Backyard Camping

We were able to have our house cleaners come for the first time since February this week. Of course, we had to be out of the house while they were here. This meant hanging out in the backyard, with Ryan and myself set up to get work done. But how to entertain the kids for a couple hours?

Ryan had the brilliant idea to task them with figuring out how to set up and take down the tent. We told them if they did this, they could sleep in the tent with me Friday night (we need some more gear to make Ryan comfortable sleeping in the tent, plus we only have 3 sleeping bags, since the last time we camped Mal was 2 or 3, so Ryan sadly can't join us).

It ended up being a great task for a 13 year old. Mal wasn't as into it, until he could see it starting to take shape and see that it really was a tent. He helped with some of the poles and with the stakes. 

We then let them play in the tent a bit while the cleaners wrapped up and we completed our workdays before having them take it back down. They're quite excited to do some backyard camping this weekend.

While they did this, I discovered that the deck is a great place to sit in the afternoon and finish up charting/attend meetings. The sun isn't shining directly on it anymore and you often get a nice breeze. I'll definitely have to start sitting out there in the afternoon whenever I can!