On The Go Chicago

For some reason Ikea has never crossed my mind when I was decorating my children’s nursery or purchasing toys.  A friend recently told me they had easels for $15.  Hard to believe, but TRUE.  Yesterday I decided to make the trek out to Ikea in Shaumburg (1800 McConnor Parkway). From my house in Lakeview it is 22 miles, but at 10am on at Tuesday it took me less than a half hour. FYI – there is also another local Ikea in Bolingbrook.

I was pleansantly surprised by the variety of children’s products .  Click here to see all the children’s products offered.

They  had furniture, lighting, bedding, toys, and small furniture (e.g., kitchen sets, tables and chairs).  There was a wide variety of styles from cute and traditional to modern and simplistic. I picked up two easels that have dry erase boards on one side, chalk boards on the other side and an optional roll of paper.  The easel was $14.99 and the optional paper roll was $5.99.  MUCH cheaper than what I’ve seen similar products for elsewhere.

The good and the not so good…

The other things I really like about Ikea were

• the play car shopping carts (always a big hit with my two year old),
• the dining area with YUMMY Swedish meatballs, an extensive kids menu ($.99 each or three items for $2.49) and a play area in the cafeteria with toys and movies,
• the 0-3 year old ball pit/play area on the third floor, and
• the free drop off one hour day care for kids between 37 inches and 54 inches tall.

All and all the store is  VERY family friendly, but there were two design features that made it challenging to shop with two small kids by myself.

1. The cafeteria is not big enough to bring your cart in.  That meant I had to carry my “grabby” 10 month old and a tray full of food while convincing my hungry two year old to walk next to me without touching anything.  Not the easiest thing…but we managed.
2. They also don’t allow you to bring your shopping cart into the parking lot.  Like Target and Costco, I could not leave without buying all kinds of random things that I did not know I needed (wrapping paper, finger puppets, glasses, etc.).  Add these purchases to the two easels I originally planned to buy, and clearly there was no way I was making to my car with my purchases without the use of a cart.  I ended up having to abandon my cart with all of my new loot in the loading area while I retrieved my car with my two children.

I will definitely be going back when I am ready to upgrade from cribs to beds..but next time I will be bringing my husband to help!