Harvest Festival

The kids and I went to a harvest festival this morning.  It was beautiful weather, in the 60s and low 70s, with mostly free games and bounce house style activities.

They got their faces painted.

Nicole asked for camo paint

Joined in a drum circle.

Fed some farm animals.

Played some games

And we picked out our pumpkin to carve tomorrow.

Camping with AHG

Nicole got to be in the colored guard at the next AHG meeting

Last weekend was our first camping trip of the season.  This was the long awaited "make up" camp out from one we had to cancel at the last minute last spring (and broke many little AHG girls' hearts!).  It was perfect though.  The weather was really nice....and even a tad bit cooler than normal, there was not a lot of humidity and no real chance of rain.

All three kids were incredibly excited to go camping.  However, I don't think they understand what camping really means.  This was our car...loaded down with half of the house

As the girls kept bringing stuffed animals, blankets and other toys out to the van, I kept saying NO and taking them back inside:)

Finally at the campground, we chose a spot, under a large oak tree and with a view of the lake and went to work.  Can you see the excitement on this little girl's face?

Nathan was also excited to be camping, but for some reason, he was most fascinated with walking on this little wall.

We camped at a really nice facility that is owned by the Boy Scouts of America.

Just as we finished setting our camp up, we were going to roast some marshmallows over the community fire pit....however, at that very moment, someone was pouring water all over the logs and putting the fire out.  Instead of work for the next 30 minutes to get the wet logs burning again, only to put them out a few minutes later for "lights out", we took a dark tour of the campground.

During this tour, we found the bathrooms and shower (really nice facilities).  Jeremy, being completely silly, closed the door when Nate was in the bathroom looking around.  The high pitched scream that came out of that boy was  amazing.  Needless to say....he was crying.  Somehow, we always make someone cry when we are fooling around ;)

 It was at this point that the kids started to whine...mostly because they wanted to go to bed so they could sleep in the tent.

Sleep...hmmm....sleep is a word that adults do not get when laying in a tent.  At least, neither one of us got much sleep that first night.  First of all, our tent was bought when it was JUST Jeremy and I.  We could even sneak an air mattress in there if needed (but in our early twenties....I don't think either one of us needed an air mattress yet),  However, 3 children, and ten years later...these aging aching bodies need more than the ground to sleep on...and our three little kiddos take up more space than 2 adults!  (We are going tent shopping this weekend to get one of those large, resort style tents...maybe it'll even come with a swimming pool ;)

The next morning, the children woke up "bright eyes and bushy tails" (they didn't care about the uneven, slopped ground), and watch the sunrise with me.  I should have taken a picture.  It was pretty coming up over the lake.

Saturday was a really fun, whirlwind of a day! 9:00, the day started with opening flag ceremony and then off to their scheduled activities.   I worked most of the day at the craft station.  So, Jeremy went around to the stations with the kids.  Technically, only Nicole was allowed to do some of the activities...but occasionally, they let Hannah and even Nathan participate.

The Boy Scouts had volunteers there who manned some of the more dangerous activities.  It was so wonderful that our girls had the opportunity to do some of these really fun, daring things!

Nicole's favorite activity of the day was the Rock Wall.  At first, she said she wasn't going to go.  I'm not sure what convinced her....but she tried it...and LOVE it!

She learned to repel down the wall first (imagine the heart pounding of a 7 year old girl as she steps backward out of a window....those workers must have earned her trust pretty fast!)

And, she also got to climb the wall.  Look how far she made it!  I'm so proud of her!

I don't know what order she went it, but next on my list is sling shot.  Apparently, this was a lot of fun as well.  They "shot" corn kernels" at these foil tins.

They got to learn archery skills, and even shoot their bow and arrows at some targets.  Hannah participated in this one, and apparently did a really, really good job.  I know that at some point, both girls were pretending to be Susan Pevensie from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

BB guns are what came next.  I even got to sneak over to this one for a bit.  Once Nicole swapped guns with someone and had one with a site, she started to nail the target.

Nate LOVED using the BB Guns (there was an adults by his side at all times).  He would pull the trigger and say "Pow", or "Bang".  I would encourage him to aim at the target and he'd say, "Mommy, I hit that Spanish Moss right there".  Apparently he had a different target in mind.

Hannah also enjoyed the BB guns, although, not as much as the archery.

Of course, daddy got in on the gun action as well.

I'd be lying if I said we haven't considered ways to build a safe BB and archery range in our backyard.  What a great family activity that would be!

Nicole's target...not bad, huh dad?

The children also had some water play time, craft time, and free time.  It was a wonderful schedule and a great day.

That night, we had pizza and snacks with our troupe in the large hall.  It was at this time that Nicole started inviting some of her new friends to the camp fire for 'smores later that night.

He made FIRE!!!

We started the fire around dusk with some new friends, and some of Nicole's little friend's started to come over....then more families, and more families, and more families.  Of course, everyone was coming over because almost everyone had planned on roasting marshmallows and making 'smores that night.  But, Nicole didn't know that.

She thought everyone was coming to "her party".  She was SO excited...and tried her best to be an amazing hostess.  She offered  marshmallows, cautioned children around the fire, and even thanked people before they left for the night for "coming to my party".

Several people caught on to what was happening and said, "Thank you for having it.  This was a great 'Smore party".  By the end of the night, Nicole thought it was the best party ever:)

This camping weekend was fun for our family, but also helped us feel more comfortable at AHG.  Although this is our second year, the girls and I both felt like we didn't really know many people.  Now, we both have friends to look forward to seeing:)  What a blessing!

Tree climbing with friends

The weekend ended with a church service on Sunday morning, where the speaker reminded us that this Earth is just a temporary dwelling, like our tent.  As believers, our home is with our Lord.

We of course, cleaned up (and got rid of most of the red ants that surrounded our tent (and invaded others').  And, we took one final walk around some of the property.  On our walk, we found some boys scouts up to adventurous boy stuff.  Jeremy, of course "double dog dared" one of them to float out in the lake on this little piece of Styrofoam to get a flower for his mom.  That 11 year old boy couldn't not take the dare, so we watched, expecting him to fall in.  He didn't though.  It made me excited to have a little boy in the house:)

One little man, I think he was 9 or 10, told us he walked 60 miles the day before ( don't think that is true), and all sorts of other tall tales.  We went along with it and asked lots of questions....it was funny. A nice little ending to our weekend.

We have another camping trip scheduled in a few weeks with some sweet friends from Naples....hopefully by that time, we'll have a bigger tent (and an air mattress for me ;)