Camping in the living room, and other weekend adventures

Last weekend we were supposed to go visit our friends Mike and Charlotte and their family in Champain.  I was so excited to see them.  I love Charlotte and even though it has been years since we have lived near each other (that was way back in Austin), we just seem to pick up where we left off.  We had planned on spending the night at their house, then driving to Springfield to see all of the Abraham Lincoln related sites.

Notice I said "We were supposed to go." 

Sadly, Charlotte called on Friday morning.  Emily had been throwing up all night and that morning.  Poor Emily.  Sick kiddos make me so sad.  And poor Charlotte.

John knew how disappointed I was, and determined to make it a great weekend, despite having to stay home.  So, while the kiddos were at school, John and I dragged out our gargantuan 10 person camping tent, rearranged furniture, and set it up in the living room.  



This tent is ridiculously huge, and I LOVE it.  It was gifted to us by John's parents when they were moving from Colorado to Hawaii.  We even ran out of room and had to leave two of the "wings" down.  Huge I tell you.



They were so excited when they got home!  Nathan, Brady, Will and Little Isaac from next door jumped around in the tent until they got too rowdy, and I had to kick them out.  Then they popped popcorn and ate it in the tent, along with Avery, Celia, Big Isaac and Aaron.  Will mostly played with the popcorn, scooping it up with his front loader tractor, loading it into his garbage can, then dumping it into his garbage truck. 

After dinner, we watched "Mr. Popper's Penguins" from the tent, then tried to get some sleep.  Around 9:00, Yummers started asking for "Yummy's bed", so I took him up.  About 10:00, Avery woke up and moved herself up to her bed, telling me that her bed was more comfortable (not hard to imagine that a mattress would be more comfortable than a sleeping bag spread out on hardwood floors).  Around 10:30 I joined them upstairs.  John was a trooper and stayed downstairs all night.

Saturday morning was taken up by soccer games.  Nathan and Brady were so excited to just be able to play, and they were so entertaining to watch.  Not an ounce of strategy, just pure speed and energy.

Isaac stood on the sidelines and dutifully cheered his team on.  He is not allowed to play for another week because of his surgery.

After that we ran home, showered everyone off, and dashed off to the dollar theater in Bloomingdale to see "Journey 2".  (Just as a side note:  I think it is totally crazy that even with gas prices as high as they are right now ($4.59 a gallon here), it is still drastically cheaper for me to drive all the way out to Bloomingdale, which is an hour away, and see a movie at the dollar theater out there, than to cough up the $9.00 per ticket that I would have to pay at our local theater.  Forget being green and minimizing our carbon footprint by shopping locally.  The almighty dollar still screams louder here.)

It turned out to be a delightful weekend.