Oh, I get it...

When you have a blog, you're supposed to post! On a regular basis! Hmm.

We are closing in on the end of summer. I'd like to share with you this summer's pièce de résistance. Early in July E and I decided to nail together a 4'x5' frame in the backyard, and let the kids go crazy. Here it was on its first day:

And here it is today, nearly a month later. Still very much a work in progress.

Note the bucket pulley system that allows them to pull materials up to their tiled second floor.

For those of you who put out piles of building materials--say, for example, tiles--by the street in front of your house with a FREE sign, and wonder what happens to them: Here you go! Now you know.

I myself was thinking the tiles might be better used on the inside of the structure, considering D opted to turn the fort into a working shower. Note the external plumbing:

And the interior. The showerhead is in the top left corner. Cold showers only though! For those occasions when you're just too dirty to make it inside to the bathroom, I guess. Which does happen, when you're four and eight.

For those of you who are committed to letting the kids have the run of the backyard for the summer, I highly recommend this activity. They've both (mostly D, but B too, to some extent) been wholly engaged in this for a month. Today we've moved on to painting--I sent them out there with jars of washable tempera paint and a brush apiece. Now if I only had a Xanax to get me through it...

The Adventure Begins....

This morning, I shuffled E and the kids out the door for an ADVENTURE DAY (read: SANITY DAY FOR MOM). I stood amid the detritus of my house and realized that all along, the blogging 'hook' I'd been looking for had been staring me in the face. As I walked around I came face to face with the following art installations, all completed in the last 24 hours, give or take a few:

Remnants of last night's Earth Hour celebration, obviously.

And this:

This is my personal favorite:

I call it Two-Liter Bottle with Double-A Batteries and Rokenbok Balls Topped by Empty Yogurt Container Alongside Floral Kleenex Box.

And finally:

I particularly like the irony of D's inscription, "Wrapped Presents," on the box full of old moldy tubing and rusty valves. Which he assembled, by the way. They're his. Purchased with many a Home Depot gift card over the years. Actually this is probably his idea of the Perfect Gift, in all seriousness.

I realized I'm tired of spending all my time walking around and deconstructing art in the name of hygiene. Instead, I want to share it with you, my friends and family! It's the only way I can help you to truly understand the complexities of my daily life parenting the lovely, bright, messy, impossible, idiosyncratic, never-boring fruit of my loins.

Plus I get to share more pictures with you, and ensure I get some writing in on a regular basis. Everybody wins!!