Theresa and Trey's Tree Mansion

There once were two kids named Theresa and Trey
Whose father built them a new treehouse one day!
For hours upon hours, he hammered and nailed,
'Till he was exhausted, but still, he prevailed.
'Twas a labour of love for his daughter and son,
For he knew the treehouse would give them years of fun.

So on that treehouse, he sweated and toiled,
Though some friends were concerned that the kids would be spoiled.
For the house was a beauty, a fabulous sight
With a door that was measured to four-year-old height,
With three windows, a porch, and an entrance with stairs,
('Cause shaky rope ladders gave Theresa a scare!)
When he finished, he painted the house leafy green,
So among the tree's branches, it wouldn't be seen.

When the kids saw the treehouse, they whooped with delight.
They played in it all day, and into the night!
They played puppets, and cottage, and general store,
And spaceship, and pirates, and oh so much more!
The treehouse enchanted Theresa and Trey,
So they spent all their playtime there, day after day.

But as the years passed, and the children grew taller,
The treehouse, once spacious, now seemed so much smaller.
The door, which was measured to four-year-old height
Now caused Trey and Theresa a bit of a plight
For they now had to duck when they entered inside
The treehouse, or else their poor heads would collide
With the top of the carefully-measured doorframe.
Because they had grown, things were never the same.

But they still loved their treehouse, and played in it a lot,
And one day, the two kids had a brilliant thought.
Said Theresa, "Why don't we just build an expansion?
So we'll turn our treehouse into a tree mansion?"
So they got some scrap lumber from the hardware-store yard,
And said to themselves, "This shouldn't be hard!
We don't need a blueprint, we'll just start right away,
So we'll have a tree mansion by the end of the day!"

So they hammered and nailed the oddly-shaped wood
Into a crude shanty, that shakily stood
Like a scrap-lumber tumour, that mushroomed away,
As the brother-and-sister team worked every day
At expanding the treehouse, to make it unique
But when they were done, by the end of the week,
Their father exclaimed, "What the heck did you do
To the beautiful treehouse I created for you?!
I sketched, and I measured, and counted, and planned,
But Trey and Theresa, you don't understand
Anything about building, you just slapped up some walls
Now it's ugly! What's more, it'll probably fall
From the weight of the snow when it gets to be winter,
And in the meantime, you could give yourselves splinters
From the unfinished plywood from the scrap-lumber heap!
This expansion is dangerous, and unfit to keep!"

But in the small eyes of Theresa and Trey,
The tree mansion was perfect in every way.
It was bigger, and better, and they didn't care
If it wasn't quite pretty, because it was theirs!
They'd built it themselves, with their hard-working hands,
And their pride was something that Dad didn't understand!

But Dad thought it over, and looked back outside,
At his kids, and he felt his annoyance subside,
For they'd shared in the project in which they'd engaged,
And for that very reason, his reaction of rage
Was unfounded, because he had built that treehouse
To give his kids pleasure, so why gripe and grouse
At the personal touches his daughter and son,
Had put on the treehouse, to make it more fun?
So at dinner that night, his decrees he abolished,
To knock down the expansion (though it was unpolished)
Compared to the treehouse he'd painstakingly built,
But why saddle his kids with such meaningless guilt?

Theresa and Trey were both overjoyed,
At the words of their father, no longer annoyed.
At long last, they saw that he DID understand,
The joy of creating things with one's own hands.
And through his new mindset, Dad saw a strange beauty,
In the crooked expansion, and when guests acted snooty,
'Bout the unfinished shanty that stood in the yard,
From all future visits, they were immediately barred!

For a child's imagination is like a young blossom,
Its intricate beauty is stunningly awesome,
But when it is faced with a critical frost,
Its intuitive spirit is forever lost.
So their dad realized, on that pivotal day,
That the poorly-built shanty was a small price to pay,
For the flowering minds of a young girl and boy,
Are so full of wonder, excitement, and joy,
The important thing isn't failure or success,
But the lessons they learn, no matter the mess!
So he nurtured the efforts of Theresa and Trey,
And it paid off for him tenfold, in every way.
For his kids grew up confident, creative, and smart,
Because Dad had encouraged them right from the start.