A friend recently called us up and said she had received a patio set in the mail and had a giant box that she was planning on getting rid of unless we thought we could use it (thanks, Christine!!).
Well. There is NO BETTER TOY than a giant cardboard box! So, of course I said, “YES PLEASE!” and she even conscripted her poor husband to deliver the box to us, along with some other large pieces of cardboard (thanks, Greg!!).
Alden and August wanted to use the cardboard to make some cardboard friends. I did my best to trace them. Alden tried her best to keep still:
while August struggled a bit with the concept and kept looking around to see what was going on:
When that was done, they colored themselves in:
Alden was very careful with hers, and when it came time to cut her new friend (named “Alden” out) she insisted on supervising me very closely, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes (“she could lose a finger if you’re not careful, Mama!”):
Alden was delighted with Alden:
and has already made a (rather uncomfortable) bed for her in the no-longer-in-use cat tower.
Actually, given that August sleeps on a dog bed on the floor of the kids’ bedroom, this is pretty much par for the course for accommodations around here.
Alas, August’s friend was so destroyed by his attempts to color him in that I wasn’t even sure where to cut. Thankfully, August himself had already moved on and was no longer interested in creating his doppelgänger.
He had moved on because there was, of course, the giant box to contend with. While we had been making friends, Kato had been busy at work decorating the new fort. After cutting a couple windows and doors in the thing, it was ready for prime-time.
This was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. And perhaps the best thing about the fort is that it’s apparently tons of fun to take all the miscellaneous toys and puzzle pieces that were formerly strung all over the room and put them in your fort instead. Double bonus! Thanks so much, Christine and Greg!!