Castles

By | May 28, 2013

Last night my husband was in charge of putting the kids to bed.

He had one job.

Did he do it? What do you think?

I came home from a night of crafting with a gal pal to discover Coco wide awake.

“Hi, Mama! I’m so glad you’re here. Now we can talk about our castles.”

Our castles.

If you ask my kids whether they would rather stay up and watch a movie for two hours or talk about castles with mama for fifteen minutes–they’ll always pick castles. Always.

Castles

What am I talking about, you ask? This, my dear friends, borders on genius and epic mistake. Because what you start with your kids–will never be finished.

Castles

Once upon a time, I introduced them to a game of the imagination.

“I have a castle in the sky.” I told them simply.

“What color is it?” was obviously the next question.

“Oh…silver. With sparkles.”

“Mine is PINK with sparkles,” quipped Coco.

“And mine’s blue with Spiderman!” added Chaucer.

Castles

Thus began the game. Each night further details are added and we try to one-up the other with our elaborate castles and contents.

For instance, last night my castle had a giraffe named Daisy who wears ballet shoes. Four ballet shoes. She is graceful and prefers a crown of daisies on her head. Obvs.

Coco came back with a bathtub made of chocolate that is “Clean.”

That girl is onto something, I tell you.

If you could get clean with chocolate, why even use water? Or soap?

Chaucer always has things like dragons, sharks, and bears living in his castle.

“I have a weally big shark in my castle!”

“Wow, Chauce! That’s awesome.”

“Yah, it’s totally awesome. But he don’t have no teeth.”

All of Chaucer’s ferocious beasts come sans teeth. It takes away the threat of their biting him like my mom’s cat or my mom-in-law’s dog. He’s onto something too, I like to believe.

Once, I tried to have a gold castle. Coco quickly informed me that such a thing was not allowed. ALL of our castles would disappear if I made that decision. Somehow our game has grown rules.

Sometimes I get annoyed with how far they want to take their castles. By how far, I mean how long they want to talk about them. I introduced the concept a few months ago, and we are still going castle strong.

But oh. Oh to hear my kids beg to talk about castles. I do myself a favor by remembering that it will not always be this way. That there might be days they don’t want to talk to me at all. There will probably be many days that they do not want to speculate some imaginative realm of dancing giraffes, chocolate baths, and toothless sharks.

I’m in the castle now. It’s wonderful because everything is possible with these two little lovely stinkers.

 

Castles

Castles

What color is your castle?

15 thoughts on “Castles

  1. Andrea{theUglyTruthMom}

    What a beautiful idea! Love your photographs as well, specially the one of your son on the scooter. First time visiting here, great post, I will be abck for more!

    Reply
  2. Michelle Villemaire

    Ah, castles. Mine got hooked on a story I started about 2 mermaids who live next door to each other in castles under the sea. I used to stress about the details of the story, but then I realized if I have the mermaids do exactly what my girls did throughout the day they love it even more than the made up episodes. And less work for me is always good.

    Reply
  3. Bethany @ Bad Parenting Moments

    Such a sweet and lovely idea! My littles would love this.

    Reply
  4. Anna

    I may need to steal this idea for bedtime, and I love those fabulous photos of your little ones!

    Reply
  5. Aleta

    Oh Oh Oh! Love this idea! I need to save this idea for the future. I think my castle would be red. It’s a favorite color ????

    Reply
  6. Jessica

    Great idea; my kids would totally build some story awesomeness around their castles. Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Make sure you write down some of their ideas ???? Last night my little dude told me he would have Superman and his Papa in his castle–so sweet!

      Reply
  7. Frugalistablog

    OH so sweet!! Yes, the castles only last so long. However, now my daughter, 13, wants to talk about school for at least 20 minutes before saying goodnight. For some reason, this is the time children’s heads get all their thinking done for the day!!

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Aww! I’m so glad she still wants to have talks like that with you! That’s an accomplishment on your part!

      Reply

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