As kids, going to McDonald’s was a major event. Usually it was because we did something good or because my parents just wanted to treat us. If it was a truly special occasion, they let us get Happy Meals. Oh man, that was living large.

Of course, the best part of the Happy Meal was the toy. Well, let me backtrack a moment. The best part was actually the anticipation that came with digging your hand into the red cardboard box and pulling out the prize. Those several seconds of suspense were the best: Will I get the blue Power Ranger figurine? Hopefully I get the tiger beanie baby! Whatever I get, please don’t let it be girly!

Now that I have children of my own, we don’t exactly make trips to McDonald’s sparingly. Rather, we go a lot! Hey, it is convenient, cheap, and the kids will eat it. We also aren’t stingy on Happy Meals either…it is what Sloan and Beau get every single time.

Sloan and Beau love their Happy Meals.

Because of the frequency with which we whip around the drive-thru, the Happy Meal toy experience isn’t quite the novelty for my children as it was for me. Instead of “I hope I get this toy” I am pretty sure Sloan is thinking “I hope I don’t get this toy again.” We have more duplicates around the house than I care to admit.

The curent Happy Meal toys are Teenie Beanie Boos. Sloan has several.

But what I will admit is that some of the toys they give out in this current age are a couple steps up from the stuff we got back in the day. I was especially impressed with the Hasbro board game line that was released this past year. The Twister piece was pretty rad!

Before I leave you tonight, let me share a fact I recently learned: McDonald’s is the largest distributor of toys in the world. The chain distributes 1.5 billion toys worldwide each year. Take that, Mattel.

The silver lining of our numerous McDonald’s visits is that mom and dad usually score some French fries out of the deal. Keep those golden potatoes coming our way and we will most likely continue to line the pockets of the Hamburglar. Don’t Blink.