Father/Daughter Camping Trip

Marc set off this morning with Jessica, Lilli and Sarah for his first solo trip with the girls camping. Jessie, who's been camping before with me and Becky, really wanted to go - just Daddy (we watched 18 Kids and Counting and Jim Duggar did it with his girls). So we borrowed a tent, packed up a sleeping bag, stuff for s'mores and booked a site at a campground about half an hour away.

Sam and I are staying home - for... PIZZA DELIVERY NIGHT. And I do say it in all caps, because I had to make it sound appealing so Sam wouldn't realize he was missing out :-). Marc hasn't taken the girls out by himself since just after Sam was born. I sent him to the Ecotarium one afternoon, and it was a disaster. I tend to be the one who corrals the kids, for lack of a better term. And we function really well as a team, I don't mean to make it sound as though he's incapable of handling three girls, just that he doesn't usually handle them, alone.

I'm mildly concerned because the older two are going thru a particularly difficult stage where they just fight all.the.time. And Jess, while she doesn't generally fight, is still prone to tears and drama at the drop of a hat - so it's not necessarily going to be easy. Lilli and Sarah have never been camping before and Marc hasn't ever gone camping with kids. I want it to go well - I want it to go GREAT. I want them to come home raving about the time they had. So cross your fingers for them, okay?

In other news... I don't really have any other news. My brother Eric, his wife Michelle and their three kids came over last night. It works out great because his three match up almost exactly with my three oldest - and Sam's got a hero worship thing going with his eight year old, Matt. Matt brought over a bunch of toys that he'd outgrown, and Sam is in superhero heaven. His youngest daughter, Amber, spent the night - she's a couple of months younger than Jess - and they had SO much fun together. Spent the day today with my mother - she bought Jess some new clothes for school and we hit up a couple of yard sales - which means, yes, I have even more toys here at the house. At some point - I'm going to send the children away and just throw at least half of it out - I doubt they'll notice ;-)