Good dirty fun

(Or how we turned Camp Mom upside down)

This week was filled with great intentions. A week without daycare meant a much-deserved and even more-delayed week off with my children. Considering the last time I took more than few days off work was maternity leave with my 3 1/2 year old, even a week at home felt like a treat.

I had great intentions. Accumulated a stack of activity ideas, with themes even (not type A or anything), planned for play dates and managed to draft a menu for the week.

Only that sometimes life doesn't go as planned. A crazy campout, two sick family members, delayed playdates and obscenely hot (90-degree) weather for this time of year meant that the best plans were put to rest. As in, sometimes, you just rest.

And other days you make up for it.

We've dug in our garden. Weeded, dug up my Thai beans that were sprouting (thanks...), hunted down bugs and worms for our bug boxes.

We've maxed out our library card and have cranked out summer reading program points reading about insects, volcanoes (go figure), dinosaurs and fiction.

We've made pathetic attempts at recreating another blogger's ladybug cookies (note to self, next time just use your grandmother's sugar cookie recipe rather than an unknown as the cookie base), made yogurt parfaits using leftovers from the camping trip, sneaked marshmallows and stayed up too late.

We've played at the state park, spending hours at the playground, picking daisies (despite mommy's admonitions), watched the horses and coated ourselves in dirt in the process.

Sometime, our summer fun might include a trip or 10 to our pool, a visit to the zoo, a weekend to grandma's or other traditional fun. But for now, we'll settle for our uneventful, but good, dirty fun.