Friday Fun

Today's fun was a bit of a surprise to me. We did it earlier in the week and the kids have played with them every day since! We're working on an expansion project for the future :)

For Easter Miss M and JB each got a new Zhu-Zhu pet to go with their previous rodent. So now we have four of these strange little toys in our house (Jilly, Nugget, Rocky and Hook--you already know how important names are in my house). I refuse to buy the whole habit trail system...we have no place to put it, it looks pretty cheap, and of course you have to buy each piece separately...so they mostly were just playing with them on the kitchen floor and carting them around in little buckets and purses.

After a visit a week or so ago to my friend Kelly's house Miss M mentioned she wanted a house for her rodents. Kelly is one of the most creative parents I know, she will create or find a way to get whatever cool thing her kids want...in a good way, not a spoiled rotten way! So there in her daughters room was a cardboard box that they had transformed into a home for the rodents. Of course it was complete with beds, hammocks and curtains...her kids are older...details are more important to them :)

So we collected two shoe boxes and on Monday we got to creating. I thought, "they will be entertained for a few minutes, maybe even the morning, then I'll throw them away and move on." But they LOVE them...I made them really simple, cut out doors the rodents can pass through and made some windows. Now that I see we've played with them soo much we're going to upgrade their accomodations a little and perhaps expand their community. All with boxes and scraps laying around the house! This idea is so simple it's ridiculous, but we forget that simple things can make BIG impressions! If you're more fortunate than I, and you don't have these little rodents in your home, make a house for polly pocket, or a vets office for the pet shop gang or really go crazy and make a dream house for those barbies!! I'm sure robots, monster trucks and matchbox cars could be accomodated too.

I remember when I was young my parents went to Florida and left me home with my sister and her family. We made a Barbie apartment out of cardboard box and made furniture with tissue boxes, dixie cups, egg cartons and fabric. I played with that apartment for years! Have some fun with your kids, let them be creative and recycle the 'stuff' laying around the house!