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...