Today I heaped my creative energy into my application for the Amtrak Writer in Residency program. Oh how I would love to earn one of the 24 spots they will be awarding to writers over the next year!

Also, the kids are on spring break. Their mere presence consumes a fair amount of my attention—even when they’re only playing Mine Craft, texting, and watching television.

Suffice it say that by the time I got around to today’s make something assignment, I was low on creative juice.

But with the kids’ encouragement and participation, we came up with a fun response to this suggestion:

“Make a structure to protect a delicate object (like an egg). Drop it from a second-story window to see if it works!”

My daughters’ elementary school conducts an annual egg drop, so we’ve been-there-done-that. Twice. Successfully.

So instead of an egg, we pulled a saltine cracker from the dinner table.

“It’s fra-gee-lay,” said Hannah. “Must be Italian,” I responded, quoting one of our favorite holiday movies.

I scrawled those words on a scrap of paper towel, then used four pieces of thread to secure the “parachute” to the cracker.

Then it was off the window for me, and out to the back yard for the kids. I dropped the cracker, and my son filmed the action:

Total silliness. Total fun. Total success.

The cracker lives.