Even though Mark and I didn’t buy much for Christmas, we still ended up with oodles amounts of toys from our other family members.  In fact, we couldn’t even fit everything in our car on the way home. That is how much we received, and further reason why I knew we shouldn’t buy much “stuff” for Savannah ourselves.

Of course, out of the huge mound of toys there are a few that stand out above the rest and that get played with more often. Anything to do with coloring is one example, the girl LOVES to color. A little too much, as our tables have crayon markings too. Oops.  But one gift (from one of her many Grandmas) that both Savannah and I love is this cookie set by Melissa and Doug.

She loves to help us cook, but if we made cookies as many times as she asks to, we’d all be fat and have cookies coming out our windows. So, this little set was the perfect solution to that issue and it’s just so darn cute! And safe! No eggs, real knifes, or ovens involved so she can cook whenever she wishes. And toy safety wise, it says it’s meant for 3 and up but there are no small parts and Savannah does just fine. Melissa and Doug also assure that they’re products have been tested frequently for safety and lead levels, good to know.

The cookies come velcroed on the wooden baking pan (every thing is wood except the cookie tube and the pot holder). You can take them and the velcroed icing off, stick just the “cookies” together and it looks like a stick of cookie dough like the slice and bake cookies we lazy cooks use.  Savannah’s favorite part is “cutting”  the cookies (which just breaks the velcro between them) and putting them on the pan.  We then decorate them with the icing and hand them out to family members (and some times to cookie monster, we know how he loves those cookies).

I love that it takes pretend food to the next level, not just to feel more “real” but also helps me to teach her things like colors and counting. She loves pointing out the colors of the sprinkles! This is the first Melissa and Doug item we’ve owned and I definitely look forward to getting more in the future (perhaps once we weed through all our other “stuff” first).