I've been working yesterday and today entering all my financial transactions into Quicken so I can prepare to do my taxes. I took a break and checked my email. I received several responses to my face book posting about hanging a fairy tent up in my daughters room. For several it brought back memories of their children, both boys and girls, and their tent making days. Over the course of the last several years my daughter has collected a series of tents. There is something magical about tents. Even ones made from chairs with blankets thrown over the tops.
We started with the pup tent that set up with the sticks that formed the frame and then anchored at the sides. That proved to be a little more complicated to set up than we originally imagined. We then added the tent in a bag which when you pull it out of the bag it almost knocks you over with its spring loaded frame that makes a small tent fully formed. No assembly required. Getting it folded up and back in the bag requires yoga positions and lighting fast reflexes as it seems to have a mind of its own and doesn't want to be folded back up. Much to my daughters delight. Some of my favorite photos are of my daughter and her friends at age 4 with their heads sticking out of that tent. We went through a short phase with the ball pit in a tent. (That was one of those gifts that kids love and parents cringe. Of course the child thinks its fun to throw the balls everywhere. I think we still find them occasionally in stuff and we've moved since we owned that tent!) We then moved up to a real umbrella tent which was purchased for a Brownie party at our house. They wanted to simulate camping. I've generally been the assembler and disassembler however April and Jade were able to set it up for Jade's last sleep over. However putting it away is the difficult part. It never seems to want to go back in the bag. Sounds familiar. So naturally I have to put it away. Of course the tents are never set up outside. They are always inside the house. Jade and her friend didn't sleep in the tent. They just wanted to play in it.
Only once did I set the tent up in the back yard. It was 2 summers ago. I had promised Jade to go camping but we never could find a good weekend to go. As the summer wound down it was the back yard or nothing and I could already hear the whine about "you promised!" I cooked hamburgers on the grill and we roasted marshmallows over the fire pit and put sleeping bags inside the tent with a camp light to play cards by. April was too smart to join in the camping fun. I forgot what it was like to sleep on the ground with only a sleeping bag for a mattress. My back was sore for 2 days.
Of all the tents Jade's favorite is a little princess castle with four sides and an open top and bottom. Jade will set it up and then fill it with pillows for the floor. She proceeds to put blankets over the top of the castle to make a ceiling and then put all of her stuffed animals inside. This I have found is her comfort tent. When she isn't feeling well or wants to snuggle this is where she goes. Usually when I find her in her comfort tent there is the plea for Dad to join her. I try the usual excuses of there isn't any room but after a couple more pleas I'm on my hands and knees crawling in through the little door and trying to stay as curled up as I can to fit in until my joints just can't take it anymore.
While we were in Wisconsin there was almost 3 feet of snow on the ground. Jade and I spent part of a couple of days building forts in the snow. All the other cousins were teenagers and saw the snow more as an obstacle than as an adventure. So I was the designated playmate. At one point we were trekking over a tall drift on a hillside and I fell over and I couldn't get back up. The snow was too deep for me to get anything to push on to stand up. I ended up rolling down a hill on my side until I found firmer ground. Jade thought this was hilarious.
This week Jade turned 10 and our neighbor's grandchildren are visiting from New Orleans. They have two girls within a year or two of Jade's age. The girls favorite past time yesterday and today is to play in the wooded section behind our yard and to make a fort. Jade has elaborate plans that after their fort building they will all come in for a tea party. April is out shopping for peach tea which is a must for the party. I've promised to brew the tea in my teapot I bought while I was in China. If I don't get these financials finished I'll run out of time.
I'd much rather build a fort.
