Saturday, September 28th

Saturday morning Jim worked on pulling out all of the camping gear for our upcoming trip.  We wanted to make sure that everything was in great shape and finalize a list of items to pick up.  Of course, a mock campsite set-up in your own backyard equals hours of play for kids!  In the early afternoon there was a Notre Dame football game that Jim and a friend were going to watch at our house, so I left the littlest fan at home and took the three big kids out for a couple of errands and then to see a movie.  As soon as we were back home, the kids ran right out to play for the rest of the evening in the backyard and the girls ended up camping in their tent all night :-)

Sure appreciate Jim's hard work in getting this all set up!  The kids had told us very specifically that they wanted to sleep in their own tent this year on our camping trip.  We thought we were going to have to buy a little cheap secondary tent, however Nana had a really nice one stowed away and so we got that one all set up and it's perfect!  Thanks, Nana :-)  I'm so in love with our big, cabin style tent, too.  That was such a a great investment.

Victoria found this super fuzzy caterpillar, named his Crawley, and spent hours playing with and tending to this thing :-p

When Lincoln was little and not yet walking, we had purchased this baby holder for use while camping.  It's like an exersaucer meets an adult camping chair, with loops around the top to clip on little toys.  Waverly loves to be outside and was all bouncy and excited when I took her out back to try this out for size, but when I set her in there she looked up to Jim like, "Really? What am I supposed to DO in here?" haha  She's still a bit small for it, but we'll make it work with some extra support.

While Jim was busy, I got the kids all decked out in their Notre Dame gear complete with tattoos, stickers and all!  He loved it :-)  Sadly, it did not help them actually WIN, but at least his crew looked cute.

Go Irish! (love Lincoln's fierce football player face, hehe)

Another favorite that we've had since Victoria was only a bit bigger than Waverly is now - our awesome hiking, baby-holding backpack. It's a Sherpani, and was worth every penny - it's held up awesomely over the years!  I was pretty sure that Waverly would be way too little for it, but we decided to give it a try and she fit great :-)  

I needed to go by Target for a couple of things before we went to our movie, so I told the kids they could each pick out one candy to take.  I kid you not, we spent at least twenty minutes in the candy aisle while they poured over, compared, negotiated, asked for details and otherwise had everyone else passing by laughing at their hardcore, candy-decision-making behavior. (Final decisions: Scarlett - Junior Mints, Lincoln - Whoppers, Victoria - Angry Bird Fruit Snacks; however Scarlett and Lincoln split their choices 50/50 so they could have a little of both)

Movie time!  We saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 - it was a really fun, cute movie that the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

At home that evening, the kids played and played outside and finally asked if they could have their last thirty minutes or so before bed as outside, in their tent Nook time.  We acquiesced and then decided to surprise them by allowing them to sleep in their tent.  They were all ecstatic!  However, when push came to shove, Linc wound up in Nana's room and fell asleep in her bed after about 90 seconds ;-)  Jim opted to sleep in the other, big tent as well - he wanted them to feel big and cool, sleeping in their own tent, but he wasn't quite ready for them to sleep in the backyard alone.  What a great daddy, sleeping out there all night so his girls could have that fun experience :-)