Adventures in Cardboardland

First it was Little Bear's space hat.

Then the hat turned into a drum. Pretty good run for a granola bar box.

The drum made Meg want an electric guitar. Hmmm. We had frozen pizza boxes waiting to meet the recycling truck. A pizza box guitar? I thought I could. If Meg was going to have a guitar, Matthew wanted a bass. The other pizza box. Done. The drum was relegated to Esme's use. Now we had a band.

Meanwhile, Matthew had two projects that were all his own. One he made without us ever seeing it until--voila--he produced the finished "stwetch wimosine."

A long cardboard tube with a Hotwheels car jammed in either end and some sections colored black for windows. Brilliant.

The other project started as tiny bits of paper towel tube glued together in a rough line. All Matthew could tell us was that he was making "a decoration." Ooookay. After about a week of working diligently in short spurts, he started calling it a house. One day he demanded "a BIG piece of paper." I taped two pieces of printer paper together and, before I knew it, the mystery decoration was indeed a house.

Then Matthew decided he would make a laptop computer. Diaper box. And Meg decided the same. Cereal box. And Esme needed a little bitty one. Diaper box again. So now we have an office full of little... writers? Programmers? You-Tubers?

And, though I don't have pictures, I now remember that Matthew's first inspiration was a cardboard cell phone. I think he made four of them.

Dave and I are delighted by the creativity. Oh, the riches of the recycle bin!

Newsflash: Meg and Matthew just this very moment came inside and informed me that a neighbor has given them "a cardboard jail." They made off with the crayons and disappeared back outside. Evidently, the adventures are still going strong.