Camping Out

aka, how to have fun while spending none.
aka, our first summer weekend.

Since this week marked the last day of kindergarten (sob, sob), we were ready for some summer fun!

Goodbye kindergarten!

What started as plans for a spontaneous weekend away squeezed between two weeks of visitors turned sharply when money was tallied and housework to-be-done was assessed.  And when we realized possible rain made real camping too risky, not to mention an insane amount of work, we opted for:

backyard camping!

Yes, the building you are seeing is our neighbor's garage.  We decided to camp out in our own backyard.  Our very teeny tiny backyard, I should add.  In a city.  Where it's illegal to have a firepit.  Yep, that's where we camped.

Our tent is what, 5 feet from the back of our house?

We cooked dinner, smores, and breakfast on our outdoor grill.  We don't even own an outdoor table that seats more than two, but look what can be done with a little creativity and logs we've yet to take care of.  And if you look closely, you will see that while Daddy was setting up the tent, Nolan decided to paint his face and clothes with chalk.

Faux cookout

(By the way, the deep looking woods are not our backyard.  It ends right behind the boys, who are not too many feet away from the tent.)

Despite how pathetic this all sounds, the boys climbed into the tent after a very, very fun evening and declared this to be "the best!"  Who knew backyard camping held so much potential?  Plus camping with a nearby dishwasher, bathroom, and washing machine...the benefits are endless!

As an added bonus, we have a stocked pond within walking distance of our house, so we even added two trips to the pond on either end of our campout, to round out the camping experience:

N makes a catch!

Here's to more summer adventures!  My favorite season has officially arrived!