Showing posts with label Camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camp. Show all posts

June 11, 2011

Kids at Camp, Day 5

Friday was the last day of Camp Jabez!  Arden again worked with the horses and again had hives, but not too badly.  It sounded as if they crammed a bit of everything into one day--zip line, rock climbing wall, paddle boats, horse riding...a very full day for them.  And thank the Lord, the thunderstorms seemed to work around them for the most part!  We got some rain in the morning as we were driving to camp, but it cleared up.  It did rain on them a bit, and they had to take shelter for a short while, but God was so gracious to give the kids such good weather during their time at camp!

Kenna, Lucan, and I drove to Trader Joe's after dropping kids off at camp--it was a nice, scenic route, and I really enjoyed the drive.  We ran into some friends who were also shopping, and since we weren't in a hurry, it was fun to chat awhile (until the kids started running laps around our shopping carts).  We checked out together, and with all the talking, the cashier learned Ted is deployed, and she already knew Jen's husband had recently been deployed.  She brought us both a free bouquet of flowers and told us to take them home 'cuz we "deserved them!"  So sweet!

Then we hit the health food store for probiotics, the library to make copies and check out a few things (saw 3 more people that we knew there), and the post office to send off Ted's first care package.  The kids were so good during all the errands!  I was pretty wiped out by the time lunch was finished, so I let Kenna watch a couple of Leap Frog phonics DVDs that I had gotten at the homeschool sale for $1 each while Lucan and I napped.

After Stefanie brought the kids home from camp, I invited Justin to stay and play with our boys, which thrilled them all.  Kenna was invited to play and have dinner with her friend from across the street.  Charis disappeared to read, and Lucan tried tagging along with the older boys, who didn't really appreciate that much at all!  We had a taco dinner, then watched Meet the Robinsons (Kenna was home by then) for our movie night.  We hadn't seen it before (Justin had)--well, I think the kids said they had seen parts of it.  It's very quirky and quite well done.  Interesting themes!

It was a very full week for all of us, although I do regret not being a little more on top of the housework--today we have been cleaning like mad, but it still seems we have so much more to do!  Finding ants in 3 different rooms of the house hasn't helped.  Sigh.  It's hard to keep up with crumbs around here.  But on the plus side, I can see the carpet in the kids' bedrooms again, and I've deep-cleaned all 4 bathrooms...just need to finish up by scrubbing the master tub (where we bathe Kenna and Lucan) and my shower.  (That's my LEAST favorite household chore, by the way, whether or not I have a pregnant belly!)  Hopefully by the time the kids get in bed we will have finished picking up the various, unrelated objects strewn all about the house, vacuumed, and mopped.  I think we've earned a day of rest for tomorrow!

June 10, 2011

Kids at Camp, Day 4

Yesterday was a very full day for the kids at camp.  They got to do the zip line, and there was much excitement as they told me about that during our dinner that evening!  They made beaded crafts, and they also enjoyed a ginormous slip-n-slide and came home quite soaked.  (The one bad thing about camp week is doing a small load of laundry EVERY NIGHT!!  I can't seem to keep up with folding things, so they're strewn all over the place!  But at least the camp shirts have been clean!)

I can't remember right now what else the kids told me about camp that day.  Kenna and Lucan and I went to a park down the street from us to meet Genae and her daughter Rowen.  I hadn't met them in person yet; Genae's husband was Ted's boss during the past year.  She and her husband had both contacted me several times, wanting to make sure I would let them know how they can help us out this year.  I'm so glad we connected at the park!  It was a beautiful morning, and Kenna was in heaven to meet another little girl!  (Rowen is 6, but they're almost the same size!)  The kids played very happily, and I enjoyed getting to know Genae.  She, like me, was an English teacher before starting a family.  They struggled to have children, and they call Rowan their little miracle baby.  They are a really sweet couple--I met Lt.Col. Lamb at Ted's going-away luncheon, although we had spoken by phone a few times when he had called the house.  Genae and I will, I believe, be good friends.  We could have talked all day, but Rowan had to leave to go to kindergarten.  She's at the public school now, but they're sending her to a Christian school next year.

In the afternoon, I told Kenna we could have some girl time during Lucan's nap.  (I made sure I got an iced coffee to take to the park so I wouldn't need a nap, LOL.)  We made a big batch of cookies so we could send some to Ted, painted Kenna's fingernails and toenails, and went to my office and STAMPED!  Kenna was beside herself to be able to choose a stamp set and some ink pads to play with!  I worked on a project, and so did she.  It was a very fun, productive afternoon.

In the evening, after dinner, the kids and I went to the annual PEACH used homeschool curriculum sale.  I spent a whopping $4 and came home with a HUGE bag of stuff--there was a room full of free items, and we made out like bandits!  Charis took some spending money and spent about as much as I did and also got a lot of freebies.  I wasn't there to shop for curriculum--I know I'll be ordering from Sonlight--but I was thrilled to get a lot of great books for the kids to read over the summer, plus some activities (a whole Kinex set! for free!).  Yay for free stuff!  And yay for new books!

Kids at Camp, Day 3

Whew, as I suspected, this week has flown!  So I'll quickly try to recap the rest of the camp week...

On Wednesday, the kids had another day with horses.  Arden decided to try having Benadryl in his system so he could be around the horses, so we dosed him up and sent him with the medicine in his backpack.  It did help--he didn't have the watery eyes, runny nose, etc., but he did break out in hives on his face and neck.  He got cold water dumped on him afterward, which probably helped!  And I had him shower as soon as he got home.  By the time he got home, even though you could still see the rash, he said it wasn't bothering him.  I think he really enjoyed being around the horses!

I believe Day 3 of camp was also the rock-climbing day, where they got to climb a 29-foot wall.  Tobin didn't try, but Arden and Charis did, and Arden nearly made it to the top.  This was also water balloon day.  They sure kept them busy each day of camp!

Meanwhile, I took Kenna and Lucan home, finished packing our picnic lunch and did a bit of work in the kitchen, and then took the kiddos to a splash park to meet some other friends.  The park reminded me of all the water parks in Las Vegas, except this one was EXTREMELY crowded!  These parks aren't quite as plentiful here as in the desert, I guess!  There was absolutely no shade anywhere around the water area, so we ate our picnic lunch under some trees near the parking lot.  The water didn't turn on until noon, so we had time to eat before the mad rush to get wet.

The kids enjoyed it, and I did, too--mostly because it was so stinkin' hot that I enjoyed when Lucan tugged my hand and wanted to go get wet, because then I could cool off as well!  We played in and out of the water for about an hour and a quarter, and then it was time to get out of the heat and head home to rest.

While Lucan napped, I let Kenna watch a phonics DVD from the library, and I had some time to work on our summer schedule spreadsheet.  I'm not totally done yet, but I did get some ideas down...it just looks like we have so much free time!  Too much free time = not good, so I need to pray some more and see what we need to do to make sure we're using our time wisely and accomplishing what God wants us to this summer.

I had kids in bed by 8 p.m. this evening...it had been very hard to wake them up for breakfast in the morning!  After they were down, I enjoyed a nice long Skype conversation with Ted, so that was a bonus!

June 07, 2011

Kids at Camp, Day 2

The kids were so excited to get back to camp this morning, despite being very tired and needing to be dragged out of bed.  It was a full morning for me, too!  After dropping off the crew, Kenna, Lucan, and I went to the farm to pick up our milk and Julia's--she and I take turns doing the milk run each week, but I'm taking it for all of June and July so she can do it all of August and September when I'm even greater with child and then with newborn. :-)

I put our milk away at the house before going to Julia's.  She had offered to keep Lucan and Kenna for a few hours when I brought her milk over, so I took advantage of that, since I ended up running to base to take care of some issues, including trying to resolve the lovely CO DMV situation.  I made 7 stops total:  the pharmacy for Arden's prescription, the BX for notebooks for our Bible Bee materials, the commissary, the library, the post office, the gas station, and the Pass & Registration office to get the MP to sign off that our VIN really is our VIN.

Amazingly, I was HOME by 11 a.m.!  The whole run had taken about an hour and a half.  Not bad.  Of course, it wasn't a typical commissary trip by any means, as the kids and I had just been to get a load last Thursday.  But anyway, it was nice to get home and get settled, have lunch by myself (leftover meal from The Cheesecake Factory, plus the cheesecake slice I didn't even taste last night!), AND have an hour-long, uninterrupted Skype session with Ted.  Woohoo!  I did a tiny bit of kitchen work as well before going to get Kenna and Lucan to bring them home for Lucan's nap.  Then Kenna finished watching a movie she had started at the L's house while I took a nap.

After nap time, Kenna and I looked through the new digital family albums, which arrived today, one week after I ordered them!  WOW!  Super impressed by the speedy delivery, and the quality is amazing.  I got more kitchen work done--worked with some produce from our Happy Box, chopping, cutting, and drying carrots, celery, and cilantro respectively. 

The kids were excited to share their experiences at dinner--it was quite lively around the table!  They were on the high ropes course and apparently had no fear at all. :-)  They also enjoyed a hike, game time, and craft time.  (They made prayer journals.)  Yesterday's Bible study was about us being like clay, and today the comparison was sheep.  They are having a great time.  I did think it was amusing (but tried very hard not to show it) that Arden was under the impression that camp would be a year-long adventure.  He was asking what days they go to camp, and when I said tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, he said, "Oh, so two days off for the weekend, and then 5 days of camp, then 2 days off..."  I may have disappointed him terribly by informing him that he would be there 5 days, period!

After dinner we cleaned up, did baths/showers (poor Lucan has a TERRIBLY sore bottom from two very yucky poops--I pray it's better by morning), and then watched the Welcome DVD from our Bible Bee box!  We put together our study binders, and we're all pretty excited about getting started, although I think Charis is rather overwhelmed with the sheer number of verses she has in her stack, now that she is participating as a Junior instead of a Primary student.  I think the birth date requirement is a little odd--because she will be 11 at the time of the National Competition, she was placed in the Junior category (ages 11-14), even though she'll be competing locally while still age 10.  Goodness, her birthday is less than 4 weeks before Nationals!  It's just a pretty big leap in the number of memory verses.  But...I'm encouraging her that the experience is the most important thing, plus she can always switch and do the Timothy track instead of the National track (which honestly, I think would be better, but it's her decision).

And I guess that sums up our day.  Two days in a row for me of getting work done without anyone in the house!  Time to get back into Mom mode:  tomorrow is WATER PARK DAY!!

June 06, 2011

Kids at Camp, Day 1

Charis, Tobin, and Arden are experiencing something new this week--day camp nearby!  Here's how the camp itself describes the program:

"Campers will participate in a weeklong variety of activities that will encourage them to explore and appreciate the outdoors in a biblically informed way. Programs can include a time of wilderness education, map reading/orienteering, games, gardening, fishing, archery, and horse riding/training. Riding classes incorporate patience, emotional control, and learning how to communicate with a horse without the use of force or intimidation. We teach respectful boundaries with horses; how to keep an animal out of your space while improving leadership and love. A period of Bible instruction and reflection is included to encourage the campers to enjoy a daily walk with Christ and appreciation of his word. A climbing wall, paddleboats, a planned zip-line and giant swing, or exploring our woods provide an outlet for excess energy in a non-harmful way."

I knew Charis would love it, since she's a girl and therefore in love with horses.  And I figured the boys would enjoy it as well, since their pal Justin has been attending the past couple of years with his older sister Jessica.  Stefanie and I are carpooling--I take the kids in the morning (we leave at 8 a.m.), and she brings them home in the afternoon (camp ends at 3:30 p.m.).  

Today was the first time we had set foot on the campus, and I was glad to see it in person.  We had looked at a lot of pictures to prepare the kids for what they would see and do.  This week is the homeschool session, and it's a small crew, only 14 kids total.  But I think that's just fine!

The only bad thing is...apparently Arden has inherited his dad's allergy to horses. :-(  In typical Arden fashion, however, he took it all in stride, did NOT want the camp leaders to call Mom, and didn't complain a bit.  I promptly gave him Benadryl when he walked in the kitchen and I saw his red, puffy eyes and heard from Stefanie what happened!  I made him go shower and change his clothes, too!  The kids are only around horses Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so we'll see what he wants to do the next couple of times.  The leaders said he could double up on the other activity--they split the kids into two groups, and while one group is with the horses, the other group does something like the zip line or ropes course activities.  So, if he prefers to not put himself through that again, he can do that.  Or, we can give him more allergy meds before he goes and have some on hand to keep in his system to get him through the day...I think he really DID enjoy being with the horses, so I wouldn't be too surprised if he chooses this option.

They have a Bible study during the day as well, and it sounded really neat.  All in all, I think it will be a great week for all of us.

When I got home from dropping kids off this morning, Eilene picked Kenna up to take to the dog park with her, and Chris came over to get Lucan and take him to her house across the street for some play time.  I happily organized our bookshelves and brought out ALL of our Sonlight books to put on their own special shelves!  I decided I would much rather let the kids have the opportunity to read/reread all these great books rather than have them perfectly organized and separated and sitting in boxes in our closet.

I gathered a sackful of trash from around the book case area and filled 2 1/2 bins with items for the July community garage sale.  Woohoo!  All the shelves got cleared and dusted at some point, and all the shelves now have books neatly aligned on them.  I'm going to be VERY strict with the Sonlight shelves, but we'll see how long that lasts...  I put all of Lucan's board books in a Rubbermaid container to keep beside the bookshelves, so that freed up a lot of space, too, and will make it easier to clean up his books, since they are the most awkward and bulky pieces of our library.  We actually have a shelf and a half EMPTY!  Probably not for long, once I have all the kids retrieve the various books from the Suburban, their rooms, etc.

I should note that I only worked on the two bookcases that house kids' books...I didn't even attempt to change anything on Ted's and my shelves!  I'm sure as the garage sale dates get closer, I may want to purge some more, but as I don't want/need to add anything to those shelves at this point, I wasn't concerned about doing anything there.  It's really amazing how two bookcases could take up so much of my time!  But I'm thankful for the opportunity to get to this project, as it's been bugging me for weeks now!

I took lunch over to Chris's back porch, and we all ate (Kenna had joined Lucan by that point, and the two were happily playing in the kiddie pool), and then I brought the kids home for Lucan's nap.  Kenna puttered around, watched part of a movie, and mostly waited for me to give her some attention. :-)  So we did a few things together, and I still managed to finish up what I wanted/needed to with the book shelves.

Then the older kids came home and cleaned and showered, and I...drum roll, please...actually got a night out!  Our church moms' night out group was meeting at The Cheesecake Factory, and I had posted on our Helping Hands web site about the event awhile ago, but no one had signed up as of yesterday.  Megan gently reminded people, and a friend from church signed up and came over to watch the kiddos for me!  So I got to escape from the house WITHOUT KIDS!!  First time since Ted left...has it really only been two weeks and a day?!  So, I feel slightly spoiled by all the time I had to myself today.  I could get used to this, LOL!  

I tucked the older kids in when I got home and had some sweet moments being able to hear more from each one individually about their camp experiences.  It was after 9:30 when I left their rooms...I hope I'll be able to drag them out of bed for their early breakfast tomorrow!

July 13, 2010

A Quiet House

We had a full house over the weekend with Megan and John and their kids visiting. We didn't "do" much, mostly let the kids play while we caught up amongst ourselves. On Saturday we did drive to Cedarville--we girls dropped the dads and kids (minus the babies) off at a park, then went to the university campus to walk around and note the changes. Since Megan had missed our mini-reunion in May, it was her first time to be on campus in years! A lot has changed.

Then of course we took the obligatory trip to Young's, always a good activity! John treated us all to ice cream and bought tickets for the older kids to ride the train, which thrilled them to no end. Of course we fed and patted the animals, marveling at the tiny baby goats which had appeared since our last visit.

On Sunday we all managed to get a pancake breakfast before getting to church (on time, even!) for the early service. Ted was on the praise team for this week, so he had to be there extra early--so kudos to him for getting us all started with our pancakes! John and Megan left for Michigan after the service, and we came home for a restful afternoon that included a nap for me and the two little ones.

Monday morning I woke the kids at 7:15 so they could eat breakfast and get out the door. It's CAMP WEEK!! Charis and Tobin are at Scioto Hills camp, the first time they've been away for an extended period of time. They return to the church at noon on Saturday! This is the same camp where Charis got to go for the winter retreat in February, so she is familiar with the campus. Tobin was bursting with excitement--well, they both were. I don't think Arden is terribly upset at not being able to go this year, and we're going to try to do some special things with and for him this week, too. Yesterday we hit the bike trail for an hour and a half, and then he and Kenna enjoyed some Loony Toons while I did some ministry work on my computer. Then we let him stay up late to play a game of Kingsburg with Ted and me, followed by a sleeping bag "campout" in his room. (I offered to let him sleep in the playroom, but he chose his own bed!)

So, it's now Day 2 of camp, and I have to confess the house is oddly quiet. (Well, it was until Kenna started sobbing and Lucan started fussing...maybe it's nap time...) Arden is still in bed at 10 a.m.! Guess I'd better get things moving here. Kenna's waiting for me to make banana bread with her, so that will probably distract her from whatever trauma she's having now.