The making of forts and cousins who love the woods

 A couple of weeks ago my sister and her family drove up our way to visit and stayed over at my parents. We spent much of our time over there too.

 While we were there the kids (we each have 4 ) spent much of their time out in the woods making forts. We had a storm earlier this summer which knocked down a bunch of trees which is rather sad but it made some fun areas for the kids to make forts.

 The two oldest girls went way out in the goat pasture to make a fort (my parents have 40 acres) and the boys made another fort in another area of the pasture.

  I love to have our children being able to do things like this. Some of the benefits I see are:

• Fresh air and exercise.
• Learning to work together with others.
• Skills such as wood cutting and building are practiced.
• Creativity is used.
• Dreaming is allowed.
• Practicing survival skills and working with what you have.

I am sure there are many more benefits but those are a few I thought of quickly.

Here are some pictures I took of that time:

 Above is Bea admiring the "fire pit" the older girls had made.

 Mara and Megan climbing on a "wall" of the boys fort while checking it out.

 Gregory up in a wall area of the boy's fort.

 Gregory (half of him anyway) and Aaron in a bedroom.

One night the 6 of the kids decided to stay out in the forts while Bea and Megan came to our house to sleep. The younger two boys ended up deciding to stay in the cabin and then were bribed with snacks and stories to stay in the house at Grandpa and Grandma's but the oldest 4 kids did go and stay in their forts.

   I hear that Jonathan and Margaret slept fine but the oldest two (Maybe because they felt they were in charge?) didn't sleep so great. When I came out the next day both of them were just laying around reading while the others were busy doing things outside.

 Megan and Bea at our house thought that a blanket fort would be fun to sleep in so one was created in our living room.

Oh what fun it is to spend time with cousins. This weekend we are going camping with these cousins, as well as other family and friends. We are all looking forward to many more fun times!

  Do your kids make forts? Did you have fun making them as a child?