Happy Birthday to Us!

It's coming up on "birthday season" around here with a plethora of birthdays in October in both families, starting off with my cutest sister-in-law Laura today, then me on the 5th, then Rich on the 9th, then Daxton on the 11th, then Darren on the 12th, and last (but certainly not least!), Dootie on the 13th! Phew! That's a lot of birthdays! So, happy birthday to everyone! We played around with the idea of coming out to Utah to celebrate, but when we heard that you guys were going to get SNOW!?!#@! this weekend, we decided to "stick it out" here in our 80 degree, sunny, paradise! So, as I sat today musing on what we might want to get for Daxton this year on his third birthday, I dediced to "poll the audience" a little bit and ask around to see if anyone has any really good suggestions for toys for kids these days? Right now, Daxton LOVES to do puzzles, and I LOVE it when he does them because he can absorb himself in one for a good 15 minutes, and I think it's a good neuron-building activity. Honestly, these little floor puzzels that I got for him have been worth their weight in gold. You know, one of those toys that he asks for nearly everyday, takes up a good deal of time, and he never gets tired of them. Does anyone else have any experiences with toys/activities like that that their kids absolutely love that are somewhat brain-stimulating and relatively inexpensive? If anyone has stumbled onto any kind of "gem" I would LOVE the tips!