Backyard camp out!

April 22 - 23

Matt and I have talked more about wanting to take the family camping.  I'm all for it, except that having a toddler (or 3) makes me really nervous while camping.  Who knows how they will sleep, they can wander off or fall in the fire or get stabbed with a stick.  So when Matt suggested that we try camping out in the backyard to see how the kids did sleeping everyone was delighted.  

 

We roasted hotdogs and had chips, lemonade, and watermelon for dinner.  Oliver loved being outside, frequently making happy sqeaks and squawks throughout the night.  He pulls himself up on everything these days, but I thought he was so cute to see his cute face while I was setting things out on the table for dinner.  I get the feeling that he is desperate to be a part of everything.

Then we introduced the Littles to s'mores.  I'd gotten the cookies with chocolate on one side because that seemed like a great way to make s'mores with little people, but it didn't work very well,  They just wanted to eat everything separate.  Oh well. 

       

I got these three red plastic chairs at a yard sale last summer thinking we were on our way to having three little people to use them.  When I came outside and saw them all sitting in the seats (Oliver had a little help from his Daddy) it made me stop and think about how grateful I am for our family.  Bigs and Littles and especially my main squeeze.  Life is pretty darn good.

    

We played some Bocce Ball for a while which was so fun.  Matt and I could trash talk and then kiss for forgiveness, Kate and Daniel loved throwing the balls, and Oliver crawled all over the backyard.  The evening was a little chilly but  not bad.  It was wonderful to be outside.

 

It was a Friday night, which means MOVIE NIGHT!!! (that's how Kate says it... with multiple exclamation marks!!!).  We had air mattresses set up for every one and had Kate and Daniel's tents from Christmas set up over their mattresses - a fun little touch to make it even more fun.  Matt had suggested that we watch "An American Tale" for the movie, which ended up being just perfect.  Daniel doesn't sit still for full length movies, but he was tired enough by this point that he did just fine, snuggling with his Daddy for part of it.  I've always liked the song "Somewhere Out There" from the movie.  It made me teary to watch our little people and thinking of how they are watched over.  

We guessed that it would rain during the night and we weren't sure how Kathryn Elaine would do with that.  Matt and I both looove to hear the rain on a tent so we really enjoyed it.  Kate ended up doing fine until it rained again early in the morning.  She called out to us and we told her to come snuggle under our blankets.  A few minutes after she came over Daniel was at the foot of the air mattress.  We listened to the rain and Matt told an Old Joe story to the kids.  We were quite startled when we heard a "Hello?" from outside the tent.  Tyler poked his head in and smiled.  He was borrowing Matt's car for a date.  We chatted a minute with him, finished the Old Joe story, and then headed inside for some hot chocolate and breakfast.  

I'd say the backyard camp out was a success.