Jen here with another First Year post…and this one is about the blanket fort I built for my baby.

Some of my favorite photos of my middle sister and me are from our little tyke years. We were all smiles as we peeked out from our favorite hang out place: the fort we would often create with afghan quilts and blankets strewn over chairs. It was our little piece of magic – our place to play, look at books and pretend to take naps. Our times in our homemade living room forts are some of my earliest memories with my sister, and they are precious ones. So when Logan began to enjoy books and story time, I thought it was a good time to create a fun place to read – her very first blanket fort!

When I began creating the fort, I quickly realized how out of practice I was! I knew I obviously needed some chairs and blankets, so I started there. When I had a hard time getting the blankets to stay up on the chairs, I started remembering some of our techniques for securing our roof and walls. I used rubber bands to fasten the ends of some of the blankets to the arms of the chairs. I used some binder clips to hold some of the blankets together. I also used heavy books to weigh down the ends of one of the blankets to keep it stretched tight. I had forgotten how technical it was to make a solid fort!

Once the roof and walls were secure, the inside needed decorating. I added a blanket to the floor, some pillows for comfort, some of Logan’s favorite stuffed animal friends for company, and some of our favorite books. All that was left to do was get in there and have some fun!

I brought Logan over to see my craftsmanship, and she pointed to the fort and made the “Hmm!” sound she makes when she’s inquisitive about something. That was good enough for me! I placed Logan inside, and she was happy to see all her friends were joining us.

After she made the rounds with her friends, she was ready to look at some of her new books. I joined in on the fun, and we read books in our fort for about an hour. We had an awesome time!

Okay, okay…I know that at ten months old Logan didn’t really appreciate the fort as much as I did. I think I built it more for me anyway. But all too soon, Logan will be older, and we will be building blanket forts together…our little piece of magic where we will play, read books, and maybe even take a nap or two. But no nap today! Not now! There’s too much fun to be had!

There are so many wonderful ways to construct a blanket fort! Check out Pinterest for some basic how-to’s, as well as photos of forts in all kinds of really neat shapes and sizes. Why not spend some family time building a fort together with your kids? Be sure to snap a few photos and post them to Me Ra’s Facebook page, so we can all enjoy your handiwork!

Meet me here next week when I try out Me Ra’s photo recipe for capturing everyday settings to remember, which is from the last chapter of her book, Your Baby in Pictures. Wait…what? The LAST chapter?! Logan’s first year is going by too fast! *sigh*

First Year Cheers!

Jen