Our good friends from Canada stayed several days with us over the Labor Day weekend. They had two of their grandsons with them. They were delightful young men ages 11 (almost 12) and 10 years old.

I asked them if they would create ‘roads’ for Matchbox cars using masking tape. I asked them to be creative, to have the roads go all over the house. And so they did. They had roads going around our footstools in the family room, under an end table, behind the couch, up the stairs, and into the living room

They used blocks to create tunnels and bridges. The 10 year-old used blocks to create a city with a skyscraper, an office building, a Target store (using a red Duplo block), a fast food drive in, and homes.

They really got into the activity and had lots of fun. This kept them entertained for a couple of hours. Here are some pictures of their creative endeavors.

Our grandson that lives nearby wasn’t home the day that these fine young men created this road system. So tonight, I invited him to come over to play (and his parent to come, too, and have cookies and ice cream — gotta bribe the parents to get them here, you know . . .)

He played on the roads, too. (But was sidetracked by a Fischer Price Main Street play center for cars and didn’t play as much on the roads as did the other boys.  Maybe my grandson was a tad too young to enjoy it??) Here are some pictures of our grandson. I think he almost enjoyed pulling up the masking tape when it was time to ‘remove’ the roads more than he did driving cars on them.

So here’s my suggestion. Get a roll or two of masking tape. You might even want a roll that is more than 1 inch wide. Have a get-together, give your grandchildren the masking tape, and let them have at it! Encourage them to be creative in designing their roads and towns. Make sure that you spend time playing on the roads and not just building them. Be sure to take lots of pictures.

You might want to give each grandchild their own car. They can take the car with them when they go home. Make sure that you have a treat afterwards. Road construction sure can make you hungry. You might want to have the Cars fruit snack (based on the movie ‘Cars’).

If you have some grandchildren that live far away, send them a ‘road construction’ kit in a box. Send them masking tape, a Matchbox car, and explanation of what to do. Oh, and send the Cars fruit snacks, too. Ask them to take pictures and share them with you.

I hope you have as much fun with this activity as we did!