Camping in Surrey - woo-hoo!

This weekend, we could have done some wonderful things that didn't require sleeping in a tent. (Staying home or going out to dinner with friends springs to mind...) But, no, we decided to drive to (what other people would call the suburbs) Surrey, pitch our tents and experience the English countryside full-on. Why Surrey? Well, the Ukrainians have a large plot of land upon which resides an old-age home, and they have allowed us to use the neighbouring fields to pitch our tents for many years now.

This photo is deceiving, because when we arrived, it started to drizzle. Stefa & Larysa were desperately trying to get their tent up, but it took 3 tries before they were able to get in out of the rain. Didn't matter much, since they had pitched it in a low lying part of the field and it turned into a veritable mud bath shortly thereafter.

Now usually in our house, I end up cuddling next to Orest in bed because he's like blast furnace while I'm numb in my extremities, but the first night was so cold that Orest actually abandoned his own air-mattress to take advantage of my body heat. Talk about roughing it!

Next morning was gloriously sunny and the kids went from one outdoor activity to the next without stopping. Can't tell you everything they did, because I was in the kitchen for the bulk of the morning, helping to make hundreds of pyrohy (potato-filled dumplings). It was a veritable assembly line, impressive, until the people came in for lunch and demolished our hard work in a blink of an eye. (That's why I don't like cleaning toilets either - all that hard work, then someone comes along and pisses on it!)

That night we had a campfire with the requisite skits and songs. I suggested that the girls do a skit, where they ask volunteers to pretend they are trees and describe how important they are. These poor unfortunates had water splashed on them (symbolizing the protection they give us from the rain) , hay thrown at them (birds use it to make nests in them) and dogs pretending to wee on them. But it was good for a laugh anyway. The girls are honing that one for summer camp as we speak.

The next morning, after we finished packing up, the girls got dressed in their scouting uniforms and were presented with badges and certificates having completed the 3rd stage of scouting requirements. We then sang a few songs for the old folks, had a dads against the kids football game (check out the photo below - those are the goalkeepers. Good job Dads! Especially like the unbrella in the middle of the goal.) and went home. I'm still cleaning out hay out of everyone's clothes!