building for spring

We had a few beautiful, warm-ish days here last week that made everyone think about spring.  So it was not really too surprising when a certain nine year old asked me: "Mommy, can we go in the woods and collect some sticks to make a teepee?"  Well, of all the things that were not on my to-do list, this one seemed important, so off we went.  Armed with some leftover blue cotton yarn, a pocket knife and a rubber mallet which she deemed very important for the success of the project, we headed out to find wood.  Wood.  We have lots of it behind the house.

the wood in the woods

After finding just the right sticks ("not too curvy, mom!") it was time to find just the right spot.

At first glance, this doesn't look like much (though it is flat).

But it has the best mountain view and is not so far away from the bathroom, and it's in a shaded spot.

Once we agreed that this indeed was a good place for the teepee, it was time to begin the process, with the help of our rubber mallet, to pound the bottoms of the sticks into the ground and then tie them together at the top with the yarn.  I was told that for reasons of balance, it was important to have a stick with a fork in it.  Luckily this, too, wasn't hard to locate.

wrapping the yarn

Once this was done, I was dismissed because apparently wrapping the teepee was daddy's job.  So I stepped inside for a few minutes while the project was completed.  From the driveway it looked like this:

She spent most of the afternoon in there seeing how comfortable it was (very), how many people fit (two nine year olds and a grownup) and how long she would be able to sit in it before cold and boredom set in.

She spent at least three hours out there, perfectly satisified with her little building project.  And I can't wait to visit once the weather clears up again.