My Kids Play With....

When my son was younger he LOVED to play with an empty 2 liter bottle so when my MIL asked what to get him for his first birthday I joked and said "an empty 2 liter bottle". Well she took it to heart and wrapped one up- that was his favorite gift! I felt bad for the other guests at the party who watched as their fancy musical/light up gift was tossed aside for the 2 liter diet coke bottle :)

Yep, that saying about the box being more interesting than the toy holds true in my household :-)

I love that DD is so imaginative.

My oldest was maybe 2. He had a wonderful Christmas, Grandma spoiled him rotten as did every one else. He was the first baby in 14 years.
The day after Christmas he sat in the kitchen and took out all the sponges and lined them up,stacked them, he played for a long time with just the colorful sponges. We even have a picture.

Big cardboard boxes have been my daughter's favorite, and still were at age 8! They've been "turned into" imaginary cars, trucks, robots, doll houses, magic shows, etc, etc.

And, forts made out of blankets and pillows and furniture!

my kids are grown now but yes they would rather build a fort out of boxes
and beat on pans with wooden spoons, and make mud pies over toys
any day.

my kids are 9 and still get a lot of entertainment out of empty boxes (only now they use tape, scratch paper, markers, and scissors to make more elaborate box-creations). We joke that the recycle bin is their toy box.

When they were in preschool, another favorite toy was large plastic flowerpots - they LOVED to climb into an empty flowerpot and put another one over over head and pretend it was their "Space Pods" (and since the pots have drain holes in the bottom, we never worried that they'd suffocate)

OMG too funny. The other day while we were out for an evening walk we went to check the mail like we always do if we go for a walk and there happened to be a sample from Kotex. It was in a black box and as soon as my husband took it out of the mailbox my 19 month daughter wanted to play with it. So he hands it to her and that was that. Well when we get home she is attached to this box and sits down and manages to get into the box where the samples were wrapped in plastic. So I said let me see that for a sec and I took all the plastic off and away from her. Now she is left with the samples. LOL my husbands face was priceless. My daughter comes around the corner with a pad and 2 tampons still in there wrappers and she was as happy as could be. She started sticking the pad to everything and going Ta Da, calling it her pad sticker and the tampons she calls 'padons'. He thinks its gross and I think its the funniest and cheapest toy she has yet to play with =)

My cell phone, my husbands tools, my flashlight ..... all toys that my son would rather play with. Today, we just collected 3 crickets from outside. They found the water we put in their bug cage. We are experimenting to see what they prefer to eat: ripe banana, watermelon, sugary oatmeal, corn chips, or crackers. (A while back, we saw a cricket munching day-old oatmeal.) So yes -- he likes his toys, but the non-toys are fun too.

tape measures
brooms
spray bottles with water in them
the bathroom sink with some dish soap and measuring cups
empty paper towel rolls
rolling swivel office chairs on our wood floor
couch cushions & pillows as mountains to climb
counting potatoes
tossing rolled up socks into baskets
they also love to take wet diapers that I've already rolled up and throw them down the stairs, yelling "Diaper bomb!"

Every parent says that. :) Save the money and don't buy a zillion toys!

Yes! They always loved pots and pans and spoons (for making music.) They spent hours building forts out of boxes, chairs, sofa cushions and blankets. They loved sand and water play using empty containers and spray and squirt bottles. They also loved making things out of shoe boxes, cardboard tubes, berry baskets, bubble wrap, you name it, as long as they had a roll of masking tape they were good to go!
When it comes to toys, less is definitely more :)

My kids play with a lot of their toys, but they also play with: straws, coffee stirrers, toothpicks, craft sticks, and stuff they find outside like sticks, rocks, and pine cones. They are 8 and 6 and so far haven't outgrown it, I hope it lasts as long as possible! :-)

My kids don't really care for toys too much either. It is nice because our house is not cluttered with tons of toys like many of my friends' houses. The things my kids like to play with the most:

blankets and towels (they will make little beds, or lay them out and play "daycare", or make forts, or fasten them this way and that to make dresses and play "dress shop"

dress up stuff (Halloween costumes, old baby clothes, my clothes and jewelry) to play any kind of game

Baby stuff (they love to play "babies" and will put on old baby clothes, make diapers out of rags, etc.

So pretty much they like to play "pretend" the most. The only toys that really have caught their attention are building toys like Legos, or Star Wars action figures.

TOTALLY!! We just remodeled out kitchen and got all sorts of boxes. My kids had a field day with that - they built a whole village! One of my daughters likes to go outside and build little houses with rocks. She'll add grass "carpet" and other fine touches. It's very cool :)

Remember that at Christmas time! Seriously. My girls were the same way when they were younger and they still really don't play with toys at 8 and 10. They like to read and hang out with my husband and I more than play. Getting them "stuff" really is a waste of money.

Hi, TwinMama -
I have twins, too, and I had to laugh at your post. Just yesterday afternoon, my girls pulled off yards and yards of paper towels, stuffed the ends down the back of their pants and ran around like madwomen. "We have tails!" "We have tails!" Non-toys are always the favorite thing. Especially non-toys like my camera, my make-up, my purse..... sigh. Embrace the madness and enjoy them!