Kitchen assembly...done!

I had decided months ago that Lauren's big gift for her first Christmas would be a kitchen. We had some ideas in mind...we knew we wanted wood, we wanted it to spark her creativity without a lot of bells and whistles, and we wanted it to be super fun and played with a lot. On top of that, we wanted it to look good so it could have a place in our family room/kitchen area without sticking out like a sore thumb.

After toy store shopping and LOTS of internet shopping, I ordered the Little Tikes Deluxe Wooden Kitchen and Laundry Center. Joe put it together yesterday and I LOVE it! It's totally solid and the colors fit perfectly in our house. It looks SO much better than most of the plastic kitchens we looked at.

Joe said the assembly went very smoothly, although it did take about 3.5 hours to put together. There were no missing parts and no damaged pieces. We unpacked it together and I put all the parts in alphabetical order so he could easily find the pieces as he needed them. My mom and I took Lauren out to a few stores and by the time we got back he was done.



The laundry center is adorable with the little washer, iron and laundry basket...


On most wooden kitchens the oven door hinges open on the side, but on this one it's hinged on the bottom to open like a real oven. The image on the oven door is cute. From one angle, the muffins just went in...


and from another angle, they are popped up and ready...


There's even a little cell phone and chalk board message center...


Okay, did I say that I LOVE this kitchen? Oh yeah, I did! I'm SO excited to see her face on Christmas morning when she sees this sitting next to the tree. Have I told you how many years I've dreamed of this...our first Christmas with our daughter? Let's just say LOTS of years and I'm going to enjoy every moment!