Think about it Thursday...toys

It's toy season...that's for sure.Chris and I had a sitter the other night and decided to hit Toys R' Us (or TRU as we call it).  As we strolled the aisles, we were looking for ideas. We'd already picked a special gift for Chelsea and few small things for each of them, but most of the presents were still undetermined.  So what should we pick?   Do we need more puzzles...nope.  Should we get more train stuff...definitely not all our pieces don't even fit on our table.  How about some games...already have some we don't even play yet.  I got it, more cars....we have a museum worthy collection of small and big trucks.    Ug so what do we get? 

This topic has me thinking all week, thus the post.  My kids have so much.  They hardly even appreciate the range of stuff that is at their fingertips to play with.  Our house looks a bit like a toy store in many of the rooms.  On a daily basis I sigh as I enter a doorway to the family room or their play room.  Those rooms, in addition to their bedrooms, frequently have tiny toys scattered on the floor.  When they play, they can't find pieces to  toys because they have burrowed it away under pillows, in the wrong box or in their closets.  To top it all off over the past few weeks Chelsea has been saying she wants Santa to bring her things she already has.

Where have I gone wrong?  So I'm thinking instead of more gifts we hardly use, I could give them a better gift.  I'd like to give them the gift of appreciating all the things we have.  How on earth do I do that?

Some ideas...1. Clear out and donate all baby toys or things we hardly use. 2. Label  their toy bins so they know where to put their toys. 3. Put away about half the toys so we can pull them out every few weeks or months.4. Talk about how lucky we are more. 5. Play with them more and model how to play nicely and put things back.

Anyone else have ideas????