Royalty Amongst Ruins.

OK, so maybe we aren't royalty and I'd like to think that we aren't quite in ruins either. But, while doing our research on Scotland, we found many, many websites and stories about castles. We even stumbled upon a business that allows people to rent castles in Scotland. As much as we thought this would be an awesome vacation, nearly $3000 per night is a bit spendy for us. We decided that we should build our own castle. 

We grabbed some paper and pens and did some planning. Eliana had some ideas as well. 

 Since we had just made a trip to IKEA (as I told you all about here), we happened to have a nice tall box from a shelf that we purchased. All we needed was another big box. In all honesty, I thought it would mean a quick stop at a store that sells appliances, so I made a call to a store where I was told, "No, we don't keep any boxes, they get crushed immediately." The next call I made started the same, except they told me that they crush them at the end of the day. The clerk on the phone was not really interested in helping me find a box until I said, "Well, can someone save a box for me? I want to build a castle with my kids." Then he was (surprisingly) excited and said, yes! Woohoo! We had a box! Preston picked up the box at the end of the day. 

Since we now had our boxes, it was time to start planning the cuts on the boxes from our original drawing... you know, give or take a few details. 

The next day, we took the boxes outside to spray paint them. Sadly, it took more paint than we thought it would, which required a mad dash to the local hardware store and praying that the impending rain held off just a bit longer. It did... well, sort of. It was just starting to sprinkle as the final bit of paint was being applied. After the boxes were painted, they were brought back into the living room (this time they were placed on top of our crafting tablecloth, rather than risk paint getting on our living room floor).

The kids wearing Preston and my t-shirts, getting ready to paint some details. 

Preston and the kids deciding how the door would open. 

Painting bricks.

Preston inside the castle (after almost knocking it down) cutting a hole in the wall between the two boxes, so that the kids can go into the tower.

My littles and I with the nearly complete castle. 

Completed castle. 

Now that the castle is done, we have finished the final craft project for our Scotland tour. We are starting to gear up for our end of the month celebration and I have started doing some meal planning. We have one more task, then it will be on to the dinner, where we will celebrate and reflect on our "visit" to Scotland. 


*Last week I guest blogged for Hardy Girls Healthy Women as part of a series of blogs for moms sponsored by MaineGeneral Health. It's not related directly to global studies, but I feel that global knowledge and acceptance goes hand in hand with raising healthy children who will learn to see real beauty in themselves and in the world that we live in. If you missed it, you can check it out here. (And if you missed it then, maybe you haven't "liked" Mamacita Spins The Globe on facebook yet? I shared it there first.)