September 16

A few weeks, maybe a month ago, one of our neighbors set a whole bunch of gardening stuff out on their curb. Since my mother (hi, Mom!) is both an avid gardener and collector of all things free, I scoped it out for her, and ended up taking almost all of it. A few things I kept for myself, though. Among them were two bundles of bamboo stakes that were all approximately 8 feet long. 

Then, a few weeks later, my mom saw a polka-dotted fitted bed sheet at a thrift store. It was too cute for her to pass up, so she bought it and brought it here. Unfortunately, it was a full size sheet. In our house, we have a king bed, a queen bed, two twin beds, and a crib. No double bed. But it was so cute that I knew it needed to be used somehow. In the meantime, it sat in a bag on my floor.

Today, both items finally fulfilled their purposes.

We built a teepee. We started while Eli napped, and finished things up while Lily napped.

Daisy was delighted.

She and Eli had serious - and secret - conversations.

Look at how happy they are! I remember how special and magical things like this felt when I was a child. I'm so happy to be able to build something like this, no matter how temporary it is, for my little ones.

Daisy spread out a "blanket" (really a twin bed skirt) on the floor of their tent, but somehow Eli found a leaf. He worked hard at eating it.

This is Daisy's "so happy it's ugly" face.

She was SO HAPPY!

At dinner, she told me I was the best cooker and builder ever.

And still, Eli worked on eating his leaf: 

The kids were so excited to show Caleb their teepee when he came home from school. I suppose it won't last long outside, but we can just move it to the basement for the winter!