Matt's Amazeballs Blanket Fort Birthday!

As seen on Offbeat Home!

I've always been a big fan of blanket forts, having built dozens of them in my grandparents' house with my cousins growing up. On school trips in my teen years, I would always try to convince my friends to help me build them in our hotel rooms, a request that was universally met with disdain. My outlook has always been, to paraphrase XKCD, "I'm an adult and its my turn to decide what that means."

For me and my amazingly awesome friends, that means blanket forts. Really big ones.

Recently my friend Jewels, who had the awesome silent birthday party in my previous post, decided to throw her husband a birthday party inspired by the epic blanket fort Fluffytown, of Community fame. Matt is a big fan of the show, and the blanket fort episode in particular, so she secretly recruited about a dozen of us to bring all of our extra blankets and pillows over to their apartment and recreate it.

The living room was not large enough to accomodate the fort and the couch, so the couch was moved outside onto the lawn. She used a huge orange and white parachute purchased from an Army surplus store as the main ceiling in the living room, which had the advantage of being very light and easy to attach to the ceiling and walls. She used tape, but tacks would work, too. The entry hall had a low blanket ceiling, which forced everyone arriving to crawl on their hands and knees down the passage before emerging under the parachute tent. All of our extra pillows were scattered across the floor so people could nest as they pleased.

The quilt in the back is partially covering the front door.

We hung a barrier blanket between the living room and the kitchen to help keep the heat out of the rest of the fort. No blankets were hung in the kitchen, for safety reasons(that were ignored later in the evening, but we'll get to that...). Jewels made his favorite food, hot dogs, and created a hot dogs toppings bar along the countertop where guests could load up on condiments, diced onions, sauerkraut, etc. The sheets and blankets were hung low in the hallway that led to the bathroom and bedrooms to encourage crawling everywhere.

The kitchen is behind that maroon sheet.

Matt entered the fort crawling on hands and knees. Jewels had given him a headlamp to wear with a cryptic note saying he'd need it when he got home(it was pretty dark in the fort). We watched circus movies and ate tons of carnival candy and hot dogs, gave Matt his presents, and then Jewels brought out two large bowls of homemade birthday cake ice cream. The pillows proved a perfect surface beneath us as everyone slipped into food comas following the cake ice cream, which was served in plastic keg cups with spoons.

Yes, we did put candles in it and light them, under a blanket fort. We're very responsible adults.



The following morning, all the blankets were taken down,the couch brought back inside, the pillows carted off home with their respective owners, leaving nary a trace that mere hours before there had been a big kids' wonderland in there.

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