Monday- Bugs!

One of my favorite things at camp were all the years (mostly before kids) when the program staff and I would stay up late preparing for activities the next day. Some of the best songs have been written and crazy programs have been created at 11pm when you’re exhausted, but also kinda goofy, and brainstorming is totally out there. Last night, at 10:30, when I was creating a web, I had a familiar feeling of late night prepping. 

We started the morning with a treasure hunt. I found this one on pinterest but had to re-write several clues to work for our yard. But, as always, the boys enjoyed it. I’d found some bug tents in the Target dollar spot a few weeks ago, and they were excited to find them at the end of the hunt.

We did some bug hunting, but every bug we found, Xander screamed and ran. We caught a beetle and Augustus was fascinated. He was so cute and kept calling it “my friend”. Xander was VERY concerned about separating it from its’ bug family and he fretted over it basically the whole day. He kept saying, “it seems really mad” or “do you think his bug parents miss him?” Eventually we let the bug go and he finally relaxed.

After bug hunting, the boys rode bikes for a while and then they wanted to play in the back of my van (one of their favorite hang outs). I said no. Xander yelled, “you’re the worst-est mom in the world” and marched into the house yelling, “come on Augustus!” I was sitting in a comfortable outdoor chair, the breeze blowing, sun shining, a cup of coffee in my hand. I sat out there by myself for about 8 minutes (a long time for 2 kids to be alone) and then I tip toed inside to see what they were up to. Xander was patiently explaining Chutes and Ladders to Augustus and they were playing together. Xander said to me, “we came inside because you were being rude!” I explained that sometimes mom’s say “no” and just because you disagree, doesn’t make it rude.

They finished the game and weren’t mad at me anymore, so we did our fine motor activity I’d prepared the night before. The boys used tweezers and also chopsticks to get the bugs out of the “web”. They did a good job and liked it.

When they finished that, Augustus said, “let’s do another activity” which is so cute. The boys worked on bug matching while I got some art supplies for them to make pom pom caterpillars.

We had lunch and rest time and then a lady bug snack/treat. I only had milk chocolate chips, and so the dark parts weren’t quite as dark as the pinterest ones I was trying to make, so this was only a partial success (although they tasted great).

It was only 1:30 at that point and so we ended up taking a spontaneous field trip to Hidden Falls Regional Park. I’ve never been there before, but it’s been on my list of places to go for a long time.

When I put it in my phone, the map said, “Hidden Falls Regional Park” and Xander said, “we’re going to a park!” which made me super sad because we haven’t been a playground in forever.

We talked about giving any people we saw lots of space, and there weren’t too many people there, but a few, and many of them were kids. Augustus will talk to ANYONE he sees, so I was sad about that too, because there was a little boy, about his age who he said hi, and would have definitely played with if I hadn’t awkwardly distracted him away. I hope this whole thing doesn’t make them weirdly anti-social.

The good news is, despite those 2 things making me sad, Hidden Falls totally made up for it. When we got there, Xander said, “this would be a great place for a picnic!” and he was right! We threw rocks into the water (a multiple time a day activity during the summer at camp), climbed cool trees, ran around the big fields full of cool trees. It was a magical place and Xander wants to go back tomorrow, so we will definitely be back soon (not sure if we’ll go tomorrow, but soon!).

This is a picture of Xander problem solving how to get all of the rocks he wanted back to the car with him. The pile was so big and so he was jamming rocks in his pockets and Augustus’s pockets.

We got home and had more time to ride bikes and play in the yard before dinner.

Dinner, bath, and an online bedtime story from Grandma Renee. A VERY full day.

I get to the end of each day feeling good and happy with all of the fun things we’ve done, but also DRAINED. As an introvert, it is A LOT to be with people (even my boys) all day long. I am enjoying this time with the kids and trying to soak it in, but I also really miss them going to school and me going to my office. Today was fun and hopefully our bug week will be a blast!