Dear John (Deere): For Your Budding Little Landscape Architect! ⋆ The Mint Chip Mama

@Tomy_Toy

I have the quintessential little boy. Trucks, trains, fire trucks, police cars, construction “vehicles”, tractors, boats, wheels, dirt. All rolled into a smiling three and a half year old.

Last year, on a day when we had nothing scheduled, I brought him to a John Deere store to simply look around. He was in heaven. He even insisted on bringing home one of their product catalogs so I could read it to him at night as his bedtime story.

So you can imagine how quickly I said yes when we were offered to review their new Lawn & Garden Set (complete with a retractable cord trimmer, trowel and mini hand rake) made by TOMY.

As expected, I couldn’t get it out of the box before it was grabbed out of my hands. The perfect size for a three year old, he immediately got to work getting the weeds out of my living room carpet.

As we moved the party outside, he went to town. Having watched our gardener trim the lawn earlier in the day, he knew just what to do.

With it’s easy to pull cord, he got the popping beads to make a great, authentic noise so he could trim to his heart’s desire.

Lightweight and easy to hold even for the littlest gardener, he maneuvered around with ease feeling like a big boy.

We’re a big gardening family so he was also excited to have his own hand rake to use and wanted to get to work right away.

But by far, his favorite thing was pretending to be the “park man”. Any park we go to he is mesmerized by the cart filled with gardening tools. He likes to just stand there, look at it, point and name them. Sometimes the nice workers will let him sit in the cart and pretend he is driving it.

Now he can be his own park man. If I could say this went on for hours it would not be an understatement. As you can see from his new outfit, days even!

If you have a little one who also loves to garden, or is equally enthralled by the “park man” you should definitely check out the John Deere Lawn & Garden Set by Tomy.

Published by Stacey Wallenstein

Stacey Gish Wallenstein created The Mint Chip Mama blog in 2013 to share her love and passion for giving children meaningful life experiences and helping moms like her navigate the challenges and benefits of raising children in the New York metropolitan area. Before becoming a full-time mom in 2010, Stacey spent the better part of the preceding decade as a high-end customer relationship management (CRM) professional for some of the most well-known brands in the hotel, luxury, fashion, and beauty industries, such as Harrah’s Entertainment, Chanel and Christian Dior, Inc. She managed customer loyalty programs for thousands of clients around the country and created social media strategies for a span of industries including healthcare services, restaurants, consumer packaged goods, specialty foods, local attractions and retail locations. After 13 wonderful years in Manhattan (the last three of which spent as a city mom), Stacey and her husband moved to Long Island in 2014, where they now reside with their three children (12, 9, and 6). There, she is a founding member of her local Parenting Center, which provides classes and coordinates events designed to educate and inform parents while fostering an environment of support and friendship within the community. Stacey is also an active PTA member ((including a former & current PTA president) as well as a Girl Scout troop leader. Her musings on motherhood, Manhattan, the suburbs, and more can be found here and on Facebook at The Mint Chip Mama. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Stacey has been active in the New York area alumni organization for nearly twenty years, serving as a board member on the school’s University of Michigan Alumni Club of New York City. She also holds a Masters in Psychology from The New School in New York City. Please check out The Mint Chip Mama in the Press: The New York Post, Psychology Today, NY Metro Parents, New York Family, Parents Magazine, Newsday, News 12, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt: Kids, NerdWallet, Big Apple Kids Guide, and more! The Mint Chip Mama was also nominated as "The Best Blog On Long Island" for 2022 & 2023, one of the Top 20 New York Mom Blogs & Websites, and one of the Top 100 Mom Lifestyle Blogs on the web! For more updates, follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Pinterest. View more posts