Meeting a Box Turtle

The girls went picking wild raspberries yesterday morning, each with her little silver pail. Natalie experienced for the first time the disappointment of accidentally tipping her pail and spilling hard-won berries. She came to me all in tears. Leah experienced getting her hair stuck in the thorny stems of the bushes. But she didn't cry. All in all, the girls had a good time and we stopped and bought vanilla ice cream last night so that we can enjoy our fresh berries.

Last night we put up the tent for Round #2 of practice camping. It was HOT last night! I'm thinking that we should get some of those little silk sleep sacksthat can be used alone for hot weather and inside a traditional sleeping bag for an extra layer of warmth in really cold weather.

After pitching our tent and having dinner, there was a community bonfire at South Beach to kick off the beginning of Summer. There were so many children running around that my girls were pretty overwhelmed! They found sticks and roasted marshmallows for s'mores but pretty much stuck by my side. We met a few people who knew me and came over and said hi. But I know my girls will soon get comfortable and start making little friends. Summertime friends are the best of all. There's so little do do and so much time to play. We went to the little cabin and the children got measuring tapes and pens and paper and helped me make drawings of each room so we can figure out where all the furniture will go. I think it will be quite pleasant once we are moved in.

This morning I made oatmeal on my new handy-dandy camping stove (my first time trying it out) and we had oatmeal and peaches and sat out on the picnic table and pretended to be camping. The children had so much fun exploring the yard as if they had never seen it before. "Mom, I found a pear tree!" The highlight of it all was when we saw a box turtle walking through our yard and the children went over and gave him (her?) a good long look. There are wild raspberries growing in our yard as well, which is probably what attracted the turtle. We let him pass by in peace. Then at the end of breakfast my girls discovered that one of the rules of camping is that you give any leftover food to the dog, since you can't store it. They thought that was the funniest thing ever (and Toby was pretty pleased with the arrangement as well....) It was a very nice morning.