My brother-in-law kindly arranged a camping trip for the extended family at Mistletoe State Park in Appling, Georgia. It was as picturesque as it sounds. We rented a tiny cabin for us while the rest of our family took up three adjoining campsites. Eli was in heaven tagging along after his six cousins. They were all so kind and generous to him that it melted my heart. I kept looking up to find him in yet another person's lap.
I'd forgotten how relaxing camping can be. We unpacked the car, set up the cabin, and that was it. Nothing else needing to be done. Ahhhh.
The weather was perfect -- warm in the sun and cool in the shadows during the daytime, then just chilly enough at night that you wanted to be near the fire yet your backside didn't get cold. There was a lot of talking and laughing, but a lot of just looking out over the lake too.
Early morning cabin snuggles...
Helping with the pancake batter...
Helping Aunt Heather with the breakfast dishes...
When the morning campfire burned down and the coals were perfect, the marshmallows just had to come back out. As my sister-in-law pointed out, in the daytime you can see to toast them to gooey perfection.
S'more smile!
On Saturday the park held an autumn festival. Here's Eli bobbling for an apple on a skewer that was suspended from above. He kept at it quite a while but in the end had to have help. His mouth was just too small.
Autumn scavenger hunt...
Piling onto the hay ride that was pulled by a tractor through the autumn woods...
Towards the end of our camp out, Eli came down with a cold. It wasn't a particularly bad one, but it gave him quite the runny nose. I just couldn't send him to school in good conscience. Thus for the first two days of the week my plans unraveled and my time was instead spent leisurely unpacking, doing smoky laundry, watching kid movies, and playing games with Eli. It turned out to be perfect for hanging on to that relaxed camp out feeling.
Tot Indoor Campfire: We rolled brown construction paper into logs (fastened with tape) and cut fire out of orange paper. Eli and I found some good toasting sticks growing in the yard, which I cut relatively short with blunt ends. I'd bought some foam marshmallows at the craft store, so I scored one end of each "marshmallow" with a deep X using my X-Acto knife. This allows Eli to take the foam pieces on and off his toasting stick. Voila! Indoor campfire.
Cozy Campfire: Play-Doh is great on sick days (or rainy days). This week we were especially glad that we already had the Cozy Campfire set. If you are looking for a fun dough play set with lots of possibilities, I highly recommend this one. It has a campfire, toasting sticks, a fishing pole (with fish), cooking tools, and lots of molds. (Food molds include hamburger, hot dog, marshmallow, cheese, fruit, chips, cookies, and more. Eli loves extruding ketchup and mustard. There are also molds for fishing worms and other bugs.)
Hiding Pumpkins: Last but not least, the autumn festival inspired us in all things pumpkin. As we've done every fall for the last three years, we pulled out our tiny plastic pumpkins and took turns hiding them all over the house. (It's like an Easter egg hunt. Click here for more information.)
Man, I love autumn.
I love and miss camping. I can see from these photos you've made some really special memories for the kids -- it's something each of them will talk about the rest of their life.
Posted by: Diane | 26 October 2012 at 03:07 PM
Thanks, Diane. I know I treasure memories of camping as a kid and hope my son will too.
Posted by: Valerie J. Frey | 29 October 2012 at 12:03 PM