Joint Christmas Present

For Christmas this year, I got the girls a joint gift: a giant cardboard castle that can be decorated with magic markers in any way the owners see fit.  They were THRILLED about this gift, and got to work right away, Christmas afternoon.

I had expected them to color what would be the outside of the castle; instead, they opted to view the outer cardboard as a castle interior, so when they put the castle together, it looks like they're just inside a fancily-cut cardboard box:

Inside the box, however, is where the magic is happening:

Another expectation of mine that was proved false was that the girls would actually play-act as characters inside the castle.  Instead, the castle is home to ALL of their family figurines: the Hispanic family, the Caucasian family, the Black family, the Native American family, and Madeleine's new Christmas gift, the Disabled Persons set.  Seeing as Madeleine has been obsessed for over a year with the idea of broken legs, crutches, and wheelchairs, I thought she would enjoy having some figurines with casts, walkers, and such.  I did NOT, however, expect her to blatantly name the family "The Disabled Family."

The family name is displayed proudly on one of the interior castle walls, near the family name of "Snowflake," the last name given to one of her previously owned figurine sets.

At any rate, although this castle was not utilized as I had imagined upon buying it, if it's a new home for ALL the figurines, this means that I can finally recycle the piles and piles of individual cardboard box homes and schools that the girls previously made for these families, so it's a win-win!