To a kid, nothing is cooler than the experience of turning your living room into a series of living caves and tunnels, constantly shifting and changing, ready for exploration. To an adult, well, I don’t know about the other adults, but it’s still pretty cool to me.
Right before Edward’s birthday party started, I noticed that the house looked unusually clean. A little too clean if you asked me. I also noticed a big pile of folded blankets that had not yet been put away after we moved. There was clearly no other option than to destroy the house right before a big party. But in the destruction of our living room I would bring about a glorious new age of blanket living!
My first attempt was a moderate success. A success in that Ruby loved it, and Edward had a blast crawling around through it, but moderate in that I could not personally fit in it. We didn’t have much time to fix it before the party guests arrived, so I had to put my aspirations on hold until the next week. I did have some surprised party goers though.
My second attempt went well, but it was still hard for me to maneuver through the blanket tunnels without my gigantic butt somehow yanking things over or moving stuff around. I army-crawled through the thing and was able to hang out underneath for a little while, but it clearly needed improvement.
The problem was, I had been using couches, chairs, and tables for supports, and the blankets hung too low for me to sit comfortably. I needed a central support beam of some sort to spread the blankets out from, like a circus tent. I finally found my answer in the cat’s climbing tower, the tallest piece of mobile furniture that we own. This time it worked spectacularly! I didn’t get it into the center, but I was able to get into the fort and sit up (mostly) straight in the great hall, which was only one corridor away from the secret exit and down the way from the lesser blanket antechamber.
The fort was even big enough to house my mother-in-law, so if she ever needs to come stay with us, I now know I can construct a great apartment for her.
Of course, like all great things, eventually the great blanket fortress had to crumble into piles of laundry, but somehow I think we haven’t seen the last of Castle Tenor Dad! Oh, and the kids liked it too.