And it started out okay, the weather was great. It was overcast enough to be pleasant outside but we played in the creek, catching little fish and crawdads. The next morning we went on a two mile hike. I'll share some pictures but let it be know that someone whined the first 1/3 of this trip because he/she want to share a water bottle but also didn't want to carry one. The someone else "accidentally fell' into the creek. I don't mind so much about that, water happens, but it let to some less than pleasant moments later on involved me trying to calmly explain to a certain child that it doesn't matter how much we need dry clothes if I don't have any so if we just get in the car and drive for 2 minutes, we will be at the tent and can get them.
I'm all about outdoor time and much of it is lovely. And I could sit here and write about the neat tadpoles we saw and how the kids made some neat observations about the different colors of crawdads and the fact that I saw and correctly identified turkey tail mushrooms (my first mushroom id!) and sometimes I do that - focus on the good parts. That has its purpose. I want to choose to joy most of the times so I do normally share those shining moments on social media. But I also don't mind occasionally sharing that there are also times when you just gotta push through. Don't be fooled by what ends up on Instagram. It's real but its not the full story.
And since I'm being real, I'll say that bad attitudes compelled us to abandon our earlier stay-through-s'mores plan and by 11am of the second day we were already on our way home. The rest of the day didn't get any better but at least I wasn't in public or getting rained on while dealing with these attitude issues. I was soooooo relieved when bedtime came. Like, the thought of it made me so happy I starting crying. Or maybe something/someone else made me cry, hard to tell :-)
But the next day we rallied a bit! Dh and Jonah went off for some one on one time - donuts and picking out a (dog) toy for me to turn into a weighted toy/tool. I took the girls to the craft store and we finally picked up some supplies for doll crafting the kids had wanted to do for a while now.
We made pb&j sandwiches, oreos, pizza, ice cream sandwiches and candy bars for their dolls. (FYI - those are youtube links so they might make sounds)Then I insisted we also cut out some doll sized carrot sticks to help balance out their meal.
And Samantha needed a fun to place to sit to eat all that junk food so whipped up a patchwork bean bag chair (I've promised Jonah I'd make one for "boy doll" soon).
As you can see, I did a really good job NOT helping too much, especially with Jonah. But square pepperoni aside, I think it all turned out really well. The kids are already planning what they will make their dolls next.
No dads were hurt in the making of this pile.
I also taught the kids UNO, a fun time that was originally on our agenda for the camping trip. We played with exposed cards to make it easier but no meltdowns occurred so I say everyone won there. Bedtime was not unpleasant. And while the kids are sad that we didn't see a parade, I'm happy that I don't have to deal with parade candy. We did have strawberries and blueberries on our french toast for a small consolation. So I guess it ended up being an okay weekend after all...but I was still happy for today to arrive and our regular schedule to resume.
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