Keeping the kids occupied

My brother came over Sunday afternoon with his two boys.   He was pretty exhausted which is not surprising considering the stress he's under and the crap that's going on in his life right now.  (I won't go into it and believe me, that's the politest way I can say it.  I'm being VERY restrained.)

 

When his two boys and my two kidlettes get together it always means LOTS of noise and the odd argument or two.  The two big boys (hubby and brother) ended up in the lounge watching the football so I decided that I'd keep the kids occupied outside.

 

 

One of the best investments you can make is a box of 52 large pieces of chalk for $5 from Woollies.  It's an even better investment if you've got a large cemented area they can draw on.

 

We built roads, houses.....

 

...farms (complete with orchards and dams) and lots of other 'town' things we could think of.

 

Most of the time they played well together.  There was a short while when they didn't want each other visiting their houses so they made NO TRESPASSING signs.  These signs were ignored often and so the fights and arguments began.

 

Time for Mum to step in and divert them.

 

 

Every inch of available cement was used today and I've been asked to move the car out next time so they have more space and can draw all up the driveway. 

 

That's no problem with me as it will give them at least 3 times as much space as you can see in the next photo.  That's lots of happy time for kids and when they're having a ball and occupied for that long then Mummy (or Aunty) is always happy.

 

 

I have so many fond memories of doing this when I was a kid with my brother and sister so it's lovely to see the next generation enjoying it too.

 

I still have all my matchbox cars that I used to drive around the roads I made and I even have a matchbox bus I got for one birthday.  I can still remember getting it because I always used to draw bus stops but never had a bus so you can imagine my excitement when I opened my present to find a bus that particular year!

 

That then leads to the question of whether I drew any roads, or my own house, and drove a matchbox car around the 'town'?....

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....Of course I did!!!

 

xx Susan