A Great Night For Camping

The tent is pitched, sleeping bags rolled out, marshmallows roasted and teeth brushed. The little prince and his mama are camping out tonight in the backyard. It's strangely quiet in the house. The princess is asleep and all the lights are out except for the one in this room. I wish I could hear what was going on in the tent - something tells me that the prince is probably fast asleep already - it's been a busy day, he didn't get his much needed nap and it's now 10 o'clock PM. I'm sure the excitement of his "adventure" (as he has been calling it all afternoon and evening) has supplied him with enough adrenaline to keep him chugging away.

The morning started out at 6AM when the prince woke. By 7:30AM we were in high gear clearing out the prince's room for painting. By 9:45AM, D had cracked open the first gallon of paint (dark blue) and had begun rolling it onto a wall. 11:00AM found me saying "Twenty minutes before we have to be out the door!" as we had an 11:30 birthday party to attend.

The party, which was for a playgroup friend of the prince, was quite the event. A bounce castle thing that was a huge hit, lunch, swimming in their full-sized pool, present opening...the whole she-bang. We finally said our goodbyes at 2:45PM.

We started talking about the camping adventure and decided that one of those patio fire circles would be a lot of fun (I know - we're crazy!) so off we went in search of one. Big Lots didn't have any left but we did find cool beach umbrellas that we are going to need in a few weeks when we head to the coast for vacation. D also found a really great kids camping lantern for the prince's adventure (BIG BIG hit!). We decided to try Target since we were close to one and yep - they had a few to choose from. We ended up getting the floor model (30% off) of the cheapest one but it will more than do the trick for us.

We were finally on our way home - it was 5PM. Ugh. We still had the room to paint, the princess needed to nurse and nap and the prince was hyped up on sugar, adrenaline and lack of sleep (which, by the way, has the opposite effect on 3 year olds than it does on 40 year old adults). D started painting while I tried to herd cats...errr...I mean, tend to the kids.

Finally, at 7PM the room was finished and we were in the yard putting up the tent. 8PM was dinnertime and then it was on to the adventure part - we built a fire. It was fun but I have to say, I think the prince listened and stayed away from the fire much better last year, when he was two, than he did this year. All was not lost though, he had a grand time roasting marshmallows (if you can call putting it on the stick, waving it at the fire and then eating it roasting marshmallows but hey - at least he didn't catch it on fire. I'm sure that's next years excitement) and I had a chance to be really, really thankful that we aren't going camping this summer. :)

I'm exhausted. Time for this girl to hit the hay....probably just in time for the princess to wake to nurse. I had hoped to have a few hours to myself tonight (thinking, in error, that camping would happen much earlier in the evening) so I could start the new Harry Potter book but I'm certain *that* isn't going to happen. I doubt I could even focus on the words let alone try to follow a plot.

Maybe on vacation... though probably not. There is one sure thing about a stay at home moms job - it has a way of being the same at home or at a hotel on the coast. Same job duties - just a different location. I'm still really looking forward to it though.

Good night!