On a much lighter note...

Okay, so maybe blogging at the end of a day like I had yesterday isn't the best idea. Talk about a BUMMER. But you know, sometimes you just gotta get it out. I was laying in bed mentally composing this post, so I decided to just go ahead and type it up. Didn't really intend to publish it, but when I finished I thought that maybe somebody else out there is having a crummy day, too, and maybe it would make them feel just a little better knowing they've got company in their motherly exasperation.

ANYWAY, today I thought I'd share something a little less, um, grouchy.

Last Friday Aaron took Hakan on a Boy Scout overnighter and of course Pyper was super jealous. She hates to be excluded from things (especially for reasons she has no control over, like being a girl), so I promised her we'd have our own "camp in" at home. Aaron was taking our tent and most of our camping stuff, so I was spared having to actually sleep outside. Instead we made plans for lots of indoor activities. She was excited beyond measure for a week.

A couple of days before, I asked her to make a picture list of the things she'd really like to do. Here's what she came up with. (You have to click on the picture for a closer look and to read the captions I added.)


We started off our evening by having one of her favorite meals, chicken and angel hair pasta. After that we went for a short walk. It had to be short because it was starting to rain. Unfortunately this kept us from looking at the moon and stars and roasting marshmallows for our s'mores outside, but she didn't let that disappoint her.

When we got back from our walk we changed into our jammies and got to work on our tent. The top and base of our patio umbrella made a nice canopy. Throw on a couple of blankets, add some couch cushions and pillows and we had a pretty cozy little nest.

Next we painted each other's toe nails. I added this to our list of things to do, which Pyper didn't mind at all.

Matching toes.

Luckily I had enough time to change our Netflix que to have the movie "Tinker Bell" arrive in time for our camp in. We'd never seen it before and it was cute. In fact, the kids have watched it pretty much every day until I could finally smuggle it out to the mailbox to be returned this morning. Of course we had popcorn with our movie.

We made our s'mores in the microwave, which produces nice fluffy marshmallows like over a fire, but without the charring and ash and danger of flaming, molten goo being flung around when one catches on fire.

Man, they were tasty. I definitely ate too many.

It's crazy how sticky those suckers get when they've cooled, off, though!

We totally blew Pyper's desired bedtime of 8:30 by a good 3 hours, but it was worth it. We read a chapter of "The BFG", then I tried to keep my eyes open and chuckle as convincingly as possible as she told me joke after joke after made up joke.

She told me over and over again how awesome our little camp in was. I'm so glad she liked it. And I must admit, I had a really good time, too.