Despite the best decorating intentions

About a year ago, I decided that I could no longer tolerate having a centerpiece on my kitchen table. I found that my kids were constantly eating or playing at the table and I was constantly having to remove the centerpiece. After going through this routine several times a day, I thought it best to save myself the aggravation and nix said centerpiece altogether. Now in all honesty, it wasn't just about moving said centerpiece a gazillion times a day. I also noticed that whatever the centerpiece, it would somehow become compromised. For example, if it was floral in nature, I would find that flowers had mysteriously been removed. If it was some sort of tiny faux fruit, I would come upon a heavy barrage of fruit flying through the air in some sort of dodge ball...er dodgefruit...game. Believe me, if there was some way to destroy my centerpiece, my two kids were definitely all about it. (Despite my constant pleas to leave it alone!)
So today, I had a tempting thought. I had just finished cleaning my kitchen to a shine, and thought that maybe, just maybe, since the kids will be back to school on Tuesday, I could pull out a nice centerpiece for the kitchen table. I went downstairs to my supply cabinet and pulled out this red wire bowl. I always loved it and decided to add some faux yellow pears. (Do I really need to tell you that one pear in my collection had a stem pulled and was dangling? Hmmm...I wonder how that happened.) Anyway, I displayed my red wire bowl with the pears and stepped back, pleased with the overall look.
I then went to get in the shower. Ten wonderfully refreshing minutes later, I returned to the kitchen to find this:


Ugh!!! How is this possible? In ten minutes while I showered, my son decided to use my centerpiece as some sort of war apparatus for his Lego Star Wars Clone Wars characters! I admit it, I did get a laugh out of it, but why, oh why, won't they leave my centerpieces alone?