Backyard Camping

We decided to try a little backyard camping last night. The kids were so excited to pitch tents, roast marshmallows, eat smores, tell scary stories and sleep on the ground! Pitching 2 tents in the small backyard we have was interesting, but they fit.

We pitched the tents around 5pm after dinner and they played cards and games in the tents until dark. While the sun was going down we started a campfire in the chimenea, roasted marshmallows and ate smores. Sophia is the smores queen, making sure every marshmallow was roasted to perfection and each smore delicately hand crafted.

Quentin was the most excited of all the kids. He definitely has the outdoors gene in him, he loves hiking and camping and all things in nature.

While we ate our smores we each took turns telling a scary or funny story. Many giggles erupted during the story telling and each time the story ended with "Paul Bunion"...an inside joke from other funniness around the chimenea.

When it was really dark and we sat enjoying the fire, with babies snuggled on our laps we played with glow bracelets and made eyeglasses and alien earrings. We gathered into one tent and played with the flashlight and glow sticks, making funny faces and we played cards some more.

At 9pm we decided to settle into our sleeping tents (we have two, 2-person tents that I bought for $5.00 at a garage sale). It's a good thing the kids are small, we divided up into groups of 3. Ava, Sophia and Rami in one tent. Isabella, Quentin and I in the other tent.

We talked to each other through the tents and giggled some more until everyone quieted and fell asleep by 10pm. The first tent quiet was Rami's tent. The first tent awake was Rami's tent.

The sounds of a neighborhood at night are very interesting. First I heard some neighbors gather in their backyard for conversation and a small party around 10pm. Then we heard fireworks from a neighboring town. Sometime after midnight, I think, I heard a single gunshot blast (not sure if that was 4th of July related or not). We expected to hear dogs barking all night, but thankfully we picked a good night and the neighborhood dogs were all quiet. We heard some coyotes in the hills howling, as they usually do. At 5:45am the first signs of rustling came from the tents. As dawn broke the kids awoke. We relaxed in our tents for another 15 minutes and at 6am we headed indoors.

They enjoyed making memories and backyard camping. My back, hips and legs are hating me today for sleeping on the hard ground, cramped in a tent. But, my heart is thankful I did.