Last year I submitted a tip to Parents Magazine's "It Worked For Me" section. Apparently, they printed it in the June 2011 issue! I had a slew of friends on Facebook ask if it was me, or tell me they had seen it. I, of course, had LOST my issue. I tore apart my house looking for it. Was it in the pile of magazines on the railing? No. The pile on the couch? No. In my car in the pile of mail on the passenger seat? No. AAARGH Where is it?!?!?!?
Since we've been cleaning the house in preparation for The Princess' third birthday party, I've been busyblogging and Facebooking sorting through random piles of stuff in the living room. And I found it! In a bag full of my Sunday paper and Red Plum coupon inserts. Go figure.
And there we are, on page 100! My home-made ball pit from her birthday party last year! We kept it out and the kids who came to my first Kids Cooking Class played in it too. Big hit.
"Instead of buying a pricey ball pit, I made one for my daughter using an inexpensive inflatable kiddie pool and plastic balls that I found at the toy store. Ours is much bigger, which means all of the kids can play in it at the same time!"
There are some other tips, and informative articles and such in this issue too, but I can't seem to turn the page...
I was sick of seeing all these tiny ball pits for $20-$50, that barely fit one child. And only came with 10-25 balls. Every review complained either how small they were, how few balls they came with, or how they sprung a leak within a month. Toys R Us sells bags of 250 balls for $25, and, during the Summer, a variety of kiddie pools for $5-$10. We opted for a fairly large pool (around 4') for $12, and bought 3 bags of balls. So we ended up paying way more, but not by much, if you consider you'd be buying a ~$30 ball pit plus $25 bag of balls to supplement the few it came with, for around $55. And you'd still only have one child in there comfortably, maaaybe 2, as long as nobody moved.
A slightly smaller pool with only 2 bags of balls would have been around $60, and fit 3-4 kids easily. We had 6 in ours. Worth. Every. Penny. Especially since it was kind of overcast and cool the day of her party last year, so everyone stayed inside. We had another, really tiny $5 pool we started her with, with only 1 bag of balls. It was such a big hit, we went for the bigger one once she started really moving and jumping.
Apparently it was such an awesome tip, I had a random strangerstalk find me on Facebook to tell me they liked it. Flattering, but creeeeeepy!
Since we've been cleaning the house in preparation for The Princess' third birthday party, I've been busy
Parents Magazine, June 2011
 |
| image credit |
There are some other tips, and informative articles and such in this issue too, but I can't seem to turn the page...
I was sick of seeing all these tiny ball pits for $20-$50, that barely fit one child. And only came with 10-25 balls. Every review complained either how small they were, how few balls they came with, or how they sprung a leak within a month. Toys R Us sells bags of 250 balls for $25, and, during the Summer, a variety of kiddie pools for $5-$10. We opted for a fairly large pool (around 4') for $12, and bought 3 bags of balls. So we ended up paying way more, but not by much, if you consider you'd be buying a ~$30 ball pit plus $25 bag of balls to supplement the few it came with, for around $55. And you'd still only have one child in there comfortably, maaaybe 2, as long as nobody moved.
A slightly smaller pool with only 2 bags of balls would have been around $60, and fit 3-4 kids easily. We had 6 in ours. Worth. Every. Penny. Especially since it was kind of overcast and cool the day of her party last year, so everyone stayed inside. We had another, really tiny $5 pool we started her with, with only 1 bag of balls. It was such a big hit, we went for the bigger one once she started really moving and jumping.
Apparently it was such an awesome tip, I had a random stranger
Whoa! I actually saw this! That's so cool!
ReplyDelete