Friday....A Fun Day

It was a pretty lazy morning. I slept in and Mike got up with the kids. Eventually, after the milkman came and I put the baby down for a nap, I decided to go out and mow some more of the "lond" ( as the kids call it). Mike had worked on it the two previous days, his back was hurting so i wanted to finish it up. So I set out to do it when within five minutes I was interrupted by my charming little Harrison...."Can I help, Mom?" "Sure, son." So I turned over the reigns of the push mower to my little 6 year old. I knew he could do it, Mike had let him help the day before (after giving him a crash course in the dangers of the blade). But can I just tell you.....that boy can work!!! Pushing with all his might, brow sweating and occasionally stopping to seek my approval......he mowed the lawn for a good hour. He is a strong boy with a lot of energy and determination. It was indeed a proud Mom moment as I watched him mow that lawn.
So we finally got it done about 5:00, so it was time to start daking minner. Then, I started to clean out the fire pit in the back yard. I knew we had hot dogs in the freezer just waiting for a roasting. So I asked Mike to defrost them while I built a fire. I sent the kids on a mission around the yard to gather "snappy little sticks", bark and dried leaves for kindling. Away they went. So we started the fire (with a little help from the lighter fluid) and got some big dry logs from the barn. The kids were so happy to have a fire and went and got chairs and wire hangers for our roasting sticks. So we sat around and ate our hot dogs,.....some charred, some raw, some both. They really enjoyed it.
Then I said to the kids...."You wanna set up the tents and sleep outside tonight?" "YES!!" came the gleeful reply. Their next question was, "Can Zach and Abrahm (two brothers that live near by) sleep over?" I said that they could, only no mixing girls and boys in the same tent unless they are your sibs. They were fine with that. So it started out with Lundi and Lauren in one tent. And Caleb, Harrison, Zach and Abrahm in another. (I wonder how long this will last, I said to Mike). Ten minutes later....Lauren starts crying...."I wanna sleep in MY bed." So we brought her in, settled her into bed and that was that. A few minutes later, Tricia (the boys' Mom) came over to check on them and Abrahm says "Can I go home with you, Mom? We keep hearing noises in the woods." So off goes Abrahm, home to his bed. Next comes Harrison, crying because the big boys were keeping him awake because they were telling scary stories. Mike tells him "Maybe you should sleep inside because bigger kids think it is really fun to tell ghost stories in a tent." Harrison readily agreed to spend the rest of the night on the couch. A half hour later...the giggling and talking stops. Mike says "I think they are asleep." So we go to bed.....until 2:30 Caleb comes in the house to announce that Zach wanted to go home because he "felt like he was going to puke" and he didn't want to sleep in the tent alone. Last comes Lundi....she didn't want to sleep out all by herself. And it's a good thing she did....it started pouring at about 3:00 this morning. They had insisted I leave the rain flaps off so they could study the constellations. I agreed, as there were not any clouds when the night began.
So we sent them off to their beds and had a peaceful rest of the night. It was fun for them while it lasted....maybe next year they will make it until 3:30.
Childhood is so............FUN!!!
KKS