Project 365: Day 182 - June 30

Lemon Drops and Popsicles

Today was another good day for swimming with friends. Will and Gabe spent their time (mostly) in the shallow end floating around on the floaties. The others tried new jumps & dives off the board.

I had to watch Will like a hawk in the pool. He wanted to be in the deep end with all the big kids and he felt so safe in his inner tube that I let him wander for a while. Then he got careless and started letting go of the tube to grab other things. I could just see him slipping down to the bottom and scaring himself...and me, so I called him back to the shallow end where Gabe had wisely waited. He was happy enough to be back in the shallow end spinning around and around and around!


Most of these shots are of attempted "lemon drops".




This creature helped put all the floaties away! Thanks Joe!

As usual there were Popsicles afterwards - two each! Except for Will who only took one and gave it to the dog.

**One letter today - from Morgan, and written last Tuesday. As of last Tuesday everything was great, awesome & fantastic. Hopefully it still is! Oh, and my theory about the post office being at fault for our lack of letters was so off base, especially since our friends down on Thomson Farm got two letters Saturday! My apologies to our lovely postal carrier!

A New Floor - So Close

The floor is almost finished! Yay! You can't really tell from the angle but in this picture David is working close to the door that leads to the hallway!

My poor handyman has gotten himself sick in the process but he's plugging away at it!

Has anyone noticed all the different wall colors in this room? There's princess pink, bright orange and even brighter purple! It's much better than it could have been - Caroline wanted stripes! The pink is Morgan's side of the room. The orange was Caroline's choice and the purple Katherine's. Of course, Katherine isn't even down there anymore and her new room upstairs is a beautiful lavender!

Project 365: Day 181 - June 29

Do you think the folks at Pampered Chef ever envisioned that their beloved pizza roller would meet this end? Play-Doh maybe, but laying floor? Doubtful!

A New Floor - Getting There

Not quite finished with the floor and aware of the quickly approaching work week, David enlisted the help of the boy.

His qualifications are impressive - 4 good years of sliding around in his socks and 3 years of rolling Play-Doh. He's just what we needed! Not only that, we can pay him in peanut butter sandwiches!

Project 365: Day 180 - June 28

We went to the new Lowes today. That's how exciting my life has become. But it was exciting. . . and backwards. Completely backwards from the old Lowes. I wonder if they did that on purpose.

Saturday's mail: nothing, nada, rien. I think that's a post office glitch though because we never seem to get any personal mail on Saturdays.

A New Floor - Almost

Here's Morgan's pretty pink room without all of her stuff cluttering things up! It looks really big without furniture!

Here's my handyman. Give him tools and he's a happy guy!

There's a lot more to go, but now that we're getting the hang of things it should go more quickly. Maybe we'll be finished by end of day tomorrow!!!

Oh, and never mind the royal "we'. I'm not doing anything even closely associated with installing the floor. All I'm doing is cleaning out all of the stuff that's been collected over the last 2 1/2 years which, if left in place, would thwart the whole floor installation process!

It's going to look so great!!

Project 365: Day 179 - June 27

This is Will's after the swim party dry-off walk around the pool!

Game Boy

After the boys left, Will ate TWO pb&honey sandwiches with the crust still on! He gets so hungry when he's been swimming!

While he ate we played three more games of Labyrinth. He's becoming ruthless! I reminded him to play nice with his Grandmama and Granddaddy. He's going over there for a two-night sleepover so we can get the floor done in the big girls' rooms. Yay!

When Kathleen asked him if he was going to camp (at Grandmama's) he replied, "Camp is 12 days, I'm only going for three days."

Friday's mail: two postcards - for Will. He was thrilled to get postcards from Caroline & Mattie.

Pool Boys

Since Kathleen's down two girls and up one boy this week, they decided to come over for an all boy swimming party! They had a great time blasting each other with the water blasters and swimming all around without any sisters to tell them what to do!
Afterwards they all had Popsicles - all except Will who doesn't like them but took one for Gracie. That's one lucky dog!

Project 365: Day 178 - June 26

We've never gotten a letter from camp earlier than Thursday of the first week. Luckily we were prepared for this our first year by a long-time camp parent. We drop off on Sunday and hear nothing for 4 long days. It's hard. Harder for some than others.

In today's mail we had 5 letters. Will had 2. David and I each had one, and we had one to share.

I've tried to prepare the boys for an empty box tomorrow, but I think they were both spoiled by today's treasure. They just can't fathom not getting more news tomorrow!

Maybe I should have hidden some of today's mail and doled the letters out over time!

Just in case any of you are wondering - they're having a blast! Morgan went on an overnight hiking trip and Caroline went caving again. They've been sailing & kayaking, tried the zipline (Morgan only!) and are eating well. This is the information from Morgan and Caroline. We haven't heard from Katherine yet, which means that she's writing other people first!

A Full Day

This is a much better picture. Will saw the one I posted yesterday and told me I should erase it.

The babies got moved from K's room today! They enjoyed the change of scenery and didn't even get bothered by Charley, who did have a good wrestle with Will's big blue dog!

Boys and water guns! These boys had the best time today with the coolest water shooters and water guns! The only rule was that the moms could not get wet!

After the pool party ended and we had a short quiet time, Will got in again with his Daddy. They chatted away while they paddled all around the pool.

Then after dinner we played Labyrinth - a new game given to Will by his good friend Carter. It's a fun game and I'm looking forward to trying out the non-junior version!

Grandpa

Updated 6/27/08 to remove the music, which I loved, but which made it diffcult to hear any other audio. . . alas.

Maybe having the girls gone is giving Will more time to think. Today's question was "Why did Grandpa die before I could know him?" How do you answer that?

Then, after I made a feeble attempt to answer, he wanted to gather every picture we have of Grandpa so he could see what Grandpa looked like.

Here are some of the pics he chose. . .

Project 365: Day 177 - June 25

Can you say CRANKY?!

Project 365: Day 176 - June 24

You remember Charley? He's usually low-key and easy to get along with. But then there are days when he just can't be nice any more. Today was one of those days. You can be innocently sitting in a chair blogging, or reading, or even just sitting, and WHAM! he's at your side claws out and ready to fight.

Some days I don't know which pet I dislike more.

Fishing

Today Will went fishing with his Granddaddy and Great Uncle Bill. The trip was planned for early afternoon, which made for a l.o.n.g. morning! First, we played our new game. It's called Cover Your Tacks and it's lots of fun. Mostly we don't get it right and spend our time telling the other why his move won't work.

Around noon Will decided to get ready for his trip. He got dressed. He packed his snacks - 4 chewy granola bars for sharing (because he doesn't like them!) and 6 packs (that's 36 crackers!) of peanut butter crackers, and a water bottle! He got sunscreened and put on his hat and readied his new Superman fishing pole . . . and waited.


While he waited he collected the mail.


While he was still waiting he decided to color monster trucks for Uncle Bill and Granddaddy.

Then, thankfully, Granddaddy came!

Will caught two small fish and threw them back. He was a bit disappointed that we couldn't make dinner from his catch. Maybe next time!

Project 365: Day 175 - June 23

Today was Will's turn (and mine!) to go to the eye doctor.

He loved every minute of the visit and even tried to let the guy blow the puff of air into his eyes.

That didn't work because he was just too wiggly!

Imagine!

Project 365: Day 174 - June 22

On the way home, after stopping to mail postcards in Jennerstown and finding that we'd blown a fuse in the van*, we stopped for the buffet at Pizza Hut. Look at these cool cars we found in the parking lot!

* A really important fuse btw - speedometer, odometer, air conditioning, just to name a few of things affected! We changed it and then five minutes later it blew again.

SB2W 2008 Drop Off

Not so early yesterday morning we loaded the van with three huge duffel bags, three bags of bedding, three sleeping bags & a huge box of assorted other necessities, and headed off to Pennsylvania.

The ride was uneventful - no bickering at all. They didn't even quibble about who got to sit in the middle seat*. Going to camp must be, all by itself, the best antidote for sibling rivalry! Some of the girls used the ride to start writing letters from camp! - I guess they know how much their Daddy looks forward to a full mailbox when they're gone!

On the way, we stopped for lunch at McD's, which is the only (quick) place to stop in Berkeley Springs, WV. Until this year the stop has been fine for all. However, we now have an opinion about fast food, so this particular stop elicited some minor grumbling.












We arrived at camp and received cabin assignments. Katherine graduated to Cabin #2, Caroline to #6 and Morgan all the way to #11.

We got K's bed made and clothes organized, and sent her off to find a new water bottle (we'd left hers at a friend's house and forgotten to retrieve prior to leaving!)
Here's the inside of Katherine's cabin. There's Emily from church, a.k.a. Mattie's little sister! Last year she went to the shorter Summer One session but decided that camp wasn't so bad and came to First Term this year.

Next we travelled to Caroline's cabin to get her settled. It was easy - she didn't care where anything went, or so she said. She's on the top bunk over a new girl named Raspberry!






Once again Morgan determined that there would be no pictures of her in her cabin. I got a shot of the cabin door, and was allowed inside to help make her bed.

The cheap sheets I bought at Big Lots that never fit her twin bed were the perfect size for her bunk - and they're comfy too - lime green t-shirt material! She'll be so cozy!







Will got his first Summer's Best t-shirt and has worn it ever since!

Mattie and Caroline and Mattie's cousin are in Cabin #6 together. Emily & Katherine and Emily's cousin (there are five of them at camp!) are in Cabin #2 together, and Morgan is all the way up the road by herself with 11 other girls in Cabin #11!



We're missing the girls already. Every few hours Will says, I wonder what the girls are doing, or I wonder how the girls are doing, or Do you think they're having dinner too?

* Will actually decided that Katherine (!) would sit there since he would miss her while she as at camp.