clara's play kitchen

back during her obsession with wearing shoes....now, she HATES shoes. 

I was obsessed with looking for play kitchens for Clara.  I even blogged about it a few times.   I have no idea why I was so driven...but I was.  I was scouring Craigslist every few days for any sort of lead...not a whole lot of options in our town.  But I didn't give up.

I was picky though.  I hate that I am about such things.  But I had a wish list that I wasn't going to deviate from.

1.  It had to be made out of wood
2.  I wanted it to have a sink component, a stove component and an oven component.  (A refrigerator would have been a great storage bonus too!)
3.  It had to look nice in our home, as it was going to be a part of our dining room...we could have opted to put it in Clara's bedroom, but I wanted to watch her play with it and having it be a part of our main living space meant that we would all enjoy it so much more (we aren't a "kids toys belong in the kids bedroom" home)
4.  HAD to cost less than $100.  (this was the tricky part)

THEN after months and months of searching....I found it.  A cheerful little retro red number...with a stove, sink, oven, microwave and fridge all in one (made by Kidcraft).  It fit perfectly into the space we had set aside for it...AND it came with lots of Melissa & Doug food and wooden cooking utensils.  All for under $80 (which isn't that far off from the actual retail price...but I was happy to buy it used and save a few bucks.)  Sure we had to drive an hour each way to pick it up...in the dark....in the RAIN...but we did.  And it is perfect.

Clara plays with it everyday.  Can name alllll the foods she has (including random things like mushrooms and eggplant?).  A great addition to our little home!