Forts

My kids love forts. They like to make them, they like to play in them, they like to tear them down. I LOVED forts as a kid. Especially snow forts! I remember my brother and I digging out the snowbanks at the end of our driveway to get just the "right" hole and then we would sit in them for hours -- my brother in one side of the driveway and me in the other. We wouldn't even talk to each other! I'd just hunker down in my little hole and I'd stare at the sky, try to catch snowflakes on my tongue and occasionally even eat a handful of snow. (Yuck!)

Well, lately the kids have gotten the "fort bug" again. They played in one at their babysitter's house today and then again over at the neighbors house tonight. Samantha was having a hard time sleeping, so, in trying to think of a way to distract her from struggling to fall asleep, I told her that we would make a fort tomorrow and she should think about where she wants it to be, what it should look like, and how we would build it.

Well, a few minutes later, I hear both girls talking animatedly about their fort for tomorrow. I can't hear specifics, but I catch excited words here and there: big; humongous blanket; couch; no glass allowed! (???) All of this is punctuated with excited giggles and squeals. I have no idea what they are planning, but I think we've got our work cut out for us tomorrow!

But that's the thing with forts... you have the initial "work" of engineering and set up and then the destruction and putting away, but those blissful, happy hours in between..... Ahhhhhh.... I think I might start encouraging forts every day!! I might even crawl inside myself and view the world through the cracks between the blankets.