Camp Out

This week was the camp out.

Mike stayed home and worked and did homework. He is having a hard time getting all of his homework done during the night, so sometimes he has to work during the day on it. It is disappointing to him, since he has been really enjoying having such a lot of family time. Still - he only has three more weeks in this semester, so he is looking forward to a small break.

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sheila invite him over for dinner repeatedly, but he only ended up going over one time since he ended up going up to the campout on Thursday night.

When Mike came up, we hiked around and looked for edibles. There were lots of strawberry plants and some raspberries and elderberries and sticky currants. We're thinking of going back in a month or so to see what's ripened; nothing was ripe this week.

Alison and the kids had a great time at the campout, although they missed Mike a lot. They explored the campground and played in the stream and did crafts like friendship bracelets and charm necklaces and leather stamping and got to run around with their friends all day and get dirty. It was great! Every evening we had a group dinner and storytelling around the campfire, and roasted marshmallows. The last night, we had a dance party! It was a great break and made us all remember how much we like camping. We're thinking about ways to do it more often.

Rea carved a wooden spoon out of a block of wood this week! She is very good with her large, sharp knife that she is certified to use at our nature group. Her spoon was good enough to eat cereal with; it was very impressive. She was also nominated for the Council that will be helping kids work out issues among themselves (instead of tattling/complaining to parents and leaders) next year. That's exciting.

There was a trading blanket at the campout, and we brought the crystals we created last week. Mike's turned out better than Alison's, but even the first batch ended up looking cool when painted. Lots of other kids wanted to trade for them, and the kids got some cool jewelry, art, and toys.

We slept out in hammocks again. This year we had a Willow House and set up all the hammocks in a stand of willows. It was perfect except for being too close to the outhouse. Ew! But we liked it anyway. It rained a bit at night, and we managed to get a tarp up, but the willows kept most of the drizzle off us anyway. We all love hammock camping. It's so comfortable and no one wakes up stiff! (Tired, from the baby not sleeping well outside, but not stiff.) Alison read The Wind in the Willows to the kids at night to put them to sleep. It's a classic that she never managed to get through as a kid; hopefully she'll have better luck as an adult.

On Saturday we planned a barbecue with the Plastows for Sunday the Fourth. We bought some fireworks, and they will be bringing some more. Each cousin will have a tank (except for Boo), so it is like being in Tennessee again. Timmy is very excited to play Bakugan with his cousins; that is his new obsession and he wants to earn money so that he can buy more of them.