Reverse play pen

Patrick really wanted to play with the marble race this afternoon after school so I brought up the bucket from the basement.  All the marbles are in a tupperware containor so I knew W wouldn't be able to get them.  Strict instructions to the kids about keeping the marbles away from the baby and if they let him have any, playtime would be over.  I figured William would enjoy chewing on some of the track pieces while P built and they could kind of play together, side by side. 

Thats how it started out anyway.  Patrick building a marble race, and W exploring the bin and pulling out random pieces. 

 Then Kathryn got in on the fun too, building her own marble race alongside the boys.

 Unfortunately from here it deteriorated.  William only wanted the pieces that Patrick was trying to work with and kept crawling thru the construction site.

So, I built P&K a "playpen" using the kitchen chairs.  I allowed William access to the box of pieces but not to their building area.

 It worked really well!  W enjoyed walking along the chair seats and watching P&K play.  I left a space by the buffett that they could exit from if they wanted to. 

P&K had a great time building uninterrupted, and eventually William lost interest. 

I was inspired to do this by a story from my Uncle John.  He told me Grandma would put him in the playpen so he could read without Uncle Bob interferring, while Uncle Bob wrecked havoc on the rest of the room.  And everyone was happy!