Some Kind of Wonderful

Wrong! I was sooo wrong!

And I'm more than happy to admit it.

Eldest girl surprised the heck of me (and the rest of the family) by actually choosing to stay overnight at camp!

I was convinced that we were going to have to deal with a meltdown about whether or not to stay. It was, in fact, quite the opposite. She was still undecided when we got there but I told her I had brought along all her things and she still had time to decide. I asked if she had talked to the counselors about the evening plans and she had not. She is the kind of kid who likes to know what to expect and I thought that hearing about the evening's activities would help a bit in making a decision. So, I offered to go over and talk to the counselors with her. After the counselor gave us a brief run down of the evenings events Eldest girl made a surprising turn around. She said "That sounds like fun! I want to stay!" And from that moment on she never looked back.

Eldest girl seems to have found her confidence. She is becoming a 'can do kid'! It's exciting and makes us all so proud of her.

While the kitchen crew prepped for the BBQ we took a bit of a walk and allowed the girls to show us the nature center and nature trail. We also checked out the cabin where Eldest girl would spend the night.

two happy campers in front of the Nature Center building



eldest girl in front of her cabin


showing us her bunk


with her counselors



the fearless camper hamming it up for the camera


After dinner it was time for the skits that the kids had been working on during their two weeks at camp. There was a variety of performances from a dance number (to Bye Bye Bye by *NSYNC but with no puppet strings, trains, psycho chicks with dogs, or car chase scenes involved) to a mock news broadcast of the days events at camp. Eldest girl took her new 'can-do' attitude to a new level when her group got up to do their skit. I am still not quite sure how to describe their skit other than to say it was filled with the antics of a gaggle of soon-to-be 3rd-grade girls. I do know that it had something to do with waiting for the camp bus. Here are Eldest girl and another girl waiting at the bus stop...



She was so proud of herself last night. Once she finished she came running up to me and said "I did it!"

Indeed, she did.

And it was every kind of wonderful.

My Young Poet

A little mommy brag here. :-)

R's class has been working on poetry this past week. They have been discussing such things as line breaks and how poetry compares to other writing styles.

When she came home from school she shared with me this poem she had written.


Shell
by R.

Full of Holes
and very small
a shell
holds wonders
big
and small.
The inside smooth
as a polished stone
and white
as the
ocean
froth.

Happy (Belated!) 8th Birthday to R...

Alternative Title: I Have an 8-year-old and I'm Feelin' Old

Due to a host of mundane but relevant reasons we had postponed R's birthday party by a couple of weeks. We had celebrated with family, given her our gifts and made her a special dinner, but we decided to wait on having a birthday party with some of her friends until March 8th. In the wee hours of the morning of March 8th E woke up and puked in her bed. Needless to say, the delayed celebration needed to be postponed yet another week. R was very disappointed but took the news as well as could be expected.

Yesterday was the much awaited and anticipated birthday party with her friends and they all had a great time. All her friends are great kids and had me laughing over one thing or another during the course of the afternoon. They ate pizza, sculpted with Fimo clay, goofed off together, visited the rats, ate cake and ice cream and then R opened her gifts. A fun afternoon! Here are a few pics from the day:


Although we had no consistent "theme" to the party this year, R decided that she wanted reptiles on her cake. So, I made frosting grass (I'm thinking SPRING!) and put the little plastic guys on top.


R and A working with clay. All told they made three trays worth of little pieces of art that I baked and sent home with the kids in their goody bags. It was a huge hit!


Sculpting aftermath....


E had fun with all the big kids.


Pig pile!!!


Waiting patiently for cake.


Mom and the birthday girl.


Good cake...


...and ice cream!


R has matured so much in the last year. She is a book worm who loves nature and science and her reading interests of late have been adventure stories (Deltora Quest series, Andrew Lost books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Spiderwick, etc...) as well as nonfiction books about a variety of subjects from the human body to the solar system to frogs and amphibians. Her classroom this year is heavily math-focused and she is proving to be up to the task even if it is not her most favorite subject. She can be a bit of a hot-head at times but she is beginning to get more of a handle on her feelings and expressing herself in a more constructive way. She is artistic and creative and loves to do anything crafty from making jewelry to drawing to creating objects out clay, paper, yarn, or anything else we have hanging around the house. She is a collector of rocks, sticks, and just about anything bright and shiny! Although she is quiet and tends to be shy in certain situations she has made some great friends is school this year.

It is hard to believe that it was more than 8 years ago that we brought home our sweet little bundle called R. She is not such a small bundle anymore (and growing taller by the minute!) but she continues to bring pride and joy into our lives and will forever be our little girl! Happy Birthday, R. We love you!