Did you have a good Easter weekend? We had our fill of chocolate, family time, public speaking, chocolate, reflection, painting and patching, and chocolate. Did I mention there was chocolate?

While on a sugar high, we worked on a fun little project. If you've been reading here a while, you might know that I have a tendency to go all out for Chloe's birthday parties (like this one here, here, and here). I love trying to make each party different from the last and thinking up little details that will stick in Chloe's memory banks. For the past year, our little girl has been asking for a princess party. And I only ever want to do ONE princess party so this one will be grand... and what's grander than a castle?

It started when I had the idea to build a castle out of some cardboard boxes. So I started building a paper mock-up...

But then HandyMan caught the castle bug and came up with something much grander. I had just been to the Home Depot Canada spring media preview and received a gift card so $14 in boxes later, we had this...


and with some leftover paint, it transformed into this...



Its almost done. We have to add a drawbridge, a few more rooms at the back, and stabilize it a bit more (who knew the paint would cause the cardboard to shrink and make the tight fit not so tight!). But I think the 12 four-year-olds (yes, we're nuts) are going to flip when I bring them up to see Cinderella's castle. Good thing Chloe's bedroom is still being redecorated because there is NO other space for this monster home.

Speaking of four-year-old's, I can't believe this little lady will soon be just that. Where did the time go??