Keeping track of little treasures

Both my kids love stuff. What stuff you ask? Pretty much anything that could create a collection or could be reused for an arts and crafts project. When Megan was little, she used to collect sticks and rocks and walk around with them in her hand while we were at the park. Megan was also big into recycling materials for arts and crafts projects. Upon seeing a piece of string, she used to exclaim, "OOOhh, I *need* that!" I would respond with, "No you don't. It's a piece of string."

"Yes I do!" she would lament.

"What are you going to do with a piece of string???"

"I need it for crafts."

"Whatever." And then I would cave and let her keep it because seriously, who wants to argue with an artist about what materials she needs to create her masterpiece?

Jack on the other hand doesn't usually collect stuff for projects. He collects stuff just to uh, well...collect stuff, I guess. He takes all the little treasures he finds and creates what he calls "set ups". He finds a few little treasures and then he carries them around everywhere for about a week or so until something else catches his eye. Here is his latest set:



When Jack describes this latest set, he refers to the three aliens as "the dudes", the car as "the vehicle" and the crucifix as "Jesus on a stick". We (and by we, I mean Jack) misplaced the set the other day and so it was M.I.A. until this morning. Jack has been hounding me to find it. Bright and early this morning, Jack came into my room to wake me up. His first words to me were, "Uh, Mommy? Did you find my Jesus on a stick?"

Now that he had "the vehicle, the dudes and Jesus on a stick" in hand, the creation of the set up began. As Jack described the set up, he pointed out the Jesus on a stick and explained that he was up in the corner because, "He's up here suffering. People didn't believe Jesus so they put him on the stick to see him suffer. See him suffering up there?"