Here's a couple of pictures from our cabining trip up to Cultus Lake  last weekend. These two girls are such posers. I wrote a detailed description of our little trip earlier today and then accidentally deleted it. I don't want to write about it again. We had a nice time and it didn't rain. The girls didn't want to leave, and Lilli even cried quite a bit when it was time to come home. Violet didn't sleep well in an unfamiliar setting, and we accumulated alot of dirty laundry in just three days. Thank heavens we had a bathtub and shower. I don't know how people camp in tents with small children.
 So that's that. I'll post more pictures on Facebook

 Let me tell you about this picture. Before I had Violet we moved into this place with four small bedrooms. My kids all had the option of having their own rooms. It worked well for Leif as he was quite young and went to bed earlier then the girls. Miete and Lilli didn't like sleeping in separate rooms, and were excited that they were finally big enough that we could put their two beds together to make a bunk bed. So initially they slept in bunk beds in the smaller room and we kept all their toys in the extra room. I think after I found out I was pregnant I moved them into the slightly bigger room with the toys.  That worked well enough for a long time, but then all their late night gab sessions and fights started to get to me. I decided to switch Miete and Leif and made a big deal about her having her own special room. Lilli and I spent a day decorating and setting it up to surprise Miete after school. I don't think Miete slept alone in there for a week. Miete has had alot of nightmares since she was quite little, and has an overactive imagination. No matter how many lights were on in the hall or her room, she was still nervous. Lilli started sneaking in to sleep with Miete in her cool bed with the fairy tent. It was kind of a novel thing. Once Leif woke up and realised what was going on he wasn't happy with sleeping alone anymore. Around this time last spring I had decided to start homeschooling the kids. Finally I moved all three kids into one room and made the other room into a school room. It was very difficult finding a way to fit multiple dressers and an extra bed into an already small room. Luckily I am a very organised and clever woman. Every night though it became a fight about who was going to sleep in what bed. We tried having a weekly rotation so the girls could a least take turns on the top bunk. That was the coveted spot. Sometimes they would all sit in one bed to read before bed, and then argue about sleeping together. So then they took turns sleeping in twos. Miete and Lilli most frequently because Leif was/is still getting up throughout the night and coming into our bed. We thought if we could convince him to sleep with one of his sisters he would stop coming into our bed. Now I don't think he knows how to sleep alone, and he was my best sleeper as a baby.  The girls found ways of manipulating Leif into sleeping with each one of  them, promising him trains and trucks. Someone was always left crying and sleeping alone, but not really alone because they were all in the same stinking room. Well, it just wasn't good enough, and it seemed a waste to have that third bed in there going unused and taking up space. I took it apart and packed it partially in a closet and partially under my bed. The girls continued to fight over who got to sleep with Leif into the summer. July came and It got really hot so we put them all on the bottom bunk where it's cooler and they can have the fan blasting on them. So the girls would take turns sleeping on one side of the bottom bunk of a twin bed, while Leif and the other slept at the other side. Sure there is a lot of kicking and blanket pulling but they love to torment one and other. So are they satisfied now? No! Miete cries and has a fit when she has to "sleep alone"  as she calls it. It is not good enough that they are all in one small bed together, with their door wide open and the hall light on, and Coldplay Lullaby or primary songs playing. Miete is still to scared, and  has convinced the other two that they should all squish together at one end of the bottom of the bunk bed. And that is how we have been finding them when we go up to put ourselves to bed at night. Except two nights ago when Leif was asleep on the floor as if he had been pushed out. I don't have a picture of that.