I loved finding this little scene set up by Elliot last night.  Apparently his chalkboard paint covered radiator cover became "craters" for his martians.  There were other little scenes throughout the room, mostly of planets, including one that he "discovered" marked with a little flag.  It's fun to create something for your kids, and then see what they make from it, or even if they find it interesting at all.  Painting the radiator cover with chalkboard paint was sort of an afterthought for me, but he has really taken to it.  Maybe because its just the perfect height?  Unfortunately, it's impossible to plan these things.  It's sort of like buying your kids toys, you never know which ones they'll take to.

Speaking of toys, this is an embarrassing scene (so! many! stuffed! animals!), but I've been meaning to share it with you for a while now.  Both of my kids are lucky enough to have two closets in their rooms, one generously sized, and one smaller one with a sloped ceiling that is tucked into the eaves of the house.  I was having trouble containing Elliot's collection of stuffed animals and then I remembered these shoe and sweater bags that we had in the master bedroom closet of our old house.  We have shoe and sweater storage here, so these were just sitting in a pile in the attic.  I hung them up, and stuffed all the little animals in here, and it's been a great solution.  No more dumping out baskets of animals just to find the one he wants on the very bottom.  I'll make a slight excuse for the excess of animals by saying that Elliot plays with them constantly.  He can rarely be found not toting one of beloved stuffies.

I've shown this before, but this is how we store the dolls and stuffed animals in Lucie's room.  It's a vintage bassinet that I picked up at a thrift store last winter.  This one is more aesthetically appealing (and less embarrassing) than Elliot's, of course.

PS- I wanted to point out that we have hot water radiators, not steam, so they don't get too hot.  Ohdeedoh showed Elliot's radiator cover last week and someone mentioned that radiators can be dangerous.  Please don't make a "toy" out of your radiator covers unless they are safe to touch, as ours are.