Backyard Fun

As I predicted, my kids picked all the activities for Backyard Fun.  I talked to them about it Monday morning;  I had barely finished speaking when they were out the door with paints in hand to make some yard art.  They decided to paint the stones that we have lining the driveway in the back.  They had a blast and the art turned out really good too.  

Everyone painting happily--except Maggie--she's giving me a dirty look.

Art is hard!  Gotta stick that tongue out.

Maggie's sun stone.

One of the many fantastic art works we now have lining our driveway.

Then Friday night we had a camp out in the backyard.  My aunt brought her grandson for the fun too.  We had hobo dinners and Hershey's Kisses for dinner.  Then we were going to play twilight games, but my aunt brought water guns for a water fight, and the kids ran around squirting each other with abandon.  My aunt and Aaron got in the fun too.  Probably the funniest thing was when Aaron got out our big water guns.  My aunt's grandson took two small guns over to him and wanted to trade.  He said, "How 'bout you give me that one and you can have these ones.  They're better."  We laughed and laughed.  Aaron, Hannah and my Dad put up the tent together.  My Dad did the directing and Aaron and Hannah the work.  The kids were so excited to sleep in the tent.  We usually have one or more kids come in in the middle of the night to sleep inside.  When I woke up in the morning and looked around, I didn't see any kids in their beds, so I figured they had all stayed outside.  Later Maggie told me that Caleb had woken up in the middle of the night and she had brought him in.  When I looked again, there he was, over in a corner of the bed, tangled in bed sheets.

My Aunt, her grandson, and Caleb fight it out in the water gun fight.

Aaron gets out the big guns.  He's pretty cut-throat in a water fight.  

Don't shoot Mom, Maggie!

Setting up the tent.

Grandpa teaching Hannah how to set up the tent.
I may have set up my last tent.  I can just have her do it from now on.  

The activity for next week's Badge of Fun, June 11-16, is Hit the Road.  Luckily, we are actually going on a road trip this week.  That's just one of life's happy coincidences.  Here's the suggested activities--1. Stock your car--a lap desk, backseat peacekeeper or car organizer.  2.  Make the miles go by--make surprise balls or car games.  3.  Pack easy-to-eat snacks--cookie and milk bars, homemade granola bars, or chocolate-drizzled trail mix.  Here's some suggestions if you don't happen to be going on a road trip this week--you could go on a day trip to some place fun in your area, or you could have an imaginary trip to somewhere else--get books or DVD's about a place you would like to visit, make food from there, or try a game or tradition.  I think I will print up Family Fun's On-the Go packet.  I already bought travel treats (Katrina talked me into the chocolate covered pretzels--yum!).  But, as we're going camping, I have to drag out all the camp equipment and make sure it works before we leave, not to mention all the stuff we normally do--that seems like enough fun for the two days I have before go time.  Maybe I'll put Hannah in charge of this badge of fun.  She'll do a great job.