The U.H.O. and S.P.Y. Labs...

Our kids have been into pretend spying for quite some time now but it wasn't until just recently that they stepped up their game.

You can take the fort away from the kids but you can't take the kids away from the fort...or something like that. 

You may remember my mention of our little family making our basement a temporary home this summer.  The kids love sleeping down there and it's anything but just a kid in a bed.  At the very least, it's a kid in a sleeping bag, in a bed.  But usually, it's a kid in some elaborate fort, in a sleeping bag, in a bed.

So, in preporation for the upcoming school year, we spent last Saturday cleaning up and picking up.  It took awhile as the kids had hauled down quite a bit of stuff over the course of the last few months.  We had declared the basement clean and ready to be played in...not slept in.

I've enjoyed having my family back upstairs with me at night (you might remember that I'm not so much a basement gal), but over the course of this week, guess what the basement has turned into?

S.P.Y. Labs (superplanningyouthlabs) formerly known as The U.H.O. (undergroundhideout)

Matthew being the super spy that he is comes up with these acronymns and we just go with it.  So, at this very moment, the kids are all upstairs in their beds (although Sara is in the top bunk with Matthew...we'll see how that goes) but the basement?  Well, it's anything but the neat and organized effort from last Saturday! 

It's now the home of S.P.Y. Labs; where the kids have rigged up blankets, pillows, mattresses and more to create something super secret for themselves.  They've even reached a pinnacle moment in the course of every childhood. 

The secret language. 

Oh gosh, I had a good laugh when I heard this bit going on.  Didn't you ever have one of these as a kid?  Or at the very least a secret code or something that you wrote in?  My sister and I had a secret code that we wrote in but it took forever to use it so it didn't last long.

These two big kids are at such a funny stage together right now.  Their playfullness is bringing back some fond memories of our time in Maryland.  Back then, they were great friends.  In the past 2 1/2yrs. I haven't seen much of that friendship per se...

I'm glad I've been seeing it pop in the last few days...