Forts and Memories

Riley and Kamryn decided they wanted to build a fort in Kamryn's room this afternoon. I said OK and let them have at it. Well, when they were done and had me come and look, it was really just a big pile of little blankets around some chairs, but there was no room for them. They tried hard, but missed the mark. I told them I would help them so they could build a bigger and better fort that they (and myself) could fit under. So, I put back all the small blankets and got out their quilts and bedspreads. I realized the chairs they had chosen were no where near big enough so I put those away and we grabbed chairs from the dining table. Now, I used part of Kamryn's bed and then spread the covering out over the chairs. The girls then brought me their "reindeer on a stick" as they call it and I used the to prop up the middle. It looked quite fun and they went in the room off and on the rest of the afternoon and played in there. Both of them are now sleeping in there fort. I can only hope they don't knock down the pole otherwise it might collapse!

Building this fort with them brought back great memories for me. From the time I was 5 or 6 until I was around 9 or so, I would spend the summers with my grandparents in DC. I had great friends who were neighbors and we would play together all day, every day. We took swim lessons together, swam on the swim team, always had sleepovers, played dolls, played in their tree house, etc. We also played Barbies, but we really liked building forts so we could play without being seen. My grandparents had a huge great room and had an oval table in one corner. We would use that table and chairs and build an awesome fort. We could sit under there and play anything. We could watch TV from under there and we could sleep under there. When we were at their house, we used the living room and built the fort using the couch and chairs from the dining table. This one worked just as good, except there was no TV as it was their "formal" living and dining rooms. These two sisters and I were inseparable when I would be in DC and we remained good friends even as we headed off to college. I have lost touch recently, but will now have to try and contact them again. I'm just glad my daughters will have fun fort memories too. We'll have to keep working on building them so they can build them without my help when their friends play at our house!