Camp Crazy

So I just returned from a week in the North Georgia mountains.  In a cabin.  A mile up a mountain.  With four little ones ages 3, 4, 5, and 6.  The older three (my two and their cousin) went to a week long day camp at Lake Burton.  Sort of a looksey camp to check things out before they are old enough to be pushed out of the car door at 5 mph as we deposit them for a child free week  to experience the joy of overnight camp life starting next summer.

They're really cute.  See?



This picture was taken outside of the cabin the first morning of camp.  My brother (which would be my nephew's father...just making sure you're still with me) and I drove them to the camp this first morning.  All the kids could talk about on the 1/2 hour drive was how much fun they were going to have and that they couldn't wait to do archery and riflery, neither activity of which I would want to be the counselor in charge of 5 and 6 year olds.  With guns.  And pointy sharp sticks.  But thankfully that wasn't my problem that week.  In fact, I anticipated that my only problem with these three darlings would be getting them fed fast enough before their heads collapsed into their mashed potatoes.

My brother and I spent the 1/2 hour return trip talking about what we were going to do with all our free time that night after the kids fell asleep.  All we could talk about was how "dead" they would be....we used a lot of words like "exhausted"...."passed out".....and "comatose."  We figured we'd be scooping them up from the dinner table, pulling off shoes and depositing them into beds at around 7pm.  Which should leave us adults plenty of time to enjoy a nice dinner, drink some wine, listen to some music, maybe watch a movie....visit...play cards....whatever.

And I planned to run Stuart to death all day so he'd be just as tired and join the rest of them for the long sleep.

It was a beautiful plan.

Then we picked them up.

And they came walking out with Coca Cola's and M&M's.

What??????

I don't think my kids have ever tasted Coca Cola.  But they proclaimed a deep love and undying affection for the stuff the moment they got in the car and William told me he didn't know how he'd ever lived without it.

After the M&M's and before we even made it back to the cabin, they were sharing Airheads, lollipops and circus peanuts.  All compliments of Camp.

We spent the next four hours trying to peel them off of the ceilings and walls.

By the time we finally rounded them up, fed them a decent dinner, put them in the bathtub and threatened to beat them asked them nicely to please go to sleep, it was nearly time to get up and do it all again the next morning.  And that was just the first day.

There were four more just like it.

By Friday morning I simply bypassed the cup and injected the coffee directly into my arm.  Kidding!  And did the same thing at night with the wine.  Kidding again!  (maybe).

I have more pictures to post, but I'm still curled up in the fetal position in the corner of my bedroom after the six hour road trip through rural Georgia Friday afternoon with the kids, all by myself.

If you haven't heard from me in a couple of days, go ahead and call the men in white coats.

It's really inevitable, y'all.