Summer Camp...for Me

This is the week I look forward (and back) to all summer...our third annual Mom Camp! A week where a group of friends and our kids go on adventures every day for a week; a pace I could NEVER keep up with and end up being exhausted from just about all summer. But it's so fun for the moms and the kids, it's worth it.

DAY1: We started at Cunningham Falls Lake where the boys played in the sand and water all day and then we hiked up to the waterfall. It is one of my favorite summer spots.

I have no idea if this last "image/video" will come through - I also have no idea how I created it on my phone(?), so I'm experimenting.

DAY 2:  This was our first visit to the Reston Zoo. Considering there's a free national zoo about 20 minutes down the road, I was curious what this place had to offer. It did not disappoint. We got to feed and pet goats and sheep. Then we went on a "safari" which provided some excitement when a beast of some kind (I asked and hadn't heard of it before) with the largest horns I've ever seen walked along the outside of our open air vehicle without much regard for who was in the way. We saw ostriches, elk, zebras, boars, and camels roaming the grounds. Next we went to the aviary to see the Budgie birds which landed right on our feeding sticks for a close up. There were snakes and kangaroos and monkeys and turtles and we all had a blast.

Some of the kids.

 Some of the moms.

See what i'm talking about? Actually, you really have to compare the horns to the arm leaning out of the vehicle to get an idea of how big the horns were.

Look very closely and you'll see Budgie birds at the end of each stick.

DAY 3: Today we trekked to Baltimore for a first time visit to the Port Discovery children's museum. This place was awesome. Similar to the aquarium, however, the likelihood of losing your child(ren) among the wild and crazy crowd of kids was high, but fortunately this isn't our first mom camp and we didn't lose any of them. Shew. There was a three story climbing structure, a water room, game room, they learned how to make gum (feel free to ask Jacob next time you see him), and we didn't even get have time to see everything. Fun times!

Making gum. Owen was thrilled I let him try some even though he's not technically allowed to chew gum 'til he's five.

Two more days to go. I think it was about this time two years ago when we got home from the Baltimore aquarium and both boys completely melted down forcing me to take their sad, sad picture with me outside and them in. Times have changed I tell you, no tears today. 

UPDATE: The last two days we went to Butler's Orchard to pick blueberries (my favorite, quite possibly the least labor intensive fruit to pick and SO tasty right off the bush) and to a show at Theater in the Woods at Wolftrap (no pics, oops). It was our first visit there and it's so nice, they have a stage in a very peaceful part of the complex, surrounding by the...woods. We loved it. Another fun (though exhausting!) mom camp week!

 

Last Day of School - Kindergarten Edition

Jacob finished his last day of kindergarten a week ago! There was so much hoopla leading up to him going to kindergarten I can't believe it's already over. Here are some of the things I remember "for the record" of his year in Ms. Wells' class:

* 1st day of school was his 5th birthday.
* He wore his name tag every single day until mid-October; he said he liked that everyone would know his name and it also reminded him of me putting it on.
* He was weepy every morning going to class until about November; he insisted we park, walk him to the K blacktop for lineup and wave until he disappeared into his classroom
* Staying after school to play pickup soccer games with whoever was around; I was just happy to see those "weepy" tears were gone by the end of the day
* The LUNCH LADY. Ugh. Perhaps 95% of the cause of his anxiety that fall. He hated how she raised her voice at the kids. Told me he went up to her on a few occasions and asked why she was having a bad day.
* His September school journal was about 98% pictures and 2% letters. His June journal had so many words he had sounded out.
* I volunteered in his class a few times and it seemed like complete chaos - 24 kids, one teacher!! - I thought, how will he ever learn anything? But he did. He's starting to read, he knows sight words, he's writing and sounding out, and he loves math problems (he asks me to do math questions before bed to help him fall asleep!).
* He made it his goal to read (or have read to him) the most books of everyone in class for the year.He was lagging behind one classmate for most of the year but on the last day of school after all the books were counted he came home with the gold medal! He was SO proud.
* His self evaluation of his work: "for maybe 6 months of the year I didn't work so well, I might have played around in class too much, but for three months I was a good worker." HA!
* The last day of school, as with most of the days before it, we dropped him off, he walked right to his class lineup, talked to his friends waiting in line, walked to his classroom, went through the door, and not even one glance back. What a difference from day 1-60ish.

The last day (with his friend Pablo & Owen) - note his gold medal 

And, now we're already a week into summer. We've got a lot of fun scheduled for this summer, maybe too much, I'm not sure we'll fit everything I want to do in! Stay tuned.

Missing May

May (and early June) went missing. I haven't missed a whole month since...March. Ugh, those "M" months.
We have been real busy though, and I've got the pics to prove it. Owen played soccer and he was serious about it. Maybe it's all that time being goalie for the elementary "games", but the first day of practice after doing little baby games like pretending you're an airplane with one foot on the ball and arms raised, I heard him yell to the coach - "Um, WHEN ARE WE GOING TO PLAY SOCCER?!"

Never, Owen, not in a three year old class at least.

 But at least they gave him a trophy.

I feel like I already covered this incredibly fun experience on the blog, but I can't find it in any past posts, so I guess not. The boys and I got to spend a day on a working farm with friends and had a blast. The boys fed and ran away from pigs, ate random (but safe) wild flowers they found, made a wild herb type-ish salad, hiked and played in endless open fields, and ate a wild turkey dinner. We LOVED it and didn't want to leave. Here they are with their friend Ava taking my photography seriously as usual.  

Check out Owen's drum skills while hanging out with Aunt Nancy!

And then there's this. I will admit painting is a struggle for me with these two. I want to be all "I'll just leave paint and paper over there out in the open to use whenever the mood arises." But I'm telling you, it is NEVER just "oh let's paint a nice picture on this perfectly good paper or canvas and not make it into a giant mess." It turns into THIS instead. I had a HUGE piece of paper set up on the driveway for them to paint on. I'm glad they had fun, but Owen's hair smelled like paint for about two weeks.

Jacob finished his Kindergarten soccer season. He'd play soccer 24/7 if he could just convince Mike to stay awake.

Owen's last day of preschool in the 3's class was extra fun because Nana and Papa were there!

And finally, they made time for a couple spring festivals. A fun spring after a tough winter.

Owen's 4th Birthday

Today is a big day. Friday the 13th, a full moon, Owen's 4th birthday, Jacob's last day of kindergarten. You may recall that Jacob's birthday last year was the first day of school. We've got ourselves summer vacation bookenders with these two kids. Despite all this cause for celebration, today I shall focus on Owen. More to come on what we've been up to this past month and also the first year of kindergarten soon.

Owen isn't old enough to be four! Crazy. At four, he's very aware of the world around him, questions most everything and just about always has a "better" idea. He loves his older brother and they get along great and play and laugh together constantly. I'm thankful for that and also to hear Owen stand his ground when it counts with Jacob who often has "better" ideas too. At the same time, he can keep himself entertained for hours and loves to build, make up languages, dress up in costumes, play games, do puzzles and mazes, run races and do intricate dance moves. One of my favorite things is to watch him after we pick Jacob up from school and play soccer on the playground there. All the kids know and include him and you'll find him playing the goalie position like he belongs there. He's just real easy and fun to be around (usually), which are real nice qualities in a person.

 

 

 Celebrating with Nana and Papa

 

Celebrating with neighborhood buddies