Three long days and a birthday

Dennis and Max came home from their school trip today. Dennis came home tired. Max came home with his volume turned on high.

It was interesting hearing their perspective on the trip. Max talked about how he got to shoot with a bow and arrow, make a camp fire, watch a rattle snake eat a dead mouse, sit around a bonfire eating S'mores, play games, go hiking, eat pizza and watch the adults put on skits for the kids in place of TV.

Dennis talked about how there was a lot "sitting around", how he was up until 5 in the morning on the first night because the kids wouldn't settle down, and how much I would have hated being a chaperone.

I believe him completely.

I like the outdoors and would have been just fine with that, but being kept up until 5 in the morning would not sit well with me. Then on top of that, having to be up and about and outside in the cold all day. Yep, I would have been a very grouchy chaperone.

They both had fun, overall. I'm not sure if Dennis will do it again though, we'll see. He's pretty exhausted. We still have 4 other kids to get through the 5th grade.

While they had their 3 days of fun, the kids at home wanted some fun too, so I tried my best to make some fun for them. For Lucy, Luke and Anna, I let them have 2 movie nights even though it was a school night. I let Luke sleep in Lucy and Anna's room because he was too scared to sleep downstairs by himself, so I put my laptop in their room, popped some popcorn and they watched "Lego Movie" the first night and "Frozen" the second night.

 

 

Henry watched "Paintbrush" which is actually called "Colored Inspirations." It has a talking paintbrush in the show, hence, Henry's new name. He loves that show.

I also drove to my mom's to get Dennis's birthday present, which is my Dad's old dresser. Did you know that Dennis was using a microwave cart for a dresser??

 I mentioned this to my mom and she offered my Dad's old dresser that has been sitting in the garage for years. So we brought a little bit of Dad back home with us.

 

Fire Extinguisher not included

 

My brother Andy followed us home and helped me get the dresser into the house. Easier said than done, and I wasn't much help at all. I warned Andy that I am not strong and he found out after he told me to "hold this" (which was the dresser) and he picked up the other end and the whole thing practically slipped out of my hands. That was when we decided to push the dresser down the hill. Yep, that was slow going.

We finally did get it in the house though, and Dennis says he's very happy with his "new" present. I am not satisfied; I had hoped to give him more, something more personal to buy for him and unfortunately, our debit card fiasco which has been going on for two weeks now seems to be continuing. (It's a long story.) I won't bore you with the details, it would require another post of its own. But basically, I have no money to spend, other than what I set aside to treat Dennis to a movie on Monday. He said it's fine and he's happy with what he got but I was blinking back tears of disappointment as I ate the homemade cake (which was terrible.) But if Dennis is going to have a good attitude about his birthday, then I guess I should too. Money is hard, isn't it? It's gets so tiring to constantly "do without."

Three days is a long time.

I'm glad they are home.