Fort Awesomeness

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i just saw this photo on lmnop and bought the kit right away for a birthday present for Bryson. to be honest...it will be for all of them...and if it is as big a hit as i believe it will be...there may be more that need to be purchased as presents. after Christmas this last year we quickly realized how "toys" in our house had become so divisive. not just divisive, but a constant, constant source of chaos and hurt and arguments.

with the age differences between our bigger boys (bryson 5 and bodie 2) - bryson was not good about picking up his toys and storing them. bodie was not able to understand "mine" and "yours" (nor to mention age appropriate toys) and also bryson was not the best at sharing. we worked with them every day for hours and hours on sharing and picking up and taking turns. it felt like a constant constant ugly battle with very little headway.

i came to my own conclusion that in overwhelming them with these "toys" we kind of created these monsters. so we basically got rid of the problem. we got rid of every toy that made noise. we got rid of every tiny toy. we got rid of any toy that wasnt truly loved. i am talking about 3 garbage bags full. we boxed up "sets" of all the cars...all the building toys...all the trains...and stored them away. to be taken out on special occasions where they might stand a chance of getting played with because they werent in sight all the time. i also got rid of every stuffed animal that lacked any sentimental value.

what i left was toys that still could foster imagination. toys that didnt flash or make cool noises. and i also made sure there were enough duplicates of the cooler things so that it didnt become ugly.

seriously...this was one of the best things we did for our boys. they have totally changed the way they play. they are more focused and not so distracted since there really arent a lot of toys to be distracted by. they play outside more - on their bikes and scooters and that is what i prefer anyway!

it is what has worked for me and my family and last night when my husband and i were watching a show that takes place in the 20s there was a scene of a group of kids literally kicking a can around and bryan and i laughed and were like, "look - those are our kids - here is a can - lets kick it!" because our kids totally play with trash recyclables more than anything.

so back to this kit...sorry - didnt mean to tangential like that! - is that to build forts inside (which is our favorite rainy day thing to do) bryson makes an absolute mess of everything - brings chairs from everywhere and takes out a billion blankets and then clean up is inevitable and usually ends up being me...so i think this is a perfect solution to let their little imaginations go crazy. bryson especially is way into building and legos are great, but small and i have an almost one year old that would love to eat legos, and plus that whole picking up toys after himself thing has not gotten much better....so this would also be a family friendly solution!

the website is here for more info!