Campout

Friday afternoon Brandon came home from school all grouchy and asked me if he could get out our tent to play in. Apparently, the boy across the street had been bragging that he was going camping with his dad and Brandon was feeling a little left out. I was busy trying to get to a parent-teacher conference at school and didn't want to deal with saying no, so I brushed him off by telling him that he needed to go ask Dad. Much to my surprise, when I came home Mark had set up the tent outside and told the kids he would have a sleep-out with them in the backyard.

Since the grass is still a little wet from all the rain we have had, Mark set the tent up on the patio and then filled it with mattresses, pillows, blow-up beds, sleeping bags and lots of blankets for both warmth and cushioning. The kids were so excited they were literally running around the tent in circles singing and laughing. But, even with all the padding, there was no way I was going to sleep on the patio--in OCTOBER! I did try to do my part though by running out to the store to buy the fixin's for s'mores.

After dinner, we made a valiant effort at a little campfire. It was pretty windy and we hard time getting our wood to catch, but we were able to get enough of a flame to roast some marshmallows and provide a nice ambiance for some campfire songs. (Our neighbors probably loved us.) We all smelled like smoke the next day, but it was a lot of fun.

I was worried that the kids would be too cold out in the nippy weather, but Mark did a good job keeping them snug in their sleeping bags all night. After a night of sleeping on cement, being kicked by Emily, listening to Bryce grind his teeth, and waking up every few hours to re-cover the kids that had kicked off their blankets, poor Mark was very tired and sore on Saturday. But the kids had a ball! I guess it hurts to be the hero. Hooray for Super-Dad.