Let's Play

The kids have been having some really imaginative and creative playtimes that I hope I remember for a long time:

• Prairie dog pop-up:  we laced sheets and towels through their toddler bed bars, making a lattice, through which they would pop up and pretend to be prairie dogs a la the zoo.
• Vet--I was the vet and they were the pet owners of bunnies and penguins.  Their pets, similar to our own trips to the pediatrician, had ear infections, fevers, vomiting, and splinters.  But I was able to fix them all, no problem.
• Handy Manny:  I think this is our only pop-culture inspired play.  One or the other of them is Handy Manny and I am either Kelly who provides them with needed parts or the client who has a a broken oven/chair/table, or both.  They fix it and we start over again.  Sometimes with the soundtrack playing in the background.  
• Mommy as seamonster (indoors) or shark (outdoors):  Yep, I'm a monster.  A tickle/kissing/hugging monster that routinely attacks preschoolers who must then run to their beds/swingsets for safety.  Usually, Bud tells me not to be a "tickle monster" and instead wants hugs.  
• Bake sale:  Sis spreads out her wares on the piano bench and sells them to us, checking us out at the cash register.
• Zookeeper:  They're the animals (sometimes prairie dogs, see above, or sloths or bunnies or bats, see below) and I'm the zookeeper.  Then I'm the visitor admiring them and taking pictures.  But then they escape from their cages.  And I'm the zookeeper again, rounding them up, usually enticing them with carrots and broccoli.  And we start all over again.
• World of Darkness:  we make caves in the covers and their bats in our own version of the Bronx Zoo exhibit.
• Penguin Family:  We have an embarrassingly large collection of stuffed penguins, starting with an oversized penguin from the movie Happy Feet that we call "Mr. Big Penguin" (it's almost 3') that charmed Bud and Sis when they were smaller.  Now there are others, from Mystic Seaworld, FAO Schwartz, and other stores.  Anyway, Sis makes a penguin family with two parents and a baby, which one of the big penguins hatches while the other looks for food.  Sis always comments on how cute the baby is.  
• Restaurant:  This is one of their all-time favorite dramatic plays.  I guess maybe we eat out a lot!  It's very sophisticated now, with menus and placemats, waiters and chefs.  Recently, this has evolved into hibachi, since we had dinner there last week.  
• Library:  Stamp books, put them in book drop, start again.  Sis has a collection of bunny books, while Bud has his dinosaur books all in a pile.