So we decided it was time for a family trip last week, but being the frugal mama that I am, we kept it pretty modest. And by that, I mean we went camping. We don’t own a camper or RV, we own a tent and sleeping bags. And my husband is pretty adept at starting fires, so off we went into the wilderness otherwise known as grandma’s backyard.

Let me fill you in on grandma’s backyard; it offers a more authentic camping experience than you might suspect. There’s a pond, there’s a beach, there’s acres of grass and trees. There’s nature to explore and insects to defend against. Once the sun goes down and the lightning bugs come out, you’d be hard pressed to dispute the legitimacy of our camping claim. And I learned something camping with three small children…we live in a world of plenty. Also, children still love listening to tales around a campfire. They will forsake electronic devices for the promise of hot dogs, s’mores, and ghost stories.

I can’t speak to the trials my husband and I might face in the future, as our sweet little angels grow into adolescence. I know that I won’t always be able to satisfy little man with a popsicle. But I’d already convinced myself that we needed to go SOMEWHERE and do SOMETHING to have fun and enjoy our family trip. Discovering my two girls giggling and hunting fairies started to shed some light on the subject for me. Watching my husband point out constellations to our children left me rethinking my idea of “fun”. But it was packing up our tent and heading home that made it really hit home; our children loved our “trip”. It was an adventure, and being together changed grandma’s backyard into a magical world of fairies and shooting stars. We had a great time and it didn’t cost any more than we would have spent staying home.

So what are your plans for this summer? I look forward to eventually making trips to amusement parks or maybe even finding a palm tree or two to read under, but for now, our young ones keep us pretty close to home. And sometimes it’s amazing what you can find in your own (or grandma’s) backyard. I’m Claire, the Afena blog mom. Thanks for reading.