Camping With Four Kids!

Wanna know why I'm so tired today?

Because over the weekend we went camping with our 4 kids.

Really they are not as unhappy about camping as they look in this picture (all not happy, that is, except my sweet, sweet 6 year old daughter who is always smiling in pictures), they were just pretending to be mad that I made them pose for a picture after setting up the tent and before they got to go do the fun activities.

To be totally honest, it was not real, actual camping.

We did sleep in a tent, outside, not even in our own yard, all night, with our 4 children.

But, we did not have to bring or prepare any of our own food.  And there were tons of fun activities for us to do, like jumpy things, star gazing with telescopes, games, campfire stories.  All without us planning any of it!  We camped in the park 2 minutes from our house for our little city's annual Tents in Town.

Surprisingly, although I joked to many neighbors and friends that they didn't want to pitch their tent next to ours (hello 4 young kids in our tent -- I felt like we should post a warning sign or something), my kids slept all night!  Sure, they went to bed later than usual, but they were exhausted after all the activity and slept great.  Other people's noise outside of our tent kept waking me up, though, and then at 6:15 am Little Girl needed me to accompany her on the hike to the bathroom.

But, with the disclaimer that it was not real camping with 4 kids -- I'd do it again!

Brothers sliding

Crazy girls sliding down head first

Little Girl mastered the obstacle course in no time!

By the way, doesn't everyone camp wearing a tutu skirt?  By far Little Girl's favorite clothing item!

The clown was a hit!

And the lady bug balloon animal was treasured!

We all survived and nobody got lost.  Really those are our only 2 criteria for a successful outing with our 4 kids!