Color and Play Station

It's no secret how cheap we are.  We like to "buy used and save the difference"....can you guess who's motto that is?  Hint: it's a certain tv show family on TLC.  :)

About a year ago while walking through the furniture aisle at Goodwill (probably one of my favorite stores.  wish they sold gift cards there.) I came upon a perfect condition/perfect height/perfect priced table that would be a perfect play table for Boston.  So I handed over my 7 bucks and hauled it off.  Since then it's been sitting in our playroom upstairs occasionally being used.  I don't think Boston really knew what it could be used for.  

Until now.  

We had an open little spot downstairs (where most of the action happens) that was a perfect place for a little table like this one. 

The idea for this table is to be used to color, learn to write numbers and letters, read and to play with his cars on and do whatever else toddler goys do.

We brought it downstairs and parked it up against the wall right next to his round basket (another Goodwill find for $5 that has been our living rooms saving grace) full of toys in the living room.  

The basket underneath it was also upstairs rarely being used.  So I stuffed it full of books and coloring books.  In order to make it partly a "coloring station" we needed colors.  

I searched my bins full of stuff and found these black chalkboard painted bowls that I got last year at Goodwill for $.25 each that I used as centerpieces at Boston's first birthday party last year.  They weren't being used and they were plastic so they were safe for a toddler to handle on a daily basis.  They had some styrofoam in them.  In one of the buckets, I left the styrofoam in it so that it wouldn't be so deep to fit crayons in.  The other one, I took the styrofoam out and put his colored pencils in.

After filling the buckets full of crayons and colored pencils he needed something to sit on.  So I turned to our thrift store rocking chair sitting across the room waiting to be used.  It was a little short but it worked.

It was then ready for Boston to wake up in the morning and to see his new "coloring/play station" right next to his toys for easy access.  Wouldn't want the guy to exert any more energy than he has to.


Colored pencils, regular crayons and jumbo crayons.


The verdict: he loved it.  The look on his face was pure excitement and curious-ness.  A little chair and a little table with lots of coloring things just for him in his size.  In no time, he got right to picking out his choice in color and started coloring.



He was overwhelmed with the amount of colors to choose from.  Not!

I think momma did him good!

But that's not all.  Momma wasn't satisfied with just crayons and colored pencils.  I went and got some cool looking colored pencils and some.......markers!  Yeah, not Jer's preference, he wasn't very fond of the idea but I swore on my life and everything and everyone around me that I would watch him like a hawk and make sure he doesn't graffiti our walls and anything else he thinks needs a little color added to it even though they are washable.

 

Ohh and you see something else different?  Bingo!  The chair.  We did an ol' switcharoo.  We changed it out for the chair that I re-did last year.  Its an even better fit for this table.

So many color choices.  It's hard being a toddler around here.

We had to close daddy's eyes when he hit up the markers for the first time.  Daddy couldn't watch the destruction that was about to happen.

Thankfully, he only got it on his hand and the coloring book.

The hand that he held out the whole time he colored with his marker because there was some blue stuff on it.  Until mommy cleaned it up.  I think we have a clean freak on our hands.

Judging by the tons of activity this little area has gotten lately, its been a great little addition to the living room.  Now he can sit and color while I do all my motherly chores in the kitchen, all the while keeping my eye on him.