We're building a city

Slowly coming together now

Road leading to the tower

One of the towers

The Little Amsterdam wooden building blocks by HABA is a lot fun.

Having a Super Bowl party? If your kids are anything like mine, the build-up excitement is really fun, but once everyone sits down to watch the game, they get really bored really fast.

Melissa & Doug has a couple of cute products for kids too young to throw around a real football (and, if you’re somewhere too cold to play outside, they’re easier on the furniture and knickknacks): Fill and Spill Sports Bag and Sports Balls in a Mesh Bag.

If you’d like the kids gathered round the table, one great activity is decorating cookies or cupcakes in team colors. The Cardinals and the Steelers are playing this year and their colors are red and white (Cardinals), and yellow and black (Steelers). Black’s kind of an icky deal for frosting though, so white and yellow, with cut up black licorice or sprinkle accents is just as good.

Both the team logos are pretty simple this year, so older kids might like trying to put the team logos on cookies. Painting the logos or key game scenes is also a fun activity.

Knowing some fun facts about the teams will also help kids take a more lasting interest. For instance, the Cardinals have been a team for more than 100 years (though not always in Arizona). In my son’s case, that’s older than great-grandma! And they’ve never been to a Super Bowl, but the Steelers have won four.

For more trivia, games and funny mascot videos, the NFL has a kids page.

We’re really excited in the office about a new brand of toys we’re carrying: Selecta. I could barely keep co-owners Justin and Jennic out of the boxes so I could count everything!

Selecta uses sustainable wood for their toys, and uses the wood chips left over from production for their German factory’s exclusive heat source. The toys feel incredibly sturdy and the wood is a beautiful honey color due to Selecta’s exclusive beeswax finish.

My hands-down favorite is Pedella, the duck push toy. Pedella’s mostly wood, but has flat feet made of heavy fabric. His feet not only slap every time them come down on the floor, the rollers going over the fabric gives the toy a hilarious waddling movement as he’s pushed along. Papagallo is a close second, and we got many other pretty push toys.

I also love the Pepito and Benita stroller toys. I can sometimes get cute overdose, but these guys never fail to make me smile, and their noises are attention getting without being annoying. They’ll definitely keep toddlers entertained when they’re not so excited about being confined to strollers.

Selecta also has something I want for my 10-year-old: activity dice games. My kids know if they say “I’m bored” they immediately have to clean their rooms (the only way I could abolish this annoying phrase), but these oversized dice with different themes, Playing Outside, Rainy Day and How Can I Help, are a great go-to when trying to figure out what to do (and adding a little fun to helping around the house. Hmmmm… wonder if I could weight the “doing dishes” side).

Have questions or comments about Selecta? Let us know!

Apartment Therapy / Ohdeedoh on February 28 in Green Ideas: Petitcollin Dolls:

The dolls are handcrafted in the Lorraine Valley of France, in the last French factory for dolls. A variety of dolls are available here (KangarooBoo.com).

Cool Mom Picks on February 17 in Longing For the Days When We Wondered What the # Button Was For:

If you’re looking for a handcrafted wooden alternative, check out the sweet version from Estia, found at parent-owned toy shop Kangarooboo. While it may not be the bright rainbow toy of your youth, this phone still has the ever important turning dial – that will make kids of today ask what the heck it is anyway.

Feature on the Estia Rotary Telephone.

Apartment Therapy / Re-Nest republish on February 8 from Ohdeedoh Environmentally Friendly Flensted Mobiles. Feature on Hedgehog Family and the Seahorse Mobile

Check out more Estia Toys, Flensted Mobiles and Petitcollin

We recently received a new shipment from HABA and have been entering the products into our system. Over the next couple of weeks we will continue to add HABA products. In the meantime, do check out the new HABA arrivals. Here are some of our personal favorites:

We love this little Pushing Car. Why? Because big brother can push little sister around and vice versa.

And because our kids love to hide things all over the place. This little pushing car has a little compartment at the back for storing things and a little pocket for hiding even more of the kids toys!

We also love this adorable caterpillar rattle, the Clutching Toy Flapsi. It makes a clacking sound and anything that makes sounds for baby is a plus since it’s baby’s most heightened senses.

Lastly, with all the blocks the kids have, it’s always nice to have a bag to store them in. We think the Bag TiTaTo can do the job pretty well.

View more new HABA arrivals

We are excited to tell you about the new brand we’ve added. Estia is a German toy company that offers exquisitely carved wooden toys.

Check out the recently added selection of toys from Estia

Our favorites: the adorable Threading Animal Squirrel, and the Waddling Dachshund pull toy.

We especially love the Threading animal because the cord is attached to the squirrel so you will never have to worry about fishing it out from under the couch.

Threading animals also comes in the form of Rabbit, Butterfly, Penguin, and Horse.

View More from Estia »