Friday, June 20, 2014

2014 Camp Mommy Chronicles- Vol 1

I'm going to try to instead of a giant "what did we do all summer wrap up"come August, try and keep up Camp Mommy week by week.  Since this is the first week of summer vacation here's what our week at Camp Mommy looked like from June 16-20th.

*Note- I have YET to post our annual big summer fun list. It is coming!  I've had a couple of friends ask that I post the links of local places and pass on to them.  It is coming... soon... real soon... I promise! 

Both Ben and Ian were in 1/2 day camps this week to

1. Give mom some much needed time to start on her giant to-do list around the house before July, "aka gonna be gone from NC for 19 days"
2.  After talking over the summer budget with Bill it was a mutual decision that given the amount of current fighting between Ben and Ian,  that lots and lots of hours at home together is not a good plan for the boys or for mom.

We opted to have someone doing camp at least part of the day for most of the summer.  Mom tried to get into a groove with Ian to attempt to ward off four year old arguments.  Most were usually about stupid stuff like putting on sunscreen, wearing shoes, not eating fruit rolls ups for breakfast.

You know, the things that at age four are all encompassing.


This week Ian went to KinderCamp at the YMCA in the mornings.  Ben loved this camp at the same age and I conspired with Ben to talk it up big time.  Ian happily reported going to the spray park or kiddie pool, going on a fossil dig, a nature walk, arts and crafts, and his favorite, "a fairy hunt" Ian's recollection of the event included a "bad man," "being quiet" and the" fairy lived in a tube by herself and was sad until the kids came to see her."

 Here was the actual description from the Kindercamp Facebook page including a picture of Ian following the fairy dust, aka glitter.

Today the floaties went on a walk to find a fairy! We followed the fairy dust down the stairs, quietly walked over the bridge so we would not wake up the troll, once we were over the bridge we had to call out for the fairy, then we finally found her at Shrek's house!




Age four is so very tiring.  The non stop questions, the boundless energy, pushing every.single.limit possible. BUT, I love that Ian's character is developing, cocooned in his sweet, dynamo body.


Ben tried a brand new camp for him this past week, Town of Cary BMX camp.  We heard about the camp from our neighbors who had done skateboarding camp and raved about the week.  Before signing Ben up, I went to the Cary SK8 Park and talked to the manager about who was teaching, group size, ability level, and safety equipment needed.  Normally I'm not a super helicopter type parent, but given that a broken arm or leg would keep him on the sidelines from swimming and other summer activities, I wanted to make sure it wasn't something we would regret.

I would say that it was a total success in that we left the camp this morning after camper demonstrations and directly went Bond Park Community Center and traded out a week of art camp for another week of BMX. The instructors were fantastic and each day at pick up they actually stopped us to let him know what he had really worked hard doing that day.  Super Duper Score.


What did mom do this week?   Massive amounts of yard work, met up with a friend for coffee and inappropriate laughter, joined a summer life group at my church, started the first of six required books for July teacher conferences, finished up a season of Mad Men.  I spent time not playing games of CandyLand, Chutes and Ladder, Cattan Jr, making eatable play dough, making Four Square boards out of sidwalk chalk, walking the dog after the heat of the day doing what I wanted and frankly needed.

I pulled together my summer to-do list, to read list, and finished up some overdue mail.  I did a freezer inventory and planned a weekend freeze ahead session with my friend.  Oh yes, I also managed to work out or do some class every day this week. Monumental yay, especially the one I drug myself to at 5:45 in the morning to make.

Dear summer vacation, I have missed you so, so much.  While you have been hot at Hades all week, you are a reminder that slower paced days are the hallmark of your beauty.


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