Tents, Toys & Boys

The boys pulled out their tent one day last week. For some reason, whenever they pull out their tent, they also add every toy known to mankind.

Where does the instruction manual say, "Now that your tent is successfully standing, add every toy from your closet"?

They played happily with their tents and the entourage of toys for two days. For that time period, I told myself, "The mess is in their gameroom. Let it go. That's their space."

I patted myself on the back when Rick was the first parent to say, "This mess has got to go."

What Daddy didn't know is that Liam had already asked me if they could sleep in their tent that night. I agreed, because it sounded like fun.

In fact, if I weren't so keen on my own bed, I might have agreed to sleep with them. Except I really like my bed. And my personal space. And my comfort.

The other reason I agreed to their sleeping in the tent is because I knew that the boys couldn't possibly sleep with their 1,001 toys all around them. [insert evil laugh]

Once bedtime rolled around and toys were put in their appropriate homes, the gameroom was lookin' good. Almost as if there were no kids in the house.

But there are definitely boys living here. Thank goodness!
The two good buddies together, Liam and Garrett.
Once it was time to actually settle down, Jack didn't want to sleep with Liam and Garrett.

I don't blame him. It might be too much male bonding. So we pulled out another tent just his size. And all was well.
I was afraid the boys would play around, but they fell asleep instantly. Apparently, a bedtime 2 hours past the normal time induces instant snoring. Who knew?!

The next morning, the boys talked excitedly about their tent-sleeping experience and asked if they could sleep outside that night. I reminded them that it's August in Texas, and no one in their right mind sleeps in a tent under such hellacious heat. But we promised to try it in the fall.

Then, they asked if we would sleep with them. Yea, right! Boys, you have high-maintenance camping parents. We'll wait for Didi and Big Daddy's camper that has modern conveniences, such as running water, A/C, and TVs.