Catching up...and a confession

Let's start with the confession first. A lot of people take a look at our life and assume we've got it all together. Full-time jobs, three kids, mostly clean house (or so it seems in pictures), crafts and activities, volunteering, and the list goes on and on. Well, we don't actually have it all together. With both of us working full-time and still making time for our three kids, well, some things have to slide. So yeah, the laundry is constantly piling up and we often go to bed with toys still strewn about the playroom...and sometimes the living room. And yeah, it DRIVES ME CRAZY, but I think it makes me even more crazy running around trying to do it all. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't judge the life by the picture. Our house may seem put together in pictures, but it's likely I just threw some of the toys and mess over to the side to get a clean pic. Tricky tricky.

On to catching up. Life got crazy busy since Stasa started kindergarten. Tom and I have been trying to volunteer when we can, which only helps fill up our already full calendars. I also somehow found myself not only signing Stasa up for Girl Scouts, but myself as a leader. WHY? Because I'm crazy. But really it's been okay so far - I have two other moms helping and we only meet once a month. It's manageable for now. We'll see how I feel by the end of the school year.

Now that we're thisclose to Thanksgiving and then rolling into Christmas, I thought it made sense to actually share everything else that's happened between the first day of school and now.

Right after school started we took off for a Labor Day camping trip with family at The Cove. I think I may have spent the majority of my time walking back and forth to the bathrooms with both girls. I so love these camp grounds, especially the fact that there's a small lake beach.




Funny thing about that bathing suit I'm wearing. We packed what felt like our entire house to go on this camping trip with the kids. Every time we try to whittle down the pile, but with five of us there seems to be so many things we need. It wasn't until we drove all the way there, set up camp, and started getting the kids ready for the beach that I realized I forgot our bathing suits. Good grief. Since Tom wanted to chop firewood for later, I packed the kids up and drove 45 minutes into town to the closest Wal-Mart in the hopes of finding something for me and Tom. We hit the jackpot. The girls picked out Tom's new trunks, which featured the Dude from the Big Lebowsky. It was that or trunks with an eagle and flames. The girls couldn't stop laughing at the dude. So the dude it was. My options, however, were pretty slim. I finally found a top and bottom that sort of went together. We grabbed our stuff, paid, and hightailed it back to camp, where we changed into our suits only to find that the top I bought was waaaaaay too busty for me. Good thing I brought a bunch of sports bras. We had a great time with the kids and family and can't wait to go back next year!




On to...regular days hanging around the house.








Then between huge work events we had Halloween. I barely got the kids costumes together before the trunk-or-treat at Stasa's school. This was our first trunk-or-treat and Tom was going all out with decorations, which I thought was a bit much for a school thing, but I couldn't have been more wrong. People went waaaaaaaay all out. When the deuce and a half rolled up next to us with a big screen and fog machine I turned to Tom and said "not enough." Next year we'll have to amp it up even more.





And then again between even more work events we wound up in the hospital with Tommy. It started with what looked to be a bug bite which then got infected and drained, but then got worse. We had started taking him to the doctor on a daily basis for meds and monitoring and then ended up taking him to the ER one night after his fever spiked. And thank goodness we did because the infection was serious. They admitted us and put him on a few different IV antibiotics for four days. We were finally discharged, he finished all of his meds and is just now getting back to a normal routine (and diaper changing schedule). We didn't tell a lot of people that we were in the hospital since news was changing every day and we really couldn't have visitors. Tommy was in pretty good spirits for the majority of our hospital stay as long as no one was touching him or his IV.




That brings us to this past weekend, where Stasa was the lucky duck of the week and got to bring home the class mascot, Brown Bear. We had already gotten an earful on what everyone else had done with Brown Bear, which included bounce houses, play places, exciting (and expensive) outings. Well, we showed Brown Bear a GOOD TIME. First stop: the spa (aka our washing machine). Then he met a bunch of our bear friends, learned the fine art of mancala (and got his butt kicked), played dress up, went to dance class, the mall, Cracker Barrel and dinner with Grandma. Basically went and did whatever we already had on our schedule. And Brown Bear LOVED all of it. At the end of the weekend Stasa put together a poster about all of the fun she and Brown Bear had together. And since she got Brown Bear she also got to share her poster with the class, be the line leader for the week AND bring up the gifts at school mass.






And that about catches us up...for the most part...there are still a lot of things missing, but that's life, right?

Camping at Izaak Walton

A couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend camping at our local Izaak Walton campgrounds. It's literally 20ish minutes down the street from home and it's where Tom used to camp as a Boy Scout. It was my first time at the campground and I was surprised at how pretty it was for being so close to home (I mean 66 was RIGHT THERE). We wound up being the only people camping, though there were plenty of people at the range and others who came to fish.


We were given two campsites to use, which was more than enough space, so we set up the tent at one end, farther away from this huge fire ring and used the other side for cooking, eating, and playing. The campgrounds were also right on a man made pond, which we were allowed to fish in. This was the first time we've taken the girls fishing and Stasa was dying to go out on a boat, but there was no way we'd catch anything with her making noise ON the water. Not that we caught anything anyway. We tried and tried and got a few good nibbles, but wound up only catching lilypads and logs.






Our first night there we hung out and had a late dinner before putting the kids down for bed. Neither Tom nor I slept very well the first night, which always seems to be the case when I go camping, and everyone was up at the crack of dawn the next morning. Tommy seemed to love being outside all of the time and getting dirty. He happily played with his cars and dinos in the dirt. After breakfast we got dressed and ready for a hike through the grounds, though it wasn't as long as we were planning since some of the paths were cut off by huge felled trees. After coming back from the hike I went to scratch my leg and found two ticks on it. After that we were even more diligent about checking the kids and ourselves for ticks. I ended up finding four ticks on me and then another one after we were home with a total of two actually biting me.

Side note: I did some research on preventing ticks from biting and found tea tree soap and rose geranium oil, so we'll be trying both of those during our next camping weekend.

Tommy was the only one who napped and the girls were happy to spend the day alternating between fishing and playing and exploring the grounds. At one point we all played hide-n-seek together, which was hilarious because both girls either hid in the place I last hid or they would hide in plain site - like under a picnic table or behind a skinny tree. Tommy even joined in on the fun and hid with me a couple of times, but his giggles gave us away every time.

The other different thing about this campground was the bathroom situation. As in there really wasn't one. The Cove had nice-ish bathrooms with running water and electricity and showers. This place had an outhouse and a hole in the middle of a plywood board. I took one look and saw creepy crawlies dart back in the hole and announced to the girls that they would be learning the careful art of peeing in the woods. No way was I going to pee in the place people went to be murdered. PASS.

Other than the ticks and the murder house the campgrounds were gorgeous and we had a great time. I love that this place is so close and we'll likely book a couple of more weekends through October before it gets too cold for this mama to sleep outside.

Camping with the kids

After work on Friday we packed up the kids and the car and headed out for a weekend of camping in Gore, VA at The Cove. I found this place on a website of Virginia campgrounds and was somewhat skeptical since it wasn't a national park and didn't really have any reviews, but we figured we'd give it a shot. We had made a reservation for the weekend and were given a site within walking distance of the latrines. We didn't get on the road until after 7:00 due to some packing mishaps and a quick pitstop for dinner so by the time we arrived to check in it was already dark. The folks running the place were super nice and marked a map to show me how to get to our site. Unfortunately I'm not the best navigator and wound up leading us down an ATV trail. Poor Sexy Flexy roughed it, but managed to make it over a quarter mile on it. After a few more wrong turns we finally found our camp. Thankfully Tom and I had the foresight to do a dry run of putting up the tent so it went up pretty fast in the dark. Of course, our headlamps helped quite a bit, too. The girls ran around with a couple of the headlamps while we finished setting up camp for the night.

We weren't sure how big the site was since it was dark so we set up our tent closer to the firepit and picnic table (which we were grateful for because we left our big table at home). We initially put the girls in the same bed, but that lasted all of 30 minutes of "get off of me!" and "leave me alone!" before we split them up. So Tom slept with Lexi and I took a bed with Stasa and Tommy slept in the middle of the tent. I didn't sleep too well thanks to my air mattress slowly deflating through the night. I woke up on the rocky ground with a sore hip. I was happy to get up and out of the tent as the sun came up. Tom and Tommy got up with me and we got the coffee started while the girls slept.

Lexi woke up next and had fun walking around and digging in the dirt while Tom fried up some bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Our camp site was actually much larger than we thought and we could have easily fit a couple of more tents on it, even with our 10 person tent and large canopy. And the bathrooms were just a quick walk downhill and were pretty clean for a campground AND they had showers with hot hot water and plenty of toilet paper. And we discovered that they cleaned the bathrooms every day around lunchtime, which is when we took the kids down to hose them off. 

The girls were happy to explore our campsite and grounds after breakfast while we planned out the rest of our day. 

While the girls explored, Tommy snoozed in the tent. He's officially a tummy sleeper now. He took many a nap in the tent over the weekend.


After Tommy's nap we got dressed in our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. It was so much easier navigating in the daylight and we found the beach without any trouble. The sand was clean and white and the water super clear. We found a spot and got settled and the girls ran off to play in the sand and water.


I found myself so much more relaxed at this beach. I'm not a helicopter parent by any means, but I was glued to the kids sides when we were in Virginia Beach. That beach was (and always is) so overcrowded. This beach was much, much smaller, but even when it got busy it wasn't really crowded. And since it was a lake it was pretty shallow in the swimming area so we felt comfortable letting the girls run in and out of the water without us. There was a pontoon at the deepest point of the swimming area and Stasa kept asking to go out to it. I wasn't sure she'd actually make it since she's never really liked not being able to touch the bottom, but she happily swam out in her inner tube and then spent a good amount of time jumping off the pontoon.




After a few hours at the beach we packed up and headed back to our camp to rest and get ready for dinner. Stasa insisted she was tired and laid down in the tent.


She was *thisclose* to falling asleep and then Lexi ran in to play. Naptime never happened except for Tommallama.


Since the girls didn't want to nap and were going stir crazy hanging out at the camp site, Tom took them on a walk to let me and Tommy snooze. They came back bearing a bouquet of wildflowers for me.


This one was perpetually filthy. Like she would get hosed off or wiped down and minutes later we would find her looking like this.


Her hair was a rat's nest because she refused to let me put it up and I only managed to get it up a couple of times because I bribed her. I walked around with the kids while Tom made dinner - grilled chicken legs and tuna with corn on the cob and grilled potatoes. We were in the middle of dinner when we looked over and found this:


The sun and fun caught up to Miss I Don't Need a Nap. She fell asleep around 5:30/6:00 and wound up sleeping straight through the night. Stasa and Tommy stayed up with us for some campfire fun.


He was such a happy little camper.


Earlier in the day Tom foraged for fire wood and chopped up a couple of small felled trees and had quite a good amount of nice dry firewood for our fire. Stasa was his helper for the night. She was quite the pyro, just like daddy and Pappou, and Tom even found a good fire poking stick for her.


They made a nice fire - with just one match according to Tom - and Tom taught Stasa campfire safety. She was a great listener and was really cautious around the fire. She really enjoyed poking and stoking it, but always waited for Tom's permission before doing it. She even found her own rock to add to the fire pit and Tom etched an S on it for her.




Once we got the fire going, we broke out our s'mores ingredients and taught Stas how to roast marshmallows. She really enjoyed catching her marshmallow on fire so she could blow it out and she LOVED s'mores.



After we demolished our s'mores, we hung around and enjoyed the fire. We even read some bedtime stories by the fire.


Around 10:30 Stasa decided she had enough campfire, doled out kisses and crawled into bed. Tom and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and warmth of the fire (and a few drinks) before calling it a night. Tommy didn't sleep as well that night and I was only half asleep most of the night. I got up and out of bed as soon as it got light out. Tom was up with me and we almost able to have our first cup of coffee before the girls woke up. Before we knew it the girls were up and ready for the day.


Stasa dressed herself in her dirty clothes from the day before, put her hair up and brushed her teeth. Miss Responsible.


After breakfast and 100 trips to the bathroom, we got ready and headed off for the beach. Because we all woke up at the butt crack of dawn, we arrived at the beach at 9:00 am, well before anyone else. It was nice to have the beach to ourselves for awhile and the water was so peaceful. The lifeguard offered the girls some leftover sand toys and a small fishing net. We all tried catching some of the many minnows that were swimming around, but were unsuccessful. Those suckers are fast. Stasa spent 90% of the time in the water and went under quite a bit. I bet if we were there another two days she would have learned how to swim. She was so close.



Lexi was content playing in the sand and building and destroying sand castles. She ran in and out of the water a lot and wanted us to take her out to the pontoon like Stasa. I ended up taking her halfway out in her inner tube and then just splashed around with her in the shallow water.


Tommy played for a bit and then promptly passed out for HOURS on the picnic blanket. Once he woke up we packed up and headed back to camp.


When we got back to camp Stasa insisted she was tired and wanted to be in the tent. I tried talking her out of it since it was wicked hot in there, but she went in anyway and passed out in like two minutes.


While she napped, the rest of us hung out and snacked while we decided what to do about dinner and the rest of the night. It was supposed to storm later in the night and we had already planned to leave first thing Monday morning, so as the evening arrived and the thunder rolled in, we settled on leaving that night after dinner and s'mores.



While Tom grilled dinner, Tommy joined Stasa in the tent for a short nap.


After their nap we all ate dinner and finished packing up camp and started another camp fire to let Lexi have some s'mores.



Lexi took a few bites and then announced that she didn't like s'mores and only wanted the ingredients separate and uncooked. Whose kid is this? We got packed up and back on the road around 8:30 and headed home. Good thing, too, because it started raining as soon as we were on the road.

Our first family camping trip was a success. The girls really enjoyed it, so much so that Stasa was in tears when it was time to pack up. All said we really loved this campground and said we'd like to make this an annual trip with the family. Everyone we talked to was really friendly and a lot of the families come every year. We would definitely try to get one of the sites near where we were this time. It was super close to the bathroom (definitely a plus with kids) and felt far enough away, but was a quick hike or drive to the beach and main office. They have snow tubing there in the winter and tons of ATV trails and fishing spots.