The "Ballerina Machine."

The controls which operate the Ballerina Machine and the keys to unlock said controls.
Evan entering the Ballerina Machine
Almost made it in
Evan is now inside the Ballerina Machine
Exiting the Ballerina Machine
Locking up the Ballerina Machine "so strangers don't get inside."

As the weather continues to cool down and the days grow shorter, we find ourselves spending more and more time indoors. The boys used their imaginations and concocted "The Ballerina Machine." They created their machine by pushing together their Thomas the Train playhouse, their toolbench, their picnic table, a set of baby keys and one of Cami's toys. After all these items are pushed together, one must turn the machine on and maneuver through the various segments. I needed to know the purpose of this machine, so Evan and I had the following conversation:

Me: "What's this?"
Evan: "My Ballerina Machine."
Me: "What do you do with the machine?"
Evan: "You go through it."
Me: "And when you come out, have you been turned into a ballerina?"
Evan: "No, Mom. We go through it because it's fun." (Duh!)

I'm not sure where this idea came from. The only thing I can think of is that the boys view ballerinas as the antithesis of masculinity (my apologizes to any male ballet dancers reading this), so a boy going through a ballerina machine is the silliest thing on earth. In fact, this is so much fun, the Ballerina Machine is assembled on a daily basis.

With creative juices like theirs, you can see why I have to cover an abundance of gray hair.