My little nephew had his 2nd birthday party last weekend. I had asked my sil what to get for him, and she adamently said, 'nothing.' Seriously, the kid has more toys than FAO Schwartz, and he's only 2. Mike and I gave him a check for his education fund (Johnny's father, John, is Mike's brother. Mike is Johnny's godfather). But a check isn't a lot of fun for a kid, and I wanted to give a little something extra.
My sil, Noreen, said that Johnny likes to stack things and line things up. My first thought: building blocks! Nice, old-fashioned wooden ones. Well, I had a set of them in a wooden box that I had bought for $1 at a garage sale a while back. You know how something grabs you and you just know there will be a use for it in the future?
Johnny's really into Thomas the Tank Engine. The other day, at Michael's, I found a scrapbooking kit featuring Thomas. As you can see by the pictures, I decorated the box and some of the blocks. Then I used some of the 12x12 paper to wrap the gift! I still have lots of the Thomas set for scrapping pages from the party, too.
Alas, I couldn't attend. I had work that day and I'm already taking off a weekend to visit friends in Pennsylvania. (This is the family of the adopted baby for which I made the bonnets. I get to meet her tomorrow!)
I would love to see what others have done to turn something they bought cheap into something special!
9 comments:
LOVE it! Very creative idea. My son was(is)a huge Thomas fan and thought it was a fun gift.
An excellent gift idea :)
That's an awesome gift! And personalized too! Well done! I'm sure he loved it.
Great idea. A gift is so much more enjoyable knowing that someone thought about it, instead of just picking some random thing up at the store. And although your 2 year old nephew doesn't understand this, I am sure your sister enjoyed it and appreciates it just as much!
Here at our house we love toys that require imagination instead of batteries! You have inspired me to write about that.
Anyway,
We have a tub of Legos and a basket of wooden building blocks. Both were accumulated over the years from the time my now 15 yr old was a baby. This is how I did it. Anyone who was getting rid of them (thought video games were more educational, YUK!)gave them to me as I had put the word out I was adopting them. Also, you can usually find a few stray random pieces in the bottom of a FREE box at garage sales. It pays to dig where one one else dares to go!
Great post about your Thomas blocks!!!!!
Amy
This is a wonderful idea!! Awesome and I know he will adore it. My nephew loves his trains so much...he is all about Thomas!
Hugs,
Sue
Thanks for visiting my blog. I love Dollar Stores too! I'm on vacation this week but will come back to visit your blog next week. :)
This was an awesome idea and gift. I don't recall changing a thrift item to give as a gift, except for cleaning, although it is acceptable in our family to give second-hand thrift finds. We do that all the time as we are all bargain, thrift hunters. xoxo
what a great gift!! My son LOVES Thomas so I KNOW that little boy must have loved your gift!! And great job on the .25 t-shirt!!! That is an awesome frugal thing to do!!! :) Bridget
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