Visitors

We got lucky this summer. Uncle Cam and Aunt Rach and kiddos were able to get a 20 hour layover in Charlotte on their way home from their vacation in the Carribean, so we got to hang out last weekend. Our kids were so excited to see their cousins.

We hadn't seen this sweet little guy since he was a couple months old. He's so smiley, even on the end of a week long trip.

And of course the kids didn't waste any time. They put on two plays, complete with costumes.

 

I don't know why this picture makes me smile so big--I think it's the size difference between Bug and little A.

 

They also spent a lot of time with the animals--A loved Tumtum. That was the last thing she asked to do before we had to head back to the airport--let Tumtum out.

 

It was short, but we were so happy that the scheduling all worked out. We'll get to see them for a longer visit in a few months when we head their way. Wish we lived closer to all our family--this country is too big!

Celebration

Friday was all about celebrating. We started off with our devotional, talking about where our treasure should be. And then flipped it back around to go hunting for pirate treasure, hahaha. I think they still got the point that we can't take earthly treasure with us. They had fun with the treasure hunt and I had fun making up clues using some of the skills we'd learned this week--binary, compasses and maps, and codes.

Then, they got to build boats from a variety of supplies.

We had a testing area at home, but the real test was when we headed up to the pool a little while later.

We had some good designs, lots of creativity, and a couple girls who I think could have spent hours perfecting theirs.

But once we made it to the pool, it was all about the fun.

They swam, played on the slide, went after rings and pennies at the bottom of the pool. I ordered pizza for lunch to go with the watermelon and Pirate Booty, which the girls inhaled all of. Swimming makes them hungry!

It was seriously such a fun week. I was glad that I got to know the girls a little better, and glad that they got to strengthen their friendships, and make new friends in some cases.

It's got me pretty excited to get to do activities with them each month.

It also made me think that the people who run summer camps full time are heroes. It's exhausting! 

So glad we were able to add another fun week of activity to our crazy summer!

We are Warriors!

Thursday was, hands-down, everyone's favorite day of the camp. Because what's not to love about making and learning to use weapons?

We started off with a little archery.

My neighbor, C, planned that part of the morning because she knows what she's doing with a bow and put together a great activity for the girls. And it was such a relief to me to have help with the planning because the first 3 days were all me and somewhat intense in the preparation department, so I was ready to slow down a bit.

They learned some safety rules for the range and then got a chance to try out a couple different bows and targets.

Some of them were naturals. I was having a hard time hitting the target (but did manage to hit the trees it was leaning on twice!) so I was impressed with A's aim.

Then, they got to make their own PVC pipe bows which they decorated with duct tape, and dowel arrows that had padded tips (so much safer, and allowed them to later have a war and actually shoot at each other.)

Seriously so much fun. It wasn't a surprise to me that Bug didn't want to miss out on a second of it.

After lunch, it was time to move on to the more typical pirate weapon choice--swords. First, the girls made their own boffer swords from PVC pipe, pool noodles and duct tape (what would we do without PVC and duct tape?) I had seen this activity idea a couple months ago and so we incorporated the spiritual side of it into our morning devotional that day.

Once they finished their swords, I was able to give them a basic lesson on how to safely use their swords. We laid out some combat rules and then let them practice. If they were touched on a limb, they had to fight without it (made for some hilarious one armed hopping fights) and a touch to the body meant they "died". Once again, it was a topic I didn't really know much about, but the lesson linked to above spelled everything out, so I learned along with the girls.

They had a lot of fun with these and we traded partners several times.

Sometimes the "light touch" looked a little rough, especially with this crazy Bug, but they mostly were very careful.

 Then, these girls decided they were ready for war.

They armed themselves and took off running, battling each other in hand-to-hand combat.

It was pretty fun to watch.

And there were a few breaks to snuggle Peanut and hang out on the hammock. Peanut loved having all the extra attention that week. I didn't always love having the distraction while I was trying to give instructions, so I sent him away for the two water days, but mostly, he was okay to have around.

Last day coming up!

Day at the Lake

Wednesday was our field trip day--Latta Plantation with the girls (and Bug, who was an honoree AD girl for the week.) The activities of the day were knot tying, hiking (it was supposed to include geocaching--treasure hunting being a pirate-y thing, of course, but we had some technical difficulites, as well as too much poison ivy), and a little boating.

Finding a canoe was a pretty big hassle, but other than a little dent and scratch on the top of my van, it ended up being a fantastic experience for them.

They all had so much fun, and did pretty well paddling.

And while one group was out on the water, another was back on shore, learning their knots. I made them each a little kit with 5 knot cards and the supplies to tie them. Some of the girls got pretty frustrated by them, but some were having fun with it, and at least they could take the kit home and maybe someday will practice.

Others were having enough fun that they were willing to try stringing up a shelter. Good to see that they knot tying could be useful.

And the 3rd group got to do a little hiking along one of the shoreline trails. I love having a beautiful place to hike so close to us. And I had fun hanging out with these two for the morning. Bug got paired up with our neighbor, V, who came along for the week. We hiked,

we canoed, and we tied some stuff up. All good fun.

Final activity of the day, which I guess I didn't take any pictures of, was making paracord bracelets--more knot tying application and a fun craft. And a chance for Bug to demonstrate his skills he'd learned in Cub Scout camp last month where they made the same bracelets.

Camp Days

7 girls ages 8-11, 5 days, hot weather, lots of activities, bugs, boats, weapons, games, and good foods. My first activity as the Activity Day Leader for the girls at church was a 9 - 1, 5 day day camp, and I'd say it was a success.

This is actually something I have wanted to do at church for years and am so happy that it's finally happened in time for me to work with Bean her last year. Planning activities, coming up with fun but meaningful experiences, getting to know these girls--all stuff I really, really love. (And all stuff that makes me really, really, tired, but in a good way.) Last week was a really fun, really busy week.

So, on to the fun--

we went with a very loose pirate theme with this scripture:

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

 First day--"coding" because everyone knows a good pirate knows something about secrets and codes. I found this awesome lesson on computers so we started off the week by taking apart an old computer. 

Which the girls loved! I was really impressed by the tenacity of a couple who stuck with it until they'd managed to unscrew every single part. And even though I really know very little about computers, I think it was still a great experience for them all. We examined diagrams together to figure out what some of the parts were, they learned that to undo a screw, you have to go "lefty-loosey", and they saw that these machines we all take for granted are pretty complicated stuff.

Then, we played a logic game that was supposed to go with the way computers communicate. I'm not sure it really did much to clarify anything to do with computers, but the girls thought it was fun and even asked to play again the next day.

After lunch, we did what was probably the most fun activity of the day. We talked about how computers store and communicate info and the girls got to make a necklace that spelled their name in binary. They all thought that was really cool, and this is a group that likes to craft, so this was right up their alley.

One day down!

 Day 2 was all about the outdoor cooking. The skies were threatening, which made it a little tricky--we did compasses inside, cooked our foil dinners in the oven, but we braved the rain that had turned to sprinkles in order to make some dutch oven cobbler and ice cream in a bag. 

The girls were pretty excited about the food, especially dessert.

And the ice cream actually turned out really well for most of them. It took a lot of shaking (the trampoline was helpful), but the end product was worth it.

And that was the first part of our week!

Swim Finals

These two kids had a fabulous year of swimming. The season wrapped up a couple weeks ago with the finals and the traditional banquet and midnight swim. And this year, our team managed to pull together and come in 3rd out of the 4 teams! We actually only missed 2nd place by 4.5 points, which in swimming is nothing. The 10 and under group were actually in a solid 2nd place after the morning half of the finals, but our group of older kids isn't quite a strong. Still, it was a great meet.

 

The 9-10 girls worked so well together this year and really got competitive with the other teams. At the finals, their freestyle relay took second place, which was a bit of a surprise because Skybrook has had so many fast swimmers that they usually can put together two fast relays and blow everyone out of the water. These girls were so excited to get a medal.

And here's the first place 7-8 boys freestyle relay. These boys have been getting faster and faster every meet. Such great swimmers.

 

These kids cleaned up. Bean's breast stroke race was intense. She ended up coming in 4th, but we honestly couldn't tell until the results came out because the first 4 girls came in within less than 1/2 a second, so it was a blur of arms reaching for the wall. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get a medal for an individual race, but her two relays medaled, and she got ribbons for all her races, and PR'd in both breast and fly, so it was a solid swim.

Bug continued his winning streak--firsts for freestyle and fly, second for breast stroke. He PR'd in all 3 of his individual strokes--finished the season off strong! 

 

The kids had so much fun with all their friends this year.

We love being part of this team.

And they've really liked working with Coach Clay this year. It's too bad that he won't be coming back next year, but he's on to a new adventure.

All the coaches have been great with these kids. 

And now, with the end of swim team, we can start swimming in our own neighborhood's pool.