Family Night Camp IN!

Tuesday night we had "the best family night EVER" according to our girls! They just kept saying that over and over all night. The best thing about this family night is that it was super easy and FREE! Jay and I decided to surprise the girls with a camp IN! The girls stayed in their playroom for a while watching a movie while Jay and I transformed the den into a campground.

We took a king sized black sheet and strung it across the room to make the tent, we brought our ipod speaker thing and put on the sounds of a thunderstorm in the room, we made hot dogs and popped popcorn for a real outdoors feel. We gathered around a candle that was our version of a campfire and then we got out the glow sticks! It was a really yummy meal and we huddled in really close...to get our the thunderstorm, of course! It truly was one of the best family nights we have ever had. We never turned on the TV, we made our own entertainment!

We sang some of our favorite choruses like Lord I Lift Your Name on High...and then I thought I would bring back a youth group campfire favorite of my day...I love you Lord. Well, it seems they don't sing that one any more and the girls just looked at me with blank stares while Jay just laughed! Well, I tried! We are going to take the girls camping again this year, but I must admit that this one was much less prep, clean up, and there were no bugs...and perhaps most important of all...we slept in our own beds!

We each put on a "laser" show with our glow sticks. Here is Virginia's butterfly. Isn't that the coolest?

Jay's was really bright! We also used the glow sticks to "draw" an object and we all had to guess what it was. It was harder than I thought. But, really fun...like glow stick charades, Anli said. Well, on the last round it came to my turn. I had been planning this one the whole time. I was going to twist my glow stick into a pretzel. So, I began to try and everyone was watching. Jay and the girls guessed it right off...but I wanted to make it look really good. So, I kept twisting, and twisting, and twisting and then POP!

That thing exploded shooting glow stuff (I don't know the technical term for that stuff) all over me, the girls, Jay, the floor...and INTO my mouth!!! I mean to tell you it was gross...non toxic...but gross. Well, it was crazy looking with the lights off splattered everywhere, but when you turned on the lights it was all gone. It faded away finally, I washed out my mouth, and made a mental note never to twist glow sticks. We all had a really good laugh over that one!

Then, we made our famous (only in our family) Smears. I wrote a whole post on these things once...but if you don't know what they are you are missing out! We take chocolate and melt it in the microwave, add a smearing of marshmallow creme, and the SMEAR that all over a huge graham cracker! It is SOOO much better than smores (except for eating the roasted marshmallows). My family just loves them and they are easy to do at home.

This time I was able to find organic DARK chocolate to put on them. It was the same price as Hershey's milk chocolate bar! So, we added dark chocolate because everyone in my family prefers dark over milk chocolate ANY day! It was sooo yummy and the perfect end to the best family night ever!

Look at all that yummy goodness! I miss them already. We told the girls we would do another camp in on a Friday night so that they could sleep under the tent. They were thrilled. This weekend they are headed to the circus with my parents and their cousins! They can't wait!! I will miss them because I am headed to the Georgia Baptist Ministers' Wives retreat this weekend. It will be a blast and I will have the chance to cast the vision for missions.