Yesterday was a pretty mild day, weather wise, for our area. I went to get a haircut and returned home to a very quiet house and a husband situated at the kitchen counter working away on his laptop. When I asked him where the kids were, he said, “I’m not sure, but Batman is in the backyard”

Brady was napping, but Logan and Aiden played outside (without coats despite my many pleas) for at least an hour…and even more later in the afternoon after Brady woke up. At least the second time I managed to get them in gloves, hats and light jackets!

Brian swore that he overheard Aiden say, as he stepped out into the yard, “I can breath out here!” We weren’t sure if that was: as opposed to in the house or as in, “wow…this is not some strange planet with a noxious and toxic atmosphere that will kill me!”

Later that day, the boys decided to build a “fort” in their room. This was basically just a pile, in the middle of the room, consisting of all the blankets, pillows and comforters from their beds and ours. Brian went to check it out. When he returned to the kitchen where I was cleaning, he reported, in the voice of the comic book guy on The Simpsons, “worst…fort…ever”.  He wasn’t being mean…not really…they do need some lessons in fort building. The 5 of us did spend a good hour in there last night. The boys took turns jumping from Logan’s bed while we chanted their names. Brady would climb up and chant his own name, “Bady, bady, bady” and then jump. Hey…you gotta be your own cheerleader sometimes!

Today they decided to go for round 2 of “the fort”. As is often the case, today’s effort was grand in scale compared to piddly fort they built yesterday (I’m so tempted to quote from the movie Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and call yesterday’s fort an “amuse-bouche” to today’s fort…but I think I would be the only one to get the reference there). Basically, bigger and better is the motto with these kids (also known as: the more effort it takes to clean up, the more successful the project!) They’re just lucky that they hall linen closet was next on my “organize the whole house” to-do list.

A mere photograph doesn’t do this “fort” justice. This is the contents of: the two twins beds in their room (2 pillows, 2 comforters, 2 blankets), our king sized bed (4 regular pillows, 2 king-sized throw pillows, a comforter and a down comforter), the hallway linen closet (12+ pillow cases, at least 6 fitted sheets, 8 flat sheets, 2 duvet covers, 4 blankets, 2 large comforters, a down pillow top, 7 throw pillows, 3 bed pillows, several crib sheets and one of those “protect your mattress” covers <—trust me on these counts, I folded and re-organized ALL of it tonight!) plus all the bedding from the guest room (4 pillows and a comforter). I jumped off of Logan’s bed into the “fort” several times…pretty cool actually.