Getting Ready for School – 7QT

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Amy

I’m having mixed feelings about the fact that it’s nearly the end of August. I can’t believe summer is almost over and I’m sad to see it go, but I’m also really excited about our curriculum this year and eager to get started on the school year. And I’m looking forward to fall, which is my favorite season and would be the best thing ever in my opinion, except that it’s always followed by winter.

Anyway, I’ll do a post next week about our plans for the school year, but here’s what we’ve been doing lately to get ready for it.

1. Reviewing curriculum.

Since our house was on the market, I have kept all of my homeschool stuff packed away, and I just recently got everything out. The girls went out to play in the rain the other day, so I set myself up with my huge binder of stuff and started figuring out what I’m supposed to do with it. Probably a good idea.

2. Getting supplies.

Since we homeschool, we don’t have big lists of things to get for the school year, but with back-to-school stuff on sale right now, we went ahead and got some fresh crayons and notebooks. Everyone loves fresh crayons. And back-to-school is always a good time to stock up on new socks and undies too.

3. Getting haircuts.

I guess I just like to make a bit of a production about starting school again, even though we’re doing it in our dining room. So I took the girls to get them back-to-school haircuts. They posed for a before picture:

And here’s the after:

They really wanted me to take an “after” photo of them facing the wall too:

4. Trying to check out a homeschool gym class.

There is a local homeschool group that meets on Wednesdays at a nearby park for gym. I have never taken the girls because it’s right in the middle of nap time. But now that Sis is the only one who naps regularly, and I’m trying to decide what we’re going to do for gym class this year, I wanted to take them to check it out last week.

I had the time wrong at first, so we were there an hour and a half early. Then when we the correct time finally rolled around and still no one was there, I called the woman in charge, who told me it had been cancelled that day. She said it was on for this week, but then we had an inspection scheduled for our house on Thursday, and Wednesday afternoon came and went with me completely forgetting to take them. Sooo, next week.

5. Putting stuff together.

When our house is done (hopefully in October) we will have a new school room. I decided I did not like having one table for all the girls to use for their work, so I got them individual desks that need to be put together. I also got a new standing white board and some craft organizing trays for workboxes. I haven’t actually started putting anything together yet, but I did get one desk out of the box, only to put it right back in when I learned of the inspection happening this week. It will happen before we start school.

6. Enjoying the last few days of summer.

Most of my girls’ friends will be starting back to Catholic school on Tuesday, so we’re trying to enjoy as much of the last few days of summer, especially with them, as we can.

7. Preparing myself mentally.

Not actually with beer, though that’s nice too (and doesn’t that picture just look like a little slice of happiness for a summer day?)

I’m trying to think through what my objectives are for the year. Obviously there’s the curriculum part, and my goals for each girl and what I want her to learn and accomplish. But I’ve also been working on really preparing myself to be more peaceful and have more fun in school this year. We started out great last year, but after a while things sort of started to drag on some days. We had a few awful moments when I got stubborn about just. getting. the lesson. done. instead of remembering that the happiness and growth and love of learning in my children is far more important than any lesson or curriculum or specific skill being taught.

This year I will remember that the most important thing for me to do every day is to help my children to find wonder and joy in learning, and to help them learn to learn. Beyond that, everything else is gravy.

I hope that you’re still enjoying the last few days of summer! I’m linking this one up with Kelly at This Ain’t the Lyceum for Seven Quick Takes Friday. Head over there to see more!

A Wedding, Some Zoos, and Lots of Summer Fun – 7QT

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Amy

Summer is flying by, and between getting our house ready for showings, picking out things for the new house, and practicing music for a wedding reception we performed in, I have hardly blogged at all (not that I haven’t wanted to!). Here’s a quick little catch up post of our summer happenings. I’ll apologize in advance for the lack of photo quality. I’ve been leaving my big camera at home, sometimes because I don’t want to carry it, but usually because I forget it (it’s tucked away as part of my showing-ready minimalism). So the following are all phone photos. Sorry!

The wedding.

My husband’s cousin got married last weekend. My girls haven’t been to a wedding in several years (and don’t remember the ones they have been to), so they were extremely excited.

We had lots of wedding dress up and role-playing around here in preparation.

The wedding was lovely and I was excited to get to spend a little bit of time at the farm where my Father-in-law grew up and my husband spend many happy hours of his childhood. The house was built by my husband’s great grandfather (who dug the basement with horses!). I was happy that my girls got to see and experience it a little bit.

The reception.

I was so privileged to get to participate in the band that performed for the reception. (I’ve posted about the band before. It’s primarily made up of my husband, one of his brothers, two of his cousins, and a friend. I just sing some songs and play some tambourine.)

The bride is the sister of two of the band members, and she and her husband took a chance and let us play the music for their reception. We aren’t a professional band, and in fact only had about two hours of practice time with the whole band together. But everyone spent so much time practicing at home individually, we sounded pretty darned good.

It was a blast. The music and dancing and family time were perfect. And most importantly, I think the bride and groom were pleased.

The hospitality.

I have to mention the hospitality of my husband’s cousin and his wife. We traveled to their small town in Iowa twice this summer, once for a band practice, and once for the wedding. Both times, they let us stay with them in their house, fed us, and made us completely comfortable and welcome. It’s so amazing to visit someone and feel like they are truly happy and not put out in the least with having you in their home. Ben’s cousin’s wife took care of everything for us. She watched my kids while I practiced with the band. And she did it all with a genuine smile. I was inspired to do a better job of this myself when people visit us.

The zoo (#1).

Moving on to other summer things, we went to a small local zoo last week with Super Friend and four of her five children. It was a little dirtier and more weedy than I remember it being in years past (to the point that we could barely see a couple of the animals through the tall weeds), but the kids still loved it.

The highlight of the day occurred when we were walking out to the car. We ran into a zoo employee, who was bringing one of their newest residents in through the front entrance. She let the girls pet their nine-week-old baby tiger!

The pool.

We joined the pool again this year, and have been spending a good amount of time there.

It’s our new go-to family activity after Mass on Sundays. We have it nearly to ourselves for a few hours before other people get around to making it to the pool.

We get in and swim with the girls for a little while, and then relax for some mom and dad time while they splash around in the shallow area. Summer at its finest.

The Dirty Weird Zoo.

Just yesterday, we took our annual trip to the DWZ. It’s still dirty and weird. And unfortunately this year they didn’t allow us to take bags of bread for the kids to feed to the animals while we walked around. That was always the big selling point of the place for me. My kids enjoyed feeding bread to the animals so much, I was able to overlook the dirtiness. This year I wondered if it was worth it without that fun experience for them.

Surprisingly, they didn’t seem too disappointed about not having the bread to give. I think I was more bummed out about it than they were.

They still made great memories with great friends.

The other stuff.

We’ll be trying to soak up the rest of our short summer here before we officially start our school. So far, it’s been fun and fast.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer too!

Check out more quick takes at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

Edel, Summer, ALL the Good Things – 7QT

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Amy

Happy Fourth of July! Two posts in one day, so that I can join in with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes Friday (it’s been a while!), and share all my love of summer to this point.

We had some fantastic 4th of July festivities with friends last night.

Wonderful friends, good food, good beer, and fireworks. Can’t beat that for a great American holiday celebration.

^ My husband playing chase with all the kids ^

I love our community of friends

Earlier in the week, we went strawberry picking. Summer in Wisconsin is glorious.

It really does make up for the long, cold winters. Well, almost.

Our house has been on the market for two weeks now and we’ve had two showings. I have been cleaning and polishing and pulling weeds so much, it’s really starting to get to me. Examples: last weekend, I got out of the car at the farmer’s market downtown, and I saw some weeds growing in the sidewalk cracks. I felt a strong urge to bend down and pull them, just for the thrill of getting the root. Then a couple of days ago, I noticed myself being careful not to leave fingerprints on my steering wheel while driving to the grocery store.

I really hope our house sells soon!

I’ve had some fun one-on-one time with my littlest girl while her sisters were at YMCA camp a week ago. She wanted to play princess and informed me that her name is “Annie,” (which is not her name). She was Princess Annie all day, until she decided she was Princess Baker Annie.

The Princess-Baker’s finished creation:

It’s not often I get to spend time with just my youngest girl. It was special.

Next week, I’m going to the Edel Gathering in Charleston! I had a blast there last year, and am looking forward to some much needed mommy-recharging time.

^ A selfie with Super Friend from last year ^

If you are coming to Edel, leave a comment and let me know. And please come up and introduce yourself! Even though I am really going to try to get past my introvertedness (word?) and meet new people, I probably won’t do a very good job of it to be honest, so help me out!

Speaking of introvertedness, I stepped out of my comfort zone and reached out to another homeschooling mom here in town. Although I really love our community of friends here (see above), all of the kids who are part of our friend group go to school. I’m realizing that I really do need to connect with more homeschooling families, so I called our parish to see if they have a homeschooling group. They don’t, but the woman I spoke to gave me the name of another homeschooling mom in our parish. That mom is a member of a (non-Catholic) homeschooling group I’m part of on FB, so I sent her a friend request, and then a message, and she told me there is a Catholic homeschooling group in our town, it just hasn’t been very active lately. She added me to the FB group, and I invited her to meet up at a park with the kids. It was so fun! We made all sorts of plans to revive the local group, and she gave me some good info on other homeschooling opportunities in town.

It might seem like a little thing, but I’m really excited about this for myself and for my kids (and for the record, I have nothing against hanging with non-Catholic homeschoolers, but there’s something really fun about discussing plans for an All Saint’s Day costume party and a May Crowning and such).

We are making a good, old-fashioned American feast for the 4th today. I have chicken brining, which I will fry this afternoon, my husband has his famous homemade baked beans cooking in the oven, I’ve got all the fixins ready to mix up some coleslaw, and lots of corn on the cob in my fridge. It’s going to be a great day.

Happy 4th of July!

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For more Quick Takes, head over to Kelly’s link up!

7 Quick Takes – Evidence of Summer Fun and a Couple of Other Random Thoughts

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Jen.

1. I have been a little off the past few weeks. I’ve wanted to write more, but nothing I’ve come up with has been right. I’m starting to feel like getting back in the swing, so I thought I’d start by sharing that, though I have had some rough days, we’ve still been having a fun summer. Presenting, five Quick Takes with photographic evidence of summer fun:

2. Last week we went raspberry picking.

Miss was all about getting as many raspberries as possible so we could make fresh raspberry smoothies for breakfast the following morning (which were awful, by the way). The other two were not super motivated, but I think they still had fun. Either way, they got a special treat afterwards.

I let them have just ice cream for lunch. They were thrilled and thought I was the best mom ever. I didn’t have to make them anything to eat. Win, win.

3. We went shopping for soccer shoes over the weekend. I realized how infrequently (i.e. never) I take the girls to a mall. They were ooh-ing and aah-ing over everything they saw, from kiosks with funky paper light fixtures to the mannequin displays in all of the store front windows. They even had a lot of fun with some president statues outside the mall entrance.

It might have been a tad over the top, how proud I was that they could identify George Washington and Abraham Lincoln by themselves.

4. We’ve had a few cookouts with friends. I already mentioned our first one on the 4th of July. We had another with homemade grilled pizza, s’mores, and movie night (and some trampolining in pajamas):

^^ The chef with his delicious pizzas ^^

and another time with my husband’s grilled ribs, baked beans, and fritters (all homemade), an airshow overhead, homemade ice cream (my sole contribution), and a movie night:

^^ We set the kids’ tables in the yard so they could see the Thunderbirds overhead ^^

My husband loves to grill, especially for company. I love to let him. Win, win.

5. We had a picnic in the downtown square. We listened to live music and danced in the grass.

We played in the fountain.

Summer fun, right there ^^

6. This week we are at the Farm. Always a lot of summer fun to be had here. Yesterday my husband caught a bunch of shad and let the girls play with some on the beach. They were entertained for hours. It was sort of odd and quite fun to watch.

7. And in news not related to summer shenanigans, I finally updated my “About Me” page. I am not entirely sure that it’s finished, but it has been changed quite a bit and I like it so far. What do you think?

For more Quick Takes, see Conversion Diary.

I’m in a Blogging Slump, BUT – Iowa State Fair!

Posted on August 12, 2014August 14, 2014 by Amy

Oh, the Iowa State Fair. I have such a love for something that is only mine through marriage. I grew up in Michigan and never once went to the state fair. The only thing I even knew about the Michigan State Fair was that there was a Hog-Calling Contest there, and only that because my cousin won it at least once.

And as much as I love living in Wisconsin, I wasn’t terribly impressed by our fair, which I went to only once, the first year we lived there (I say “there,” because I’m currently typing in Missouri). I had no real understanding of the wonders of the state fair until the summer of 2009, when I went to the Iowa State Fair for the first time when Miss was about six months old.

Even then, I didn’t quite grasp the Fair fabulousness until taking my kids when they got a little older. We’ve gone for the past three years now, and I so love walking the streets of the fairgrounds, taking in all the sights and smells, and hearing all the stories from my husband and in-laws of fairs gone by. It makes me feel like I have a bit of claim to such a wonderful tradition, even though I’m a true city girl who has always been quite in awe of the fact that people grow vegetables and animals in order to show them and be judged on them at the Fair. It’s bizarre. And I love it.

So, this year was much the same as always. We have a few Fair things that are must-sees and must-dos and must-eats. By the time we get done with those, we’re about ready to be done for the day. This year was no exception. As usual, we started in the baby animals barn.

^^ No, we weren’t at the Creepy Perv Fair. The sign on the cage got cut off when I snapped this pic. The top line said, “For My Health, Don’t”

The girls got to see newborn piglets nursing from their momma, and some cute baby ostriches, and a calf being born on the overhead screens. This is always one of our favorite parts of the Fair.

Naturally, the next thing we did was to eat something yummy on a stick.

And then find something homegrown and absurdly large to pose with for a photo

^^ That’s an 1,131 pound pumpkin.

We went to the Avenue of Breeds barn and saw the Big Boar, along with lots of other types of animals.

^^ NOT the Big Boar, but for some reason I only have photos of medium-sized pigs from that barn.

The city girl in me was so tickled to see this guy:

It’s not every day you turn around to see a big pink pig sauntering toward you like he hasn’t a care in the world. There is something funny to me about the way pigs walk too. I kind of wanted to take him home.

After the Avenue of Breeds we walked over to the cattle barn to see the the Big Bull.

His name is “Big Daddy” and he weighs over 3000 pounds.

After an unmemorable-but-belly-filling-without-long-lines lunch, we finally made it to the Big Yellow Slide, which Miss in particular had been begging to go on all morning. The older girls went down the slide with their aunt, and Sis went down with my husband. They loved it, and each went twice.

At least they said they loved it after they got to the bottom. Their faces during the sliding sort of suggested otherwise:

^^ That last picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Somehow, I have yet to see the famous butter cow sculpture in person (not sure how I always miss this), but this year I did see, um, extra large American Gothic:

One of the coolest parts of the day came after the slide. We walked over to the antique tractors, where my Father-in-law located a model just like the one he had driven as a boy on the farm where he grew up. He was not much older than Miss when he started working in the fields driving that tractor.

I’ve heard about him driving a tractor as a little boy, but somehow seeing that tractor close up, the same kind that he rode on back then, and seeing my small-but-not-much-smaller-than-he-was-then daughters standing next to it made it so much more amazing to me.

My favorite part of the day, as it has been every year, was taking the girls to the Department of Natural Resources building. They run around and look at the fish in the tanks, guess at which animals the various pelts belong to, and check out many other cool (and educational) exhibits.

^^ I asked Lass (my animal lover) about the birds in that display case ^^ She said, in a bored voice, “It’s a peregrine falcon. I already know that.” I had to check the card on the glass to make sure, but she was right!

Behind the DNR building, there is a pond with turtles and ducks and geese and swans. We always spend a lot of time there, searching under the surface of the water to spot the turtles, laughing at the antics of the ducks, and admiring the swans.

This year, we got startled by one of the swans who climbed out of the pond, stretched her wings up and flapped around frantically for a few seconds, right in front of us.

Perhaps I’m a big dork, bit this shady little pond, and the excitement my girls displayed over seeing turtles trying to climb onto rocks and swans flapping their wings, was the highlight of my day.

It was also fun that afterwards we enjoyed another dessert on a stick, deep-fried this time, as the perfect ending to a lovely day.

Dirty and Weird and We Wouldn’t Miss It

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Amy

I’m not doing 7 Quick Takes today. I really can’t gather my thoughts enough to write seven different things. BUT, I can share some photos with you from our trip to the Dirty Weird Zoo yesterday. The place is still so odd, but definitely a summer tradition I wouldn’t want to miss.

Sis had her first experience with feeding bread to the animals. She was fearless.

A donkey even nibbled her fingers a little bit. She just yanked her hand back and went on feeding it.

The big kids were racing all over the place, screaming with delight about all the animals to see.

No one even freaked out about the inevitable goat attack. Except maybe me and Super Friend.

Miss and Lass even said the goats were their favorite, because “they were everywhere.”

Miss found a peacock feather, which she insisted on carrying around the whole morning. I know I’m not the only one who has a slightly neurotic terror of bird feathers. They are so dirty. Am I right? Ew. Ew. Ew. Happily she didn’t put up too much of a fuss when I told her she couldn’t bring the feather home.

After depleting at least 10 bags of bread and buns by generously feeding lots of animals, we had our own picnic lunch. I think it was a successful outing.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

A Memorable Weekend in Lots of Photos

Posted on June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 by Amy

We had a truly memorable weekend visiting family. Practically all the things of summer, in two days: Pool time, park time, ice cream, bubbles, a sprinkler, a sand box, squirt guns, pajama parties, movie night, a dance party, a cook out, and on, and on. Plus a moms’ night out.

Our hosts were just wonderful. Here’s a bit of a peek (I mean, a ton of photos):

My kids kept asking why we weren’t staying for a whole week. They didn’t want to come home.

New-and-Improved Summer Fun – A Family Tradition

Posted on June 5, 2014June 6, 2014 by Amy

I’ve been working on our Summer Fun List again for this year (see last year’s list here). My kids loved doing it last year and they enjoyed the Fall and Winter List too, so we’re going for it again. I guess we’re making it a tradition.

I have the list pretty much done, but I haven’t yet put it on our big poster for checking off each thing. Through discussing it with them, I’ve discovered that doesn’t seem to matter much to my kids that most of what’s on the list is the exact same as what we did last year. Things like Go to the Iowa State Fair, Go to the Zoo, Ride a Horse, and Go to the Beach are the same and probably always will be.

We got rid of some things that didn’t work last year. Get Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Truck never worked because I never saw a truck on our street all summer. Not gonna try to do that again. I got rid of the bubble activities from the list, because the “special” bubble solutions and contraptions we made were pretty underwhelming. My kids blow very nice, perfectly fine bubbles all summer long with the cheap concoctions and bubble wands we can get from the store, thank you very much.

I got rid of the glitter firework art that I had on there last year. After having lots of Thanksgiving and Christmas and Valentine’s Day projects planned for winter, I determined it’s not awesome to put holiday-specific crafts on the list. Sometimes other holiday plans get in the way or things just don’t work out as planned and you end up making snowflake Christmas ornaments in February as “winter art.” Ahem.

I’m trying to plan ahead, and realizing that we may not be able to make it to a fireworks display for the 4th of July this year, so that’s out, but I did add in Play with Sparklers. I also remember last summer how disappointed Miss was that we didn’t really complete the item “Sleep in a Tent,” since the girls decided to come in and get in their beds at around 10pm. So this year the list just says, “Camp.” No sleeping or overnight shenanigans required. They “went to bed” and spent several hours in a tent with their Dad when we visited my parents last week. I’m calling it “Done,” though Miss wants to try again to stay out all night.

I just love having and doing the list, though a few months ago, I briefly questioned my use of The List for our must-do seasonal activities. I read a post called “I’m Done Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical.” It’s a great piece, though a little heavy-handed on the “when we were kids” references. I agree with a lot of what the author wrote and with her opinion that parents nowadays can sometimes go overboard trying to make every moment magical for their kids. I’m all about just letting my kids play without needing to make a big experience out of everything.

The author of the post really poo-pooed all the Pinterest-y lists of summer things, and winter things, and birthday themes, and crafts that start with Q, and so on. And since my word for the year is “Open,” I usually try to think about it, at least briefly, when I come across ideas that might seem to contradict something I’m doing or the way I’m thinking about something (my list in this case).

So I thought about it. For about five minutes. I reflected on our list and whether I was going overboard. I asked myself if I was micromanaging all of my kids’ activities or hijacking their free time with my own agenda. I thought about whether I was just stressing myself out trying to do all of these activities because of perceived pressure to do all things Pinterest.

I decided nope. I’m not. My kids spend the vast majority of their play time doing their own thing. Even when we do an activity from our list, sometimes the outcome isn’t what I planned, because they do it their own way, and that’s okay too. And I don’t’ feel any pressure at all to do certain activities with my kids. I actually like doing crafts with them and going on outings that we might not do if I didn’t have that list staring me in the face saying, “DO IT!”

See, I’m sort of a homebody. If left to my own devices, I often tend toward thinking, “That might be fun, but I’m so comfy here at home, and this is so nice and easy, and I’d just like to stay right here.” And so I sometimes avoid outings or adventures, even though when I get off my butt and go do them, I love them and so do my kids. The actual activity or outing is never as stressful or difficult as I sometimes make it out to be in my head while contemplating it.

So having our fun list is actually good for me. It actually doesn’t stress me out at all. Even when I think that we might not get all the things done (I was pretty unsure about whether we’d make it on that skiing trip on the winter list!), it isn’t a source of worry or distress. I did 50 out of 51 things on last summer’s list with a four, two, and one-year old and it was great. There’s nothing on the list that I am forcing myself to do when I really don’t want to (except maybe the glitter craft projects). My kids love it and seeing how excited they get about making the list, doing the activities on it, and checking off the items as we complete them, is totally worth it. So it’s on.

Anyway, back to our list. We already started to complete several of this year’s items while visiting my parents. I mentioned the “camping” above, and you can guess from the photos that we already rode horses, went to the beach, swam in a lake, and built a sand castle. We also went to a park (at the beach), planted our garden, and played barefoot in puddles (a new item this year inspired by the ridiculous amount of water in our front yard this week).

But the best activity we have completed? By far it was the one thing that we did not manage to do at all last year.

The girls absolutely loved catching fireflies. We went out at dusk and waited for what seemed like a really long time. But once those little guys were finally lighting it up, the girls started squealing and screaming and running and laughing like it was the best thing ever. We caught plenty of the glowing bugs. Miss even caught a few by herself. The girls were simultaneously terrified and ecstatic when the bugs got caught in their hair or when one danced on Miss’s nose for several seconds. Though we’ve barely begun, I know this will be one of the best memories of the season.

Summer is so short for us and so glorious. We have to wring every last bit of goodness out of it before the looong cold months arrive again. I’m so excited to do the list again.

In case you’re curious, here’s what’s on the list this year.

Copied from last summer’s list:

Catch lightning bugs – DONE
Camp – DONE
Go fishing
Ride a horse – DONE
Go to the Iowa State Fair
Make Ice Cream
Make popsicles
Hunt for bugs
Go to the beach – DONE
Pick wildflowers
Roast marshmallows and eat s’mores
Raise caterpillars into butterflies
Go to the zoo
Go on a treasure hunt
Swim in a lake or pond – DONE
Go to a splash pad
Run through a sprinkler
Visit a butterfly garden
Put our sprinkler under the trampoline
Play hopscotch
Play with water balloons
Catch tadpoles
Go to the Dirty Weird Zoo
Have a picnic lunch in the yard
Go for a bike ride
Read books outside
Have an outdoor scavenger hunt
Go for a boat ride
Go to the farmer’s market
Go to the park – DONE
Go to an outdoor concert
Visit a farm
Have a cookout and movie night with friends
Plant a garden – DONE
Make lemonade
Pick berries
Go to some yard sales
Complete the Summer Reading Program
Make a fairy house
Have a dance party in the yard
Make an art project with outdoor found treasures

New this year:

Go to a walk-up ice cream stand (the alternative to the truck)
Play with sparklers (an alternative to watching fireworks)
Play with moon sand
Paint with ice paint
Make a worm habitat
Make sun catchers
Make tin-can lanterns
Play barefoot in puddles – DONE
Paint with flower-dyed paint

What will you be up to this summer?

So, We Tried a Little Camping Last Night

Posted on September 10, 2013September 10, 2013 by Amy

My hubby and I have been meaning to put up our tent and let the girls “sleep” out in it all summer. It’s one of the few things on our Summer Fun List we still need to do.

We had the tent up and ready when we went to the Farm back in June, but my husband got sick with a bad sinus infection, so we (he) didn’t do it then.

When we went to the Farm in August we forgot the tent. And at other times my Hubby has been working nights or working weekends or we’ve been traveling. We haven’t had many free weekends at home, so the tent has not been up, and we (they) have not “camped.”

This week my Dad happened to bring a very small and I think kind of old Army tent with him. He thought the girls would enjoy playing in it, so he put it up for them yesterday morning. He had no intention of anyone actually sleeping in it. It didn’t even have a floor.

But I saw an opportunity and decided to take it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really plan the whole adventure out very well. I had my first RCIA class last night and didn’t get home until after dark. I did pick up flashlights and cookies on the way home, but that was the extent of my preparation.

Fortunately, my Dad had grabbed a tarp at the hardware store yesterday afternoon, so I threw that down, flung a couple of quilts on top of it, had the girls grab their blankies and pillows and books, and out we went.

They thought it was pretty great.

We had a “Special Secret Camping Cookie Treat.” I called my Mom to ask her to bring out our water bottles (like I said, zero preparation).

We read some stories by flashlight.

We made two trips into the house to go to the bathroom.

The most frequently uttered phrase of the evening was, “No tooting in the tent!!”

Each time we went inside I thought for sure they were going to decide to stay in and go to bed.

See, part of the reason I wasn’t very prepared was that I didn’t really believe they would want to stay out more than about an hour or so. I figured we’d eat our special cookies, read a few books, snuggle and be silly for a bit, and then they’d be ready to go inside and go to sleep in their comfy beds.

Lass actually was ready to come inside after our stories were read, but each time she’d say she wanted to come in Miss would say, “I want to stay out!” and then Lass would say, “Yeah, me too.”

I was getting nervous that we might actually stay out there all night! That ground was hard. And I kept thinking that critters could crawl under the sides or in through the big gap in the front of the tent where I couldn’t get it snapped (yes, snapped, not zipped!!) all the way to the ground. And it was hot and stinky in there (from all the tooting).

Happily, a little after 10:00 Lass said, “I think sleeping inside would be better.” I asked her if she wanted to go in, and she said she did. I quickly and cheerfully said, “Okay! I’ll take you inside.”

To my surprise, Miss said she wanted to go in too. So I scooped them both up and hustled them into their beds before they could change their minds.

I thought I was going to be in for a looong night (though I would have stayed out there!). Instead, we had a lot of fun, rolling around and laughing and pretending. And I still got to sleep in my own bed.

Miss did ask if we could “camp” again tonight though…

Our Week in Review

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary again.

1. When we went to Des Moines for the fair, we had a little pre-birthday party for Lass. She was so cute and so excited about the whole thing. Each time she opened a gift she said a sweet, breathless little “Fank you!!” accompanied by a tiny giggle. She melts me.

2. Speaking of birthdays, my Dad turned 70 on Wednesday. We couldn’t be with him, but my girls drew him some pictures:

Lass drew two caribou and one “caribou-snake” and Miss drew a dinosaur (“Grandpa loves dinosaurs, doesn’t he?”), and a “snake-eel.” Sis mostly just likes to hold the crayons.

3. After Labor Day Lass will be starting swimming lessons with Miss. She has been begging to do this for the past year. Each time I took her to the drop in care at the YMCA when taking Miss to her lesson, she asked to take swimming lessons too. I told her she had to wait until she was three. She is so excited to start in a few weeks.

4. We have a swing set/play structure thing at our house. It’s sort of a cheap one, and we won’t take it with us when we move.

I have decided that when we build our new house, I’m not going to get a new “play system.” My girls’ favorite outdoor play spaces are old trees and big rocks and tall grasses. Those are much cheaper.

5. I always forget to pack bathing suits when we travel. In July, when we went to my parents’ house, I packed the girls’ suits, but forgot my own, so I had to run to the only store they have in their town, Dollar General, to grab a suit when we took them to the beach.

This week I forgot everyone’s suits. When the girls played on the beach, I didn’t really care. They just got their clothes wet and sandy and it was no big deal. But when we went to my sister-in-law’s house, I knew the kids would be swimming in her pool. I figured we would all need suits, so I ran into Target on the way to her house to pick some up. The suits weren’t quite the right size since the selection was pitiful, but at least they were on sale. Happily, my husband was merciful and let me out of wearing my ill-fitting, mismatched suit, saying he could handle the two older girls since we didn’t go in the pool until after Sis was in bed. He’s the best. Plus he was the only one in a suit that fit…

6. Cuteness:

7. Last weekend my husband’s whole family (almost) was here to help get things cleaned up. That’s because the annual Labor Day Party/Family reunion that used to be hosted here at the Farm is back this year.

Last year it was at a different venue, and it was amazing. But I’m excited for it to be at the Farm again. It’s a costume party and the theme is “Jobs.” I have no idea what my costume is going to be, let alone for my three little ones. Any suggestions?