Forts, Owls, Ghosts, and Markers

Today I was on "house man" duty again at home, and I thought to myself, "What can I do to occupy my kids for the next four hours that I haven't done before?"

I thought about this for a long time, letting my imagination roam back to the good ol' days of my own childhood. What did I love to do as a kid? The answer: build forts and lock Katie inside of them.  Epic forts would redeem our day from boredom and routine!

Fort #1: A simple tent configuration with a pole in the middle for support.

Jesse was immediately intrigued by the strange structure dominating the room, and dropped in to investigate.

Janna, on the other hand, was not nearly so enthusiastic. Apparently the fort was scary.

Well, the first fort didn't really do it for us. It wasn't really stable enough, and the couch was taking a little too much room. In Fort #2, we rotated the couch around (locating, in the process, most of Jesse's toys and snacks from the last month), and added a bigger, heavier blanket sans pole. This gave it door flaps and made it a little roomier inside. The flower pattern on top added to the fort's aura of "classiness."

In the end, we added two more blankets on either side to cover the entrances and increase the sense of privacy and awesomeness the fort provided. Jesse became noticeably less enthused in the dark, and insisted that an owl and a ghost were outside waiting to get us. He became very insistent on this point - here he was holding his flashlight and looking quite concerned.

Janna, on the other hand seemed to feel quite triumphant in this fort, boldly entering and exiting, and scaring Jesse half to death each time.

To illustrate the extent of Jesse's fear of owls and ghosts, I've included this video. While he starts off having fun, the whimpers towards the end are real... at least before he is distracted by toy ambulance in the hands of the "ghost."

Here is a photo of Jesse, scared out of his mind! He's giving me the bravest smile he can muster.

Janna, exulting in the adventure!

To my dismay, the fort building didn't take as long as I thought it would, so after lunch we did some coloring to pass the time.

Each of the kids had a different approach to the colouring. Jesse enjoyed taking the multi-coloured stamp pad, ignoring the stamps, and using his fingers to create technicolor masterpieces on his paper.

Janna used the double-fisted Crayon technique, tapping on the tops of the Crayons for good measure.

Then, as I was photographing Janna, Jesse swiped the black marker and coloured his belly black, including (especially) his belly button. He really did a number on this - he wasn't just making lines, he actually coloured it black. There was so much ink on him that it was really hard to clean up.


This is what it looked like after much wiping. I never did manage to get it all out of his belly button. When Chrissy returned home and heard the tale, she smiled at me and ask, "Well, did you tell him not to colour himself?" I didn't know how to respond to this. I suppose I had assumed that this was common decency and that no instruction was necessary! Chrissy again smiled sagely at me and advised me always to warn kids not to colour themselves. Touché, Momma .

Well, that's it for tonight!

Until next time...