February 21, 2009 Moving into a New Mini House courtesy of Great Grandma

Sophia checking out the real moving shutters that Great Grandma made for her.

Wow! Look at those curtains in the window and the bricks on the outside hand drawn by Great Grandma.

There is a happy little girl proud of her Great Grandma's handiwork.

In this photo, Uncle Mike is showing her the little cardboard house and holding the door as she goes in and out. 

Everyone know that children love to play in boxes even more so than the toys that are received inside those boxes. As a child, I had my fair share of boxes used as toys.  One in particular comes to mind which was a very large appliance box that my grandmother, Sophia's Great Grandmother shown here in the photos had placed in her sunroom on her back porch that I spent numerous hours playing in as a child. I believe my uncle cut windows in it for me, but it has been so long ago that I don't remember all the details very well.  I am sure it was nothing as clever as the story, I am about to tell you. 

So, you can imaging my surprise when I learned Grandma had a new cardboard miniature home for Sophia.  Everyone in my family had been telling me that Great Grandma had a surprise she has been working on for Sophia for several weeks.  They wouldn't tell me what it was.   With us having been so sick, we hadn't been to Great Grandma's house for a few weeks.  I had no idea what was in store for us when we arrived.  I was thinking when mom told me that Great Grandma had been hard at work on something, she meant that Great Grandma had crocheted some precious little socks, or colorful mittens, or maybe even a soft snuggly blanket or a warm wooly scarf.  Other thoughts went through my mind, maybe she made Sophia a hand-made quilt or maybe some other crafty thing.  My grandma has been known to come up with many whimsicle creations in the past.  

After dinner, we were all called into the other room and my brother and Great Grandma hauled out the miniature cardboard box play house especially for Sophia.  I was stunned!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  Great Grandma had really surprised Sophia.   My ideas were completely off course. I had no idea that my Grandmother had made Sophia the sweetest little house out of a cardboard box.  Grandma, being one to recycle before recycling was such a popular thing for the environment, made Sophia's Radio Flyer wagon box into a new play home for Sophia complete with pictures of dogs and bears on the walls, 3-D flower boxes on the windows and flowers cut from magazines outside on the bottom edge of the box as well as a mailbox and even a roof with skylights and puff of smoke chimney.  Even Sophia's favorite furry red monster, Elmo had a picture on the house.  There was a tiny doorknob made out of an old sewing thread spool which was just the perfect size for Sophia's hand to open the door. As Sophia grabbed the tiny door handle to open the little door, a key jingled on the handle. Sophia was intrigued by the tiny mailbox attached right inside the door with mail addressed inside for her to read.  Not only did the little house have a mailbox, there was also a small stool inside for Sophia to sit on.  The windows adorned with tiny shutters and curtains made of very wide ribbon were as sweet as they could be.  Sophia loved peeking out the window at her Great Grandmother and playing peek-a-boo with all the adults in the room.  Sophia loved her tiny house!  She played with it for hours as we sat talking and taking enormous amounts of photos some of which can be viewed in the slide show below.  My brother has even more which maybe at a later date, I will be able to post.   I can say this, my cardboard box houses never looked like this. At most if any decorations, they might have had a cut-out window  and some crayon colors on the walls.  Sophia you are loved by all and make sure to thank your Great Grandma again when you see her. She put a lot of time and thought into that sweet little house and you get all the benefit of her thoughtfulness. She truly thought of every little detail a girl would love.  Great Grandma, you made a little girl smile today.  Thanks for all your hard work and creativity. Sophia will want to come back and play with her little house at your house very soon, I am sure. I hope Mom shows you this story so you will know it is published for Sophia to read about some day and hopefully remember.