Saggy Bottom Boys: the box

Yesterday morning we were playing outside in the BEAUTIFUL Springlike weather, and our neighbors, Jerry and Jackie, drove by and offered us a box. hmmm... a box. They said, we have this great big box on our front porch if you want to come by and get it. It would be a great fort!
So off we went to retrieve the box.
Before we even made it home, Walter and Grant had discovered the thrills of the box. It's a rectangular-shaped box, so there are all kinds of ways to get into it. We sat it on each of its sides and played for a little while, trying to work out which way was the best way to play in it.
It's funny, because when Nana was here, we were trying to figure out the name of one of my favorite books when I was a child. It was a library book that we checked out once and then kept for months and months and months before finally returning to the library (why didn't we just keep it??) It was about this little girl who becomes the proud owner of a big refrigerator box. Her mom lets her play with it in the yard, and she reinvents ways to use it... a fort, a castle, a boat, a racecar, and finally a dance floor. It was such a good book, but I could never remember the name of it. My mom and I googled it. "Childrens book box." Something like that. She finally found it on Amazon. It's out of print, so I ordered a used copy and got it later that week.... this was just about a week ago, and now we have this wonderful box for Walter and Grant to play in! (By the way, the name of the book is Christina Katerina and the box.)
When I left for a baby shower yesterday, the box was still in the garage, still merely a box, but when I returned, ChiChi and Poppee were over, and they had all turned it into a house! They turned it onto one of its sides, unfolded one end and taped it up for the roof, and unfolded another end for the door. And they cut out a couple of windows.
So I was a little bit disappointed not to be a part of that, but then Poppee reminded me that I could be the one to PAINT IT! How fun.
That's what we did this afternoon. I painted one side of the box, and Walter and Grant, along with Maya, painted the rest. It was really fun. At the end of the day, we had paint in hair, on faces, and of course all over clothes. I love that the weather is warmer and we can do this kind of thing again. I am so glad my boys get to be dirty little boys! Walter was running around outside in his diaper by the end of it (I had to bribe him to keep his diaper on).
Thanks, Jerry and Jackie, for the fun project! We loved it.
Here are a few pictures of Maya, Grant and Walter with the box....