Campout Turned Slumber Party

For two and half glorious hours, Chase and Ryan celebrated their eighth birthday running wild in the woods with their friends while the grown-ups set up camp, cooked dinner and (I) chased Caroline. Then the storms blew in. So the party moved to our basement, where Ryan's amazing mother kept the kids in line, told ghost stories and kept the campout going with a long hike in the woods this morning after loading the boys' pockets with poptarts, hard-boiled eggs and cold cooked bacon. A tornado warning and a wild thunderstorm couldn't put a damper on these boys.