Photo by LelandsMommy

Games, puzzles, toys, building blocks, dollhouse play, arts and crafts, fort building, video games, reading, there are a lot of activities you can play with your kids, if you're so inclined.

What are you and your kids' favorite activities to play together?

Photo by rach_jaco

"Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away." It's Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary this week, so I thought I'd do a link roundup toasting to this beloved series.

I do love a cardboard playhouse (not an $89 cardboard playhouse, mind you...), and this new Color Me House and Color Me Rocket can turn into hours and hours of good creative fun for toddlers. Plus, it's low impact on the planet when they're done...

Photo from Cafe Sheri; Little Hero Cape from Mahar Drygoods

This little initial superhero cape is not a Halloween costume idea (although it certainly could be and might be if I don't get my act together LOL) but more a fun idea for every day play.

Photo by L0stNL0v3

"He's really into gun play," said one of Leo's preschool teachers when she pulled me aside a few weeks ago. She wasn't freaked out or coming down on my parenting. It's just a school rule: No gun play.

I wasn't all that freaked out, and sadly, I wasn't the least bit shocked either.

Many of you know Katie, aka aurorabunny, a Daily Buzz reader and devoted mom to 3 year old Brody, who is on the severe end of the autistic spectrum. He uses sign language to talk, and until recently had been prone to being easily overwhelmed in loud places or when meeting strangers. He would bang his head and pull his hair in moments of frustration.

This year aurorabunny enrolled him an "inclusionary" school for children with developmental disabilities. He's in a class with only four other little boys and twice that many therapists and teachers.

It's not easy. She drives two hours round trip every day to get there. It's costing her a small fortune, she had to sell her house to afford it but ... it's been so worth it.

Brody is doing wonderfully, and I asked her to share this good news to reassure moms that in the right place and with the right teachers, autistic children are indeed capable of incredible things:

Photo by Jtenderhart

I used to LOVE building play forts when I was kid, and I've been known to encourage my kids to build forts in their room. Sometimes I regret the mess, but it's so fun!

Now your family's fort-making skills can win your family an Xbox 360!

My daughter is part Irish, Swedish, German, and Cat. That's as in meow. She gets that gene from my side of the family. I love, love, love back scratches and massages of any kind. I don't care who the person is ... friend, family, man, woman, stranger, serial killer ... or on which part of my body ... back, head, toes ... I curl up into a ball and melt into pleasure at the slightest touch of nails on my skin.

So of course, the bedtime ritual at my house always is, "Mommy, can you rub me?" "Mommy, you forgot to rub me!' "Mooommmy, I'm not going to sleep unless you rub me!!!"

It's never too early to start planning for Halloween, right? Rookie Moms has a roundup of toddler costumes for under $25, including this busy little Bumble Bee Costume for $20.99. Want more?

Photo by my2luvbugs

Those little toddler sandboxes shaped like turtles or crabs are such a great idea. You can stick them anywhere, even in the smallest of yards or patios, and your toddler will almost always find some type of creative activity to play in them.

What I didn't realize was how expensive the sand is!

We considered building our own sizable on last year, but after we priced out the sand, we scrapped the idea. I forget the exact total, but it came to something like $200 for the number of bags of superfine sandbox sand we'd need.

For those who have made the investment, the good news is it's not necessary to replace the sand every year, or even empty and store the receptacle, the Toddler Moms say.