Friday Night (Actual birthday):

Grant turned 8 years old on May 20th. He was very excited to open presents.  So much so that he had convinced Mama to let him open one before I even got home from work.  When I came in the door, he immediately asked if he could open the rest of the gifts.

We enjoyed a birthday meal of Spaghetti and meatballs and then we sang “Happy Birthday” and had cake!

For Grant’s birthday, he asked to camp out in the back yard in our tent.  To make sure that the tent was still in good shape, we set it up in the porch last week.  It made a great playhouse for a week, but we planned to move it outside on Friday night for Grant and I to sleep in.

Unfortunately, there was a relatively good chance of rain on Friday night so plans had to be changed.  As a compromise, we offered to let Grant sleep in the tent on his own on Friday night while it was still on the porch and then Grant and I would sleep in it outside on Saturday night when the chance of rain was less. Grant told me “usually your compromises aren’t very good, Dada, but this one is outstanding!”.  Since the rain hadn’t started yet after dinner, we had time  to make a fire in the fire pit and roast some marshmallows.

At bedtime, Grant asked if we could leave a window open so he could hear the nature noises.  Then it started to rain and he decided he wanted the window closed because it was too loud.  We put him to bed and about 10 minutes later he came walking out of the porch dragging his sheet and holding his stuffed animals.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, “I can’t do it.  It is too loud and creepy.”  So he went to sleep in his own bed.  At this point, I began to doubt if Grant and I would make it all night in the tent outside the next night.

Saturday:

On Saturday morning, Grant went to his gymnastics class and then our friends Tom, Linda, and Taylor came over to eat lunch with us and then play for the afternoon.  Grant was very excited that there were more presents to open.  Grant had a great time playing with Taylor and his new hula hoop, flying disk, and bouncing disks.

After dinner, Grant and I set up the tent and then got another fire going for marshmallows.

Finally, as it approached bedtime, we got the tent completely set up for sleeping in.  We both got ready for bed and Mama came and said goodnight to us. Lucy went inside with Mama for the night because we thought she would be too much of a disturbance to our sleep.  By about 9:30pm it was lights out and we were both asleep almost immediately.

At one point in the night, I woke up a little cold and covered up with a blanket that I had.  I looked over and saw that Grant was still covered up with his blanket and didn’t look cold.  It was then that I thought, “wow, we really might make it all night out here!”.  And we did!

Sunday:

Sunday morning, after making our way into the house from our night outside sleeping, we were surprised to find that Carol was making Apple Fritters for breakfast.  These were a favorite of hers as a kid and something that her Dad used to make.  And they were delicious (thanks Papa!).

It was a great birthday weekend.  Grant enjoyed all of the activities and has already requested that we camp in the back yard again for his 9th birthday.