They're home!

This morning, I baked lemon poppyseed scones and blueberry oatmeal muffins to welcome the kids home, made them each a sign and placed it on the door, and couldn't get motivated to do much else. It was time to get them home!
When I got there, no busses were there yet, Caleb had fallen asleep, so I drove around for a few minutes until I saw other cars heading to the opposite side of the church. I kept watching for the kids to come out and scanned the crowd, unsure of how Catherine was doing. Sure enough, she was crying because she didn't see me. Where was Samuel? Off with some of his new friends and having a time. The whole way home, it was "Oh mom..." "Guess what mom..." "One of my friends...." This was one of my favorites. "When we get home can I take a shower? I didn't take one the whole time because the showers weren't closed very well and you could see in." "Wasn't it all boys in there?" "Yes, but you could still see." "That's the wonder of it being only boys. You all look pretty much alike and it's ok if you see something."
They had a blast and didn't stop talking for about 1.5 hours. There are still other stories to come, but it sounds like they had a blast. Swimming, canoeing, b-b guns, archery, zip line, very late nights, fun new friends. Just what you need to make lasting memories. As we were leaving (with someone else's sleeping bag) Catherine asked if we could do this next year.
Is my house as clean? Definitely not. Is my house as quiet? Not even close. Is there more hugging and joy? Most definitely. Glad they're home.