Tents!

To get out of the sun one day, we headed to the Great Mall in Olathe. They have a soft indoor playground with a camping theme! There's a tent to crawl through, a camp fire, raft, and more. Before the rain got here, we set up our full size tent in the backyard the next day. The three of us have spent plenty of time inside snacking on more s'mores, pretending to be hamsters in a cage, and of course reading books. Here are a few good camping books we've enjoyed:

Let's Go Camping With Mr. Sillypants by M.K. Brown
Let's Go Camping by Jan Mader
Molly and Emmett's Camping Adventure by Marylin Hafner

During on one of our outings, Molly snagged a smooth rock which she painted as a gift for her grandma. One idea that I had found and liked was to paint lots of rocks, then stack them as a "natural" decoration in your garden so we'll be on the look

Last night we made s'mores pie, which was really gooey and delicious! I got the recipe idea from this blog:

http://asouthernfairytale.com/2010/08/30/smores-pie/

and tweaked it a bit. We used a store-bought graham cracker crust which I baked for five minutes first. Then we only needed one package of pudding to fill the crust, and we didn't use whipped topping, which was just fine. Molly placed large and small marshmallows on top in a design all her own. I loved having a snack that Ben could enjoy, too.


On Thursday night we made it to a great outdoor concert at Park Place (115th & Nall, across from Town Center) with Dino O'Dell and Mr. Stinky Feet. The kids really enjoyed it and I got some cute video of Molly and Ben dancing, along with my nephew who joined us. Park Place was a great location for an outdoor concert: we were in soft grass, in the shade, and a nice breeze! They have a family-friendly concert there every Thursday night all summer starting at 6pm so I expect we'll be there once or twice. The next children's concert is in July, so I'll keep you posted!

(Ben playing at the Great Mall)

(The kids goofing around in the tent)