Creative Josh

 After Lyrad trimmed trees, Josh asked for all the long branches.  Then he made this fort in the backyard, adding a tarp and rope.  The next day he headed outside after school to hang out in his fort, but I told him he had to practice piano first.  So he set up the keyboard in his fort.  Clever boy!

For the cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet, Josh made this pyramid-and-mummy cake.

In our tree out front, Josh made a rope ladder (cutting and drilling chunks of wood for each step of the ladder) so he can get up into the branches.  He rigged up a big white bucket to haul things up there (in theory, to do his homework up there.  But we tried it out and no homework was accomplished.), or to fill with water to dump on unwelcome neighbors who venture too close.  (So far, Rachel was the only victim.) 

Another area in which Josh was creative was in his April Fool's pranks:  he put "poppers" (cheap firecrackers that make a very loud boom when pulled apart) on his sisters' doors so they each were startled as they came out of their rooms that morning, he put a popper on the toilet seat, he put yellow food coloring in the toilet tank (ick!), and he put a large cup of water on top of my door so it fell when I closed the door.  Our dinner was "cupcakes":  "meatloaf" (actually vegan lentil-and-rice-loaf) with mashed potatoes on top for the "frosting."  Rachel got Madi and Josh the next day with a simple but clever prank:  she refilled old gatorade bottles with water, then colored them red or blue.  Josh and Madi were so excited to see gatorade in the pantry and happily took it to school.    (I don't buy gatorade unless it's my turn to bring snacks to a baseball game, and Madi and Josh thought there must be some leftover bottles just for them.)