Some Mommy Time

While John was at a Men's Retreat this weekend for church, the kids and I decided to plan a little camp out to help pass the time. We got out all our sleeping bags, flashlights, and ice cream and were really excited for a fun night on the deck. So dad left about a half hour after getting home from work on Friday and we began. We set up the tent, ate BBQ dinner, rented a Mickey Mouse movie and had mint chocolate ice cream for dessert. We put Jonathan to bed in his crib and out we went. It was freezing and dark. Each time a semi-truck went across the bridge close to our subdivision, the baby monitor squeaked. We waited until Joshua and Caleb were asleep and after many interesting conversations with Ashlyn about misc things, we packed up the stuff and moved to the living room! It was great, we even left the door unzipped so my legs could stretch out...

We made it about 3 hours this way and my back was killing me...so Caleb and I retreated to the master bedroom where we finished up the rest of the camp out. The kids stayed much warmer than we would have outside even though we still woke up this morning in a 65 degree house!

We went from the camp out to the Jesse James Parade. It was a lot of fun, but still freezing! Everyone got out their winter favorites and were greeted by Grandma Peggy as we were leaving. She brought Krispie Creams and off we went. Three huge bags of candy later, we were home. That is our kids' favorite part of a parade...not the big bands, gorgeous floats or fancy cars...the candy! Here is a couple of the piles we had to go through when we got home (I forgot my camera for the actual parade)

Caleb and Ashlyn combined all the candy in a bowl (minus the hard candy and suckers) to eat through the next month until Halloween. They are all going to be so hyper when dad gets home later - just in time to prepare for his Sunday School Lesson! Here is to a cold, fun, and busy day with just mommy! Do you see all the dentist bills just coming in too....