The Raney Fort...

Recently my friend Tam issued a challenge, the second annual fort challenge.
Why? well, because it's ridiculously fun! and who doesn't love stepping back into the shoes & mindset of a younger you? as soon as i read the challenge, i accepted! then realized i needed to get my husband on board as well...and let me tell you that was just plan difficult--NOT!
unfortunately i'm not so awesome as most of my twitter friends and i don't own a mac...or a flip cam...so i did my best with still shots & a short camera shot video of our fort building & completion.
And now, as many of you have requested....(insert drum roll) The Raney Fort! Start to finish:

we collected all the blankets we could find. thanks to my mom's knitting & crocheting we had TONS to work with!

We knew we'd need light...so that's where our fort started: 

Then, the hubs got right to work stringing up...well, string!

We did a little rearranging of our living room furniture...even got my old crutches put to use:

Of course we put ourselves to good use as clothes pin holders:

Employed our pets to help us out when needed:

The start...you can see we're watching Foodnetwork's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate":

Progress! We've now incorporated the tv!:

One of our guard animals:

The Raney Fort in all it's SEVENTEEN blanket glory!!:

Guard cat #1 checking to make sure the hubs was an authorized visitor:

Welcome inside the Raney Fort (note the tv & our "table"):

A better view, the tv, computer, & our wet bar...what DIDN'T make it into this photo was our mini-blender (aka the bullet) for our mixed drinks of course!:

Closer look at our drink selection, shaker, & ice/beer chest:

The first frozen mixed drink of the Raney Fort

2.5 oz Pineapple Vodka

3 large frozen strawberries

4 frozen chunks of pineapple

Top glass off with pineapple juice

Blend

Voiola:

Dinner in the Raney Fort...and yes, we're watching "Wipeout" World Cup edition!!!

And of course, if you build a fort you need a place to sleep & well...have conversations:

Our view from the bed...we had to add a little ventilation after our first night in the fort when we realized working BOTH air vents into the fort was very cozy at night...but left the rest of the room quite stifling!:

the backside of our fort (you know the way to the "in-house"):

our first day of leaving the fort up we got vandalized...our guard cat was very angry upon being duped:

The Hubs as he was rebuilding the fort that evening:

Figaro helped...since he *was* the jerk that sabotaged the fort that very day:

And our very poor quality video footage of the Raney Fort:

I'd be remiss if i didn't add the photo's of the mini fort i made with my favorite sister-in-law,  Emily's son aka: my precious nephew!

Where he loved to have Nan read him stories: