We practiced (see last post), we made lists, we shopped for food, we packed our stuff, we (the dads) sweat like pigs in 100-degree weather to set up, we got torrential rain, we left the campground for dinner at a pizza joint, we went back and had a great night, we got more torrential rains but slept through the night, we went home in the morning to have breakfast, we waited it out, we went back, we got lucky, we stayed until they kicked us out on Sunday, we had a blast…and then we recuperated

Day 1: It was, according to every news cast in our area, “the hottest day of the year” on Friday. The dads all went early to get the site ready and man oh man were they drenched in sweat! The wives and kids rolled in around 4. I can’t remember when the rain started, but it came on with crazy force. We knew that storms were on the way and, despite the spotty cellular coverage at the camp ground, every adult had their phone out tracking the radar. We ran for the cars and our pre-determined plan to go eat pizza at a nearby place until the first storm passed. After dinner, the skies were once again clear so we headed back and:

Made s’mores

and then went on a hay ride at 9:30. The theme of the weekend was Christmas in July so the wagon was decorated with Xmas stuff (as was the whole campsite). We sang Christmas carols and the Yogi Bear song as we rolled through the camp grounds.

The kids went to bed then the adults had a nice time chatting and hanging out around the fire. Sometime in the night, the rain started again. It rained, and rained and rained. I never imagined the varied sounds that water can make falling on the roof of a tent. For some reason, we had what I can only describe as mist falling periodically from the ceiling…right on my face. The boys slept like ANGELS. Brian and I tossed and turned, hid under the covers to avoid the mist, came back out because it was too hot, got up every so often to punch water off the tent roof where it was accumulating in 2 spots and worried about the next day. At one point, I was walking around around in the tent and, because of the water flowing under it, I literally felt like I was walking on a water bed! This is a picture of the sites next to us in the morning. They are known for flooding which is why we never stay on them.

One of our group’s 4 camp fire pits.

When the boys woke up, they literally had no idea it had been raining all night. They were READY to go and wanted to know if everyone else was already outside playing. We had to tell them that the plan was to ditch the campground for the time being, head home to make breakfast with everyone and wait it out. Once they realized that we were just moving the party, they were cool. We promised to return as soon as the rain let up. Everyone gathered any wet bedding, cloths and towels and we caravanned home to the Epstein’s house where we made STRONG coffee and ate “Mr. Cheesy” <—traditional camp ground breakfast of hash browns, eggs, bacon/sausage/whatever meat you want to throw in, and cheese.

At 10:30, the rain had stopped. We all headed to our respective homes for showers and possible naps. I have to say that it was like a dream – ALL 5 of us fell asleep for over an hour, got nice showers, clean cloths and woke up to a sunny day! Brian headed out first to replace our pop-up cover that had been the only major victim of the previous night’s storm. He bought a new one and met us back at the camp site for lunch (he actually ran out of gas on the way back, but that’s another story). After lunch, we got the main event for the kids: Christmas presents!!!

Each child got a box wrapped in Christmas paper. Inside each box was a part of a larger picture. Each picture had a number on the back…

Susan and I made a giant “puzzle” and the kids all put their pictures in place to reveal:

A giant water slide! This was Brian’s idea. He and 2 other dads went in together and bought it for summertime fun…which they decided should start at the camp site. The presents were my idea…Susan did all the pictures and the wrapping.

How fun is that?!

Brady needed a little help up and down at first, but he got braver near the end.

Susan, Anne and I brought along some “Christmas” crafts for the kids. I really tried to get all red party hats, but the best I could find was a pack of mixed colors. This craft went from Santa hats to…um…Santa’s helpers hats!

Saturday night, as Brian and I were sneaking in to go to bed, we found our children in three of the funniest sleeping positions! Of course we had to take pictures.

Aiden does the frog:

Brady: booty in the air

Logan: Maxin and Relaxin

Sunday we hung out around the camp site, ate Senior Cheesy (Mr. Cheesy with chorizo that we never got to with nacho bar the night before), did a scavenger hunt and went to the pool before having lunch and heading home.

Some of the items on the scavenger hunt were pictures like this one: “take a picture of Yogi”

Or this one: take a picture of a flag  

Here we are returning from our scavenger hunt. Our cars are on the left, our camp stuff is drying on the right (those are small sites, but no one was there last weekend so we used them for the direct sun exposure :)  

We all still had a blast, but hopefully our camping trip in October is a little less…watered down :)

We are heading to the camp ground this weekend with all three boys in tow (for the first time!) to enjoy a weekend of camping fun with 3 other families from our neighborhood. The theme this weekend is Christmas in July…should be a blast.

I started getting our supplies ready by stacking things in the front living room. Amongst those items were the boys sleeping bags. Brady got interested in his (he’s neither seen nor used it before!) so I suggested that the older boys grab theirs out so they could all play “camping”. Logan built them a “fire” with the wooden blocks as firewood. I helped them arrange their sleeping bags around it and then Aiden said they needed some books to read (a Thomas book for Brady, Amazing Sea Creatures for Logan, Dora and the Rainbow Kite festival for Aiden):

After reading (aka picture looking) was over, they wanted to make s’mores:

Chopsticks and cotton balls did the job nicely! Logan and I actually had the cotton ball idea simultaneously! Brady actually took his cotton ball off the stick and proclaimed that it was burnt!

I must have left my camera on the TV stand. I wasn’t around when these shots were taken:

They all got fresh haircuts this morning!

Last year, I blogged about indoor child storage. Well, during cousin Ryan’s recent visit to our house, Aiden discovered some very cute and effective outdoor storage for children! These three bins are usually full of toys and stored in the garage, but Brian had dumped them out so we could use them at Aiden’s party as beverage coolers. Aiden decided to pick up little Ryan, put him in one of the bins and then climbed in another one himself. I added Brady to the mix (he’s not so happy to be there) and tried to get a funny picture:

In other news, here is a shot of the neighborhood crew (most of them anyway) wearing their shirts from Aiden’s party! I had dressed my boys, per their request, in their tie-dye shirts one morning. About 10 minutes after we had gotten ourselves ready for the day, our door bell rang. There were Ella, AJ, Ryan and Mackenzie in their shirts as well yelling “surprise!”. funny. I think they all turned out really well!

And finally…an observation:

Lately I’ve noticed that my kids do “better” when I’m not hovering around them. Sometimes my presence tends to induce 1. the need for me to come up with a game or activity 2. requests like “find me / make me / get me something” <—food, beverages, toys, cloths…whatever! I swear that my boys could be having the greatest time playing together in the toy room, but as soon as I enter, it’s all “we need this…I’m bored…he’s being mean…” blah blah.

So…I’ve learned a couple tricks this summer. The first applies to our clubhouse pool and it is: that it’s best for me to sit on the side of the pool (close enough to get in and help if necessary). If I’m IN the pool, they hang on me, pull on my suit, seem less confident and more easily distraught (Brady). If I sit in a chair on the side, they make up games, swim where they know they can, play for hours and seem generally happier.

The second thing I learned is to try and let them play 1. without friends from the neighborhood (at least sometimes!) and 2. without mommy sitting right there with them. The first one is only because I feel like they need to come up with their own games once in a while…and play like siblings really do. I didn’t have a slew of friends on my block growing up. I think it encouraged my imagination plus collaboration, and therefore a closer friendship, with my sister.

I set up a bunch of water stuff in the back yard the other day and, at first, sat down at the outdoor patio table to read/keep an eye on everyone. That didn’t work because every 2 seconds, someone needed something. I went inside, shut the door and sat at the dining room table where I could see them. They played for an hour straight without needing one thing & without one fight. They did request a bucket of soap and rags to clean the fort…and then I heard the three of them chanting together “scrub the club, scrub the club” as they were up there soaping the floor boards. I grabbed my camera and took some shots. Unfortunately, they saw me and started in on the requests. :)

For a while, they set up an obstacle course between the slip n slide and the big inflatable pool. It was run, run, slide, run, run, jump, splash, repeat. To me, it was beautiful because I feel like that’s what life should be all about when you’re 2, 4 & 5 – running and moving and playing…without the need for so many toys all the time (ok…except maybe in this case a slip-n-slide and a pool) ;)

Middle mini-man just turned 4 this past Saturday. We celebrated in the usual way…Brian cooked a bunch of great food and we threw a party in the back yard. This year’s theme was tie-dye and slip-n-slide. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors down the street, we also had an awesome big water slide. We all had a ton of fun, but the most wonderful thing was to watch Aiden. He had a BLAST…which made every ounce of preparation 100% worth it!

notable quotes:

* After I brought his cake(s) in, he took one look at them, jumped up and down and said “I can’t wait!!” Note: I originally ordered 1 cake, but it was only 1/4th of a sheet…what was I thinking? Luckily, my wonderful cake decorator must have been inspired because there was a second tie-dyed cake in the display case. I bought them both so we actually had choices: marble or chocolate.

* Ok…I just have to put this one down because it was the sweetest thing a mom can hear. After we all sang happy birthday, I whispered in Aiden’s ear “now before you blow out the candles, you have to make a wish". I can’t remember what he said exactly, but it was something like, “I wish on my birthday for my mom to give me a hug”. Seriously?!

* While opening gifts, Aiden was happy to let his friends help him out. At one point he announced, “wow – this is really big. I need help friends!”

I spent most of the party helping kids make tie-dyed shirts. Brian covered food, Auntie Denna (who was in town – yeah!) manned the other craft we had set up – stained glass paint blowing on gift bags. Nana (also in town – yeah!) pretty much helped with everything and took some amazing pictures. GG (yes…also in town – yeah!!!) was a God-send to the tie-dying operation. She helped get the kids in gloves, wash down the table in between groups (3 at a time) and folded paper towels to catch extra dye under each shirt. All three of my wonderful girls helped with party prep, clean up and general encouragement to a (slightly?) frazzled me.

A few friends hung out late and we ended the evening catching fire-flies and making s’mores. It was such an awesome day!!

I have so many pictures, I can’t post them all, but here are a few and a slide show:

Before we started party-prep in full force, we had a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and opened gifts. The pancakes were, of course, Aiden’s choice. Thanks to Nana, chocolate chips were quickly acquired and pancakes were made while Brian and I finished up some last minute yard-work. Here is Aiden literally TEARING open his gifts:

Logan, the ever-helpful brother (who is too hot to wear a shirt with his pjs), offered to help set up the new Kung Zu battle arena.

Brady, also very helpful, offered to help Aiden set up and test his most favorite gift: another gum ball machine (he picked one out last year too…the kid loves gum!)

Cousin Ryan had a blast with some of the tissue paper…

  Then he sat around looking cute and laughing :)

Here daddy preps the main course for the party: home-made and sliced (with his latest kitchen toy) Italian beefs.

Logan and Aiden helped fill up the 2 pools we had in the yard (or were they just squirting each other??)

I had planned to set up multiple slip n slides, but we borrowed the huge blow-up slide instead and it was GAME ON…the kids all had a blast on that thing! Totally made the party!

We set up 2 tables under our pop-up tent for the tie-dying and paint blowing. I used up 2 different tie-dye kits making example shirts (for practice and so that the kids could pick which design they wanted to make). It totally looked like a tie-dye shirt store at a county fair!

Every year I take a picture of Aiden with his party balloons. Here is one of them:

This is the cake that was sitting in the display case! I have another picture of the “real” cake, but it’s on the video camera. They looked different, but equally cool. Aiden and I voted on this one as our favorite.

Cake time!

This is a picture of the boys in the shirts they made at the party. Sadly, tie-dying does not lend itself to instant gratification as the shirts need to be bagged and left overnight before being rinsed and washed. I have seen several of the creations the other kids made from the party (more pictures and visits from other party guests, in shirts of course, are greatly encouraged! I would LOVE to have seen how they all turned outl!)

Happy birthday to my sweet, sweet little man. You bring such joy, creativity, love (and more than a dash of mischievousness) to our lives!!

Here are those pics plus more in a slide-show:

So let’s review: on June 22nd, a bunch of guys showed up and dug some fairly sizable beds in our back yard. On Friday, June 25th, a giant pile of mulch was dumped on our driveway. We had gotten a couple different estimates for having said mulch spread by people other than ourselves, but the price tag was hefty. The woman who did our landscaping plan told us 29 yards. Another estimate came in at 23 so I split the difference and ordered 25.

The night before “mulch day”, I stayed up late prepping a bunch of stuff that I thought would be handy in getting us up and out to the pile! This is Sunday, June 27th:

mulch day prep one: pre-made pancake batter in their super-favorite squeeze bottle applicator.

Move over Van Gogh – check out these artistic creations!

This big giant grill was acquired from Brian’s old company. They moved buildings and had a bunch of stuff “up for grabs”. I guess the execs used to make breakfast for the employees from time to time so – SCORE – he napped this beaut for the 554 and our pancake/grilled cheese needs!

Here are the boys a top the giant pile of mulch. It’s hard to put into pictures how incredibly large and daunting this thing was. Joel, who called the pile of sod that was removed from our yard the “VW-bug-sized pile of sod” likened this pile of mulch to a mini-van if memory serves.

So, for reference, you can see my mini van parked in the garage. If I pulled it out into the driveway, it would have been entirely hidden from this side of the mulch pile.

Mulch Day prep 2: Knox-blocks. I made a pan of Jell-O with Knox mixed in (makes it stiff and oh-so-fun to cut into shapes). I gave the boys cookie cutters and little spoons. That kept them out of our hair for…oh…like 5 or 6 wheelbarrows full of mulch (then Aiden and Brady made soup out of it…sigh)

Mulch Day prep 3: giant containers of (almost) full-strength kool-aide (a real treat compared to the usual watered-down fair that mom serves). Guess what was used for the Jell-O soup? Oh well…soup making took up another 5-6 wheel barrows of kid-time…but left us beverage-less.

Logan took the opportunity to play “safari”. It was so super cute…and continued to be super cute for fully 5 days after this one. I’m not kidding…he wore this shirt and hat (binoculars included) for 5 whole days. I washed it every night and thought I would put it away, but he insisted it was NOT so hot that he couldn’t wear his safari shirt…..every day! cute.

Ok…so we worked for about 3 hours that first day. We covered all around the house, but not the back beds. According to our neighbors, the pile still looked pretty much the same. The goal for mulch completion (this being the 27th of June and all) was July 10th…Aiden’s 4th birthday party at our house. As of this post (July 7th), we have had 1 more informal mulch day where I personally moved 12 wheel barrows during a random afternoon, Brian moved another 10 that same night. Then, we did another big push this past Friday, July 2nd and another 2 or 3 hours on Monday, July 5th.

reminder of starting pile:

This is what we have left right now: it seriously looks small, but there are probably 10-15 more wheelbarrows full in there. I started freaking out on Monday thinking there was NO WAY we were going to find places to put all this stuff, but I started spreading down the little mounds we made around the house today and I’m certain we’ll go through it. Also, BIG NEWS – we’re getting 5 (FIVE!!!) trees delivered and planted tomorrow. I’m so beyond excited!!! We’ll need more mulch for those plus 5 other plants arrived today, special order, from a nursery in Michigan because we couldn’t find them here. Again, Joel-the-ever-neighborhood-joker, informed Brian and I that we are major “horticultural dorks” lately. Guilty as charged!

…and now we turn to other news…

Brady (oh Brady!) has been giving us a run for our money on the sleeping front lately. This child, who used to take 3 hour naps like a champ, now pretty much won’t go to bed if he naps for more than 30 minutes. Some days we just skip it all together. This was our plan last Sunday when we, out of pity for the poor kids who have been watching us mulch for 2 weekends straight, took the boys to Toy Story 3. After the movie, we needed to grab some groceries. Brian took the boys to play in the toy aisle while I covered the shopping. When we met up, he was carrying a TOTALLY cashed-out Brady. We moved the groceries around and put my purse down as a make-shift pillow while we all finished up. I swear that I dug my phone out from behind his head to take this picture. Poor angel! If you’re wondering about his nose, he apparently took a digger outside when we had a sitter watch the boys last Saturday for an adults-night-out.