Celebrating 3 with 11 kids!

We celebrated Matthew's third birthday by camping at Cross Creek Campground this weekend. We camped with three other families and had an amazing time. There were a total of 11 kids with us and I tried to get some pictures with all of them facing the camera. Good luck to that endeavor. The following were the best I could do. The ages were from 8 to 3 (Matthew was the youngest). 

11 kids: Maddie, Emmerich, Nicholas, Ainsley, Lucas, Jenna, Haven, Sarah, Reagan, Nate, and Matthew

Nice photobomb Duane

 We camped from Thursday - Sunday. One of Jenna's friends from school, Grace camped with us Thursday to Friday afternoon. I had 4 kids on Friday to keep track of since Erik went home to work. It ended up working out really well since Erik was able to do his job in peace and we had fun at the campground.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We celebrated Matthew's birthday with red, white, and blue cupcakes and cooked brats on the fire. I also ate several smores with reeses cups. These really are a vast improvement over traditional smores.

The girls both loved the gem mine at the campground too. They mined for fossils and gems and found some sharks teeth, petrified wood, and fools gold. We swam in the pool, played with water balloons, and then mother nature thought we needed more water so we were drenched in rain on Saturday night. Even so, it was still a great camping trip and I hope to go on more camping trips with our friends.

In other news:

1. Erik's parents will move here in just one week! It hardly seems real that they will be so close. Yipee!
2. It is finals week for me and tonight (Monday) I gave a final. Partway through the final exam the power went out. Since the final is all computer based this was a bummer (for the students, not for me). 
3. I read the Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn in a few days (since there is a waiting list at the library). This book draws a parallel between ancient Israel and America based on Isaiah 9:10. I thought it was intriguing and it could be a good book club book.
4. Our book club is still reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. We are about halfway through. His writing really is poetic, weird but poetic.
5. I'm also in the middle of both the Unincorporated Man and The Gripping Hand. So my summer reading is all set. I'm pokey but I'll finish them all.
6. Next week I have a one week break from teaching. During the week, I'm hoping to help Erik's parents settle into their house, prep my lectures for a new class I'm teaching, work on the database as part of my new subcontractor job, and beg Erik to make me a decadent cake for my birthday.
7. 85 points in Quiddler today