Getting ready for Acadia

Today we spent the day getting ready for our camping trip to Acadia National Park. Yes, it takes a full day to get ready for pretty much any trip. There was laundry to do, meals to plan, groceries to buy, camping supplies to gather from all corners of the house, flashlight, headlight and lantern batteries to replace, suitcases to pack, library books and audio books to check out  from the library for the long drive, food to prepare, fights to break up and tears to wipe. Pete's outside setting up our new bike carrier for the car and Will's out there with him (wearing no pants and no shoes, of course), insistent to watch and "help" dad. Everyone else is in bed and excited for tomorrow. We'll try to leave around 7 in hopes to get there around noon. The kids were quite helpful tonight. John made the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for breakfast tomorrow that we'll take in the car and watched his younger brothers while I ran to the store, Daniel helped with the laundry, took the clothes off the line (our dryer was broken) and folded most of the socks, Joe collected the water bottles and filled them with water, Will... stayed out of trouble, and Sam... also stayed out of trouble. And everyone helped pack their own suitcase. Or was at least present while I packed it for them. John wanted to pick out everything and put it in his suitcase himself. He carefully rolled up each article of clothing and placed it in, careful to use the space well so he could fit everything in, then ran downstairs to get a football and his Harry Potter book when he saw there was some extra space. Dan lost interest after about 3 minutes. But he was really helpful and excited for those 3 minutes. Joe watched as I packed his stuff for the first couple minutes, Will was completely oblivious to what I was doing and Sam was thankfully entertained by all that was going on around him. Pete got home just as we were finishing up and the boys took off outside to do another "level" of biking. Daniel has challenged Joe (who just learned how to ride a 2-wheeler) and John to do laps down the street, around the circle and back up to earn something from his collection of toys and gadgets (and garbage) in the drawer under his bed. Level 1 was 10 laps, level 2 was 11 laps, etc. I believe both John and Joe completed level 5 tonight. I love it. It sure makes them work up a sweat. The perfect activity right before bed to get the last bit of energy out. Will made his way out eventually too, pantless and shoeless. His pants had slipped off on the trampoline and his shoes were upstairs in his room, I guess both of us were too lazy to go get them. He hopped on the yellow scooter and took off down the street. I looked down as he was coming back up and he seemed to be riding with some extra effort and speed, glancing behind him frequently with a look of fear on his face. When he got to me he said, "Mom! There was a cat!" Oh? After a few quick breaths, "Was that cat a lion?" No. It's not a lion. It's just a cat, it won't hurt you. "The cat's not going to eat me?" No, the cat's not going to eat you. "Oh." My dear Will. He kind of has a fear of animals and bugs right now. He's been having nightmares every night about bugs that are following him. He was really frightened before getting in bed last night. He looked at his bed and said, "There are bugs!" I checked his bed and rubbed my hands over it and said, "Nope! No bugs." He still refused to get in his bed but felt ok getting in mine. And then peed in it (grrr... on TOP of our nice quilt, of course).

Alright, I'm off to finish up with the packing! It will be nice to get away for a few days and just be with the ones I love most, hiking, biking, roasting marshmallows and hopefully finding some fireworks to watch.