Camp "In"

Family Home Evening is something I believe is really important. Having said that, it is also one of the areas where Satan works on me the most. Anything that is going to strengthen our families is something that Satan will want to attack, and he works hard on this with me. We go through periods where we do pretty good, and then we slack off, and then one of us will look at each other and say "You know, we should do Family Home Evening again" and we'll start again. It's a process. But I sat down this week and made out a schedule for the rest of the year so that we would have NO excusses when it came to Family Night.

We choose do ours on Thursday nights because those are typically slow nights for us. This week though my whole plan fell apart when Thursday afternoon the movie I had reserved at the library for a really cute autumn themed night wasn't ready to be picked up. So I was scrambling trying to find a last minute thing. Then I thought, well, we can wait and do it Friday. Well, along came Friday and the movie still wasn't ready. So then I was scrambling trying to find a last minute activity, again, because I had promised Bri that we'd do family night and I didn't want to disappoint her just because my plan wasn't panning out!

So we thought we'd to the typical last minute Family Night idea...game night! The kids LOVE Disney Scene It! And then Steven came up with the brilliant idea of having a camp out...in the living room! So we all got on jammies, we blew up the air mattress, brought down the toddler bed mattresses and lots of pillows and blankets. We piled on the air mattress to play Scene It! boys vs girls.

The girls...of course...won! "I am woman hear me roar....."

Then we watched "Little Mermaid Beginnings" and ate popcorn. Then we turned the lights out and the TV off and went to sleep, all of us on the living room floor (except for Micah who slept in his pack-n-play in the corner.)

It was really fun! The kids loved camping "in"! We got up the next morning and Steven made camper's eggs and bacon (yummy!) and then life got back to normal.

But we had a great time and made some great memories, which is what Family Night is about after all. It's not always about the perfectly put together lesson (although those types of Family Home Evenings are important too!) It's about being with your family, enjoying the time with them, learning to love each other, and realizing that in the end, it doesn't get much better than this!

One more picture to share: Micah has started smiling... A LOT! His smiles are precious! You just can't help but to smile back! I LOVE this age!