MarloElaine

This year, Sophie is dressing up as a cute little elephant. She loves to make elephant noises while pretending her arm is her trunk. She does this any time she sees a picture of her costume, or any elephant at all. It’s so adorable!

Sammy still loves trains, so he is wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine costume from last year. Due to the numerous recalls of Thomas & Friends toys for excessive amounts of lead in the paint, we added a “RECALLED” sign to the back of his costume.

Have a safe Halloween and be sure to check out our Top 10 Halloween Safety Tips from last year!

After over four months, we finally received our Thomas & Friends replacement vehicles. We received Skarloey, Sodor Mail Car, Water Tanker, and Hook & Ladder Truck in the mail today. They look just like the ones we sent back, but seem brand new and smell like paint. I hope there is NO LEAD in the toys’ paint this time! I wouldn’t be surprised, given the fact that RC2 knew about the lead on the Toad engines that they sent out as replacement gifts, but then waited a month before recalling them. We will no longer purchase anymore Thomas & Friends toys made by RC2. They have lost our trust and loyalty.
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And we’re back to WW!

A couple of months ago, I was grocery shopping at my local Trader Joe’s. They were featuring samples of Prosciutto Pasta, which my kids absolutely loved. After they ate two mini-helpings each, I decided to buy all five ingredients listed in the recipe that they handed out. It was easy to prepare and my family gobbled up the healthy, tasty dish.

Last week, I wanted to make the Prosciutto Pasta again, but I misplaced the recipe card. I scoured the Trader Joe’s website, but could not find the recipe. I emailed Trader Joe’s, but unfortunately, they did not have a copy of the recipe because it was created by the local store. I searched my favorite recipe websites, but could not find the recipe I was looking for. I decided to search my kitchen again, and I found the tiny white scrap of paper containing the treasured recipe. I immediately typed it out and saved copies in my Palm Pilot and my email account so I would never lose it again.
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Thanks so much to all of our readers who have shared their Thomas & Friends Recall experiences with us. Unfortunately, most of them have been negative. Many people are vowing to stop purchasing RC2 products all together. Others suggest getting their Thomas fix from Ebay or Toys R Us clearance to minimize RC2 profits. Almost everyone is extremely unhappy with the way RC2 is handling the recall, especially the postage reimbursements.

Recently, we received an e-mail from the company stating that the four items that we returned due to excessive levels of lead paint will not be replaced until late October. We shipped them on June 18th! Luckily, our son seems to have forgotten about his once beloved trains. He is still a huge Thomas fan, but he loves all kinds of trains and motorized vehicles now.
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