A CASTLE IN THE PANTRY

parenting tip: having trouble getting your teenager up for school? call his cell phone. works for us.


Now, it is castle time for our sixth grader. Every year the sixth graders do a medieval unit and they get to build a little castle with moat, murder hole, stable, etc. Blake had to do his alone and I remember helping him wrap little boxes and draw bricks on them.

Kayla gets to work with a partner. So, since Alexis's mom does daycare in her home, our house is the castle house. Yesterday they raided my pantry and fridge for different boxes and containers that would work for the castle. They each ate a cup of yugurt and then dumped 4 other cups in a tupperware container so they could use yougurt cups on the corners of the murder hole and around the wall. Then they emptied 2 boxes of oatmeal into ziploc bags and, after I jotted down the directions, they emptied 6 boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix into small zip lock bags and double bagged them, 3 each into a large ziplock bag, per my instructions. Then they proceeded to paint all the boxes and yogurt cups gray. All of this after I ran to Staples to buy a foam board ( on which the castle will stand, and around which the mote will flow) craft sticks for the draw bridge, tempura paint and a roll of brown craft paper.
So at 5:30 my counter top barely had room for the pizza I ordered because it was still full of the boxes that had not been deemed "castle-worthy". By the way, I am already eager for fall - mainly because the girls dragged out all of my tea and coffee boxes and it made me eager for cold nights in front of the fire place with a steaming cup of something.
But Kayla cleaned the counter, we ate some pizza and headed to the mall to buy shoes and earrings for her spring dance tonight. Thank you, Lord, for Payless. I've gone and blinked again and she is all grown up again for another dance.
Also, my son has twice this week come upstairs and said "mom I've turned out the lights and locked up so you don't have to go back down..." Paul's in London and Blake is really helpful when his dad's gone. Do I really miss the days of bedtime stories and hi-ho cherry-o? Yes.