1m2aSandbox

Yesterday was dominated by a bad weather threat all over north Texas; after the events in Oklahoma on Monday I spent the entire morning working on turning my fear over to God and leaving Him in control of my girls. Not an easy task when you’re a mama, but I tried. As I saw the weather forecast predicting that the bad storm would hit right around school pick-up time, I decided to play it safe and had the girls come home from school after lunch.

In other words, Early Release Day.

In other words, Extra Play Day.

Within minutes of coming home, Maddie had run to the garage and gotten out our Invention Box. The Invention Box is where we put all the things that are broken and unable to be Freecycled but we simply can’t bear to throw away. Examples of such items would include a stray silver marble; plastic netting from a bag of oranges; a rusted spark plug found in the alley; the spring from an empty ball-point pen; and many, many toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes.

The Invention Box is our own little junk shop through which the girls can rummage when they come up with an idea and want to build it. Yes, we really geek out this way.

So Maddie got busy making a working model of a water park. A model that’s roughly to scale, because Maddie plans on testing it out as a model, then building it full-size for people. This summer. And of course, every good Invention starts with a test model. Which means Maddie roughed the idea out on paper, scavenged the Box, and set to work. Not wanting a large tub of water and sand in our house, I sent her outside to work until the rain started. At some point she decided she needed art clay to finish it off, and so happily sat on our side porch, surrounded by clay and stray objects, puttering and muttering to herself.

Cora, not surprisingly, went straight for art projects, wanting to do a paint-your-own-kite kit she’d just gotten for her birthday. Unfortunately, Cora had homework to do first, and my gentle reminder on that subject won me stares and sighs and exhausted eye rolls. And tears. And some time to Think Things Over.

By the time Cora had Thought Things Over the storm had started, and she decided she’d rather play a fun game – in, coincidentally, our storm closet. She helped me get our closet all set with flashlights and pillows and stuffed animals, then crawled in to have some fun.

And that’s how our afternoon was spent: the girls went back and forth working on inventions, playing with clay off and on, and concocting elaborate games in the storm closet. We hung out in the closet for a while putting on shadow puppet shows and telling each other stories; the girls played board games; and we managed to have a good time in spite of the harsh storm raging outside.

Hmmm – here’s hoping I didn’t make it TOO fun and we have trouble going back to school tomorrow.