Back to Nature, Sort Of

This weekend we went on our family camping trip. There are a lot of places to camp near our home. This time we went to Mckinney Falls. It is about 45 minutes away. But because of the lack of rain over the past few months, the falls were merely a trickle over the rocks. Still the kids had a lot of fun.

My children are generally entertained by the simple things. So while hiking they were thrilled to just play in the creek and in the dirt.

McKinney Falls has a great swimming hole. The kids played there both days. Even though the water was frigid the kids stayed for hours. They found frogs, turtles and someone spotted a water moccasin (that was before we got there).

The kids climbed on every rock and tree they could find. And of course they threw as many rocks as possible. Toby has become really good at skipping rocks. (Check out the ripples in the photo above.)

A few entertaining things at the campsite were the squirrel that ate our canteloupe while we were swimming. There was also a raccoon sleeping in a tree near our camp site. (The people next to us said that the raccoon had eaten all their eggs.) A butterfly was trapped in our tent. Aspen had fun getting that out.


Back at camp, the kids entertained themselves until dinner with sticks and rocks and dirt. They built little camps for their beanbag lizards. I'm always amazed that kids don't need storebought toys to be entertained. They are happiest with sticks and rocks. (Maybe that's what they'll get for Christmas and birthdays this year!) At least mine are. Add a little water to make some mud and they are in heaven. Of course Toby brought his magnifying glass again and had fun burning holes in things.

We were going to go for three days, but Hazel has been sick so we didn't leave until Friday morning.I ended up only going for lunch and dinner and then I took Hazel back home.

We cheated a little and I brought pizza for lunch. (We aren't really that far from town. There were a lot of traffic noises and we were near the airport.)


Nate made dinner of cornish game hens (really just little chickens) for each of us with some roasted veggies. It was delicious. Food tastes better outdoors.

Aspen came home and crashed. 3 1/2 hours later, she is still sleeping.
I enjoyed just sitting and listening to the wind in the trees and reading my book. Maybe we'll go again in a couple weeks. We'll see...

Isaac's Theater Debut

A Year With Frog and Toad

Isaac was chosen to be Frog in the first grade's musical this year. He did a very good job and had a lot of fun. Although he didn't have any lines (there was a narrator) he did a fine acting job.

Isaac with friend 'Toad'.


The rest of the children were either birds, bees, butterflies or squirrels. It was very cute. Isaac is the green spot in the photo on the right.

Third Time's The Charm

These are my favorites of Hazel.

Bluebonnets Take 2

I dragged the family out on Sunday evening to take our annual bluebonnet photos. Thanks to them for humoring me. I still need to try again with Hazel. They say the third time's the charm...

Burn, Baby, Burn!!

Toby is studying light in science. As a result, he is very interested in using the infrared light in the sunlight to burn things using a magnifying glass. And since Toby is doing this, the other kids are just as interested.

The magnifying glass does a pretty good job of burning holes in things.

CHUBBY BUNNY

We had a few marshmallows left over from our camping trip so Nate challenged the kids to see how many chubby bunnies they could do. (For those who don't know: see how many marshmallows you can stick into your mouth and still say 'chubby bunny'.) Aspen only got 2. Isaac got 4. This is a pic of him with 5 in his mouth. I think if we shared the little tricks, he might be able to do more. Toby, unfortunately didn't get a chance to try. We ran out of marshmallows. But we're going camping again this weekend, so he'll still have a chance! (Just trying to kill time till dinner!)

10 Things I Learned About Camping With Kids

We went on a family campout with the cub scouts last weekend. It was a good dress rehearsal for our 3 day family campout coming up this weekend. Camping is fun, but a lot of work. Still, we go anyway.

1: Kids want to play with the fire all the time. They also wanted to swing around burning sticks.

2: Start dinner as soon as you get to the camp site. It always takes long than you think it will and if you start early, it might be done before dark. If it isn't, you will be sharing it with all the bugs that come out at night and are attracted to your lantern that you are using to see your dinner in order to eat it!

3: When camping with a baby, take 2 cars to accomodate all the stuff as well as the kids.

4: A wagon is a necessary piece of equipment to get all the stuff from the car to the campsite. Make only 3 trips with the wagon, instead of 25 with just your arms.

5: A wagon also helps to carry the 23 pound baby that doesn't yet walk and keeps her from eating all the treasures she finds in the wild! (Bring lots of binkies, preferably with attached cords and clips: she will drop as many of them as she can in the dirt.)

6: A family of 6 needs an 11 man tent. That ensures there is enough room for the air mattress, the pack and play, all the food and garbage that you can't leave out at night or the racoons, skunks, and/or possums will get into, and 3 children who constantly will complain that someone is touching them while they are trying to go to bed at midnight. Also, bring flashlights that work so that you can see who's where in the middle of the night when you are trying to get out of the tent to use the bathroom and are tripping over everything trying to find the tent door.

7: S'more's are the best part of dinner. It is usually more fun to just burn the marshmallows to a crisp and then get a new one to do it again, than to actually roast them golden and eat them. (That only happens with the first one.)



8: The most important part about breakfast is the hot chocolate so you can warm your cold hands. Food comes second and is usually not eaten all the way because someone always spills their juice because they set it down in the wrong place on the lumpy table top. (Happened twice.)



9: You have to get the fire going early in the morning to warm up the children that didn't bring warm pants and jackets, even though you told them to pack them because it was going to be cold. (They won't believe you because it is currently 85 degrees when you tell them to pack.)



10: Just count on everyone being as dirty as possible and that everything that you took on the trip, whether you used it or not, will have to be washed.