"X" Marks the Spot

Little Guy currently loves pirates. He has a little pirate hat, and routinely walks around the house shouting things like, “Argh!” and “Ahoy Mateys!”



We found the hat at Target for $2

Because he loves pirates so much right now, and because he’s been a pretty good boy lately, I surprised him early this week with a fun (and very inexpensive) activity. 

When he got home from school he went into his room to change into play clothes.  He noticed right away that his pirate hat was sitting on his bed.  Under it was a little treasure map that I had made earlier in the day. 

He knew what it was instantly and excitedly started to study it.  He quickly headed down the hall and through the living room.  His Dad stopped him and asked where he was going?  Little Guy showed him the map and said, “See. There’s the couch, so we’re right here.” After showing his Dad where he was on the map (and he was exactly right), he kept on going - stopping only long enough to put on sandals.  Hee continued on through the house (following the map) until we got outside and to his sandbox.  He lifted the lid and there was a paper “X” laying on top of the sand.  He dug under it with his little shovel until he came up with a small plastic container which we had filled with pennies. 

Little Guy studying his map

"X" marks the spot

He loved finding his“treasure”, and was very excited to add the pennies to the baby-bottle bank that he’d gotten at church.  We’re supposed to fill it up and take it back in a few weeks.  The money goes to help unwed mothers and their babies.  I loved watching him have so much fun, and was very excited that his first thought was charity and not buying candy or some other frivolous thing. 

He’s far from perfect (who is?) but he’s a pretty wonderful little pirate if I do say so myself.

Winter Fun

Little Guy has been a good sport all Winter long.  We've not had very many opportunities to play in the snow (though it is one of his favorite pasttimes).  It seemed that either we had no snow, or it was too bitter cold when snow was available.  On Saturday, we had a perfect snow-play day.  The temp was cold, but not awful and there was enough snow left to make a three year old happy. We bundled up and had a wonderful time enjoying some Winter play.

The bad news?  Last night he woke up with a sneezy, snotty head cold (the first of the season).  Oh well.  I'm pretty sure he'd say it was worth it. 

Cardboard Play House

Over a year ago, we acquired a large cardboard box that had previously held a dishwasher.  We had cut a window in it and Little Guy had a lot of fun playing inside it for a while.  After a few weeks, his interest waned and the box went into our basement storage.  Last week he said he wished he had a house of his own.  I brought up the box and he was very excited about it.


The 1800 matches our own house number, and
the red mailbox is very similar to ours as well.



Although the plain box had been fun, I had a feeling we could do better.  So, I cut out a second window.  Then I covered most of the dishwasher wording with brown construction paper (except the "roof" which I covered with black paper). 

As soon as Little Guy saw the improvements he said that we needed a chimney - haha!  So, we took a small-ish box, and covered it with pink paper.  I drew on "bricks" and LG and I glued on a big stack of cotton balls for smoke.

By now, I was really having fun (maybe more than Little Guy was even).  I added a big tree (complete with perching blue bird), shutters, a fire hydrant and a mail box that looks quite similar to the one on our actual house.  We also added flowers all the way around.



Little Guy did complain a little bit that the shutters don't actually work, so there may be one more project in our future!  :)

Little Guy loves getting mail, and having us 'visit' him at his house.  He now has a pretend door bell and has wedged in some of his play furniture.  I helped him make a 'home sweet home' sign and we hung it (as well as another picture he'd drawn) inside.   

This has been a very fun project, and since we had all the supplies on hand - a totally free one as well! 

The cardboard play house is great, and I think we're done with 'improvements'...for now anyway.