Indepence Day

This Fourth of July we had Scott's family over for a backyard campout. I know, I know, I'm an outdoor wimp; I say it's because I'm afraid of a bear taking off with my kids in the middle of the night and making a snack of them, but truth is, I HATE sleeping outside. I think it's one of those things that you have to have grown up with and been trained early to enjoy. I grew up in the "golden age" in my family, when camping was passe, and we moved on to airplanes and hotels. Spoiled rotten, I know, but there it is. My poor kids aren't getting the love of the hot, dirty, bug-infested outdoors ground into them. Anybody volunteer to indoctrinate them? Anyway, as I was saying, Scott decided to try to capture that outdoors, camping thing, and most of his family came with tents and sleeping bags in tow and "camped" on our lawn. (I say most because my sister-in-law and best bud Sallie shares my lack of affinity for all things camping related). We wimped out and slept indoors in our nice quiet houses while the boys and kids "roughed it"...kind of. My girls loved having all their cousins here and running around at night with them until the wee hours, when the neighbors were beginning to get murderous, I'm sure:) Grandma Henry bought Savannah and her best friend, and cousin, Chloe matching shirts. This shirt says it all... They crack me up when they're together. They can be so funny, especially as they get older and start to pick up on the "adult world."

This is the "second round," as I like to call it: Irelynd, Lizzy, Madilyn, and Grace.

Brighton actually konked out early.

Super Irelynd!

I riled the kids up while they should have been going to bed, in a game of Ghosts in the graveyard. It was a fun flashback to my own childhood of playing with my cousins during warm summer nights. This is Savannah and Chloe after finally getting into bed.

The next morning we got up and had a wonderful breakfast. I love breakfast; it is my favorite meal of the day; if you want me to get excited, just propose we cook a big breakfast outside. (I really should love camping, I suppose, just for that fact alone.) My mom came down for breakfast that morning, and stayed behind after everyone else left, to help clean up. It was a pretty big mess, as you'd expect from having 25+ people in your house and yard, most of the kids. I kept telling her to stop and go home, but she is very stubborn, in her own quiet way, and refused to leave. She kept telling me and Scott that she wasn't leaving til we were black in the face. So, Scott made himself black in the face. It worked, and we got her to go home. Scott 1 point, Mom 0. Ka-ching! Mom has met her match!

This is the only picture I got of Irelynd in her cute holiday T.