Ma'am? Step Away from the Toys!

I was so proud of myself for stashing the toys I'd acquired at the various Mattel gifting suites I've attended over the past few months. I was sure my already spoiled kids did not need any new toys. I'd congratulated myself on the restraint shown by my decision to donate some items to charity and perhaps use the rest for birthday party gifts for other peoples spoiled kids...

Well here I am, not even 24 hrs into my kids summer break and I am a broken woman. I was desperate for something, anything, to keep them occupied and from bickering and from uttering those three little dreaded words that turn me into a snarling beast: "Mom! I'm bored".

So. I've dipped into the stash. But the irony is that *I* cannot stop playing with these toys!

First off we have the Hot Wheels Radar Gun from Mattel. Selling for $24.99 , it is a realistic looking device that measure the speed of your Hot Wheels cars. But it can also measure how fast your kid is riding a bike, or how fast she is running after the ice cream truck, or my own personal favorite - How fast my annoying speed demon neighbors are driving down the street! Yes, there is no longer any need to speculate whether they are going 40 or 50 mph in a 15mph zone. I have my own, er, I mean my kids have their own radar gun. So when is Mattel coming out with realistic looking tickets?

Second we have the Barbie Diaries Secret Fortune Teller, also by Mattel. It retails for $17.99. Remember good ol' Cootie Catchers? This is the electronic version of the origami contraptions we all made as kids. You hold it much the same and open and shut to pick a color and a number, and then Barbie tells you your fortune. Mine was "Bad Hair Day!" How did Barbie know?! Before you lament the death of creativity, you should know that the toy lets you record your own fortunes. My kids got pretty creative with it. In fact they spent three and a half hours recording fortunes and prepared a script for me to read/record.

My actual prediction came out a little different though. Someone, somewhere, is going to hear the following fortune this week: "If you tell your mom you are bored one more time, you will be cleaning toilets".