drums

I feel overwhelmed by the variety of things you can buy for kids. What is best? What would they really like? What will be interesting for longer than 1 hour the day it is given, discarded and never looked at again? Should it be educational (counting, reading, rationalising), even in the vaguest sense? Should it just be so much fun that you want to do it over and over again (thinking slip 'n slide all summer long)? Should it encourage creativity? If it makes noise am I going to resort to breaking it on the sly as it drives me increasingly over the edge?

The boys are fast approaching 3 with their birthday in August, and while they do have some requests (Buzz Lightyear and Woody for H, and a new helicopter, yellow car so far for O), and I have some ideas (puzzles, books etc..), I keep seeing things that thrown me and I think 'oh yeah, that would be great too', and I realise there is just so much out there, what on earth should I be choosing? 

Most recently we were at a friends place, well, really a friend of a friends place, a house with a garden in the outskirts of Paris. It was the most wonderful day, probably just because she had a garden growing wild strawberries along with a heavily burdened cherry tree requiring much relief, and the icing for the 3 year olds, tortoises in the garden! Not only this, but the house was at the edge of a forest, where we all took a long walk in the rain, splashed in a few puddles, and explored the lifecycle of the frog when we came across a pond with tadpoles. At this point there was no need for any toys, and I wondered if a house and garden might be the best birthday present for all of us. Driven inside by the rain and the need for food however, we soon discovered the real highlight of the day - a toy drum set. The boys LOVED it, it makes different loud sounds, and most definitely requires excited banging, one of our most recent favourite past-times. Should I be considering this? I might check out ebay and see what I can come across, as long as it is cheap, as I do worry that this could totally fall into the category of 'destroyed by mother driven way way over the edge by constant racket'.