And other fancy stuff!

There are times that I wonder why I have ever spent money on toys and games. We have lots of them. This is inevitable after almost 16 years of having children. I edit them often and try to get rid of the broken toys and games with missing pieces but we still have quite a few of them. Still I find that my kids don't actually play with them very often. Then along comes a day like today, snow falling all day, nowhere to go and no way to get there, a day just made for gathering together around a gameboard or a puzzle. I have visions of children laughing together over a game of Sorry, or sinking a siblings battleship, or working together to assemble a 1000 piece puzzle. The possibilities are endless, the games are sitting there just waiting to be played. Does this happen? Not at my house.

Todays preferred activity started with the 2 year old. I had made a trip to Costco this past week and picked up a pack of a dozen rolls of paper towels. They had never made it into the cupboard and were just sitting next to the kitchen. Geral pulled them out of the package and made a tower of three rolls of paper towels. She was quite proud of her accomplishment and showed it off to everyone. Then came the really fun part. She got to knock it down. The next time she wanted to stack them, she had help. More rolls of paper towels came out of the package. The tower went higher, the crash was more dramatic. More kids got in on the action. Soon, pyramids were being stacked, ideas were brewing and goodness knows 12 rolls of paper towels didn't go around.

Attempting to avoid contention, I suggested that someone might want to run upstairs and get the Costco-sized package of toilet paper to add to the fun. Still not enough rolls, well I knew where there was another package hiding. Larger pyramids, greater crashes, more giggling and laughing. Then they built the wall. All the way across the family room. Girls on one side and boys on the other. It was a veritable fort of toilet paper. Who needs snow. They had a fort, they had sides and a roll of toilet paper throws as well as a snowball.

Okay, I had to draw the line at the toilet paper roll fight. It was starting to seem too much like an actual fight and the noise level was getting more than I could tolerate. Still, the games with the rolls continued all day long. Sure, they tried a few other activities but they kept coming back to building castles and pyramids with toilet paper.

At least until the power came back on.