the old toys are the best toys

Our dinner group party last weekend involved eight children, ages 2 (three of them), 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. When I called AM, the mom of two of the tots, I asked what they could get into these days. "They can reach the kitchen counter, " she replied. So, up to the five foot mark it all went. I remember those days and am glad to be past them. We're full of dangerous marbles, magnets and Lego pieces around here now. I piled it up high and went to the storage room to see what I could pull out to play with instead.

Because I used to be a preschool teacher and hope to teach again sometime, I am saving all the preschool toys that my kids outgrow. Bug gave up the baby stuff much sooner, trying to teethe on Star Wars figures and skipping rattles and favorites of Pook's. I'd bring items out occasionally, but when the Big Kid toys were an option, the Little Kid stuff got ignored. I love some of those toys and I'm happy that I might get a chance to watch children enjoy them again sometime.

For the party, I pulled out a grocery cart and lots of plastic toy foods, big zoo animals and dinosaurs, a train and road set, and lots of Duplo. Turned out that the three toddlers stayed downstairs near their parents and I could have left the playroom as it was. However, this week has been fun. Pook and Bug haven't yet reclaimed the Lego or other standbys. They've been building with what they had. And by building, I mean that the room is all one big city and there are no leftover pieces of Duplo. Every toy has been incorporated. There are two trains- the Birthday Train and the Circus Train. There is a Stray Animal Zoo, a Hotel and row of restaurants, an Indian Village with totem pole, a playground with a fancy tube slide, and much more.