Tim and I are not huge gift givers. We didn’t get Calvin a Christmas present, and were thinking that we wouldn’t get him a birthday present either because really, how does a one year old know what a gift is and miss it if he doesn’t get one? Money saved!

But I was at our local Goodwill thrift store and came across a bunch of bags and boxes of Mega Blocks and thought that would be a great toy for Calvin. So for $11, a grabbed a large box and a medium sized bag and took them home.

Of course I had to clean them, and originally thought I would just throw them in the dishwasher, but I didn’t have any mesh bags to keep them contained. So after a quick Google search, I discovered that the washing machine works just as well! So I divided up the pieces into four pillow cases, and then into the washer they went, on a hot cycle.

When it was completed, I just laid the pieces all out on some towels to air dry.

I didn’t have a basket big enough to fit all of the roughly 160 pieces, so I picked out the best ones, and now they are ready for play!

And that is how gifts work in the Sevenhuysen house. What might be a random, everyday toy purchase by one family is a gift in ours.

Oh, and his birthday isn’t for another two weeks, but I’m sure he doesn’t care that he is getting it now and not later. I don’t want to have to keep them somewhere else just to “surprise” him on his actual birthday. I’ll save the surprising for when he actually knows what a birthday is.