Family Campout, Part One

Caleb somehow got the brilliant idea of camping out in a tent.  He must have picked it up one of the PBS shows he watches (the only channel the kids are allowed to watch - I faintly remember a "Clifford" episode involving a tent...).  So I asked my parents if we could borrow the big family tent my family purchased for our homeschooling group's camp out many years ago.  Of course, they gladly agreed and thus our adventures in CampLand began.

We borrowed the tent way back in June when the temperatures were somewhat decent.  But the rain we kept getting hindered our plans for our backyard  festivities.  And then July came around with the extreme heat and humidity, putting the plans off for a whole month.  Finally, August brought both dry (although TOO dry) weather and mild temperatures so we could finally put things in motion.



Every real camp out has to have a camp fire.  And every camp fire has to have fire wood.  Here's my men cutting some up so we can put the hot dogs and marshmallows I'd gotten to good use.




Can you tell that Caleb's not too thrilled with the noise of the chain saw?




After gathering the fire wood, we moved on to the tent.  The kids were super excited that I finally let them play with the tent stakes that we'd bought way back in June.  If they thought THAT was exciting....



...actually getting the tent out of the bag was beyond their belief!



Caleb was actually a big help.  The rods that ran across the top of the tent to keep it up kept pulling apart before they got to the opposite end.  So I would feed the rod through my side loop, Caleb would feed it through all the middle loops and then Josh would catch it and feed it through the last side loop. 




YAY!  We did it!  The wind made it pretty tough from my end (I'm not as strong as Josh), so I had a hard time getting my side up.  But Josh came to my rescue and helped.  Two true tests of a marriage is working with wall paper together...and putting up a tent together.  And we've done both without a fight!  I think we'll make it :-)



The kids were pretty excited!  Its a pretty neat tent.  The back two thirds of it is the sleeping area and has a divider in the middle of it that can be zipped to make two rooms.  Each room has a "screen" window that can be zipped closed or open.  The front third is a "porch", complete with "screen" that can be zipped up to keep insects or other pests (you'll see below) out.




Sarah Rose took no time exploring!



And neither did Caleb.



The kids kept telling us thank you and giving us hugs and kisses! 




After the tent was set up, Caleb helped take the firewood from where it was cut to where the fire was going to be.  He's really starting to be a big boy!




Okay, I'll admit it... I very gladly agreed to give my kids a camp out, but it was because I knew a full size mattress would fit into half of the tent!  Josh and I were pretty comfy :-)




I padded the other half of the tent with a few layers of blankets so the kids would have a little bit of padding between them and the ground.





Getting the fire going.  We picked a spot that had green all the way around it, lest we start a wildfire!




Lookin' purty cute there, Sarah Rose!




The kids had so much excitement that they didn't know what to do!  Not only was there a tent... and a fire.... BUT we got out our camping chairs too!  They didn't know whether to sit in their chairs, check out the fire, or explore the tent.



Everyone saying "hi" to the crazy lady with the camera.



The afore-mentioned pests.  We have two mama cats and three kittens.  After a brief checkout of the tent, all but one cat left us alone.  The one kitten that was super curious kept exploring, up until the time we went to bed.  After listening to him outside the tent when we were settling down for bed, Josh decided he'd better put him in the hoghouse so we could get some peace.  That leads me to another funny story: after spending the night in the hoghouse, Josh let the kitties out into the bright sunshine.  Josh said that the kittens were blinded for a while and staggered around until they got used to the light.  Josh said it was pretty funny to witness.




Wiener roast.




The same kitten who insisted on exploring the tent insisted on exploring the fire. 
*NOTE:  No kittens were injured in the camping out process - by fire, tent, sunlight or other means.*




Mmmmm...nothing like a campfire hot dog!




And a few treats of purposely dropped tidbits for the kitties.




We taught the kids what Smores are.  They had a hard time catching on to what I was explaining all afternoon, but...




...it wasn't long after dark that they got first had experience and now totally get the concept of Smores!
I'm not sure what that face is Caleb's making... I guess it Smores Attitude.




Sarah Rose was pretty thrilled with the graham crackers...




...until she discovered the chocolate!



The Moonrise.





I happened to walk under a tree and heard a cicada "singing" 




Finally time for johnnies (pajamas).  The kids have been sleeping in very little this summer, so it was fun for them to dig out their warmer clothes.  It just added to the excitement.




Late night tetherball game.




We played with the camera for a while while waiting for Josh to come out from his shower.  (Tent or not, this mama was not sleeping with no smelly man!)




What kid doesn't have fun with a flashlight?  Caleb and Sarah Rose each has their own and had a great time shining them around.  After a bed time story, prayer and goodnight kisses, the kids were put to bed.  Caleb was exhausted and dozed off right away.  Sarah Rose was pretty wound still and stayed up a while.  She finally fell asleep, only to wake up three hours later, still excited.  I climbed over to lay beside her (yes,even through my carefully laid plans of having a mattress, I still ended up on the hard ground) , hoping she would doze off again, but every time I would open my eyes she was there looking at me with a HUGE smile on her face.  Its cute now, and would have been cute then if it hadn't been for two and a half hours in the wee hours of the morning!



Well, that's part of the pictures.  Stay tuned for just a few more on a future post!