My Version of Winter Camp

Next week my kiddos are going to get shuffled from one house to the next while I recover from surgery and so I planned a really fun night for them to make up for the upcoming week of mommy neglect. 

We loaded the kids in the van and I had Cody drive them around aimlessly while I finished prepping the house and then I had him come pick me up. We went to our favorite pizza place, Lucy's, for dinner. Below are a few pics of my children and their wonderful table manners. (Please tell me my kids aren't the only ones that do this!)

 Mason pouting because I told him he still had to eat at least part of his crust before he picked the toppings off of another piece of pizza.

 Gavin drew me a pizza

When we got home I went with the kids and we went through the front door instead of the garage door so we were in the living room picnic area.

 

 This was waiting for them. We lit it and let them roast their own marshmallows over an open "fire".

 Mason and Chloe couldn't figure out why their marshmallows weren't getting hot, they finally figured it out after refusing help from us.

 

 This one caught on fire and he had to blow it out

 Mason is by far my messiest eater

 After dessert we went "hiking" to burn some of the calories we consumed. We hiked down the treacherous Staircase of Death, around the Magical Pink Meadow (Chloe's room), through the hilly dessert (our family room with brown carpet, beige walls and a big beige sectional) and finally came upon Glow Stick Cave (mommy and daddy's bedroom).

 The pictures don't do it justice, but I had glow sticks all over our bed, taped to the walls, sticking out of our dresser drawers, on our night stands, pretty much where ever I could put them. I had the kids gather them all up and then we hiked back up the Staircase of Death (Gavin likes it when I get extra dramatic)

 As we were finishing our hike we found a fishing hole

(mom in the tub behind the closed shower curtain)

 I used on of Cody's many fishing poles and put a clothespin instead of a hook on the end and the kids "fished" in the bathtub.

 I cut out fish from construction paper and taped mini fruit roll ups and m&m's to them.

 The kids caught 2 fish each

 We decided it was time to find somewhere to sleep. We followed the signs and this is what we found.

 A big fort with the kids pillows and blankets

(I tried to set up the tent in the toy room but it was bigger than I remembered and didn't fit)

 They settled right in and gobbled their candy up

(I hope I don't regret all this sugar intake in the morning)

 Gavin had been singing "We will rock you" all day so I found my old Queen CD and we listened to it. I was teaching Gavin the actions for "Another one bites the dust" and Cody was laughing at me and/or shaking his head the whole time. He had never seen them before. I thought everyone knew the actions, and to think he thinks I grew up under a rock! PS I love that Gavin likes most of Cody and I's "old school" music : )

 The good thing about camping at home is you still have access to all your bedtime stories

 We were laughing because I accidentally said "Honk and Ladder" instead of "Hook and Ladder"

Gavin is the only one that ended up sleeping in the fort all night long, but they still had a great time and so did Cody and I!!

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