Big Tent

This past weekend I decided to introduce Christian to one of my favorite activities from childhood.....building a tent.  Now these aren't tents that take a mere five minutes to make.  No just tossing a blanket over a card table and calling it done.  These tents are a construction feat with secret places hidden under the draping coverings. As children, my sisters, brother and I were as particular as kids can be, by contemplating what the best layout would be.  Now as an adult, and a designer on top of it, my space planning experience came rushing forward and "the big tent" was about to be born.

Christian was running around me in circles, stopping to jump up and down, squealing in excited anticipation.  He kept saying, in a singsong voice, "Mommy, we're going to have a BIG tent, I'm so excited!" His excitement was precious as well as contagious.  He was surprisingly patient while I stood in the middle of the living room, bed sheet in hand, trying to decide which of the layouts, that were flying through my head, I would use.  A decision has been made.

No my choice of draping material, a bed sheet, was chosen so really heavy items wouldn't be needed for anchors, but medium weight items could be used instead.  As a child we used every blanket in the house, and due to their weight, we had to use stacks of encyclopedias to hold the blankets in place.  Then as you crawled through the hidden maze below, you had to be very careful not to get tangled up in the blankets or you risked a possible concussion from the encyclopedias raining down on your head.
With the bed sheets, I only had to use one book, or four magazines, to anchor them down. I'm not really sure how long it took me to construct the "big tent", but when completed it encompassed the entire living room and contained a maze of four tunnels and two rooms hidden below.

We crawled around inside for a while and then Christian invited all his friends to play too; Elmo, Clifford, bunny, moose Ollie, Teddy bear, horse Galahad, to name just a few. Our two cats even stopped by to investigate, only to later jump on top of the tent causing a minor collapse, which was promptly repaired.  Now to recreate my childhood dream, we needed "the" two special additions.  I went to the kitchen and returned with snacks and a flashlight.  While we ate snacks, I propped the flashlight to shine on a sheet and showed Christian how to do shadow puppets.  A good time was had by all!

I realized later that if there had been an emergency, I had only left enough space to open the front door, with the only access being to crawl through the tent. Good thing there wasn't an emergency!
This tent lasted most of the day and spawned a second tent, different layout, the following day. I don't know what it is about those tents that makes them so much fun, because I don't get the same feeling from a camping tent. Is it the fact that you made it yourself, the hidden secret of the maze of tunnels below that aren't even hinted at when you view the tent from the outside, or simply the element of imagination that makes it so magical.  Whatever the reason, I'm glad Christian loves tents so I have a reason to build them and relive part of my childhood again.  Hey, go build a tent and you'll know what I mean :)
~Amy