the playhouse

Exercise: Write about your favourite childhood toy.
Time: 20 minutes

Hayley's attempt:

You know how people say that kids have more fun with the cardboard box, than the toy that came in it. Well, the best birthday present I ever got was a cardboard box. hree of them actually.

My 5th birthday is the only childhood birthday that I vividly remember. I remember my mom trying to put me down for a nap before my party, but not being able to sleep for the excitement. I remember my cake had a barbie doll stuck in the middle, and the cake decorated around her like a gown. I don't exactly remember, but I know it was a money cake, because every birthday cake my mom made for each of us had foiled wrapped coins in it. I remember wearing a pink dress. I had five friends come to my party, and we played games.

But the best part was the playhouse. That was my present. A homemade playhouse made from three large, thick-sided appliance boxes that at five years old, I could stand up in. The bottom had two rooms (2 boxes), and a ladder leading up to the second floor room, and a balcony with a rope railing. There was thin brown carpet throughout, green and yellow flowered wall paper in the kitchen, shutters drawn on the windows, and curtains. I had a front and back door, and a garden drawn onto the side of the house.

I hadn't been allowed to see or go into the lower basement for a couple weeks, while everyone worked on it. When they revealed the playhouse with all my friends there, I was instantly the coolest kid in the world. That playhouse was revered by any kid who came over to play, for many years. My friends and cousins, my sisters friends and my little brothers friends (who prefered to call it a fort.)

That cardboard playhouse entertained me for years. It was my home inside my home. That was my favourite childhood toy.