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Yes Please! We are also looking for sewing machine guidance for my 10 yr. old dd. I don't sew and am clueless. So far the feedback I have gotten is *not* to get a kids machine, that they don't last/work as well. I will share any other advice I get.

Here's a good place to mention. Those of us who deserve frequent buyer miles from amazon- it's available. It's not much. It's 4% commission from sales. You sign up on the affiliate link at the bottom of amazon.com. (it's free). You can search anywhere in the amazon website and get a cut and paste link to any product they advertise and post it on your webpage. If you or anyone else clicks it goes directly to the amazon page with that product like if you went straight through amazon first. But you get 4% sales commission. I opted to get paid in Amazon credit (guilty blushing). Anyway it's like a rewards card if you buy from yourself.

Tell me how well that Lego cam works after you try it.

I never really buy many presents for my kids because my house overfloweth from our parents and grandparents gifts. My mom bought me a bike and two kid trailer, and bought Wyatt a bike. And she bought Espy a pink baby swing. And there's a stack of wrapped who-know's-what's.

The hubby and I might go look at a "styrofoam" and amp. so ds can hear himself singing over his drumset. Don't know why ds can never remember it's called a "microphone".

So far we've bought these for DS5:

Redshift 7 Planetarium software
Educa 3D Tropical Scenes Puzzle 27 Cubes (this might be a bit basic for him, but it's pretty and DS1 can play with it too)
Storming A Castle: National Geographic Maze Adventures
Wilson NFL MVP Junior Football with Pump and Tee, Brown
Scary Stories Treasury, ISBN-10 0060263415
Kasparov compact magnetic travel chess set, 7" (a very nice little carved wooden set; found it for $20 shipped)
Inuyasha complete series, episodes 1-167 plus 4 movies (but I broke down and he's currently watching it with me, lol)

So far, we've only bought DS1 a block puzzle and some Magneatos, the big ones. I dunno how much more we'll get for either kid, if anything; we're packed to the rafters with books, toys and electronic gear as it is. Christmas is a little blip in our year-long pattern of overconsumption of educational and fun stuff. I will probably tack on some additional Sculpey clay, though.

Thanks so much for saying that out loud, so to speak! I feel the same!! Too much stuff.

For ds10 I have gotten: more hexbug stuff, 1 big lego kit (agree with Edwin, the ones we don't have already are getting sparse!)
some dragon ball z books, a big nerf gun thing.

For dd4, a train set, target had a good price on their sets, a large ballerina doll, a small shopping cart with food and her big pick, a pink ds game, since I think she is growing out of the leapster... at least that one is small in size. (she did want a bunch of other HUGE things, but I am working every day to let her know that santa will not be bringing her a new bed with all new accessories!!) Sigh.

You're quite welcome. If you decide to add on any train pieces, Toys R Us has some decently-priced sets of curves, etc. under their Imaginarium brand. I also found lots of deals on cool specialty pieces a while back on eBay, but I haven't checked pricing in many months.

That reminds me that I need to get DS2 another bookshelf for Christmas.

I gave each kid a book and said let's make room for new things. If they haven't played with it in a year it can go.

I got the following for DD10:
Perfume Science kit
Magic Penny Magnet kit
Jishaku game
6-in-1 Solar Building kit
LEGO Harry Potter The Burrows
Soda Can Robug

I got the following for DD5:
Flipbook making kit
Quelf Jr. game
Wiki Stix
EZ Fort
Origami kit

Some existing favorites that we highly recommend:
Wedgits (we all have fun building with them)
Marble Run
The Amazing Labyrnth game
Settlers of Catan game
Magnatiles (both kids have been happily playing with them for the past hour)

I hope this helps.

I was just about to go on a mission looking for this thread. I just bought Disney cars and monsters Inc in chinese. I might have to get a different DVD player to play them. A multiregion samsung looks inexpensive. I was looking for something like "your baby can speak Chinese" but ran across these instead. Does it get any cooler than that?! I also ordered some simplified Chinese caligraphy books two men and the bear, the fox and the goat, and the wind and the sun. We live in a bilingual Spanglish speaking community, may as well treat the family to a third language. Also, while my mom was visiting she bought me a bike and trailer for Christmas. She left for Florida and I did not wait till Christmas to use it. Woo, (shaving carrots @ me).

Just picked up the Original Perplexus Maze for my six (soon to be seven) year old. Someone brought one to school and he loved it. I ordered it at Amazon for $20, I think it usually retails about $25.