a box can be even more things

The cousins came to visit this past weekend, so we found even more creative uses for boxes. We didn't share this book:

But, we should have.  For a particularly large box was saved from the recycling bin and found life as a boat for pirates:

Cousin Lily checks the navigation charts and Cousin Cappy looks through the telescope as we argue about the strange  creature in the sea. Water Dragon or Mermaid? 

Something tells me that this box will not  be seeing the recycling bin for a long time:

canoeing with a cardboard paddle and a spatula. 

this week in our garden

We've added some colorful flowers to our vegetable gardens:

I told the Sasquatch that I bought them for Rain Dragon (and she does like them quite a bit) but I admit I bought them for myself, too. They remind me of a little scene in one of my favorite books, New Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. In that book, the children decide to plant a garden plot with flowers for their mother's birthday. However, they find out that it is better to plant the seedlings without flowers which they think will look dull on birthday morning, so they decorate the garden with huge, brilliantly colored paper flowers.  While these flowers aren't paper and probably a bit bigger (and less realistic) then those in the book, it gives me that same little cozy happy feeling whenever I see them.

A Box Can Be Many Things

Rain Dragon and I have been reading, A Box Can Be Many Things by Dana Meachen Rau and illustrated by Paige Billin-Frye

which caused this to happen:

and this:

I thought making the box car made me super parent of the day, but then the Sasquatch came up with... box helicopter!

the propeller really spins!

Luckily, Rain Dragon loves them both and when she is not in them, she makes sure they are always parked safely:

Though she has requested a rocket ship, next...

grace and the giant...

Recently, I've been rereading one of my favorite children's books James and the Giant Peach. Since then, I've had many a giant fruit sighting. Perhaps something is calling me to write...

Grace and the Giant Orange? Don't like that? How about...

Grace and the Giant Strawberry?

Too bad I wasn't able to get a photo of the giant pineapple.