Camp Week!

Phew. This last week the girls went to summer camps. Ginger was in "Vacation Bible School" 9 to 12 every day at the local Presbyterian church - there was a cafe/cooking theme where she learned "God's recipe" for her, including Bible crafts, stories, and verses each day, plus of course songs, cooking and playground time. Her friend Charlotte from our church was in her class, and me and Charlotte's mom seemed to be the only ones daring enough to park in the Mormon church parking lot across the street during pick-up and drop-off. There was a color each day that they dressed in, and lots of other cooking-Bible theme stuff that was hard to get the straight story on, but Ginger loved it. And it was cheap.

Hazel went to lacrosse camp. We've always kind of had lacrosse in mind for her, at least to try, and rising 1st-graders are the youngest that can start, so we decided to jump her in. Rented a stick and mask, bought and molded a mouthguard, and showed up the first day to Marymount campus, where we checked her in and she ran off to the field, immediately starting to toss a ball with another girl. She'd never touched a stick before, never seen the game played. Hazel is just that kind of kid. Camp was every day 9 to 3 - she ate lunch in the cafeteria, mostly root beer floats and the occasional slice of pizza from what I can tell, and a dip in the college pool after lunch for a break from the heat, then back on the field for drills and scrimmages. Campers - about 50 of them - were age 6 to 17, and Hazel was the very youngest. After the first day, the coach told me cheerfully, "She is such a character!" and "Everyone knows her name!" Hmm. Hazel's end-of-day reports were as spotty as Ginger's, but she seemed to love it, especially all the socializing with older girls. Check out this sportsgirl:
And Poppy, well as usual she went to Mommy camp. But on Monday morning she must have felt the buzz of something new happening, because she kept trying on both of the other girls' backpacks, and squawking protest if we took them away. So I hunted down Hazel's old toddler backpack, put Poppy's cup in it, and there. She was ready for her week. She wore that backpack every morning out to the car, and held it on her lap once buckled in. By Wednesday she figured out how to unzip it and to her delight found some fruit snacks in the pocket for her trouble.As for me, I was a busy bee all week. Between the 9 o'clock drop-offs and the 12- and 3 o'clock pick-ups, I tried to get Poppy her naps and also get some serious to-do tasks done, like:

• Scheduling our HVAC maintenance
  
• Calling our health insurance to clarify some points of coverage
  
• Setting up a consultation to finally have my mole removed (yes, that mole, the one that frightens children and distracts adults)
• Hiring an interior designer to help me finally, once and for all, pick some darn colors to paint the family room and downstairs
• Hosting an Art Tuesday
• Preparing a four-family meal for a dinner exchange some friends and I are trying
• Doing a 4-meal session at Let's Dish (more on that in another post)
• Cleaning out and taking inventory of the freezer
• Constantly picking up the entire house
• Doing everyone's laundry
• Catching up on both blogs
• Balancing the budget
• Getting over a cold
• Two trips to the library
• Helping the girls sort and count their piggy bank money, run it through the Coinstar machine, and buy food for the Arlington Food Assistance Center (an outreach project of Ginger's Bible school)
  
• And of course watching a few shows from Netflix and the DVR - currently obsessed with Firefly and Income Property.

Now that camps are over, we are just realizing it is a holiday weekend. And that it's July. This is our one big summer month since Hazel goes back to school the first week of August. Things on the calendar include but are not limited to - a sleepover at Grandma's, a trip to Pie Gourmet, swimming lessons, a show at the Discovery Theater, several playdates, Art Tuesdays, getting the darn family room painted, and maybe even a date with Ed! But that might be asking too much.