Cardboard Canvas
I thought my idea to turn the box from our new dishwasher into a makeshift playhouse for Clara was brilliant….
…until she decided it’d just be more fun to cover the house with graffiti.
Better these cardboard walls than our real walls, though!
Look at that little mullet (Sherry has since trimmed it again).
At least she was having fun. A big empty box = limitless entertainment.
And thank goodness for washable markers.
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When I was 4ish my parents took a refrigerator box, turned on it’s side, covered it with contact paper, and made it into a counter top with an imaginary sink and stove, while cutting doors into it. It acted as a toy box too. And a fort.
Then one day our cat went into it and had a litter of kitties, getting “goo” all over my stuffed animals.
Have never liked cats since. ;)
Hermosa :)
I’m 30 now, and I STILL remember the refrigerator box that my parents made into a playhouse for me when I was 3. It was alternately a castle, a cave, and a spooky old house that I was convinced had a ghost. Best childhood toy ever, and even more, it was FREE. (Aside from the cost of the fridge. :-) )
Looks like Clara is getting in touch with her inner interior decorator. Cardboard box walls is definitely better than regular walls!
cute! great idea.
Free toys make the best toys! She seems like a real focused artist.
She’s so left handed! And adorable :)
Yay! I was hoping you were going to turn the box into something fun for C!
Love it! My sister and I used to sit in a big cardboard box while the other one would pull it around the basement. That was a ton of fun for us! LOL Truly a fun item to have around.
Oh, how super fun!!! She looks so content in the box….and so focused when she’s drawing! I love that she brought her baby in the box for drawing fun!!!
Even your pictures of Clara look so much better in your bright kitchen update!
My life as I know it came to a close yesterday. My 6 MONTH old baby started a little backwards schooch. Which she performs pretty quickly! And now only wants to be put on the floor so she can practice.
Time to get those baby gates up :/
Did Clara take to her haircut better this time? Or were her noodles left covered in tears again?
She was a happy gal!
xo,
s
My parents got a new, smaller freezer a couple months ago (and gave us their old, large one!) and I asked to keep the box it came in. So huge and awesome for our two (4.5 years and almost 2) to play in. Except when we got it in the garage and found it was too wide for the door! Fail! I’m still not giving up; we’ll try the door to the basement or the front door in hopes they’re larger than our garage-to-house door! (I remember playing in a water heater box growing up, and it was so. much. fun!)
cute box! Do you guys plan to let her hair grow out eventually?
As soon as the top starts growing! Just the bottom does so it’s just a mullet so far.
xo,
s
have you trimmed the top at all? my son was born with a head full of hair, but only the top grew at first. when he got his first hair cut we trimmed the back, too and after that it started growing like crazy! (seriously, girls would kill for the head of hair my 20 mo old son has!!) if you haven’t trimmed the top, try trimming it just a little and see if helps the top to fill out a little faster.
Yes, I tried to lightly trim the top to help it grow. Nada so far. Haha.
xo,
s
Glad to see Clara got her own house out of the project!
How did the hair cutting go this time around? Do you have another video to share!?!
She was great! I just told her that her cousin got a haircut and she needed one like him and she was down.
xo,
s
My mom and dad always said they should just keep the cardboard boxes and give our toys away – because my brother and I tended to play with the cardboard boxes! And you can use your imagaination – even better!
lol what a fun idea. And I have to laugh at the mullet… my little boy had a hat on the other day and from the back he looked like some little old man with a thinning mullet… haircut that night ;)
living in a bland box? you can personalize it by putting some art up on the walls. cheap and easy decor fix! Clara is just following a basic apartment therapy prescription.
Hahaha. So true!
xo,
s
She is just so cute. I love that last picture of her. She looks so thoughtful, smart and sweet. She is growing up fast huh? Since my husband and I aren’t having kids, I love that I get to see Clara grow up! You seem to parents of the highest quality and that shows through in Clara. :)
(You seem to *be* parents of the highest quality.)
You’ve gotta love a big huge cardboard box.
http://www.amandadovewells.com/?page_id=45
Great idea!! My son is 8 months and loves boxes, paper, and bows WAY more than the actual gifts hiding in all that packaging. It’s a good reminder that kids do not need a lot of toys… they have more than enough imagination to invent their own games.
There’s nothing like a good box to keep the kidlets entertained!
I love it – Clara is staging her playhouse! Wonder where she learned that… :-)
Big empty boxes were our favorite toys as kids! Oh to be young and so easily entertained! :)
Adorable. How did the plane ride go…longest one ever or smooth sailing?
It definitely felt long (no nap) but Clara was awesome. Only a few too-loud happy squeals but no crying fits.
xo,
s
My boys made all kinds of things, from rocket ships to robot bodies to forts with cardboard boxes and markers…some of the most fun we had was watching what they did with their creations…enjoy!
She’s just “stenciling” her walls….without a stencil. HA! Too cute!
I used to go searching for those boxes on the street when I was a kid. Fridge boxes were even better.
This year for Christmas we got our nieces and nephews these: http://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Kids-Color-Play-Castle/dp/B005GQV160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329926649&sr=8-1
though I think we paid like $20 for them. Such a huge hit.
Love the mullet! Business in the front…
Adorable!!!
xo,
s
Did she write those ABCs? That is fantastic!!!! Way to go Clara! :-) As for the box fort, we’re currently living with one in our dining room and our 11 month old LOVES it!
Haha, that was us actually! She can identify all of her letters and most numbers so we write them and ask what we’re writing!
xo,
s
Hello Petersiks! Just wanted to show you the little cardboard house I made for my daughter last year (when she was about Clara’s age). The house was short-lived, but she loved it.
http://katherine-may.tumblr.com/post/17614664814
When my brother and I were little my mom made us a cardboard computer and a cardboard car that had a windshield and wipers. Coolest mom ever (still is).
So cute!
xo,
s
what a cute little lefty!
Super random, and someone may have already mentioned this but…do you think Clara is going to be a lefty? I noticed she was favoring her left hand during her ‘mural drawing’ in her new playhouse. :) Are either of you left handed?
Oh yes, she’s a very obvious leftie (she will change hands if you give her something in her right hand) – we’re proud! We’re not lefties but my dad and BFF are so we think it’s the mark of a brilliant and sweet person.
xo,
s
Is Clara a lefty?! Atta girl.
Yes! So proud! My dad and BFF are, so we have brilliant lefties in our life.
xo,
s
LOVE this idea! Such a simple idea, yet I would have never thought of it. So Clever! Amazing how easily they are entertained, isn’t it?
It looks like ya’ll might have yourselves a “lefty”, or am I reading the picture backwards? Are either one of you left handed?
We are not, but she has been a very obvious leftie for a while now. We’re proud because my brilliant father and sweet BFF are both lefties!
xo,
s
Cardboard boxes may be the greatest toy ever. You’re definitely fun parents for giving it to her. :)
I teach PreK and have found that big boxes like that are absolutely priceless. I went to a Sears outlet store and they loaded me up with them. So far, we’ve had a spaceship, a rocket, and a gingerbread house. They LOVE it!
LOVE IT!
xo,
s
ahhh…..she’s a lefty!
Oh yes, so proud of our little leftie!
xo,
s
So cute, did she like this better than the mini kitchen ya’ll made for her? Of course it won’t last as long, but it would be funny if she did considering it took you two seconds to make that and weeks to make the other one!
Thankfully her kitchen is her favorite thing so far! She wakes up and says “kitchen!” when we walk in to get her!
xo,
s
I love it! We did this for our daughter and she played with it for months. It became a stockpile for her stuffed animals though and you couldn’t even see the floor–haha. I love that fun can be so cheap!
You know, a cardboard box (along with things like a stick, blankey, etc.) actually made it into the Toy Hall of Fame…so I can see the entertainment value. It’s like when we buy toys for our pets. The dogs would rather eat our pillows than a Kong, and the cats would rather scratch our couches than a post! Needless to say, I see new furniture in our future…
ah, “kids”…
Just had to tell you and Katie B that Will may have a fight for Clara in a few years….this weekend, I watched the laundry video with my 2 yo, and he smiled the whole time, and at the end, he looked at me and said, aww, cute momma – AGAIN!! So, we watched it again, and he just kept saying, cute, cute!! And just so you know, he doesn’t say cute very often, so he was really liking it and Clara!!
OK – back to this post — LOVE the cardboard box — in the summertime when we were kids, my parents had bought a new fridge and my brother and I had the BEST time ever with that box! Ahhhh Memories!! good stuff.
Haha, so cute!
xo,
s
Go to the library when you return from Portland and check out Christina Katerina and the Box. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/875035.Christina_Katerina_the_Box
The book inspired months of play when we re-did our kitchen
Or take time to visit Powell’s Books while you are in Portland and pick up a nice used copy…
Love it!
xo
s
Haha, awe cute. Nothing more fun than a cardboard box. It reminds me of this “cardboard house” we made for my dog when he was a puppy when we got him when i was a kid. Okay, i was 14 but whatever.
I love it! My parents watched my daughter when she was around 1 1/2 years and they picked up a GIANT fridge box. We’re talking huge! My dad went to town on cutting out holes and doors and everything… my daughter loved it and she’d make everyone crawl inside with her (luckily we fit due to the size, although our backs were a little worn out from bending over).
This summer we are building a play house for her third birthday. I saw the greatest idea a few months ago though… paint the inside with chalkboard paint!!! My daughter LOVES it! So easy to wipe off and change things. I’ll be painting a door in my house with it too so we have it both inside and out.
My daughter is currently sporting the same hair as Clara and she is the same age. I haven’t cut it and I am impatiently waiting for it to grow… Maybe by her third birthday I’ll be able to make some pig-tales.
When my son was about 4 years old, and was already reading and writing, he did graffiti on a large box he’d turned into a playhouse. It read: “Keep Out Or Else!!!!!!!” I think the intruder was our Siamese cat, George.
Totally cute! I would be afraid she would escape with the markers in hand and get the walls instead. Like you said, thank goodness for washable markers!
Gosh, it seems like all of us have happy memories of a great cardboard box :) My brother and I loved ours, and Clara will remember hers for sure!
I love all your Clara updates! I am 10-ish years older than you guys and sometimes I feel about a million years older. (My kiddos are 12 and 13), but when I see much of your Clara stuff, goodness! It seems like only yesterday I was doing some of the same things with Emily and John. You two are really the epitome of real-life. :) Thanks!
Aw thanks Lucy! You’re so sweet.
xo,
s
I LOVE watching all of the Clara videos, her personality just cracks me up… she is way too cute for her own good! You can tell she brings so much joy to your life :) My husband and I are expecting our first baby this june and we are having a baby girl, and watching the adorable Clara in action just makes us even more excited for our little girl!! :)