Sale Spotlight: Melissa & Doug

Toy experts hard at work.

As first-time parents and doting aunts, uncles and grandparents everywhere can tell you, kids can never have enough toys. But in a sea of flimsy plastic playthings, we’re partial to smart, simple ones that leave lots of room for children’s active imaginations.

We think that award-winning toy company Melissa & Doug has a pretty great selection—that’s why we’re selling lots of their toys here and here—but you don’t have to take our word for it. Having fun is serious business, so we called in some ~~top toy executives~~ really cute kids for a ~~thorough and careful analysis~~ ~~of the company’s offerings~~ fun Fab playdate.

Grillmaster Rowan makes a darn good shrimp kebob.

Future excavator operator Rowan, age 2.5, senses he’ll be working up quite an appetite doing all that digging—he made a beeline for the Grill Set and got busy with the skewers. (Although later we caught him using them as drumsticks, so he may have a career in music ahead of him!)

A studious Alva, deep in thought. Deep Swedish thought.

Full-time artist, part-time interior decorator (she’s worked on the Fab offices), and art teacher to-be Alva, age 5, is a girl’s girl: she loved the Tiered Special Occasion Cake. But she is an academic, after all, and couldn’t resist the Alphabet Train Floor Puzzle. As soon as the Z was in place, it was, “I wanna do it again!” Her sweet rendition of the alphabet song and bonus Swedish lessons were quite charming as well.

We’ll take all of those slices, Noah. Thanks.

Noah is also 5, and when he’s not busy training to be an astronaut, he’s training for kindergarten. And like any self-respecting New Yorker, he likes pizza. A lot. He sliced and served up lots of slices from the Pizza Party to his fellow toy testers but kept a close eye on the goods, saying, “I want to make sure there is enough for everyone!” Take that spirit of philanthropy forth to Mars and beyond, young man!

“Whose birthday is it, Naomi?” “Mine,” she mouthed silently.

Naomi, age 3, is big on sharing, too. And like Alva, she loved the Tiered Special Occasion Cake, promptly declaring, “I want to give some to people that don’t have food. Or cake.” We know. So sweet, right? There was some fine print we missed, though, because a little later on Naomi clarified her stance, saying, “Only the kids get to eat the cake.” Oh, Naomi. You think only kids like cake? Wait until you’re a grownup. You have no idea how much more you’ll love cake then!

Speaking of cake, we’ll be right back. We’ll leave you with our toy testing soundtrack, i.e. a roundup of our panel’s favorite songs:

“Walking On Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves (Alva)

“Bend Down Low” by Bob Marley (Naomi)

“The Wheels On The Bus” by everyone (Rowan)

Anything by Alvin and The Chipmunks (Noah)