For years my husband has talked about wanting to build the kids a treehouse. We both grew up near lots of woods, so we always felt that was one thing our kids were missing out on in life. A treehouse in the backyard seemed like a close runner-up.
Of course, with most things in life, life itself gets in the way. We always seemed to be either short on time or finances. Or quite simply, we felt we couldn't give our kids a treehouse that was "special enough."
A few weeks ago, I opened the April/May issue of Country and the editor had written his thoughts on video games preparing kids for modern life vs kids who played in treehouses. As he (Robin Hoffman) puts it, a treehouse "...was a wonderful place to ponder the future while fending off marauding pirates (my sister)..."
I felt like God was saying, "Share this with Frank!" It was the sheer, simple thought of having a place our kids could escape to that would encourage imagination, not a pre-built perfect house with running water and electricity as some we have seen (that probably cost more than my mini-van).
As we were at a baseball game this weekend, we watched our two younger children (ages 8 and 5) playing on the bleachers and creating their own environment with the benches. So little wood. So much imagination.
This morning, our 8 year old casually said to his dad, "Sure would be a great day to build a treehouse, huh?"
Home Depot, here they come!
They worked most of the afternoon to get it started. It still needs walls and a roof. It still needs a ladder. A door and possibly a window would be nice too. But even if it's no more than a floor in the tree, they will love it and they will always remember their daddy building this for them.
Memories in the making. In a treehouse yet. Who needs video games?
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