Third Annual Family Camp on the Blanco

I love this camping trip -- every year there's a new baby or two in the group, and some families who make it for just lunch on Saturday, or just the first night, or the second night. Some folks camp just so they can stop at Cabella's on the way (cough... Chase... cough) and some bring their laptops so they can drive into town and get some work done in between building campfires and monitoring kids for leeches.

Chase camped solo the first night with Wren because Jane was running a fever and went to bed at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  We joined them Saturday morning and had a (mostly) great day.

The kids proved to be supremely incapable of throwing the ice cream ball around fast enough to make ice cream so the guys rigged up a pulley system and we ended up with milkshakes. This was moments before Ben stepped in the embers of the previous night's campfire and sent the Roden's home. Super Nurse Dee provided on site burn treatment that Dell Children's later told us kept him from having to go into the emergency room. He's got some blisters on his toes and we have a follow up on Monday but he's not in pain and is moving around just fine. We are so grateful. And we are happy to be home and healing. 

Looking forward to Family Camp 2014 (this time with more shoes) (and hopefully fewer leeches).

weekend at village creek

weekending

 

 

 

Easter

This was sort of a low key, bittersweet Easter for us. Chase and I were both down, the kids seemed to be UP and then DOWN and then UP and etc... the entirely predictable result of sugar + adrenaline fueled egg hunts + parties + "good behavior" rules at church. 

Meltdowns were absolutely in the cards, for all of us. 

But we had some good times -- I am relatively sure we found all the eggs. It's the kind of thing that will announce itself eventually, if we did miss any. 

The kids all got a book, crayons, bubbles and a chocolate bunny. I vacillate between thinking we might underplay things in a reaction to consumer culture, and thinking of the paroxysms of unbelievable joy this haul would throw Laura Ingalls into... 

and I think I'm okay with our middle ground. 

We also got deviled eggs. A pot luck brunch for Easter is a great idea, but it's not really Easter without deviled eggs (and... uh... that other thing. A risen Christ?) So we had to bring eggs. 

And now we're in the Easter season, and spring time... corner turning time, if I can find one. In the spirit of Childhood Whimsy: Barest Effort Edition, we froze the girls' bowls of cereal last night, so this morning they tried to pick up their spoons and shrieked at the April Fools hilarity. A good start to the day, and the week, I hope. 

almost easter