Camping

When I was a kid, camping meant sleeping in a tent.  Any other kind of camping was for the weak-hearted and simply wasn’t real camping.

On Friday, we went “camping.”  In a little cabin. 

I would like to have a little chat with young Katie, because my opinions have changed a little.  Sleeping in a one room cabin with five other people, sharing a 2 ft wide cot with an 18 month old for most of the night, racing to get properly dressed in the morning to make it to the ladies’ room in the morning….that is still roughing it. 

The plan was to camp overnight, in a tent, on our last available Fri/Sat before it gets cold, so that we could help Colin pass off a bunch of Cub Scout stuff.  When there was a chance of rain on Friday, I changed our plans and decided to reserve the one little cabin they have a the campground 15 minutes from our house (we still only have the leaky tent we used last time we went camping 3 1/2 years ago). 

We raced over there on Friday after school and work.  We gathered firewood, made a fire, cooked over it, had s’mores, the whole shebang.  The campground is close enough to a major road to hear the traffic (which kind of stinks), but completely enveloped in trees and absolutely gorgeous.  One of my favorite things about camping has always been waking up and immediately stepping out into beautiful nature (even if it is to run to the bathroom).  I think that if I did that every morning, I would be a happier and kinder person. 

After we packed everything back up, we visited the nature center and then went for a hike. 

Oliver is usually really good about hiking, but he was exhausted and Chad ended up carrying him a lot since I had Carina in the sling.  Towards the end, when Chad had to let him walk for awhile and Ollie was about to lose it, I handed Carina to Chad and offered Oliver the sling.  Some four year olds might balk about squeezing into a baby sling and snuggling up to their mom, but that is not Ollie.  He soaked it up, draping his arms inside, up against me, and laying his head on my shoulder.  Every once in awhile he would let out a little satisfied sigh.  I had to smile, remembering the hours and hours that little snuggler spent as a baby in a very similar fashion (you are going to want to click that link, trust me).

I don’t know when we will camp again – even with a cabin we were all exhausted and cranky by the time we made it home.  Chad and I both agree that when our kids are five and up, it will probably be more worth it.  But we did it, and the kids had a good time, and we made some happy memories.  Maybe someday we will get a new tent and go camping “for real.”

All the individual pieces

My Mom’s Birthday

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday.   I wanted to do something different for her party – something that would be more about her and less about the rest of us sitting around talking.  I wanted to us be able to show her how we feel about her without using too many words.  I decided to steal an idea from my cousin Olivia and have a gallery opening party.  I gave all of my family members here in Charlotte a canvas and asked them to create a piece of art for/about my mom.  Everyone brought appetizers, and the oldest boys were waiters, serving the food for our gallery opening on trays. 

    

I think my mom had a good day, and I was so glad that we were able to show her we love her.  If you know my family, you know that dressing up fancy and creating art isn’t necessarily our “thing,”  but everyone was a really good sport, and I was glad that everyone threw their heart into it. 

On a side note, it was bound to happen someday right….with boys coming out of our ears?  A broken window.  The good news was, it was really a pretty innocent accident and no one got hurt (by the glass or by my anger

Happy Birthday Mom!  Thanks for putting up with us all these years.

For posts about my mom, click here.

A Hard Day’s Work

Gabe wanted to make some money.  Without doing extra chores, of course.

He decided to sell something.  What does he have, though, that other people might be willing to buy?  He decided on his silly bands.

(10 for $1  No tye dies)

Only problem was, this is 2012, not 2010. 

Colin tried to help out by making a sign for his bike and driving it around.  The four neighborhood kids who saw it didn’t bite. Or  maybe they couldn’t read it as he whizzed past?

Either way, it was a bit of a bust.  His only customers were Carina (whose piggy bank was filled by Gabe when she was a baby, so I think that is pretty fair) and Dad. 

The story does have a happy ending though.  They tried lemonade next and made a few bucks. As they were wrapping that venture up I went out there and saw a huge black speck in the ice.  Nice.

  Shhhh, don’t tell the suckers down the street.  We don’t want to them ask for their fiddy cents back.

Oliver turns 4!!!

We had the usual pool party for Ollie’s birthday, like we have since he turned one, but with a twist.  Our neighborhood’s back-to-school bash overlapped with his party, so all of our guests got to try out the bounce house and waterslide before there was even a crowd. Then we all went back to our house for pizza and “cake.”

              

 

(Colin got third and Santi got second in the hulu-hooping contest.  Those boys know how to move their hips.)

When Oliver agreed to having a fruit cake instead of a real one, I was a little worried that he would be dissapointed in the end, but he wasn’t in the least.  He was in love with this cake!! It wasn’t that hard either – probably took me less time than a traditional cake.   It was a nice balance to the pizza, too. 

My mom made Ollie an awesome set of Avenger’s masks and he and Liam have been playing with them all week. 

                         

He also got the long-wished-for-helicopter from his Grandma and Grandpa Coleman.  You can imagine how happy that made him!

Happy birthday to the most handsome and loving four year old in the world!  We love our Ollie-burger.

Fifth Annual Back- to- School Dinner

The menu:

Edamame, steamed in the shell, with salt

Udon Noodles with Sautéed Bell Peppers and Mushrooms

Turtle Pie

This Year’s Family Theme:

Chad gave each of the boys a father’s blessing after dinner.  I kept dinner very low key, but it was super tasty (a recipe from my sister Lindsey and everyone loved it), and the evening was calm and relaxing.  Everyone got to sleep at a good time and up in time for a good back-to-school morning. 

I walked the boys into their classes on Monday.  Gabe was very nervous and got a little teary-eyed, but as soon as he was given a task to complete, I saw him relax.  I am sure that hearing and speaking Chinese has to be a big adjustment after the summer off, and both of them have been handling it well.

         

Gabe has the same 1st teacher that Colin had for kindergarten, and I noticed she had them color the same picture when they first came in.

Back to School 2008 (the night before I had Ollie!), 2009, 2010  (I remember cooking that meal when I was pregnant with Carina. I had to chew gum the whole time in order to keep my lunch down), 2011

Family

The weekend before last, I helped host a family reunion for my dad’s side of the family – his brothers and sister, a couple of my cousins, lots of my nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters.  For three days we talked and ate, and played. 

I enjoy having a house large enough to fit a lot of people, and we put that ability to the test.  Everyone squeezed into my house on Friday night, sitting on chairs, the floor, barstools, every available seat taken to eat dinner and watch family movies.  Then five adults and fifteen kids slept under its roof, surprisingly well (after the five adults finally made themselves shut up and go to bed.)

Saturday was spent at Copperhead Island – kayaking, playing volleyball, eating, walking around and enjoying the scenery.  Now that the meal I was in charge of was over, I had a goal to spend some quality time with those who had traveled across the country.  My over-tired children keep my fully engaged with them instead.  One fell apart over a soggy bun and had to be carried down a trail to calm down.  One wanted to either be in my arms or getting into something.  Between the typical mom duties of keeping-safe and keeping-fed, I would try to converse, only to excuse myself when Carina let out one of her eardrum-piercing shrieks.  Instead reconnecting with far-flung family, my exhaustion with those I know and love best was seeping out, clouding the atmosphere until I could feel it in the crease between my brows. 

After another night of not enough sleep, and then a few hours of chasing my baby toddler at church, I felt like the family reunion was a wash.  My kids had had a great time, I had done my duties, I hoped that my aunts and uncles got to talk with each other, but me?  Every time I tried to will myself to focus on the people around me, my mind went a little numb and my attempts didn’t go very far.  When we sat down for a fireside after dinner, I knew that Carina would require me to be in and out of the room continuously because of her inability to sit still and her wild shrieks. 

Out in the hall with Carina, I heard the children gathering to sing and I came back in time to see their smiling faces.  They sang,

I came to earth with power to choose,

Good choices bless me and my family too

Loudly and clearly, with sweet faces, invigorated by Aunt Audra’s ukulele accompaniment.  Then my Uncle David announced that my Nana, the matriarch of the group, was going to say a few words.  My Nana is quiet – she doesn’t often speak out.  I was immediately filled with a prompting that her words should be recorded. I flipped my camera to video, and asked Audra, who was sitting in the front row, to do it for me.

My Nana spoke softly to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, with a cracking voice and teary eyes, of her love for the gospel.  She spoke about each generation in our family trying to to live the gospel a little better more than the previous, and how proud she was of us.  The room was full of love – love for the family and our Heavenly Father.  When she finished, most of us were wiping our eyes.

The crease in my brow was gone.  My patience returned.  This is what it was all about.

Meet me at the mall

                               

We went to JC Penny yesterday to get the boys their free Back-to-School haircuts.  We pulled up to the mall, and Ollie let out an impressed exclamation,

“Whoa, that store is HUGE!!”

Scanning my memories, I realized that Ollie (and probably Gabe) couldn’t remember ever going to a mall. The last time we went was three years ago, when we took our Chinese exchange students for a taste of American life. 

I have to laugh at myself for not stepping foot in a mall for so long, considering my “deprived childhood”, when I can remember lamenting that the nearest mall was a couple of hours away.  Going to the mall always made me feel like a country bumpkin, with the huge window-lit ceilings, the elevators and escalators, and the noisy food courts.  I watched my boys’ overstimulated eyes (after their very first professional haircuts) as we walked through yesterday, and laughed at young Katie.  I live in a city now, but going to the mall to kill time is simply not a part of our family culture. 

Going to Target, eating free samples and snacking on popcorn, however, is a part of the Coleman family culture.  And Kmart is not Target.  So I suppose I did lead a deprived childhood after all.

On a completely separate note, for those of you who have spent any time with Carina in the last few months, I am sure you can hear in your head the very sound that she was making when this picture was taken.  And for that, I apologize.