October 7, 2016
Tonight began a new adventure for us. Tom and the big boys are “camping” in the backyard. Thomas and Arthur have been asking about going camping so this week Tom bought a tent. Thomas may be old enough to make it the whole night. But given that it’s probably not the best idea to take a 6 month old and almost 3 year old to a real campsite for the first time to camp, and I prefer to sleep indoors, we did a test run in the backyard.
When Tom came home from work, the boys gladly helped him open the tent and get set up. We had a slight setback with some fire ants in the yard but some bug spray hopefully took care of them. The weather has been so dry that we weren’t able to do a fire. But we did the next best thing and used the grill for hot dogs along with some fruit and sweet potato fries. We even managed to use the flame from the grill to do s’mores. Their faces were covered in chocolate and marshmallows. Really they just wanted to eat the marshmallows by themselves.
Sweet John Lloyd took it all in in the bouncy seat on the patio and had his night time bottle outside. In no time he will be ready to join them.
After dinner I put JL to bed and Tom was busy getting the blankets and pillows set up in the tent. We got T and A in their pajamas and teeth brushed and headed out to the tent to do our nighttime reading and bedtime prayers. It was so special to be under the sky on a beautiful fall night sharing this time with them. And I’m so thankful God has given us these boys. For a few minutes I almost felt for the first time left out of the “boy” time as I was getting ready to head back inside to get ready for bed myself. I know this is a reality that I will face more and more the older they get.
Tonight was a first for our family. And one that the boys may or may not remember one day. But I pray it’s something we can grow into a new thing we can do together as a family.
