Allie's Birthday Camp-out

When I asked Allie if she'd rather have a big party with her school friends or do something with our family, she picked a family camping trip. That made me happy. We had planned on going the weekend after her birthday, but Easter weekend was scheduled to be so pretty. We couldn't pass up the opportunity. We packed everything Saturday morning and arrived at Cape Henlopen in Delaware right at check-in time. The campground was pretty empty and it was almost perfect. I say almost because the bathhouse we made reservations next to was closed for renovations so we had to use the one a little bit further away.

We only had 1 mishap while we were gone. I was eating marshmellows off the roasting fork the first night we were there. Allie decided to copy me, not realized I wasn't sticking the whole fork in my mouth. It still makes me cringe...I heard the sizzle as the hot fork touched her lips. She had two white blisters on her bottom lip where she burned herself. A little ice and a few days have made all the difference and it's almost healed up.

It took us an hour or so to set up camp and then we spent the rest of the time playing. Over the 3 days, we rode 5 miles on our bikes. The kids were real troopers, especially Caden. Cape Henlopen has great bike trails....a few hills, but for the most part, easy paved paths for younger children to ride on. Any time we were at the campsite, the kids were on their bikes riding around on the rode. They never get to do that at home so it was really nice to have the freedom.

You should see Caden's training wheels. They are worn down to the rims.

We also played on the beach one afternoon. It was cool, 70s maybe, with a nice breeze. We weren't prepared with sunscreen and we all got a little pink. We played frisbee and collected shells. Caden is getting very good at throwing and catching the frisbee. The kids dug in the sand and Allie took some time out for a nap. She's so funny. She worked on her towel until it was perfect and them settled down to sun bathe.

On our bike rides, we discovered Ft. Miles, which is a World War II era base. The building themselves were open, but not too interesting. The interesting part were the big artillery guns. Caden could have happily stayed there "shooting" at things all day long. We also climbed one of the many observation towers...all 115 steps. The view was beautiful. We saw several places were people had used pine cones and pine straw to draw pictures and spell out words so we joined in and spelled JACKD (which is how I sometimes sign our names quickly - the first letter of our first names).

As if all that wasn't enough, we also flew our kites in a big parade field, checked out the nature center and took a walk on the fishing pier. I wish we could have gotten to the 2 light houses across the bay.

(Blogger is driving me crazy. It won't let me center these pictures to match the rest...sorry!)

We packed up and came home Monday afternoon. We found a creamery on the way and stopped for home-made ice. It was the perfect weekend. Thank you, Allie for turning 7 and picking to spend the weekend with us!