Spring Break Adventure: Backyard Campout

Sunday night was the first of one of the mil10 Spring Break adventures. It was a surprise to EK, but we were planning a backyard camp out. Now, remember that us mil10s are not exactly people of the wilderness. The closest that we ever get to nature is a trip to Atwoods or watching the sunrise on the way to work.

We found an inexpensive tent online at Walmart, but none of the three closest Walmart locations had one in stock. This was a tent that would have held three and allowed all of us to be in the backyard overnight. (EK was actually disappointed to hear that his parents were going to join him. He thought he should do it alone! We told him that was against the law for a child his age to be alone outside all night. He seemed to believe us.) Since no store had a tent that could hold all three of us, and we didn't see the point of buying an $80 tent that would sleep six, we settled for a tent that would hold two. The family event became a guys event. Before the sun went down we went out to set up the tent.

Before going out for the night, EK packed his Nintendo DS and several comic books. mr. mil10 had a cell phone and planned to surf the Internet. Amazingly there was a WiFi signal in the backyard! We were really roughing it!

No camp out would be complete without s'mores. We dropped in the local Brookshire's to buy the necessary items. While checking out two people said, "You must be making s'mores." I guess it was that obvious. Remember, we are not people of the wilderness and since it is probably not safe to build a campfire in the backyard, we cooked our s'mores in the microwave. Who knew marshmallows grew so quickly when subjected to microwave rays? After a few s'mores, we were ready to go out into the great outdoors!

Don't ask me to explain the crazy faces we were making while we were eating our s'mores. I couldn't if I had to. After the snack we were ready to head outdoors. We loaded the tent with sleeping bags, pillows and blankets earlier, so we were ready to go inside. Remember our tent was made to hold two people. I don't know how it would have held two adults, because we nearly had it filled to capacity. Also, anyone taller than mr. mil10 would have had difficulty fitting inside comfortably.

We had a great time and it was definitely better to camp out on a cool night than in the heat! EK is ready to do it again.

The Cookie Monster

Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. It wasn't long after EK started eating his "double trouble" cookie that he admitted that it would have been better if he had ordered the mini, bite-sized version.

Straight from EK's Pencil

EK recently brought home his journal from school. This one was started at the beginning of second grade and it is now filled with his thoughts and ideas. It is fun to see what he was thinking, although sometimes I wonder, “What was he thinking?” I thought it would be fun to share some of his unedited writing here. The entries below are a sampling of entries pulled chronologically starting from the beginning of the year. Dates are provided where he used them. Enjoy.

I have always wanted to… Eat the bigest choclet bar in the world and I hope I burp so loud that way evry one in the world thout it wan an earthcwake.

If I had 3 wishes… I would wish for choclet, DS and a fourth dog. I would have so much fun with my dog and DS. I don’t have a DS. That would be good.

10-21-09: My favorite sport is baseball. I like to slide to home plate. I’m a good player. Baseball ROCKS!

10-26-09: I like shopping for Legos. You can build anything with Legos. My Dad mad a castel with a working draw bridge. I can build a sword. I’m not as good as my Dad.

My house is… Fun to play at. Also it is kind of small. But I don’t care. I like it. My house has a lot of doors.

A chore I hate most is whyping dog poop off my porch. It is growdy. But it is kind of fun.

11-12-09: I can’t imagine living without food. I love food. I like to make chip sandwiches. They are yummy. And jell-o sandwiches. There even better than chip sandwiches.

For Thanksgivng I’m going to Disney world. I’ll have a blast. I whish I could let the hole class come. But it would cost to much money.

12-14-09: I would love to meet Broca Boma because he’s the president. Also mabe sleep there. But that would never happen.

12-17-09: If I found a reindeer… I would punch it. Also I would get a gun and shut it. If it was not one of santa’s reindeer.

1-5-10: If I saw a penguin I would punch it that way it could chase m and I would run home with the penguin.

1-12-10: I wish my school had choclet fountaing instead of water fountains. But every body would be at them and I would never get a turn.
Breakfast is an important meal because I get ROOT BEER to drink! Also sometimes diet root beer. But at least it is not real beer. Even though I should have milk.

My favorite song is Jail house rock because Elvis sings it. I love to listen to that song like crazy. But it’s a good thing it’s on my ipod.

There you have it. A second grader’s perspective of everything that matters! I can’t read what he has written when he bring home the next journal.

Family Fun Night

Tonight at church mr. mil10 and EK were asked to participate in Family Fun Night. Five other parent/child teams competed in a Newlywed kind of game, where team members answered questions about the other while they were out of the room.

I knew we were headed for trouble when we were assigned to Team F. Immediately EK said "F is for failure."

The picture of our scoreboard shows an X for every time our answers did not match. Hey, fourth place out of six teams isn't too bad. Is it?

Cute Cupid Cake

Just before Valentine's our church sponsors an annual child/adult event called "Baking with a Buddy."  Last year we made a mailbox cake.  This year Edie found another great cake idea.  It was actually a cupcake design that we enlarged for a round cake.  The design won EK's approval.

This year we had several "buddies" to work on the cake.  Peeps always helps, but this year a friend from church joined us in the project as well.  We brought our cake and were soon ready with all of the materials to decorate.  EK and Sydney worked with Peeps to come up with a method for making and attaching the wings while JMM began the icing.  EK and Sydney took care of the hair with Rice Krispies cereal.  A few touches later and Cupid was ready to give away his heart! 

Peeps and EK work with marshmallows to make wings.

Working in gloves was not easy.

The cereal needed a little help sticking to the cake!

Three happy faces!