Fun In A Fortnight

When I was a kid, my brother and I used to make forts in the living room. They were pretty fancy, usually involving some sheets, the couch and coffee table and some heavy books to keep the sheets from falling down. The books may have fell on my head a couple times. Maybe. I don't really remember.

Grace and I outside Fort Herschelman.

With a rare night off, I decided tonight would be an awesome time to relive my childhood and show off my tent building skills. Mary loved the idea and after work, I got to it. Again, a couple sheets, some clothes pins, a rubber band or two and an unused ab roller and we were in business.

Grace loved playing in the tent. After a little drum practice, she and Mary made their own fort.

The tent took up most of the living room, stretching from the TV to the love seat. It was a little small for me, but short of drilling holes and hanging it from the ceiling (mental note for next time), pretty much everything would be.

Not only did Mary and Grace make their own Duplo fort, but they also made a cage for Bruce.

It took about a half hour to build, every second completely worth it when Mary and Grace saw the end result. We waited until after dinner and Grace's bath to give it a test run, although Mary may have camped out in it while Grace and I were upstairs since I had blocked off all the usable seating. After bath time, with the Nokomis boys basketball game on the radio, the three of us played in the most secure fort this side of Fort Knox.

Family selfie from Fort Herschelman.

Grace really seemed to enjoy it, almost as much as Mary did. After we finished, my beautiful wife said that this was the most fun she'd had in a long time, and by Grace's smile, the same was true for her. This is what I want to give Grace and Mary every day. Big experiences are awesome, but it's the little stuff that makes the difference. It's the day to day joys of life that make it worth living. I hope I never forget the things that really matter... like making forts.

KRH