Katie Anne "The Tool Girl" Jones

At the end of last school year, I got Katie Anne a Little Tykes Work- bench from someone at the Primary School. She was selling the workbench because her father-in-law had given it to her five-year-old son, and he was not interested/too old for it. However, they kept it for a year in their garage so as not to hurt the father-in-law's feelings, and now they wanted to sell it. So, it was dusty, but it had never really been played with or never been outside. I thought this would be a great addition to the new playroom for her, so I just brought all the pieces home and put it in my garage, thinking I would put it together when the playroom got done.

Well, now the playroom project is on hold for a few months, and I thought I probably should go ahead and put that workbench together so Katie Anne can get some enjoyment out of it. I'd never really looked at all the pieces, but as I started cleaning it up and running tools through the dishwasher, I thought... "Man, this thing is NICE!" It looks totally brand new, still has every part/tool/nail, and even has the additional "power tools" that have to be purchased separately. I thought I'd look it up on the internet, and (although they don't make this exact color/style of workbench anymore) a comparable workbench is $99 plus all the power tools! So it is probably a $150 value! Guess how much I paid for the whole thing? TWENTY DOLLARS!!! Insane, right? And the crazier thing is that someone was selling this exact same workbench at school the other day for $40, and it was missing most of the tools and had been stored outside. (Seeing that one for sale is actually what made me think of putting KA's together.) So, I got a total steal on this thing! I have literally been so excited about it all week. I love a great bargain!

I couldn't wait for Katie Anne to wake up from her nap and play with it. I told her when I was changing her diaper that I had a surprise for her, so now she calls the workbench her "prize". As soon as she walked in the living room and saw it, she was so excited! She loves it, and has "fixed" all kinds of things in our house with her little hammer, saw, and screwdrivers. She will even fix your body parts, such as legs or teeth, if you need her to do that. It is so neat because even though all the little "power tools" don't have batteries, they still have moving parts and make neat little sounds when you use them, so she really thinks she's doing something. Here are some pictures of her enjoying my awesome deal of a workbench!

Get your goggles on before you begin a project.

Safety first, folks... safety first.

Now she's ready to hammer that bird house.
She checks out the saw.
Look at that concentration!

Is this thing level?

Could Katie Anne be the next surgeon at Georgia Orthopedic Specialists? She did a great job fixing my knee.

Well, maybe she'll be a dentist instead! She loves to drill people's teeth!
Should I use the staple gun or my trusty saw?

I love my new workbench!

**The sad thing was that, last year as I'm buying this workbench in the parking lot after work, several people who were walking to their cars said things like, "Didn't you have a girl?" and "Oh, I didn't know you had a son." Someone even asked me, "How old is your boy?" and when I answered that I had a girl, she said, "Well, that's a weird gift for a little girl." Um, no, people! Do not pigeonhole your precious daughters! Let them have tools! Teach them to be handy and proud of it! (Okay... jumping off the soapbox now.)