Top Ten Toys

While on vacation, Dan and I commented to one another that bringing the boys cardboard guitars was one of the smartest last minute decisions we ever made. They played with them everyday, multiple times a day. Because of that, I started wondering what our boys favorite toys were. Dan and I compiled a list of the boys top ten toys. (a side note: these are what the boys use during the summer months. They may change during the long winter months. But for our memories, this is what the boys love right now!)

1. Loveys: Joel's giraffe and Micah's newest addition, Muk Muk (an Olympic mascot thrown to him during this years Canada day parade). Don't leave home without them!

2. Lawn Mower: best side of the road find EVER! If it actually worked like a real lawn mower, this entire neighbourhood would have the best mowed lawns around. It was the first toy Joel grabbed when we returned from our two week vacation.

3. Diggers: this past Christmas, we bought the boys a few diggers. We brought them with us to Oregon, and they boys love them. They play with them often, especially the large ones outside, which were gifted to us by my brother and sister in law last summer. Those boys love scooping dirt, pouring it out, and playing construction site.

4. Rocks, Sticks, Dirt, Berries and the Forest: we actually had to ask ourselves, do these even count as toys? The boys LOVE playing outside in the forest. They forage for berries, throw rocks, use sticks as drumsticks (or blue herons) and dig in the dirt. Quite often, we find them doing this more than playing with actual toys. We love the backyard and the park. They just love playing outside!

5. Cardboard Guitars: Best three hours spent on DIY in recent history. These guitars have lasted surprisingly almost 9 months and are played with every day. The boys are constantly singing, like Jacob Moon. They place blocks or Duplo on the floor to use as their looping machine, just like Jacob Moon. Recently they have added a maraca and drumming to their repertoire. Darnell and Christina left a cement mixer truck with a removable "bucket." The boys dump the Legos from the bucket and use it as a drum. Our poor neighbours must wonder about these boys. They sing ALL THE TIME. But never a real song....just dah da daaaaaaaaahhh!

6. Piano: See above. Our budding musicians play it all the time. Sometimes they just bang on it. sometimes they use the piano to play songs (it comes with pre-recorded songs). But they sing, and play instruments all day long. (in fact, instead of napping, Joel is drumming in his room right now!)

7. Train Tracks: Okay, its not always the train tracks that they play with. But they like to play "ding, dingers." You know, the wooden arms that come down across the track when a train is approaching. Yep, that's what they play. So sometimes, they play with an actual track and use the car ramp (with the little elevator that goes up and down) as the "ding dinger." Two days ago, they were playing ding dingers with two brooms on the deck pretending that their bicycles were the train.

8. Books: these boys love to read. Books are all over our house. If you come over to our house, do not be surprised to find a boy crawling into your lap asking you to read him a story. Good thing we have LOTS of books and rotate them regularly. Dan and I got so tired of reading the same books over and over, that we started a rotation for our sanity. It works wonders. Now, instead of wanting to throw books away, we simply rotate them and get a good break from that particular story.

(okay, can I stop at a top eight? I'm having a hard time coming up with ten!)

9. Hopper: the little ball that the boys jump on all over the house. They love this thing. I'm pretty sure the downstairs tenants do not.  Oh well. They haven't complained yet and it keeps the boys entertained for long periods of time.

10. Bicycle/Plasma Car: Micah's favorite pastime is zooming around the deck on the plasma car. Joel prefers the tricycle. They do laps around the table and get awfully close to the stairs (enough to give people heart attacks). Sometimes I find Micah just sitting on the plasma car engrossed in his imagination. Or maybe just looking at bugs.

P.S. Do bugs, worms and snails count as toys? Cuz those are also a daily activity in Micah's world. Joel won't touch the things, but quite often I hear him calling Micah over to do the "dirty" work. Micah! There's a bug! Come pick it up! Micah loves all things creepy crawly. Joel only loves the snail shells. But somehow they work together to play with those things.