Summer Nights: The Cardboard Box House Part II.

For Part I. click here.

The moment they'd been begging for had finally arrived....sleeping out in "the house."

They pulled it apart and reassembled it in our back yard, and then in went the pillows...
and the ants, and the mosquitos, and the air freshener, (which is a must when sleeping in cardboard houses)....and the flashlights, the silly string, the food (for the ants)...it's a wonder there was any room for people.


...and blankets....because damp and chilly were on the way!
(I did remember to turn off the sprinkler before I went to bed!)
The brave souls were assembled...Katie, Timmy and a neighbor.
And Lily.
I had already told Lily that she was NOT ready for sleepovers in cardboard boxes all night in the back yard.


Which is what makes this picture a little confusing.
Unless you know Lily.
Then it's not confusing at all.
She's going with the "they didn't really mean it" course of action...



But then she sees my face.
This is her "maybe they did mean it after all" face.
The wheels are turning in there.
You've all seen it before.




This is Timmy's "Hey Hey Hey! Party in a Box!!!" face.
He's hiding the silly string behind his back!
But I know it's there...because I have x-ray vision...
...and I've been a mom for a really long time.




Still hiding it....He's so sweet.
Zach is sitting behind me as I type this.
He thinks Timmy gets special privileges.
Like sleeping out in a box....with no shirt... with two girls...
He wants to know what else Timmy has done.
We are ending this conversation.
Notice who's NOT in this picture.....

...because she was crying her heart out in the house....



Is your heart breaking yet?

Oh the sorrow she's seen.....

This face makes me think of country music lyrics....

This is ALMOST an "Andrew face." If I ever get a scanner, I'll show you one.

.

They did just fine all night long...and woke up cold, clammy and sore....but happy.

The End

.

And don't feel sorry for Lily...she gets way more "privileges" than any other four year old I know....like staying up late and drinking pop with groups of teenage guests, like owning the whole collection of Barbie movies so that she has something to watch when the other kids want to watch big kid movies, like having the whole last 16 years of Disney toys and movies handed down on a silver platter....and having four older siblings to laugh at her and get her out of trouble more often than not! I repeat: Don't feel sorry for Lily!