Creative Genius

Let me explain before you go and call the FBI!

This is what happens when you live in an area where the sun doesn't shine for weeks on end, snow has been covering the ground for months, and the kids get tired of going outside and playing in the snow. I call it their creative genius.

Not too long ago I found a rope dangling from the second floor to the first floor. When I realized my son was attached to it, I asked him what he was doing. His response: "Rappelling!" Aw, too cute. It wasn't too funny, however, when I learned he had the other end anchored to the bottom of the upstairs toilet. He changed the anchor to the banister and all was well. He practiced rappelling for days.

On another day, both kids were dressed in their black Ninja outfits. Caleb has Rachel's neck in the crook of his elbow and he's dragging her, with great sound effects I might add, up the stairs. What were they doing, you ask? Why, Caleb was rescuing her, of course. When I realized she was a little red in the face, I told him he probably should try a different method than the choke hold otherwise his rescue efforts might end up differently.

Now on this particular day, I could tell something big was going on. Stuff was piling up on the counter and a lot of running around was happening. The next thing I knew, there was a "bomb" in my kitchen. Let me make this clear...they were not playing terrorists or bank robbers! I'm convinced this was all due to an old movie we had watched where the hero diffuses a bomb at the last moment and saves the day. I took this picture because the creativity it took to pull this together was, quite frankly, amazing to me!

Here's what was used:

• The silver case holds a card game
• The timer is used for our outdoor lights
• The little silver rectangle to the right is a calculator
• The shiny wire attached to the calculator is picture hanger wire
• The red and black wires belong to an electronics building kit
• Who knew we had so many D batteries
• There are some AA batteries in there too
• The cardboard was measured and carefully cut (I remember this took a couple of times)
• And the countdown going-on is just a piece of printer paper
• I think the digital clock is pretty cool!

I remember my husband telling us a story of when he was younger, he and his brothers would tie Clorox bleach bottles to their backs and wear big socks, barely pulled up, and hanging off their feet. What were they pretending to be? Scuba divers!

My childhood creativity probably amounted to a clothes line tied to two trees with a blanket thrown on top. A tent. Yep, that's about as good as it got. Although I do have a fond memory of pulling leaves off of trees, stacking them all together, and using them as play money. We rode our bikes around and around the house. At some point, we would stop on the patio, flip our bikes over, and fill the "gas tank" by cranking the back wheel as fast as we could. Whoever was the gas station attendant got the neatly stacked leaves. Then we'd just go pick more leaves and refill our pocket. Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees!

I'm so glad they love to play and pretend and be creative. Just think of the stories they'll have to tell their kids someday.

The weather has finally come around, so spring is in the air. Now the kids can come up with all sorts of creative ways to play as they move their genius outside!