the rainbow road

June 5, 2011 at 2:12 pm (craftiness n' colors, sensational summertime)

“Walk on a rainbow trail; walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty.”

– Navajo blessing

Once upon a time, long long ago,  my husband built a wonderful patio for our backyard.

We love our patio very much, but after the construction was complete, we were left with several bricks that had no home. These were nice square bricks, and the children loved them. They were carried all over the backyard (though they were supposed to stay put), and played all sorts of wonderful games with them. But the bricks were sad. Being bricks meant that they were subject to all sorts of brickish things, one of which involved being brownish. Though brownish is a wonderful color for a brick to be, these bricks were quickly becoming more than just bricks. They were turning into playthings, and felt dull and boring in comparison to all of the other bright and colorful playthings they saw strewn about the yard. “BRICKS are MEANT to be BRICKISH!” said my husband when I approached him about it, “You leave my bricks ALONE!” So we did. For weeks and months and years, we did, more or less. But the truth was that these bricks weren’t HIS bricks. Not anymore. Now they belonged to the children, big and small, that come and play in our yard. So one day. . . we stopped leaving them alone. And that’s where this story starts.

One by one and hue by hue, we painted our beautiful bricks in every color of the rainbow, and liberally sprinkled them with glitter. They weren’t sad anymore, now they’re the cheerfulest bricks you’ve ever laid eyes on!

When we were through with the bricks, we finished off our paints on a stump  that had taken up residence in the middle of our yard. . .

Teagan christened it ‘The Rainbow Road’ and so it has become!

Everyone loves the Rainbow Road! It’s great for balancing, jumping, and playing pretend.

Often, we become frogs, and the bricks our lillypads. Sometimes the stump is our boat, and the bricks are transformed into fish to catch and be cooked on the stump – now turned stove. They’re building-blocks, step-stools. . . anything that little minds can think of. The bricks happily oblige their childish imaginings, without ever a grumble of protest.

They still travel all over yard, via wheelbarrow or sticky fingers, and join in all sorts of silly games, but now they’re so bright and cheerful!

The kids love them, and we all love our rainbow road (with the possible exception of my husband, who is still *slightly* perturbed at his our set of non-brickish bricks)!

(P.S.It isn't a weird skin disease, Ro's legs are just covered in paint
and sidewalk chalk in the above images. It happens fairly often
around here, and I assure you, she'll live ;))