How I spent my Saturday afternoon

I decided several days ago that Ella needed some blocks. She loves to stack things and right now all she has is either her nesting blocks, which don't really work because one always falls into the other, or her little 1 inch blocks, that aren't big enough to make a really big tower. I decided that I wanted her to have the big cardboard kind, like they had in the church nursery when I was a kid. So I set out on a quest. Target (the best store on the planet) didn't have any, and Babies R Us didn't have any. Finally, I found the perfect ones at Toys R Us. It was the deluxe package with 45 pieces. When I picked up the box I thought to myself, "Wow, how do they fit all of those blocks in this little box." I bought the blocks along with some big bouncy balls (buy 1, get 2 free...how could I pass that deal up), and we came home.

Ella was very excited and the whole way home she kept saying "Blocks!" When we got home, we went down to the basement to open the blocks and let the playing begin...and over and over Ella kept saying "Blocks!" She was ready to play! However, when I opened the box I didn't get what I had expected.

This is the box. See how much fun the kids are having?

This is what was inside the box. What? You mean I have to FOLD them into the boxes? No way! I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to figuring things out. In fact, I'm the one who sets up all the TVs and DVD players, etc around the house because it's easy and fun for me to figure it out. So I was optimistic.

After all, these were the directions and they looked easy enough.

Meanwhile my sweet patient daughter is sitting right next to me asking for her blocks and pointing to the box where the kids are having so much fun! So I start.

The first block took me no less than 13 minutes to fold...yes, 13 minutes for 1 block...I timed it. The directions were about as clear as mud, and what they don't tell you is that if you happen to take your hand off the block before everything is in place, then the entire box comes undone and you're back at square 1.

Luckily not all of the blocks took me 13 minutes, but it was still a long time folding. At the end of 1 hour, this was my finished product.

And this was Ella.