Project: Build a Box Fort

As a young boy, I had a wild imagination.  On any given day, you could find me rummaging around through my Dad's toolbox searching for the parts to make a robot, or perhaps climbing high up in the trees and pretending I was in Never, Never Land, or squatting on the edge of the roof of my house with my Batman hood on, waiting for evil to rear its ugly head.

But by far, my most favorite afternoon's were spent inside deep within a blanket fort my Mom would make for me out of comforters, clothes pins, and the kitchen table chairs.  Buried deep within the recesses of my fort, I would wait with my arsenal of Nerf guns for the first person to dare encroach upon my sacred territory -- often this was a brother or a sister.  

Forts come in all shapes and sizes: blanket forts, tree houses, under-the-bed hideouts, garage garrisons, sandbox pits.  A quick and easy fort for a lazy afternoon is the box fort... all you need is a solid set of boxes and lots of imagination.

Time:

• 10 minutes or less

Tools:

• Scissors

Materials:

• 2x set of 25 small boxes from Lowe's

Cost:

• About $40 (unless you know someone who just moved!)

Instructions:

Assemble each of the boxes... and let the kids do the rest!  Bonus points for you dads out there that sneak away as the fort is being assembled and load up a Nerf gun or two!