31 Days of Play! The Backpack

Beansprout's bag October 2011:
3 jars of Play-Doh, 2 books, 1 marker, roll of crayons, 1 diaper, diaper wipes,
snack bar, Kleen Kanteen, Grover Enviro Sac,
toy cement mixer, 2 Thomas trains with coal cars, 1 toy tractor, 1 toy school bus

After examining the contents of my purse in yesterday's post, What's in Your Bag?, I thought I should mention that anytime I'm planning on breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a restaurant, I usually try to bring along Beansprout's backpack.  I started stocking his backpack pretty well after our trip to Michigan this last August and (after having seen the contents of my purse) think you may be surprised to see that it's quite organized!  Realizing that I'd elbow my neighbor trying to find anything in his backpack in flight, I decided to try the bag-within-a-bag trick.  The inspiration comes from both a post I read on A Little Delightful about her organized purse, which puts my hodge podge of a purse to shame, and a post on "busy bags" from The Princess and the Tot via Ohdeedoh.  I found make-up bags at the Dollarama that were perfect for the job and I'm still using a few of them to keep things under control today.

It's wonderful to see all the contents of his backpack at one time - evidence of what stage is at in his development and his play.  Cars, trucks, trains, cars, trucks, trains, cars, trucks, trains. He gives crayons and Play-doh a try once-in-awhile, but the only thing he really wants to do is play with all things that GO!

Do you have a bag of tricks for your kids?  How have they differed through the years?  Do you remember taking along a prized toy when you were a kid?

Check out my other posts about play here!  Is there anything you'd love to read about regarding play?  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!