in bed. I’d stayed home from school and hadn’t eaten a thing in two days. My dad walked in, still wearing his suit from work, holding what looked like a giant ice cream sundae. I didn’t have my glasses on so everything was kind of fuzzy. I had no appetite at all, but my dad wasn’t really the kind of guy who gave us giant ice cream sundaes EVER, so I was totally prepared to eat it just because I was so wowed and awed by the gesture. (It turned out to be a bouquet of flowers made to look like an ice cream sundae. Just as sweet.) (I think that might have been the one and only time my dad gave me flowers, now that I think about it.)
LikeLike
My dad (sporting his 80s mustache) reading to me and my 2 sisters while we all fit on his lap in the rust colored lazy boy chair.
LikeLike
Oh, I love the wood leaf puzzle!
My favorite childhood memory is sleeping in the spring and early summer with the windows open. The sound of crickets still takes me back.
~Denise
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory is my grandmother singing Ukrainian lullabies to me.
LikeLike
Hands down, exploring tide pools on the beach and building epic sand castles with my Dad. I was a girly-girl so he didn’t really know what to do with me, but trips to the beach were a really special time when we connected.
LikeLike
We moved cross-country when I was five, and I drove with my dad while my mom flew out w my baby brother. My dad and I took a whole week to go from Michigan to Oregon, and we ate a two-pound bag of Skittles on the trip. I made him eat all the yellow and green ones. We stopped and saw Oregon Trail wagon tracks and ate plate-sized pancakes and slept in the car some night and got a speeding ticket (his only one ever). It was heaven.
LikeLike
riding my bike around the neighborhood with the boys (I was the only girl) pretending one of us was a police officer and trying to pull the others over for speeding.
LikeLike
Camping in the summer with my family and waking up to the smell of my mom making pancakes outdoors. To this day every time we camp, pancakes are a must.
LikeLike
Climbing a huge oak tree in the far corner from the house in my parent’s backyard and staying there with my sister for hours.
LikeLike
Best ever – trying to fly a kite my Grandfather and I tried to make out of one of his old dress shirts, then giving up and just lying on our backs and looking up at the big white fluffy clouds in the blue sky together.
LikeLike
Eating contraband oh-so-delicious fudgecicles on my grandma’s back porch.
LikeLike
during summer vacation, my best neighborhood friend, Marcie, and I would ride our bikes to the nearby feed store which was the best hangout in our rural Iowa neighborhood because they had a pop machine. we’d dig our some coins and buy 2 Like sodas, then play Family Feud. that is, I would be the host and try to remember the previous day’s categories and answers and she would play every family member on both teams.
LikeLike
Donning my one black glove and holding up a banana, to perform as Michael Jackson with friends on the thickly green-carpeted stairs at my house.
LikeLike
just the unlimited time and creativity of childhood.
LikeLike
Summers with my family! and camp.
LikeLike
Every evening before bedtime, my little sister & I sat on Daddy’s lap while he read/watched TV. We’re the youngest of five, the “little girls” of the family & I remember feeling like we were the most special of them all because we got to sit on his lap every night. I still like to think we were his favorites. The eldest would strongly disagree!
LikeLike
I just made my daughter a photo book entitled, “When Mommy Was A Little Girl”. My favorite memory that I included was in the flower girl dress I wore for my babysitter’s wedding. I can still remember spinning around in that long, yellow dress. Happiness!
LikeLike
I loved going to my grandma’s house in the summer to play with my cousins. Sometimes we would “paint” on the sidewalk with water. Simple fun!
LikeLike
My dad made treasure hunts for me as a kid…very easy ones when I was young, varied ones for birthday parties, and a really tough one (that involved climbing up the barn roof) for my high school graduation. One of my earliest memories was following a trail of heart-shaped valentines to the next clue.
The point was to make me think. But I was having fun!
LikeLike
I love fishing with my dad. Not a big fan of killing fish normally, but with my dad it was more special than gruesome.
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory – listening to rock ‘n roll LP’s with my dad. He was such a bad ass (and loving) dad!
LikeLike
Swimming at our cabin in MT. Then eating Lays potato chips. Then swimming again, and then eating more chips. Then going to sleep in my suit. Without showering.
LikeLike
I have lots of great childhood memories but the one that stands out right now is “the big tree”. My family lived in the South, in the middle of nowhwere- There were big gorgeous tree’s everywhere. On one of our family walks we found a gigantic tree with a rope swing attached to it! Whenever my dad wanted us to go on a walk with him he would say, “We can go to the big tree!” Hello?! Enough said. We were there.
LikeLike
Playing “Kick the Can” on warm summer evenings with all the kids in the neighborhood.
LikeLike
When we were 9 and 8, my sister and I would steal into the den and dig fistfuls of coins out of the giant milk jug where my parents stashed spare change. This technique supplemented our meager allowances for weeks until my parents started to ask questions about all the new little stuffed monkeys and monkey wardrobes we were acquiring…
LikeLike
Playing make-believe games with my brother. Favorites included Pioneer, Spaceship, and The-Floor-Is-Lava-So-You-Can’t-Step-On-It.
LikeLike
My fav… my grandparents came to visit us after a stop in Las Vegas. When they arrived my G-pa called me over (I was about 6) and said he had something for me. Wide eyed I listened… He said that while he was in Vegas “he took out a Special Quarter just for little Jilly” and played it in a special Slot Machine and whatever came out would be for me… and right then from out behind his back he whipped around a HUGE (well to me it was huge) brown paper bag full of Quarters. And just as he handed the back to me the bottom fell out and they went crashing to the ground just like a slot machine spitting them out!! It was the BEST EVER. After counting them, I in all had $67.00 even.
Imagine that. A lot of money for a 6 year old. My mom made me a special decorated coffee can bank. I spent it over time (who knows how long it actually took me to spend it all) mostly on Barbie Clothes and the Ice Cream man.
LikeLike
big family dinners at my grandparents’ house and my grandmother always making pink applesauce.
LikeLike
My favorite memory is being curled up in bed with a huge stack of books just waiting to have them all read to me and my ragdoll, Anne.
LikeLike
Catching fireflies with my big brother then putting them in jar and filling bottle caps with granola and water for them
LikeLike
In bed with all my sisters in our cabin during a thunderstorm. I’d read something long and lyrical and we’d fall asleep, book still open on my chest, to the sound of rain falling on the tin roof.
LikeLike
First of all, lovely giveaway, thank you. Some of my most cherished childhood memories are of time spent with my grandfather. When I was 6 or 7, my grandpa would carry a blanket-wrapped me out to the garden to gaze at the stars. He taught me how to play checkers strategically, cook, garden, drive, use power tools, and manage money. His stories of hardship humbled me then, and keep me in check to this day. I cherished every moment with him. The skills he taught me guide me daily and my memories calm and ground me when life gets rocky.
LikeLike
I remember racing into the dance studio upon seeing it for the first time at age three and asking the instuctor if we were going to do thiiiiiiiiis? (spinning around and around and around on the shiny tile floor). “Of course” she said.
LikeLike
My favorite memory is going to the state fair with my dad. Every year he talked about going to the fair when he was a kid. His unending childlike delight for it was contagious.
LikeLike
Favorite childhood memory…summer visits to my grandparents house on Long Island. Hot, sticky days at the beach, warm evenings eating out on the screened in porch, fireflies at night, Grandma’s cookies, Grandpa’s pipe smoke “to keep the mosquitos away”…the feeling of sunburned skin on polyester sheets…those were truly the good ol’ days.
LikeLike
My brothers and I made a fort out of every single sheet and towel we could find. It covered the entire living room and dinning room. During the day we would play lava under the fort and at night we would play flashlight tag. Mom even helped!
LikeLike
These are amazing! My favorite childhood memories all revolve around roadtrips and the rituals therein.
LikeLike