One of my favorite gifts we gave this year...

Earlier this year, I began pinning Christmas gift ideas for the kids, including several pins like this one that showed the amazing creativity people have in refurbishing old items into new ones. We had a very small plastic kitchen that the kids had been playing with for years, and they'd all outgrown it (but still liked to play kitchen). The idea of using an old entertainment center was perfect for our big family, because we could make it taller and wider for playing with more than one kid. 

We found this one at the thrift store for $14. As you can see, we'd already started working on it when I took this picture. My sweet husband cut out the hole on the top to add in our "sink," and he added a wooden door on the bottom in place of the glass one that was there, with hinges on the bottom so it would open like an oven door. 

 And this is the final product! 

These pictures were taken on Christmas Eve; I need to get some better ones with my real camera. 

Some sweet friends of ours were replacing their bathroom sink and gave us their old faucet. The girls love pretending with a "real" faucet! The sink is a melamine bowl Shaun found at the thrift store, and he caulked the edges after he put it in. The little owl utensil holder was a Target find, and we got some adorable piggy utensils for my piggy loving girl at the Farmer's Almanac store. The mini colander was $1.99 at World Market- I couldn't pass it up! 

We also got them a Melissa and Doug "Cutting Food Set"- I just saw this at Target last night, too. It has been the biggest hit! ALL the kids love to use their wooden knife and slice through the food, and the velcro gives a satisfying cutting sound. There has been lots of fruit salad and stir fry being made. Hehe

Nana got the girls aprons for themselves and their dollies- the perfect companion gift! 

Even my dude likes to go play in the kitchen, just like his dad. I'm lucky to have two fellas that like to cook! 

We love this toy because it makes room for lots of imaginative play... it's sturdy, and was very inexpensive to make! :)