The Lee Family: Annual Backyard Camp Out

Last night Sofia and I enjoyed what's become our "annual camp out" following the end of school. She was so excited to camp out and talked about it for days before the actual night. For the first time I had to address the issue of Olivia wanting to camp with us. Our two-man tent is tiny and there is literally no way we can fit another person in it, no matter how small they are. So, I told Olivia that I would camp out with her on Sunday night so we could have our own special night together in the tent.

That morning we invited Sofia's friends Milani, Gigi, Thomas, Vincent and Tristan to come swim over at our house and just hang out. Isabella's last day of school was yesterday so she and Nicole weren't able to come to the swim party. The kids had a blast and swam non-stop from 10am until everyone left around 3pm. We all had lunch together cobbled together from food everyone brought and just enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching our kids play together. Although us "mommies" meet up fairly regularly, the kids don't see each other that often so it was fun to get them together and just let them be together. We've all been friends since I first moved here when Sofia was 11/2, so they have been friends for their whole lives! Thomas is really into making bracelets on the rainbow loom, so he spent most of his time doing that at the other table while all the older girls played together and Tristan and Olivia had a ball together. They are finally old enough to enjoy each other's company.

CK came home and pitched our tent on the lawn behind the pool and we set up the blow-up mattress and put out our pillows, sheets, and two thin blankets. It was 91 degrees today and the heat usually lingers well into the night, so I figured we would hardly be cold. Then, we made hot dogs, grilled some bell peppers and onions and then enjoyed an ice cream sandwich, left over from Sofia's end of the school year party. The girls had actually been swimming all day when our neighbor boy, Brandon showed up at 4pm and so they continued swimming right up until the hot dogs were ready! The girls literally spent ALL day in the pool, which I figured would be good for sleeping in a tent all night. I think the latest we've spent in our tent is 3am, when we awoke to a thunderstorm and Sofia bolted for the safety of the house and a nice bed.

Sofia picked out one of her current favorites - Calvin and Hobbes, we said good night to CK, Olivia and Buddy and were in our tent with our flashlights by 8:45pm. Sofia loved reading the cartoons to me, even though some of them are difficult for her to understand or use words far beyond her 2nd grade level. She thinks the cartoon is hilarious and gets about 80% of them. Around 9:15pm it was finally getting twilight, so we shut off our flashlights and said good night. Our neighbor's sprinklers actually went on around 9:30 and it really helped to cool down the area. It was still pretty sticky hot, even without the rain cover.

Surprisingly we slept pretty well all night. I woke up a few times and had crazy dreams about skunks being right outside our tent, which caused me to wake up and take a good look around our yard. We woke up at 6:30am to two squirrels arguing about something and I had no idea squirrels could make such a noise! Finally at 7:30am we stirred and CK and Olivia came out to check on us about then. Sofia told me she was cold most of the night, which surprised me but then also explained why she was right up against me most of the night. Otherwise, it was a good night's rest and a fun night of camping. Now to figure out when Olivia wants to camp, which should be interesting.

The girls and I kicking off summer by the pool!