Cardboard stove

 Cardboard stove made from three boxes in our recycling pile in the garage.

Esme's sixth birthday is coming up, and I was thinking about toys or gifts.. and thought, hey - that doesn't need to be bought, or a birthday present.. we can whip one of those up tonight, boxes willing.

 A little paper, tape, a spool that is on the inside with the dial attached to it, and voila, one child sized cardboard stove.  The door handle I am a little proud of - it is from an airbed box that is the back part of the stove.  It was too perfect not to make use for something I was wondering how I would do!  Esme said no painting- because it takes so long to dry.    She wanted to play with it right away - no more of the waiting.  Then she made pretend tea and threw hot dogs in the oven.  *heh*.

I wrote her name and the year on top of it we will see how long it lasts as a toy.  Her Magic Theater Box from when we moved her to her room is over a year old and still in use,  played with every couple of days.  It is getting in rough shape - but I had been able to paint that one with semi-gloss so it has lived through a lot of humidity and rough play.

Further ideas:
pot holders sewn especially for her
used a 1/2 egg carton to make a muffin/cupcake pan for her - now she wants felt muffins as toys
felt birthday cake?  She loves to pretend to make cakes alerady
cheap spatula - she was trying to turn pancakes with a knife and having a hard time

We talked about finding a box the right size to make a cradle for her baby doll, with a pillow and the blanket I had made for it.  This is the first time she has really played with a baby doll for years - I think it is because she met a little girl at school who likes dolls.  It is really sweet though, especially since we mostly skipped over this stage before.  She named the doll Billy - and it is a boy or a girl as she wishes... we found a Duplo block piece in her collection that was perfect to use as a bottle and I took some scraps from my table to make a blanket for it.  She has insisted on tucking it in and feeding it for about three days in a row, and has been receptive on how to pick it up 'properly' and to learn not to mistreat it because you would not do that to a real baby etc.. she said 'oh, that's right', and carried it properly, set it down nicely and then pretended it cried a little while later for food.

She is also taking another try at learning the rules of checkers... played a decent game against me last night and I let her 'win' during the middle, so she did win at the end but I made it harder as the pieces dwindled so she had to really think.

day off with cloning machine cardboard box fun

 Esme wanted to play with cardboard this morning.  I have a head cold, but this seemed like a better bet than wandering around outside behind her in the mud.  I robbed a length from my pvc tent bag for the rod and would like to get some plastic hangers and a few wooden knobs to finish the project.  She wanted a 'tube with the (lever) that you turn and open the door and there will be a sister inside, or maybe a brother - and it will be all the things and go 'boom' and it will be fun.  She told me this while she was in the bathtub this morning and was very upset we could not build a real one -- she has been on this kick for a while, actually... and we finally discussed we could make one like 'pretend'... 'no not the park with all the things pretend - the part with the (building) like pretend' (her strange words), but finally accepted that we would build the machine like pretend.  We found a few boxes in the garage and talked about how to build it.  She got inside it and pretended she was a Mummy coming out of a sarcophagus (like a Scooby doo mystery show) she said, and then we finally settled on putting doors on it.

The doors are laced on the side with yarn after punching through with a crochet hook and a double pointed needle (mom work)... She wanted to keep all the white part white (good!) and I insisted we paint more than just the doors so it would look nicer.. She had a mad fit about that - but then came back with the blue and we continued.

Helping me paint the doors yellow like the sun coming inside... the other door ended up pink after she used up most of the yellow paint ;)

This was earlier when she was playing Velma with her glasses and trying to make hot dogs out of playdough.

Playtime Magic Show

Sitting with Kitty, Sponge bob and an imaginary friend watching 'cartoon' on the magic show box we made months and months ago.

Having a magic show.  Abracadabra, and he is gone! (not really, he is behind her back) 

Concentrating on her lego mini figures 

Oh, and she wants a pony, that talks... gotta record when that first happened ;)
I had to be her new friend Sponge bob and talk for him while she gave him the 'tour' of the room.. although he has been there for months.  She gave Sponge bob a great description of her room, that he was on Earth now, and not in Bikini Bottom, and that Mr.Krabs can't reach her piggy bank because he is no taller than her and she can't reach the shelf it is on either.  She showed Sponge bob the Earth map she had (Solar system poster) and told him all about her birthday party and Dreamlite and when Gwennie came to play.