My mom and her husband built this amazingly detailed wooden play kitchen when Kaylee was about 2 years old. It was her Christmas present, and WOW, what a great present! There is plenty of storage under the sink, a microwave, stove and oven. It’s really big, about 6 feet long.
For years, it was in the corner of my kitchen so the kids could “cook” while I cooked and cleaned in the kitchen. Later it was moved into one of the kids bedrooms where some crazy experiments happened and lots of contraband markers were used to write notes inside the cupboards.
When Gracie requested the kitchen moved out of her room, I thought about moving in the basement. It wouldn’t be used much down there, but I couldn’t bear the thought of getting rid of such a great toy. It’s something that my grandkids could play with, for goodness sake… But honestly, that’s at least 15 years out if I’m lucky. maybe even longer.
I decided to ask a few friends who have young kids if they were interested in a gigantic play kitchen and 5 out of 6 of them said “YES”! (So I learned my lesson that I should ask one friend at a time and wait for an answer, instead of asking everyone at the same time.) I was surprised that they all had the space for something so big-it’s really big- but it’s a great piece.
In a flash of brilliance, I decided to add a note to the back of the kitchen. It says:
Handmade by Papa Fowler in 2009 for the Trager kids.
Please pass along to other families who will enjoy cooking
or return and we will store it.
Then I added my cell phone number and my dad’s house number- the one phone number I have memorized because it has not changed since 1992. I’m betting he’ll still have that same number when his great-grandkids arrive and we will find a way to get the play kitchen back into the Trager family.
We said “goodbye” and “thank you” (after a quick paint coat to cover up all notes-they were mean notes- “You are mean”, to be exact) and passed it along to a co-worker who has a little girl. She’s two. The same age as Kaylee when Papa made it. I think she’ll get as much fun as my girls did!
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