The kids were given a play tent a couple of years ago for Christmas. It has a large nylon exterior that is in the shape of a house. The frame is made of several plastic tubes that you fit together for the bottom, sides and roof. There is elastic inside each tube for easy folding and unfolding for storage- which is where the tent usually is- unless it's in the living room. Eva and I set up the tent in the living room either on the 4th of July or the next day- I think I remember saying I didn't want it to stay up for a long time- what exactly I meant by that at the time I don't know. I do know the tent is still up.

Yesterday the kids turned the tent on its side so that the roof of the tent is on the floor and the door is on the ceiling. I didn't think anything about it at the time, not really. Maybe something like, Oh they turned the tent upside down, curious. And off I went. The tent was sort of forgotten until the evening when they started arguing about it again (actually they maybe picked up the same argument they were having earlier in the day, the one about who gets to be in the tent). On the package of the tent there were several children smiling, all sitting together in blissful togetherness...When it was finally her turn to have the tent yesterday, Eva tacked a "do not disturb" and "please knock" sign up on the door and barricaded it shut.

This morning I was cleaning up the dishes and checking emails and planning to pay the bills when I hear a ruckus and they were both yelling at each other, something about some of the tubes being bent, one being broken, Eva not being able to get in the tent, the tent being for DS play only, that sort of thing. I went out into the other room and started to really pay attention to what was going on with the tent. I started remembering that all of the pillows had gone missing and saw that they were inside the tent. The tent was still on its side. Now Eva was upset because she thought Samuel was having a robot club and not inviting her robot. He was sad. She was sad. I helped Samuel drag the big chair over to the side of the tent without really asking why and I went back into the kitchen.

More yelling. More complaining. Back to the living room. I can hardly write it, the whole thing is so humorous to me. Samuel had set up the chair and put lots of pillows on the bottom of the tent and was bouncing himself up and propelling himself over the side of the tent to go in through the door in the top- or even just climbing over and landing on the giant cushion below. Eva couldn't manage it. The whole set up was too high and she couldn't get into the tent. They eventually settled on a hidden tunnel that Eva could use in lieu of the vaulting set-up but Eva was warned, once again, that the tent was set up in this way for DS play only. The last I checked, they were both sitting quietly in the tent together, one playing DS, the other one watching. And now I look around and there they both are- outside of the tent.

I asked Samuel- Why did you turn the tent on its side in the first place? It seemed like such a lot to go through when it was set up pretty well for DS play in its original form? His answer? "It's more interesting." Yes. I can definitely see that!



The tent on its side- you can see the door opening on top; Samuel fixing the side after the tube repairs- you can see where they were vaulting over the area near his head. The chair is out of the picture but would be moved in later.