Nerf Bullets

I have three children, two boys and a girl, ages 8, 6 and 4. This means I have what can only be compared to the inside of a Toys 'R Us warehouse within the walls of my house. If you think about it, I probably have a 10 year span of age-appropriate toys. There are still baby toys like Sophie the Giraffe floating around here along with duplos and other toys my daughter has mostly outgrown. There are all of the toys she currently plays with (babies, ponies, barbies, dress up clothes, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera) plus all of toys her brothers have that they don't play with like dinosaurs and cars and all the ones they do play with like legos. On top of that, my husband and I have a garage sale problem, so we have several boxes of K'nex for when they get a little older. Oh, and the stuffed animals! Those things migrate EVERYWHERE!! I spend a fair amount of time relocating these creatures to their natural habitat...which is not my living room.

But for any of the complaining I have ever done about picking up toys...nerf bullets take the cake. Those things are EVERYWHERE!!! And I do mean EVERYWHERE. I have found them in the bathroom, in our bed,  under the kitchen table, in between the couch cushions; those things are in every. single. room. in. this. house. I get my daily squats in just picking up those blasted nerf bullets. This all started about a year ago when my boys began a healthy interest in nerf guns. In that time, we have accumulated a small nerf arsenal. I am pretty sure we could have at least 8 other boys here for a nerf war and have enough guns and bullets for everyone. Now, I am stepping on or picking up nerf bullets on a regular basis. I need little baskets in each room where I can just drop off the nerf bullets to save myself a trip upstairs to my kids' rooms. And I just don't understand how I am the only person in this house who seems to see the nerf bullets. How could you miss them??? They are bright orange!!!

I will tell you what, though. As crazy as those nerf bullets drive me, I wouldn't trade them for anything. Seeing them (everywhere!) reminds me I have three laughing, happy children spreading those nerf bullets like bird seed around the house. They set up targets and practice together. They play and they laugh and that alone makes every single nerf-bullet-picking-up-squat worth it.

There's also the fact that I am not kneeling on legos, which only have you done it can you imagine the pain. So there's that.