for the love of toy rooms and angry birds

I have to say we are lucky to have an extra room to devote to just being a TOY ROOM.

It has to be that way, because ever since Thomas was little, if there was ANYTHING in his bedroom at night, he would not be able to go to sleep.  So it makes cleaning up their rooms before bed very easy.

One of the things we loved about this house plan (and why we ultimately picked this house) was because the bedrooms are different sizes.  The first room is smallest, the second room is medium, and the last room is big.  The toy room is the big one.  And these boys use up every square foot of it every single day.  We are trying to get better at cleaning it up every night before bedtime, but some nights we just leave it all there, and they can start right where they left off the night before.

The boys latest devotion is to ANGRY BIRDS.  Even though the only time they played the game was on Grandma's iPod or iPads at school, everything was all about the birds.  We had quite the angry bird christmas this year, trying to give them the only things they requested - well, they wanted every single angry bird thing they ever saw, so we didn't quite fulfill their wishes.  They each got one new stuffed bird -but that didn't satisfy them.  

But Grandma Anderson had given them an angry bird coloring book.  They would color the bird or piggie, and then they would cut it out.  At first Thomas learned how to cut it out by using a pen or pencil and tracing around the image a few times, it was thin paper, so it "cut it out" after a few tries.  Well, that was ok until he started using my GOOD PENS, and ruining them. So I gave in and got out the kid scissors.   

Then they had every single one they wanted, well, from the original game - they still wanted Angry birds from space.  They also had little coloring books with Angry birds Star Wars, and they cut them all out too.

They colored and cut out every single page of their coloring books, and those birds and piggies were ALL OVER THE PLACE.  We finally had to make them clean them up, and throw them away.

But now even though the coloring books are done, they know I can find coloring pages online and print them off.. Now they can do SPACE birds too.

 Thomas is showing off "Terrance" the large green space bird, but he doesn't quite get the concept of holding it so that I could see what it is.  Grayson has Ice Bird here, it's kinda their favorite one, because he is a square.

  I love that they are so imaginative, artistic, and creative.  Even if the toy room ends up a disaster area every single day.

 I also love that they get along so well, and automatically know how to play with each other, even when I would have NO idea what the game is or what they are talking about. One boy can say something in their "angry bird code" they seem to speak, and off they go, on a new angry bird adventure.  It really is a blast to watch, even if I cringe a little at the mess, and its a pain in the neck to get cleaned up afterward.

We have also started to explain to them that the toy room can't be this messy because Micah is getting close to being mobile.  When he starts crawling around, they are going to have to be much more careful about leaving stuff around, cuz he will stick everything in his mouth.  In the picture above, I can see a million choking hazards from crayons (that they love to use down to tiny little stubs), to small toys (eek)... 

It's going to be a big adjustment.   We are attempting to ease them into it, by bringing Micah in the toy room once in a while -when it's safe- so they might get the concept that this precious room they have had to themselves for so long, is going to have to be shared with the little one.