Stuffed Bad Guys

Do you think this little fella looks like a bad guy???

Mothers of boys, why does everything in the house turn into a gun, sword or some sort of fighting something? We don't own a fake gun, fake sword, fake bow and arrow, but we have PLENTY of them around if you know what I mean.  Believe me when I say you don't need to buy them.  You have a dozen of them in your home already.

The boys are really into good guys and bad guys around here.  I guess Max is mostly, he's 4 , and little Oliver just goes around saying "Bad-eyes -- Bad-eyes" and doesn't know what he is talking about.  He is, in fact, usually the "bad guy" and doesn't know it and gets pummeled, or sworded or tackled by the good guy Max and doesn't even know what has happened.

Today they both had plastic clothes hanger "bows" and colored pencil "arrows" and were chasing each other around.  Max would pretend to shoot, but it didn't really work, so he would pretend shoot it and then just throw the pencil at Oliver. This was all Max's "brate idea" as he calls it.

Well, it's all in fun, but this mama doesn't want her 2 year old with a pencil where it shouldn't be. Not a good habit to let your older child throw things at the younger one. So.......

I thought up something I am sure you have thought of, but I just came up with it today.

Stuffed animal bad guys.

A sheep, a cow, a frog and a puppy.

The good guy pretends he is sleeping and then as he is, I hide the "bad guys".  When I am ready I yell, "Oh NOOOO!!!! the bad guys are loose again! Help me Maaaxxxx!!! " And then he gets his hanger and colored pencil and finds the sheep in the bathtub, arrows him and puts him in "jail" on the bed, finds the puppy on mommy's pillow, finds the frog in daddy's closet, and finds the cow in the hamper, takes them all to jail.

Once they are all in jail, the good guy can sleep again.  But then, OH NO!!! The bad guys get out again!!!! HHHHEEEEEEELLLLPPPP!!!!!

Rise and repeat.

Cost: FREE

Variations:  Your child can be a farmer and the animals get loose while he sleeps and the farmer has to catch them and put them back into their pen ( if you are not into the whole bad guys good guys hanger and colored pencil thing).

hooray!  have fun!

Hungry Hungry Oatmeal

oh, that's where they went.

Kids love putting things into things.  Both my four year old and two year old alike.  Cut a hole in the bottom of an oatmeal cannister and drop little treasures into the dark hole.  Pick it up to find them!  Start over again.


Cost: What -- like $2 for the oatmeal cannister? -- but you get to eat the oatmeal! So, really, it's free.

variations: snacks into the dark hole (goldfish, marshmallows, raisins, blueberries), you could count them and drop them as you count.  Take it outside and drop sticks or rocks that were gathered, dandelions, weeds. Oooh, that's a good one.  maybe a bigger cannister.  A weed eater!!!  Maybe you make a face on the cannister and the opening looks like a mouth.  I am a nerd.  But that would be fun.