Could It Be True?? The Last "A Post A Day In May" Post

Today was such a busy day. I know this because I was only able to check my email twice today! Twice. That's simply not enough for me. I'll get to more of my busy day in a minute. But before I do, allow me this sappy little moment. I can't believe that I've hit the end of "A Post A Day In May". It's been crazy. I was so nervous starting this blog, you know, putting my whole life out there in blogger land and now it just seems so normal. I've met some new blogging friends along the way, people that I admire as parents, crafters and human-beings. The best part is, I feel I've "discovered" what this blog is going to be about: me and my kids, how we function and what we do. I was really hoping that it would be more about my crafts, but I just don't have enough time and truly my attempts are so meager that I really hate to share them. I was also hoping that I could share more recipes, but my pictures are just horrible. Don't get me wrong, I still plan to share my crafts when I get to them and my cooking when my husband's actually home for supper and we're eating more than mac-n-cheese! Mostly, you're going to read about Eli, Sadie and me and what we do for fun, projects we work on, books we read, moments we share, my parenting triumphs and defeats. Hopefully, we will all learn together: you from me and me from you. I'm hoping (fingers and toes crossed and eyes closed really tight) I can pull off three posts a week. So, please don't make today your last stop at Two Cups of Coffee. Come back and visit now and again.

And now onto this: The other day, Eli told me that he wanted a crown, a prince crown, not a princess crown because he's a boy not a girl. Well, wouldn't you know that I was reading Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family and there just happens to be a pattern in it for making a crown. So, last night I made him this crown, complete with ribbon in his favorite pattern, camouflage. I was pretty proud of my handiwork and was all excited to show it to him. First thing this morning I told him I had a crown for him. He looked at it, screamed "NO!" and then threw it on the floor. I was so bummed. By noon, I was able to get it on him. I'm thinking tomorrow he's going to totally dig it.Eli's best friend turned three on Wednesday. He had his party today. This is my tried and true frugal way of wrapping presents. First, you use the Christmas wrapping paper that you've had for ten years that you think is pretty ugly and wrap the present with the ugly Christmas part on the inside and the white part on the outside. Then, let your kids go wild and crazy with the markers and the stickers.
Well, not this wild and crazy with the markers:
Radoms:

• We got our CSA food again. We got quail eggs. Anyone know what to do with quail eggs? The Farmer's Market totally rocked today. We got honey, radishes, lettuce, bacon and get this, FREE MILK!! Apparently, this guy is a "Milk Evangelist" and just loves to spread the good word about his milk and was just hoping to get the word out. Now the word is out. I'm just excited it's not ultra-pasteurized because I need that to make some cheese that I've been waiting to make.
• Am I the last person in the world to try this No-Knead Bread recipe? Seriously. It's so easy and delicious. I am in love with the genius who thought of this. I'm baking some right now. Want to come over?
• We have become a two car family again. We just purchased a new used-car. Yes, we are back to our high-polluting ways, but Dennis needs a car for his rotations next year. I was not about to give up my car and he didn't really feel like biking 30 miles to work. It's a cute Mazda 3, sporty wagon/hatchback thingy, the kind that are popping up everywhere now.

Plan on stopping by tomorrow. I'm going to have a little give-away in honor of surviving "A Post A Day In May".

Author of the Week: Eve Bunting

Eve Bunting is one of those authors that is always on my radar. She's the author of over 250 books! That's a lot of books each one illustrated by a different illustrator so each book is a surprise. While I don't go to her every week like I do some authors I do visit her quite frequently. She has a wide range of books for all ages written about a wide range of topics. If you have some sort of topic, theme or problem that you're working on at your house, Ms. Bunting has probably written a book about it. Moving into a big boy bed? Yep. Teacher having a baby? Yep. Visiting a grandma in an old-folks home? Yep again. Mom getting remarried? Yes. Monster's under the bed? She's got that one covered. Homelessness? She's got that one covered twice. Adopting a baby? Mom having a baby? Surrogate mother? Teen Pregnancy? Seriously, this lady has a book about it.

She has fiction books about America's past historical moments: coming to America, pioneers moving westward, Visiting the Vietnam Memorial, and the Los Angeles riots.

She has holiday books from Father's Day to Hanukkah, Thanksgiving to St. Patrick's Day.

Yes, there are some less serious stories too. Hurry, Hurry is one of the cutest books I've ever read. And Little Badger is funny too.

While you probably won't go and pull one of her books off of the shelves just for the heck of it, she's a good author to keep in mind when you're dealing with a new issue in your house.

Monster Cookies

I'm sitting here eating one of these Monster Cookies wondering why in the world I just made a huge batch of cookies. I need cookies like I need a hole in my head. I just made rice-krispie bars yesterday and those are almost gone because every time I walked by them, I took just a little tiny piece. Well, you walk by them enough and that little tiny piece adds up to a WHOLE PAN. Anyways, these are some tasty little cookies: oatmeal, peanut butter and M&M's. Yummers. Why are they called Monster Cookies? I think it's because they are supposed to be gargantuan, but I just made regular sized cookies so I could eat more.

Monster Cookies
from Lorraine LeBlanc in Watt's Cooking (My dad used to work at a power company.)

1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter (I used the natural kind)
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 1/2 cups oatmeal (I used instant and old-fashioned, otherwise I wouldn't have had enough)
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&M's

Cream shortening (butter) and sugars. Add peanut butter. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add oatmeal, baking soda, chocolate chips and M&M's. Drop by 1/3 cup (yowzers that's a lot, I just used my little cookie scoop) on un-greased cookie sheet; flatten slightly with a spatula. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes (that's how long mine took, so I'm assuming a little longer for the gigantor ones). Makes 20 five-inch cookies (or 3 dozen normal sized ones).

Ramblings.

I'm too tired to post anything too exciting today. We were gone for the weekend (which was a fabulous trip to see some good friends in Pennsylvania. Really good friends. The kind you wish were your next door neighbor...) and I'm feeling the need to recover. Must. Drink. More. Coffee. And so far, yesterday and today have felt like the longest days ever.

Yesterday, I was supposed to take the kids to a birthday party. This particular friend lives an hour away and the party started at 9:30am, so I was scrambling to get things ready, not to mention that I was hurdling over stuff that still wasn't put away from getting home at 11 the night before. I finally get the kids in shoes and coats and am ready to walk out the door when I discover that I can't find my keys. I knew that Dennis was the last one to have them, so I started to search all of the possible places that they could be: in his "key spot", left in the door, in his pants pocket that are in the laundry, behind the couch... They were no where to be found. We have no cell phone (yes, you read that right. We don't have a cell phone.) and Dennis was in class. I knew that he was going to be in class until 11:18 (yes, 11:18!) so I sent him an email asking him where the keys were, figuring they were in his pocket. He called at 11:20 saying, "Ummm... sorry. They're in my pocket. Do you need them?" At least at 11:20, I was over wanting to kill him as I'd had 3 hours to get over it, so I just said no. Why didn't I use the spare keys you ask? Good question. Said spare keys are now my keys because my previous set of keys got lost in the hugest leaf pile you have every seen last fall. And we're just too lazy to get another set of spare keys.

Today, the kids were playing quietly in the closet. Note to self: when kids are playing quietly in the closet and you're thinking that this is too good to be true it probably is too good to be true. I open the door to see that Eli and Sadie have gotten into the markers and have colored all over the floor, some toys, and themselves. I get them out of the closet, clean them up, and shoo them to the table to color. I go upstairs to take a shower and get ready. When I get back downstairs the table and two children are covered in flour. Note to self: do not leave flour on the table where your children can reach it. I've never had an anxiety attack before, but I think had one this morning. I had to take LOTS of deep breaths. All of these crazy antics happened before 8:30am. I think I'm just going to sleep in from now on as I don't think I can handle all the craziness! Now, if only the children would cooperate...

Totally off the subject: I feel the need to add some sort of picture so here's a card I made for one of Dennis' nephews who had his HS graduation this past weekend, which we missed. Dennis has three nephews who graduated this year and we're going to miss all of their graduations. That's the hard part of living a thousand miles away from your family.

Easy Bird Feeder

Materials:

• pine cones
• string
• peanutbutter
• bird seed
  

1. Tie your string to the top of the pine cone. You could do this as the last step, but then you run the risk of getting peanutbutter and bird seed all over your hands and shirt!

2. Smear peanutbutter onto the pinecone.

3. Sprinkle bird seed over the peanutbutter covered pine cone.

4. Hang it up in the tree.

Voila! Now you have to sit and wait for the bird (or squirrels) to come.

Easy Toddler Activity: Cereal Counter

This is a very easy activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers. It only takes a minute to set up and it kept Sadie busy for 30 minutes so it gets an A++ in my book.

Materials:

• play dough
• stir stick or skewer
• O-shaped cereal

1. Stand a skewer or stir stick straight up into a wad of play dough.


2. Count the O-shaped cereal as you put it on the stick. (Sadie didn't do this part. She just put them on the stick!)

Voila! So easy.

Picture Collage

I finally finished Sadie's picture collage now that her 18 month pictures have arrived. Sadie's was missing a picture frame and really felt kitty-wompous, but even after adding the picture and rearranging some of the other pics without putting too many extra holes in the wall it still feels a bit kitty-wompous. Now I feel like I liked the old way better; maybe it will grow on me. It's that darned upper-right hand corner picture that feels off. What do you think?



These collages are above the each of kid's bed. I made the letters by applying fabric to pre-made paper mache' letters using spray glue. Here's E's:

Mother's Day Cards

I am not a scrapbooker, but I love the idea of scrapbooking. I love paper, ribbon, pens, scissors, buttons, glue, stamps, and stickers and all the other fun stuff that goes along with scrapbooking. In order for me to fill my desire to buy lots of paper, ribbon, pens, scissors, button, glue, stamps and stickers I make cards instead.
The cards pictured above are the Mother's Day cards that I sent out a wee bit late. To my defense, I was waiting for Sadie's 18 month pictures to come in so I could include them in the card. I do love writing letters, but I don't have that much to say where I have to send a letter twice in one week. It's hard to tell, but the little pocket is holding a packet of tea. The same concept could be used for gift cards or to hold a stash of cash for the graduate. These are the first cards that I've ever used my sewing machine on and the stitching turned out kind of cute.

Author of the Week: Frank Asch

One of my favorite book characters of all time is Moonbear created by author/illustrator Frank Asch. While Mr. Asch has written many books, his most well known books are the Moonbear books. Moonbear is a sweet, curious and adventurous little bear. Along with his friend, Little Bird, Moonbear plays with the moon and believes that the moon is playing back because of mother nature's mysteries: echoes, clouds, and shadows to name a few. Moonbear's innocence is charming and delightful. The illustrations are bright and bold and out-lined which makes the pictures seem to glow. These books are simple enough for even the youngest child, but enjoyable for the young school-age crowd as well. Check out Moonbear, delight in his ways, and go back for more!

Our CSA

Today was the first day for our CSA pick-up. For those of you who don't know CSA stands for community-supported agriculture. Basically, you buy a share of a farm and during the spring/summer/fall months you receive a portion of the farm's production each week. You can read more about it here. We chose a farm new to CSA called 2silos. We chose them, because they are a chicken farm that has a garden on the side, so each week we will get organic eggs along with other produce. They have other programs like "Meet Your Meat" where you choose and help slaughter your chicken to take home and eat, which sounds like a real mess to me, but also educational and perhaps a little fun. This week, because it's relatively early in the season we got a hodge-podge of things: a dozen eggs, garlic, goats milk soap, pesto cheese (not pictured), garlic, sage, spinach, and pickles. I'm excited to see what surprises we will receive each week. Check out Local Harvest to find a CSA farm near you.

Here's our eggs. Aren't they the most beautiful eggs ever? I love the green ones and the light brown eggs that are speckled brown. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Angry Chicken

Seriously, if you have not stopped by Amy Karol's blog Angry Chicken, you really need to. Your life will be changed by doing so. I want her to be my mom (not that my mom isn't great), no wait, I want to be her or at least live inside her mind for a brief while. She's that cool. She's crazy creative and tries all sorts of fantastic stuff that I then have to try too. And she has a book that I've borrowed from the library and have made several things from.
She's inspired me to freeze beans, freeze rice, make a shirt and a bonnet, and want to try to wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar. She makes really cool things for her girls, one of which is named Sadie. And now she's introducing us to different paper projects that really I'm not that interested in, but she linked to this website that I think looks like loads of fun!! I'm so going to make this jumping jack and this cup and ball toy. Stop by and check her out. She just might inspire you too.

Planting A Rainbow

Marie over at Make and Takes has a special storytime every week that highlights a story and an activity to go along with the story. Several weeks ago she spot-lighted Lois Ehlert's Planting A Rainbow. We snagged her idea because it sounded like a lovely way to spruce up our humble little spot in front of our apartment as our patch of dirt was looking very glum. Eli picked out the flowers, you'll notice that there are pink and white flowers in our rainbow because he couldn't bear to not get them and green is represented by a small spider plant. I did all the planting because Eli and Sadie were too busy playing with trucks in the dirt to help.
Our dirt patch before:
And after:

Lacing Cards

I've wanted to buy Eli some lacing cards for some time, but I just hated the thought of shelling out $14 for the things. Instead, I decided to make my own. They ended up being very simple and cheap to make. Because I'm not an artist, I used clipart enlarged to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, printed it off on cardstock, cut out the picture, hole-punched every 1 inch or so and voila! Lacing cards in about 5 minutes. Eli stitches them up with a blunt point tapestry needle and yarn. If you are an artist, you can draw a picture on cardstock, a shirt box, or tagboard, then cut it out and add holes.

Making Kites

Back in my teaching days, I used to make this kite with my class every year. They are super simple, you can make them with items you already have in your house and, this is the biggie, they actually fly.

Materials (per kite):

• 1 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper
• 1 wooden skewer (like you use for Kebabs
• 1 3 in. x 1 in. piece of cardboard
• 12 feet of light weight string (yarn works)
• 2 feet streamer or surveyors tape
• tape
• paper punch
• (Maybe) paperclips (if your kite is really whirling around in the wind)

Let's get started:

1. Take your piece of paper and fold it in half so your paper is now 8 1/2 x 5 1/2.


2. I have drawn a line so you can see how you're supposed to fold the paper, but you do not have to do so. Fold the paper open so there is a diagonal fold. It should now look like a kite shape. Place tape all the way down that fold.


3. Place the wooden skewer across the widest points of the kite and tape in place.


4. Flip the kite over and fold the flap back and forth until it stands straight up. Measure about 1/3 of the way down from the top, place a piece of tape around the flap (so the string doesn't tear the hole) and punch a hole.


5. Tie one end of the string to the hole and wrap the rest of the string around your cardboard rectangle.


6. Flip the kite back over and tape the streamer to the bottom of the kite. If your kite is really whirling in the wind you may need to add some paperclips to the bottom of your streamer.


7. Now it's time to fly a kite!!


Dennis and I had more fun than the kids did!!

Fabric Matching

This game idea came from How To Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin. It is ideal for helping to develop your child's sense of touch. It involves a basket filled with different kinds of fabric: wool, cotton, silk, terrycloth, corduroy, fleece and the like. Cut out two squares of each kind of fabric and place them in a basket. With your child's eyes closed ask your child to find the pairs of fabric squares that feel the same. When he thinks he's found the match, he can open his eyes and check his work. I started the activity by having the kids feel each of the fabrics and we talked about how they felt and tried to describe them. I got a lot of "This feels good." So, I tried to give Eli some new adjectives such as: soft, smooth, silky, cuddly, etc. (Sadie spent the whole time trying to use the small fleece square as a blanket.) To simplify the activity, I put only one of each type of fabrics in the bowl and gave him one that he had to find the match. He loved the idea, but it was a bit tricky for him.

Author of the Week: Kevin Henkes

In case you didn't know, I was a teacher before I changed my job title to SAHM. I've taught grades 6, 2, 3, 1, transitional-first, and kindergarten, in that order! Not that it in any way makes me a great author reviewer, but it does mean that I've read A LOT of children's books. Some books are good, even fewer books are great (where you can read them over and over and over and never tire of them) and lots of books are just ho-hum.

When I had my own classroom, after recess the "student of the day" always got to choose a book for me to read. This is going to sound horrible and I'm sure I'm going to offend someone and get some hatemail for saying this, but I always dreaded this story-time, even though the kids loved picking a book for me to read. For whatever reason, kindergartners and first graders love Clifford, Berenstain Bears and Curious George. They love that they can relate to what happens in these stories and that the characters are familiar. However, after reading Clifford for the 100th time, I'm about ready to die of boredom, I can hardly muster the energy to be enthusiastic about reading (don't get me wrong though, any book is better than no book and if your kid loves one of those characters by all mean keep reading it to them)! So, when it was my turn to pick a book to read aloud, I often reached for my all-time favorite author, Kevin Henkes.

Henkes is the author of a series of books with the most lovable mouse characters: Lilly, Chrysanthemum, and Owen to name a few. Each of these characters is humorous, lovable, and they are easy for everyone to relate to. They come with issues, real-life pre-school issues, like getting a new sibling that they don't enjoy too much in Julius the Baby of the World, not loving their name in Chrysanthemum, giving up a favorite blankey in Owen, being mean to their favorite teacher in Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, or incessant worrying in Wemberly Worried. The issues are dealt with with humor, compromise, love, acceptance and self-discovery.

The best part is that they are so fun to read. The words are lovely and lilting and they roll off of your tongue; there's repetition and alliteration and jokes only parents will get. Each page will make you smile. The pictures are charming and delightful. When you finish the book, you will wish for more. They're just that good :)

I should mention too that Henke's has other picture books as well (Eli loves Bailey Goes Camping). He has won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon, which is a lovely book and geared toward the toddler/pre-school set. He is also the author of several novels. How great is that? An author your kid can grow up with. Cool.

Casserole Patrol

I have the best mom's group in the whole entire world. You can tell me all you want about all the wonderful things about your mom's group, but I promise you, they just won't compare to MY mom's group. (Side note: Funny how we call it "mom's group" when it's supposed to be about the kids.) One of the really really great things about my mom's group is that when you have a baby, people will bring you over meals. Lots of meals. Lots of delicious meals, that will sustain you and your family for several days kind of meals. They deliver it to your home for free and they don't even care if you haven't showered for days and are still wearing your pajamas. They're just that kind of people. You know, the kind of people you fall in love with who calm you when your horomones are all over the place and offer advice for free when your kids are doing whatever weird things your kid happens to be doing and make you smile when you've had a really crappy day and take care of your kids when you're puking your brains out and your husband has a test kind of people. Did I mention that I love them? Well, I do. And one of these wonderful ladies just had a baby 3 weeks ago and today was my day to deliver a meal to her and her family. What did I make? Only the best casserole I know how to make:Baked Pasta with Tomatoes, Sausage and Cheese
adapted from Cooking Light

1 pound package uncooked ziti
1 pound hot Italian sausage
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Pepper
2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 Tbsp. Tomato paste
1 Tbsp. dried basil
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Cook pasta according to package directions.

3) Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage, onion and garlic until browned over medium heat. Add tomato paste, salt and pepper, dried basil and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

4) Combine pasta and tomato mixture. Place half of the mixture in a 4 qt. Casserole coated with cooking spray. Top with half of each cheese. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until bubbly. (If giving this for casserole patrol, don't bake it. Instead, cover and put it in your fridge until delivery. Have them bake it at 350 degrees for 20 covered and 15 minutes uncovered.)

P.S. The really great thing about this casserole is that it makes A LOT so I normally halve the recipe for my family. When I'm making it for casserole patrol, I make the full recipe and put it in two casserole dishes so I have one for giving and another for keeping. So, really, it's no extra work. I deliver the casserole with a bag of lettuce, a loaf of bread and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra. Don't you want to have a baby just so I can bring you over dinner?

Bread and Butter

I have this very romantic idea of the "old days" specifically pioneer days. I'm pretty sure this stems from "Little House on the Prairie" (the tv series, not the books) and Frontier House, the reality-series on PBS. I just love the idea of washing my clothes on a washboard and hanging them on the line to dry, having chickens, and canning rows and rows of beautiful vegetables that I grew in my own garden. This is just a silly pipe-dream because I have the hardest time getting up before seven, I really don't like gardening a whole lot and I have zero experience with chickens. Though, I have washed my clothes on a washboard and hung many a load of laundry out to dry!
In attempt to bring a little pioneer romance into my children's lives, we made homemade bread and butter. Ok, it's really not that romantic considering we used the bread machine to make the bread, but we did shake up our own butter.
Truth be told, I did most of the shaking. It takes a good thirty minutes to get butter and the kids were done in about 30 seconds, but they thought it was really funny watching me walk around shaking the heck out of two jars filled with cream and rocks (I couldn't find any marbles). This was the first time I've made butter and the process was very easy and quite amazing. You shake and shake and shake and shake and all of a sudden you have this solid mass which quickly becomes a chunk of butter and the leftover goodness, buttermilk, which is being saved for pancakes tomorrow. It tastes pretty amazing too. Here's my butter in my butter bell, which is a pretty terrific kitchen device if you like having spreadable butter. You should get one, all us cool girls are doing it.We made cinnamon raisin bread (I forgot to add the raisins during the "add mix-ins" cycle so it was just cinnamon bread) from this recipe I've had for years. It came out beautifully which surprised the heck out of me because usually it looks all kitty-wompous (my mom's word not mine). Kitty-wompous!?! I bet pioneering women used that word all the time, "No honey, don't build the sod house on that hill, it will be all kitty-wompous if you do."
I'm already on my way to being the perfect pioneer wife. Now, I just need to get some chickens...

Two Posts Today, Mother's Day and Lemonade

Yeah, I failed. No post yesterday. I didn't get to it at nap time and Dennis had lots of school work to do last night. (Priorities, I know...) So, I finished up a baby gift and went to bed early to read.

Let me tell you about Mother's Day. First of all, my very sweet husband and children bought me a plane ticket to spend three whole days with my BFF out in the Bay Area without them, not to mention flowers, homemade cards, and a green living book!! Oh, this is so exciting, I so need a little get-away. It's in July, so I have some time to plan what we're going to do. I think sleeping in, sipping wine and lots of girl talk are in order.

Secondly, Dennis and I spent most of the day in the ER with Eli as he was up most of the night before with a peeing problem. As in, having to go every 3 minutes and nothing coming out problem. So, after two trips to the ER (really long story about insurance and faulty lab work...) it turns out that he is really constipated, which was totally off my radar because he poops everyday. But, apparently, this is very common in little boys (that they poop, but don't get it all out) and the poop causes spasms in the bladder which is why he thinks he has to pee instead of poop. Anyways, he's cleansed his bowels and is now good to go!! I know, TMI. I'm just so glad we had to go to TWO emergency rooms to find out. Argh!

The Sadester and I made homemade lemonade yesterday. Here she is helping me juice the lemons:Isn't that juicer to die for? I got it for a birthday gift from the above mentioned BFF along with a box full of Meyer lemons from her lemon tree. She got the juicer here.

Freshly Squeezed Lemonade:

• 1 cup sugar + 1 cup water
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
• 3-4 cups cold water

1) Make a simple syrup by heating water and sugar together until sugar is dissolved.

2) Meanwhile, juice lemons.

3) Combine syrup, lemon juice and cold water. Refrigerate.

Garage Sales, Dolls and Such

Saturday, I spent the morning garage sale shopping and came home with a load of good stuff: converse shoes, pants for the Sadester, alphabet beads, sorting animals, puzzles, books and a gigantor white board with working markers.

The best deal of the day were three wooden doll families. Each family came with a grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, sister and brother. Except that in one of the families the grandpa has apparently gone to heaven because he is no longer with the set.

I made this little dollhouse frame with directions from Cookie Magazine using foam core board and scrapbook paper. I like it because I can take it apart, throw it in the closet and it doesn't take up any space which is really important when you live in a 700 square foot apartment! The kids made their own furniture using wooden blocks and spent most of their playtime putting the family to sleep.