Camp In

The middle of last week the boys built a tent in Mark's room. This tent consisted of Mark's comforter spread across the gap between Mark & Ben's beds. They desperately wanted to sleep in that tent, but the math in my head went something like 4 boys plus kid made tent equals total chaos and not much sleeping. Some days I am up for this kind of night, others, not so much. I promised that maybe another night,I'd set up a real tent in the playroom and they could camp out in there.

Finally, last night I set up the tent. I somehow remembered our *small* tent being much smaller. However, after putting it together totally wrong the first time and being rescued by Kevin (and he might have laughed at me a little) we were all set to go.

The kids were so excited to get there jammies on and head up to bed. (Hello, when does that happen?) I even let them talk and giggle and ignored a fair bit of running around in the spirit of the "camp out."

Things went south 45 minutes after bed time. Mark came downstairs and said he was scared and I might have grumbled. Okay, I did grumble "What on earth would you be scared of?"He muttered something about shadows. He went back up after some conversation about night lights and blankets and this, that and the other thing. Shortly later we heard a crash and a scream. I assumed the worse and Kevin and I bolted downstairs. In the hall was a teary Mark and in the tent was a confused Zack. No sign of any injuries but upon seeing us, Mark flipped out. We asked what happened and the 6 year old version is that he was trying to get his night light out of the playroom and startled Zack. But, I'll tell you the screams were those that sounded like someone was severely injured. Thankfully, no one was.

Then I asked where everyone was. I learned that Eric went to his bed because he was hot, and Ben had gone to his bed when Mark moved back to his room. Zack was the only one left in the tent and even he opted for his bed after the commotion.

And then they all went to sleep. I think it will be a while before we try this again.