The Happy Monkey House

   

Blanket forts, tree houses, tucked away closets...it's obvious that the kiddie crowd loves to have places and spaces to call their own. Claire is no exception. Santa dropped this cardboard house off at Christmas and for the following 4 weeks Claire meticulously colored and embellished it in her own style.

   

Now if you've spent any time at all here at the blog, you know I'm a "color outside the lines" kind of gal so picking up this house was a little out of character for me. But I am so glad I did because Claire loved it (and I was able to bury my nose in a bunch of books for hours at a time - BONUS!)                                                                                                                  I dubbed this "Happy Monkey House" because all over the outside of the house Claire drew happy smiley monkeys. These are quite different than her people drawings, a keen eye will notice the pronounced monkey ears (often colored in). A friendly family of millipedes live over the door (I'm sure this is my fault).

The aforementioned skylights in
their full glory. Future architect?

But by far the most interesting of modifications are Claire's skylights. Yep, it was dark inside the house so Claire punched an assortment of holes in the roof to let more light in. Like I said, I had my nose buried in a book...apparently she did this very quietly.

I can't ignore the genius in the idea, but Dan and I asked her to refrain from poking more holes. Her response? "It's ok, I'm done now with those I can see in my house."

Speaking of things to see, when not coloring the outside scenery, Claire was hard at work decorating the interior of the cottage. You guessed it, more monkeys. There's one frown-faced fellow in there and a picture of Dan and I even made it in (I feel honored).









Happy Monkey House is stowed in the basement right now. After giving up half the living room for nearly a month I've reclaimed the space but I'm sure we'll bring it out again. All of the monkey portraits that hung from the ceiling have a new home too but you'll have to wait to see it!

  

Why I should buy stock in scotch (tape that is)

There's a great article on Wired.com by GeekDad Jonathan Liu about the 5 Best Toys of All Time.

While I wholeheartedly agree about the joy of sticks, boxes, twine and above all dirt -- there is a glaring omission from his most excellent article:

Tape. And lots of it. Case in point:

Claire's version of London Bridge. Constructed completely on her own in a quiet hour which I used to whip up a 30 minute Rachael Ray dish (really, don't these always take like 20 minutes longer than they should?).

The bridge hung on until this morning when her bouncing turtle finally shook it from the couch.

 

So I say hand over a roll of tape to your little one, see where it takes them! It's cheap, easy to clean up and there's probably a half dozen rolls stashed in your junk drawer as you're reading this. 

Messy bedhead hair is of course optional, but I feel it adds to the experience.

Creative Idea for an Art Inspired Present

I'm always on the lookout for unique gifts that encourage creativity and I just had to share this one -- blank pop-up books. Paired with markers and a classic storybook it would make an awesome themed present.

You might recall I blogged about our mutual obsession with pop up books and a few of our favorites a while back. Now that Claire his hit age 4, she is really into storytelling AND still fascinated with the mechanics of pop up books. Her plots may meander a bit, but she's got lots of ideas and I'm looking forward to having a commemorative book or two celebrating her imaginative tales.

The pages look pretty sturdy and I imagine you could paint or decoupage them. My creative gears are churning away!

If you have older children and are looking for something really neat, check out this book. It's not quite as open ended and requires a bit more piecing things together, but in terms of paper mechanics, I think it's a great book!

Will your little ones be unwrapping any creative gifts this year?

Loving Our Buddha Board!

I love when other parents share what their children enjoying playing with – it always helps me figure out what to introduce into our own toy rotation. One of Claire’s favorite art tools since Christmas has been the Buddha Board. Everyone loves it! I’ve caught Dan doodling away many times and it was a big hit at Christmas dinner.