the great outdoors...in our own backyard

Saturday morning I began the renewal process for my supermommy membership card...at least in the eyes of my children.

The most amazing part is that it was quite simple.  Just a pre-breakfast run to grab a few weekend essentials.  You know...a quart of strawberries, two melons, a bag of carrots, some cucumbers, another gallon of milk and a six person tent.   (yes, random...but I sure got a great deal!)

I walked in the door and was still holding the tent and a bag of groceries when the barrage of, "Can we camp out soon?"  "Oh, I know, how about tonight?" " Can we sleep in our new tent TONIGHT?" began, each question a little louder and higher pitched than the one before.

Not wanting to miss out on a fast track process for super status renewal, Ian and I glanced at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said, "Why not?"

Of course, if you give a kid a night in a tent, they're going to want s'mores...

Being fans of chocolate and marshmallows ourselves, we caved.

lighting our first "campfire" of the season"

The downer of the evening?  Waitng for the fire to burn down "just right" to begin the toasting of the marshmallows.

waiting impatiently

It was worth the wait though, something simply wonderful happens when a campfire, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers collide.

It's somewhat magical really.

It could be that the fire is memorizing.

But chances are the true magic comes in the gooey goodness that is a s'more.

So as the name implies, we each had helped ourselves to another.

almost time to update that shirt of mine

A few years ago this little fire pit seemed like a frivolous expense.  Now I see it worth its weight in gold.

As a family we've spent a lot of time around this little ring; toasting marshmallows, telling stories, just watching the colors of the fire as it burns...

Eventually though the marshmallows ran out, the fire burned to embers, and it was time to head to bed.  Daddy read the evening book and bible story and then the glow of the full moon provided a natural nightlight as we fell asleep.

Surprisingly, even with six people crammed right together on a night that dropped into the mid-40s, we slept amazingly well...until our local woodpecker (who seems to have hit his head one too many times) began tapping on our metal gutters at 7:30am.  Nothing like being awakened by an echoing rat-a-tat-tat.

I *may* have had a chilly kiddo join me in my sleeping bag around dawn

We laid around chatting and laughing at bed head and how cold we got for a few more minutes and then it was time to get ready to head for church.

The first night of camping in 2013 for the M6 is in the books...it was a success!  Now we're all eagerly anticipating our first camping weekend of the season, coming soon!

The best part is that Ian and I are now full fledged members of the superparent society for the year, all for the simple price of spending time in the great outdoors with our kids.  Even if it was only our own backyard.