Birthday Campout

The month of April just about does me in every year. We have two birthdays (Audrey's and Noah's) just 12 days apart, Spring Break (read 9 days of entertaining 4 kiddos from sunup to sundown), and Easter usually sprinkled somewhere in the mix. May 1st usually finds me tired, broke, usually both. One family tradition that has been born of necessity is that the kiddos only have a birthday party on even years and then pick a fun activity to do with the family on the odd years. This way, I never have to do 2 birthday parties in the same month (Taylor and Xander's birthdays are 3 weeks apart later in the year) and the kids have gotten to do some really fun things that wouldn't normally be in the budget with the money that I would have spent on their party. Two years ago, Audrey chose horseback riding camp and didn't miss a party at all. This year, she chose camping with the neighbors and it was another winner. Audrey was very clear that the who was just as important as the where so we were very grateful that our neighbors and friends were willing to join us for the weekend. We had quite an adventure...Shortly after setting up camp, a bad windstorm picked up so I piled all of the kids into the trailer for some Parcheezi while the other adults tried to salvage their tent. I was a bit freaked out-had to open all the flaps on the trailer to allow the wind to blow through because it felt like it was going to be blown over. The kids were oblivious and had the time of their lives-great to be a kid, huh?

The next morning, the weather was beautiful-perfect for some fishing! Nobody caught anything which was just as well. I'm not sure what we would have done with a fish if it was caught...
Our neighbors-They each deserve an 'I survived camping with the Boutons' t-shirt. Thanks for a great weekend, guys!