Happy 4th!

Busy 4th! Mulitple parades, lunch at Whitney and BJ's (yum!), fireworks, and lots of fun!

 

 Live entertainment since everyone is just back from camps we get lots of camp songs and skits.

Lots of silly play!

 Can you tell Bill has a migraine? He was a good sport about getting pictures taken but he really didn't feel well.

 Lindy painted flags on her nails!

 Evening Parade, all the girls wanted to be a part of the dance float.

Pandamania!

Another hit at VBS this year! Pandamania was a blast, over 350 kids which in itself makes things a blast. There is so much energy and enthusiasm all over the building. It is a true joy to be a part of!
This was Ethan's final year, he graduates to being a leader if he does not have Boy Scout camp the same week. He had such a great time doing service projects and tie dying shirts, many great memories!

Father's Day

A belated Father's Day post to the best husband and father ever! There is no one I would rather spend my days with than my sweet husband. He makes everything for our family possible with all of his hard work and dedication.
I am so grateful to be able to stay home and homeschool the kids and he makes sure that can happen. He spoils all of us so much with his time and energy. His sense of humor and big heart and his dedication to our family is so appreciated. I look at Kyle and Ethan and what wonderful young men they are becoming and know it is from his influence and love for them.
We are off later to have a family day at the park, Bill's favorite thing to do. Thank you for being the best daddy ever!

Farewell

Trying to get caught up on my pictures, feel like I'm always saying that, but some things I don't want to skip just to get caught up! On Father's Day we said good bye to Pastor Jim and his family. They have been moved to another church about 90 minutes away so we won't see them as often.
We will miss Sunday mornings with Jim's sermons and I have already missed VBS with Phyllis. It just wasn't the same without her there to work with in the Preschool. I know we are not the only family who feel this way, the farewell party had hundreds of people there to say good bye.
Bill and Jim have become great friends enjoying weekday lunches over Rubens and we have enjoyed our dinners with our families.
We will see them soon once they get settled. Until then best wishes on their new home. Their congregations are lucky to have them!

Awesome Leaders

I can't say enough good things about Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts when it comes to teaching kids to become leaders. The week at camp really proved the point.
Cynthia and Kyle are awesome teens in many ways. Cynthia was an advanced program leader which meant she was responsible for writing her own lesson plan and creating an activity to do with each of the camp units all week. Her nature training with Mrs. Slone paid off huge with her running an animal tracking station. Not only did the girls love the activity and being able to make their own animal track and take it home but they loved Cindy Loo Hoo. She made things fun, exciting, and she is full of enthusiasm. It was so fun to hang out with her at Head Quarters and help her get her project together. She is a really bright girl who is going to be very successful someday.
Back in May the other leaders asked me if Kyle might be willing to volunteer at camp since we had two leaders who were bringing siblings, both boys ages 6 and 9. I almost didn't ask him since I thought NO WAY will he be willing to spend a week at camp with all those girls running around. Well, he thought it over and knowing that he could earn some service hours was too enticing to pass up. (Of course I think he now has enough service hours to cover him until her makes Eagle!)
Two boys ended up having the best week ever with Kyle. He planned activities for them, brought things from home that he thought they would like, taught them great skits for Friday, set up their own personal tent to use all week, and basically did anything they wanted to do. And guess what? He had a great time! He loved the kids and had fun hanging out with some of the girls too. What teenage boy wouldn't?? One boy in a camp loaded with teenage girls?? He had fun!
Great kids made for a great week!

Camp is Friends!

Erin and Megan

 Camp is fun, the activities, songs, flag ceremony, is all great but the thing that makes camp really fun are the friends. There are some girls that my  girls only see at Girl Scout Camp. It is really cute too, they pick up where they left off the year before. They remember little things about them so they have plenty to talk about. Each year girls from their troop go also and that makes it even better!
Erin being an experienced camper this year was so excited to join her friends. Last year we bumped her into a unit instead of being in the sibs unit which had toddlers in it. She was excited last year but didn't really know anyone in her Unit. This year though she had tons of friends with her.
Being a new Camp Director definitely allowed me to get around to more units to get pictures but it also kept me pretty busy so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. You had to be ready and smiling when I came by if you wanted to pose. Luckily there were plenty of participants!

 Lindy and Mackenzie

 Erin and Greer, I don't know what is going on with Erin and her eyes but this is her new look! It was lovely to see her in a picture at VBS this week with our lovable youth pastor that she recruited to be her personal lounge chair. There she sat with eyes just like these!

Troop 120 girls!

Camp Papinashuash Begins!

Lindy loving camp!

Day One was a HUGE success! Thankfully the rain held off and we had a great start to the week.
The PALS (Program Assistant Leaders) have been working on planning camp for months. They have worked hard to design a theme that would appeal to all ages of girls and they have really done a great job.

Each day this week the girls will be playing a Girl Scout version of Clue and also trying to solve a mystery. Each unit has 3 Clue Cards with a person, place at camp, and an item that represents the topic of the day. Day One's Clue game was "Who Broke the Camp Rules". All the units had to travel around to the other units and ask what cards they had. Girls keep track, through process of elimination, in their "Spy Notebooks" that were the craft for the first day. At flag down the big reveal was that the Jazzy Juniors were running at Singing Trees. Those Juniors always pushing the limits and running through the camp song time! As the girls start getting the hang of the routine flag down should become a little bit more exciting!

The second game involves the girls getting mystery letters to keep track of in their notebooks. Two are hidden at camp and with the direction of the PAL they "discover" the letters. One is at Headquarters and the other is in a daily card they are given to read about a famous women. Yesterday girls learned about Clara Barton the founder of the Red Cross. Hidden in her biography was a highlighted letter to write down. At the end of the week the PALS will help the girls unscramble the letters to reveal a word.

Lots going on! Crafts, games, camp songs, creeking, and other special projects with our APL's (Advanced Program Leaders). Cindy Loo Hoo is teaching girls about animal tracks and each girl is making their own track to take home. Patches has a nice shady spot set up for a mystery reading and discussion she is leading the girls through. Girls are getting ready to cook on Wednesday and put on skits Friday.

Lots of new leaders joined camp this year but we've got great experienced PALS leading the way. Girls just love hanging out with the older girls and the PALS make the week so fun for them.

Those new to camp are coming up with their camp names and busy making new friends! Its looking like a great week hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate!

My sweet girls made my lunch, marked it with my camp name and wrote me a note!

Pug Luv

Oliver and Quincy

We are all totally hooked on our little pugs! They are so cute and loveable, so much fun to have that even those who were not huge dog fans are completly in love with them. They are living the life too! Eat, sleep, play, play, play, get treats, sleep, eat.... life is rough!

Ethan and Quincy, best buddies.

Lindy and Oliver

 Oliver  Ahhh..... the coolest place to sleep.

 When out of crates and given the choice to sleep together they always find each other and snuggle up.

 Quincy - the best birthday gift ever!

 Quincy + Lindy = Love

 Quincy sitting with Lindy during her math lesson.It quickly got too boring and she finally had to move to her own chairl

Oliver's total cuteness is also in his personality. Quincy was at the back door whining when Oliver went and got a leash and carried it over to Quincy so he could go out. So sweet, they love each other so much!

Bubble Wrap

It's so Paige, a summer cast. When we were waiting for the doctor to come in and check her arm we realized she has broken her arm all three times in May. The first time was on Ethan's birthday. Fortunately we were not having a huge celebration on his birthday that year.

If you are looking for Paige next May you will find her wrapped in bubble wrap in her room. Bill said he's putting her in the end of April and she can come out the first of June. She can except visitors, food, gifts, etc but we are taking protective measures.

Honestly, she is being a pretty good sport! The pain has for the most part gone away. Now its just the inconvenience of having one arm for the beginning of summer and dealing with the heat and a cast. I will say this waterproof set up rocks. No more wrapping her arm at night to shower and the pool was fabulous for her. Wish they had come up with that years ago!

Splinted x2

Rachel and Paige Splinted

It was a busy week last week, what with Paige having to go to Urgent Care three times for her broken arm! Starting with the Dance Recital, she came home took off her costume and went outside to roller blade. Fell down, hurt her arm. I really didn't think much of it until the next day when her elbow was not visible! She was so swollen I couldn't see her elbow. She also couldn't bend her arm when she woke up. Trip #1 to Urgent Care (thank you Children's for putting an Urgent Care 3 minutes from my house!). X-ray's show not broken but it's Paige, which means she could be broken but not showing that yet due to swelling. Just like 3 years ago when she broke her wrist.

We leave with a splint and are told to return at the end of the week for repeat films. Friday afternoon we return and are given the all clear, no break, swelling is gone, splint is off, we return to happy, fun, summer play.

The next night we are at the park for the boys Shakespeare production and Paige falls playing of all things, Red Rover! Swelling wrist and tears = Urgent Care. Three hours later and we leave with a splint and instructions to go to the orthopaedist that week for casting. I know where that is since this would be the third time she has broken the same arm!

Two days later, the girls good friend Rachel, shows up with her splint! Same arm, different bone, but a broken arm friend. Someone to hang out with when you can't do what everyone else is doing. I felt so bad for Rachel but if she was going to break her arm she had good timing! It's always better to have someone to go through things with.

Here's to a great summer! We are off to a bang!

Casted!

"Misbehavins"

 Each summer the girls all have a planter they are responsible for. They choose the flowers, plant them, water and maintain them all summer. Yesterday was planting day and Erin was nothing short of entertaining. She was working with a yellow theme.
She placed her larger flowers in the pot and said she was going to fill in the empty spaces with "the misbehavins".
"The what?" I asked her.
"The misbehavins!" she said.
"What are the misbehavins?" I asked again.
"You know the flowers out front!" clearly getting annoyed I don't know what she's talking about.
"You mean the Impatiens?"
"YES! That's what I'm talking about!"

I told her she would have more success with her full sun planter if she put the petunias in instead of the 'misbehavins'. That was fine with her.
We started digging the rest of the holes for the Petunias. While digging the holes she said that since it didn't look like they would fit horizontally she would put them in vertically and if that wouldn't work she would try oblique. Oblique? What the heck, I'm racking my brain to try to remember what the heck oblique is (angle, line etc).

"Where did you learn about oblique," I asked her.
"Lesson 36 in math," she replied.
"Oh, refresh my memory, what's oblique?"
"YOU know, not horizontal or vertical, the other way!"
"Diagonal?"
"YES!"

Apparently I am not the brightest mother she has and it does cause her concern and definitely frustration!
I'm so glad that her math lessons are working, not sure its such a good idea for her to be doing her math independently since I obviously have no idea what she's talking about!
In the end it was a very entertaining experience and she did a great job on her planter. And I'm feeling a little bit smarter today!