Spelling Test Reward`

When I think of rewarding myself, I think of pampering. Like..... not cooking, getting my nails done, spending money....and stuff like that. Not my daughter though.

Brooklyn has gotten 100% on almost every spelling test she has taken this year. She does her homework without complaining. She loves to please her teacher and she always does her best. She has had perfect marks so far this year. (Knock on wood).

I told her that I was going to reward her by doing some kind of activity with her. I wasn't really going to let her pick. I thought that I would take her to get a manicure and to dinner or something. I thought she would really like to do something "grown-up". She asked me what the activity would be. I told her what it probably would be. She said, "Or.. we could go and have a camp fire and roast hotdogs and Smores." I was quite shocked, but I told her we could do that.

Over the next few days, she would come up with something else we could do. I thought that when it came down to it, she would pick something that she hadn't done before like get a manicure or go to the ballet. We made a list. Campfire was #1, but we came up with 6 more things on the list. She stuck with her original activity.

Last night we drove up Settlement Canyon, just the two of us, and had a fire. It was so much fun. I loved it. We live SO close to the mountains. I wish we took advantage of it more.

Here we are roasting hot dogs. Brooklyn ate TWO!


After we roasted hotdogs, we walked down a little trail where Brooklyn threw rocks over the cliff into the river.

And then... of course... we made yummy Smores. I ate TWO!

We sat by the fire and I even let Brooklyn poke sticks into it. (If you have ever been camping with me... you will know that I do not let ANY kids poke sticks into the fire while I'm there. I can just imagine a red hot stick poking someone in the eye. It's a lot easier to control just one fire bug.)

It was fun being with my beautiful, cute, SILLY SILLY SILLY, almost 7 year old daughter. She is growing up. I asked her some questions and thought that we would have some big heart to heart talk. But really, it was just a lot of small talk. She is such a happy girl. I love her so much. I'm thankful that I have her for a daughter.

Oh.. and I started that fire with ONE MATCH. My husband doubted me. He suggested I take lighter fluid. (ha... ha) I made sure to tell Brooklyn, to tell her Dad, that I lit that fire with just one match.

In Rob's defense... I had to borrow that match from the gate worker at the bottom of the canyon. I forgot mine. :)