Toys

I have an entire playroom full of toys.  All kinds of toys.  I can’t take a step without tripping over some kind of play thing. 

My kids play with their toys every day.  However, they would be just as happy playing with a cardboard box.

I know this because one of the “toys” in my playroom is…a cardboard box.

They fill it up with different things and pretend to deliver packages to each other.  They use it as a drum set.  They throw it at each other when they get mad…

You can’t buy that kind of fun.

I’ve spent a lot of money on toy versions of actual items. 

Like vacuums. 

We have three toy vacuums in this house yet I routinely find them playing with the real thing.  Especially the attachments.  They use them as hockey sticks all the time.  They also use them as horns…in related news my kids will never be sick because they’ve built up quite the immune system this way!

They have an entire kitchen full of play food, utensils, pots and pans.  And I have an entire drawer full of missing silverware because they’d rather use the real thing. 

One day I walked into the play room to find them playing nicely together and I thought “Wow, that’s great!”  Until I realized they were playing nicely together with…a pizza cutter. 

But don’t worry.  They were slicing up fake asparagus with it.  So not only were they handling sharp objects they were also ruining their toys.  Which was just awesome all around.

I don’t know what their obsession with knives is about but they have one.  Carter once told me “I can’t wait to be big so I can use knives.”  His therapist is going to be busy, busy, busy!

Since my children are active boys they love to play outside.  We own several slides, ride on toys, balls, bats etc. etc.

Know what they play with when they go outside?  Sticks.

Know how much sticks cost? Know how much a climbing structure costs?  I’ve never claimed to be good at math but I think I got this one in the bag.

The other thing they play with outside is puddles.  One day they spent literally an hour running back and forth between two puddles.  The tricky thing about this is you can’t dictate when or where puddles will form. 

For example, these puddles happened to be pretty much in the middle of the road.  But I was at BBQ with a drink in my hand and didn’t really set my puddle placement standards too high.  Please send your nominations for Mother of the Year to….

On our recent vacation to the lake the boys discovered how awesome acorns are.  There was one in particular that they thought was the king of all acorns.  They would throw it in the water then swim to get it. 

This lasted for a while until it occurred to them that THEY ONLY HAD ONE ACORN!  Then a battle of epic proportions began.  Each child claiming that HE was in fact the rightful owner of that particular acorn.

Um…boys?  Were’ in New Hampshire.  In the woods.  Now, I’m not positive, but I THINK that if I really put my mind to it I can find another one.  In fact, I’m pretty sure the state flower of New Hampshire is the acorn. 

So you’re telling me I could have substituted a bag of acorns and a puddle for all of the water gadgets I bought to bring on vacation with us?

Note to self: WTF!

I’m never buying another toy as long as I live.

But if you want to send my kids a cardboard box full of sticks you'd pretty much be a God in their eyes.