Camping, s'Mores, Pictures and Saturday Sports

I'm a little behind on my blog, partly because I haven't taken very many pictures lately. Two Fridays ago (as the kids would say), we camped overnight in our own backyard. I have to say that camping doesn't get any more convenient than that. We (OK, Nate) set up both of our tents. We have a large family tent that can sleep 8 people, so it was plenty large for Nate, Annika and myself. The other tent sleeps two (or 3 kids) and Kaelyn and Ian occupied that tent for the night. The weather was perfect. It had been warm during the day and it cooled down just enough to be comfortable under a single sheet. I bet most people can't imagine that kind of weather in October. The kids watched a movie on the portable DVD player before bedtime. Our dinner was outside as well. Nate grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs. It was great. The next morning, Kaelyn and Ian woke up well before dawn. Their giggling and my bladder woke me up a little later, but I stayed in the tent for as long as I could. When I finally went inside, they were ready for breakfast. I then realized that we'd completely forgotten to make s'mores for dessert. So... that's what we did this last Friday.

It was fun, messy and yummy. Annika started by just eating chocolate. Kaelyn got the first s'more and she loved it. Ian tried maybe one bite and then handed his to Nate.

Annika tried some too, but she decided she liked the separate ingredients better. Ian stuck with just marshmallows and I, as always, just left out the chocolate (which is supposed to be the best part, right?).

Also on Friday, my friend Morgan did a photo shoot of the kids. She was so great with them and the pictures she took are adorable. You can see some real cute ones (well, they're all really cute) on her photography blog: http://morgophotography.blogspot.com/ I'm so glad I called her. She did an awesome job!

Then yesterday we had a crazy, busy day. Nate spent all day moving furniture around. We've reclaimed the master bedroom and the kids now sleep upstairs once again. Ian has his own room (for now) and Kaelyn and Annika share a room. They have been so excited about their 'new' rooms (and all the toys that were recovered from under the beds, etc).

While that was going on at home, I got to take Kaelyn and Ian to their soccer games. I almost cried watching the first game. I love to watch soccer and I love to play too, but I'm not very good except at defense. I wished I could have taken a video of Kaelyn playing goalie. She had really wanted a chance to play in that position and after the game the coach told me he was a little nervous. Well, she surpassed all expectation. She caught the first ball that was about to roll into the goal and then accidentally stopped the second with her cheek. She didn't even know she had stopped it and didn't even cry about it. I was so proud of her! They won the game 1-0.

Ian's game was a little different. The team they played really knew what they were doing. Ian also played goalie and he let the first ball through. There was no way he could have stopped it. They got creamed and I think it ended up being like a 0-6 or 7 win for the other team.

Then Ian had a birthday party and right after that a T-ball game. There were only 4 players on his team that showed up, so they got to hit and run twice each inning and play just about every available position. Ian had a lot of fun and fell asleep quickly that evening.