Vintage Fisher Price Little People

When I was about the same age as the Captain, my family lived in Indonesia, where my father was working in the Embassy. While we were living there, my parents picked up, (from an American family returning home), a whole bunch of Fisher Price Little People toys. I have the fondest memories of playing with these toys, I especially adored the campervan and was fascinated by the tiny toilet, the beds above the cab and even the little boat. The toys came back to Australia with us and then travelled on to India where we had our next posting. They are still there now presumably. My parents gave them to the children of our servants, I often imagine that their children are playing with them now!



As you can see I have endeavoured to recreate my own childhood for the boys! I have collected, over the last few years, various different vintage play sets. Finding them in all sorts of places, op shops, Church fetes, garage sales and of course, Ebay.


The details in the toys are fantastic. No batteries, yet with handles and levers you can move the baggage carousel or turn the helicopter's propellers.


A fireman going on a camping trip with some mates (and other children of the 1970s... do you remember Lucky the dog? There he is peering out the back of the campervan.)

The baby is filling up the plane with some avgas!

It is extraordinary how many people have catastrophic accidents and serious illnesses in Little People world. Luckily, there is an ambulance, an operating theatre, an X-Ray machine and a lift to move the invalids upstairs to recovery whilst strapped securely in a stretcher.

The baby operating the off shore cargo base.

Hours of play!

So far this morning....

I have a horrid head cold at the moment so keeping up with my two whirlwinds of destruction and mayhem has been challenging. Thus OPERATION EXHAUSTION began: Baby was set to work picking up all the fallen camelia flowers (flafla's as he calls them):



Captain was sent on a superhero mission (instructed to jump as high as the sky):

A quick wardrobe change allowed for some home maintenance (cleaning up toys):

Followed by repairs to the volcano (our current Make and Do project, will blog about it shortly):

A quick swim before lunch:

OPERATION EXHAUSION a success: baby asleep, Captain watching a documentary about volcanos, Project Manager about to have a lie down. Hurrah! Please let this afternoon be as straight forward!

Baby upgraded to Team Pirate for future Tours

The little one is no longer happy to ride around on this...

It was left abandoned by the side of the bike track and replaced with a newer, swifter model. (Undoubtedly, the best toy that we have ever bought). Nevermind that he had to tippy-toe his way around the track as his legs barely touched the ground and that he frequently over balanced in his attempts to keep up with his brother. Lucky daddy got to follow him around attempting to prevent a peloton pile up...


I guess I should hardly be suprised. The Captain went from the wood bike to a pedal bike with hardly a hiccup (well, training wheels for about 2 weeks, just after he turned 3) and now is a force to contend with on this bike! Looks like Ross can start grooming them both for the Tour now!

School Holidays

The boys have had a fabulous time...

The holidays started over Easter which we celebrated with their first "Egg hunt" in the garden. They literally raced around in their pyjamas shrieking...



We explored galleries...


To inspire us in the future...

and created elaborate duplo constructions (this one was called "Emergency Cool!")...

Wheely bugs! Fortunately we have a suprisingly hardy floating floor...

We visited the zoo and found out that Meerkats like the smell of rye cruskits, there were a dozen meerkats salivating on the other side of that wall...

Explored some marvellous playgrounds...



Made a necklace for Grandma's birthday (you can see it blowing in the wind), she wore it proudly while we ate lunch (at a rather smart cafe!)...

Rode our bikes...

and started potty training this one... (his idea not ours!)

All is well at pirate HQ!

The boys and their favorite toys; Thomas the Tank Engine.

I thought a lot about toys and what I wanted to spend money on. My priorities were not so much about education (which seems to be the marketing byword for toys these days) but to keep plastic to a minimum, buy second-hand or vintage where possible, stick to quality, well-made and well-crafted toys and toys that were open ended (blocks, lego, paints, boxes, playdough). Mostly, I think our toy choices have been successful and our wooden Thomas would be one of the most beloved, both by us and the boys.

The Captain can spend up to two hours engineering complicated routes and elaborate disasters for his trains to cope with, including landslides of dirt as you can see above (I went inside to get a cup of tea...), sometimes he even has the tracks running from room to room.

It is hard to decide what he loves more, the hours spent setting it all up, the playing, (I really should say crashing) or the time he sometimes spends simply admiring?