what's more fun than a box?

i got a new stove for mother's day. it's a beautiful new range-top/oven combination - with six burners! six burners, people. do you know how much food we can make on that? and the oven, the beautiful, large space that my cookie sheets will fit in and in which i can cook more than one thing at a time. love.

of course, though, the oven came in a huge box. and i think, considering the intense heat on the island this time of year and therefore lack of baking/cooking in general, we've had way more fun with this box than with the actual oven.

it lasted for three weeks as a house. we cut some holes, painted the walls, make-shifted a roof.

we took it down a few days ago - and are making postcards and picture frames with our little neighbor friends out of the recycled cardboard.

as parents we're trying really hard to make sure our kids understand that we need to appreciate and care for the resources we have  - we live on an island where electricity and water are unstable, where even when we have water, it's not drinkable. beyond that, there are children who don't have paper or books or pencils to write with. we don't often get a chance to do so many things with something as simple as a box.

but i'm sure the kids will long remember this box (samil's already asked if we can get another one to make a kitchen from!) and probably not (care to) remember the food we make on the new stove.