2013 Ward Mongolian Grill

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we had the now annual ward Mongolian Grill at our house.  You'd think that with it being on a holiday weekend, the turnout would be small.  Not to worry!  We had a lot more people at the party on Saturday than who showed up at church the next morning.  We even had a family who left their camping trip, came to the party, and went back to camping.

Leading up to the party is a lot of work for Dode.  He spends hours trying to get our yard to look more park like and less overgrown jungle like.  Then, there's all the little repairs to our big outdoor toys.  Then, the set up and clean up of the party.  We rented a port-a-potty again to try to protect the septic drain field from 150+ people using the bathroom.

What is this you ask?  It's the beginning of the snow cone sauce we made.  To all this sugar, we added water, and boiled it into syrup.  Then, we stirred kool-aid mix into 2 cups at a time to make a tasty thick topping for the snow cones.  By the end of the party, most of it was gone.

Our snack station, popcorn and snow cones. 

Not shown was the kettle corn machine.

Our water slide/pool set up for the young crowd.

Everyone brought cut up veggies or sauces for the feast. 

The church provided the chicken and beef.

Cooking up two different plates of goodness.

Even with five grills running, the line took about 45 minutes to get through.

Our new bouncy house.

A friend also brought over her bouncy house.  We ended up having one on either side of the yard, one for big kids and one for little ones

We've always got to have the laundry baskets out for some fun!

The hot tub early in the party before it was really discovered.
By the end of the day, the water was brown, yuck!

Heading down the slip and slide

View of the crowd

Lots of children in the pool

The tallest man in the ward ended up sitting at our little kid picnic table.

I can't wait for next year and Dode is already dreading it.  He's wondering, "What will Stephanie think up next for me to do?"  "Will our yard hold them all?"

We did a time lapse video of our day.  We missed some of the action in the yard with the food line, but you get an idea of how our day started, from before dark with produce to after dark with clean up.

21 weeks along

21 weeks along, wearing a size large maternity shirt, not sure how many more weeks this one will work!

The past two weeks have been rough.  I had a big freak out for a few days dwelling on all the things that could go wrong.  Thankfully, I talked it over with a friend and just being able to verbalize with someone where I didn't have to worry about adding to their stress level helped me sort things out.  So, while I'm still nervous about what the next months might bring, I'm no longer finding myself in tears.  It's a merciful thing that I was able to get my fears under control because last week I had an episode of spotting, which could be related to the placenta previa.  I was able to deal with it emotionally without falling apart.

I had another ultrasound which shows the babies are going strong inside, moving a lot, with good heart rates and plenty of fluid.  I still have a complete previa.  In another two weeks, I will have another ultrasound where they will measure the babies, check the previa, and check the front of my uterus to make sure Baby A's placenta is behaving itself and staying inside my uterus, not reaching through my scar.

Now that we know we're getting a boy and a girl, the name suggestions have been pouring in from friends and family.  Some people tell us we HAVE to name the boy Abraham since we already have Isaac and Jacob, giving us all the great patriarchs.  Isaac has suggested Nimrod and Dorcas.  Luke and Leah have by far the greatest following and my Mom is lobbying for Paul.  I'm not calling them anything yet in my mind.  When I think of them it's "baby boy" and "baby girl".

The exhaustion I've been feeling for a long time has lifted a bit and hooray for that!  I've managed to gain 13 pounds.  I still get nauseous from time to time and last week I even threw up (I haven't done that in a long time!).  I think I'm finally entering the honeymoon time of pregnancy.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts because I'm sure before long I will be uncomfortably huge.  Right now I get lots of comments from people that I have a very cute belly.  Will they still be saying that when I'm 38 weeks pregnant?  I think it will go from "cute" to "unbelievable".

Isaac wanted in on the bump photos, he's sticking his stomach out as far as he can

Miriam had to have a photo too.

Our Gender Reveal Party, It's a ........

We wanted to let everyone be in on the fun of finding out what Heavenly Father was sending us.  When we received the test results from our Cell Free DNA, I stuck the note on the fridge and never opened it.  That note could have held the secret to the gender of our babies.  We'd been told that with twins, the results would only tell us if there was at least one boy.  The only definite answer would have been if we were having two girls.  I wanted a more definite answer.  We weren't sure we were going to get one.  I've had four babies.  With Jacob, I found out at 17 weeks.  With Elizabeth we found out at 36 weeks.  Isaac and Miriam were complete surprises due to lack of cooperation.  We don't have a very good track record for finding out early and this time, we needed two compliant babies!

At our anatomy ultrasound 4 weeks later, we told the technician that if he could find out, we didn't want him to tell us, we wanted him to write it down and seal it in an envelope.  He was convinced he could tell, so wrote it down and handed it to us in a sealed envelope.  Dode was such a tease.  The technician would tell us to look away and I would dutifully turn my head.  Dode?  He kept staring right at the screen.  He said he can never tell what they're looking at anyway, so there was no need to look away.  I brought the envelope home and waved it in front of the children before putting it on the side of the fridge.  They started to scheme of ways they could open it without me detecting their crime.

The next day, I took the envelope down to Dollar Tree and told the clerk that I was pregnant with twins, but didn't want to find out what I was getting until my family was all together.  I asked her to open the letter and inflate the correct "It's a ...." balloons and seal them up in a large box.  She excitedly agreed to do it.  We wandered around the store for a while, careful to not look to the front where the balloons are.  After a sufficient period of time, I asked Dode to go make sure it was done and we made out purchase.  I was careful to not check the receipt because I was worried it might say what balloons we bought.

The next day was Sunday and we gathered for the big event.  It was a glorious noisy party in the Dorrel Dickson family tradition.  The loud playing of children filled the rooms.  Two dogs were racing around chasing each other.  In addition to Dode and I and our children, my mom and Greg along with their pug Ramirez joined us, my nephew Gabriel was the final representative from my side of the family.  From Dode's side we got: his Mom and Dad, his sister Sheri with her husband Joel and their two kids, Dode's Dickson grandparents, his Aunt Viv and Uncle Dave and Harry the dog.  It was a fun group.  We squeezed together in the living room and Dode told me I should give everyone a little background before we opened the bin.  Each time I started to tell the story, the dogs would race through the room to the joyous delight of the children who would burst into laughter.  Once Harry was safe in Dave's arms, I could talk without interruption.

We counted to three and opened the bin.  Out floated.... one balloon.

Miriam looking inside to see if the other balloon deflated.

I was puzzled.  Did this mean they were both the same gender and Dollar Tree was trying to save me a buck?  Thankfully, they'd left the technician's letter in the bin.  We read the letter to discover we're getting one of each, a boy and a girl.  It's just what I was hoping for!  Although the gender reveal didn't turn out exactly as I was planning, I think the snafu made it even more fun.  Life isn't perfect and sometimes it's the bumps in the road that make for the best laughs.  The party was absolutely perfect.  I felt like we were literally bathed in love.  It will be so wonderful when we can gather again and pass these precious babies around to our family, but maybe the dogs should settle down before then!

a glimpse of loving family chaos

Not the photo op we were planning on but it works!

19 weeks pregnant

At 19 weeks, I finally had someone take the very first photo of my bump.  Why wait so long?  Until now, I just wasn't up to it!  At 19 weeks, I am considered half way there since full term with twins is 38 weeks.  When I went to the doctor this week, my belly measured 25 weeks.  I can't wait to see how big it gets at the end!

If I had to choose one word to sum up how I'm feeling these days, the word I would pick would be exhausted.  I wake up without an alarm each day at 6:00 AM and feel fine for a few hours, just long enough to straighten up the house, get Elizabeth off to school, run teenagers from the church to the high school after seminary and get home from that in time to get Miriam and William ready and off to school.  Then, I start dragging.  I take an hour nap after lunch.  It doesn't give me more energy but without the nap, my nausea returns.  I feel more and more exhausted as the day goes on until I fall into bed at 8:00 PM.  Then, I wake up each and every night around 2:00 am and lay there, wide awake, for two hours.  It's been happening for so long (two months) that I despair of ever sleeping through the night again.  Nighttime wakefulness has become a very bad habit.

I've gained 10 pounds so far.  From what I've found online, 20 pounds by 20 weeks is the goal to prevent pre-term labor, one of my concerns.  I've been gaining a steady one pound per week since I've gone on the medication for nausea.  My doctor told me to not worry about not gaining much and I'm trying to follow her advise.  My belly isn't the only thing that has grown, my bra size has gone from a AA to a C!

The babies are big enough for me to feel every day.  I wish I could feel them both at the same time but so far I feel one moving around and a while later I feel the other.  The best time to feel them move is right when I go to bed at night.  I don't know if that's because they they move more then or it's because I'm not distracted by other things.

One good thing of feeling better is that Dode is back to sleeping with me.  When I was at my sickest, he chose to sleep downstairs since I was going to bed before him and he'd wake me up when he came to bed, only to leave me miserable and sick again.  He's also a restless sleeper and I'm a light sleeper.  He was waking me up several times a night and with the insomnia in the middle of everything, getting quality sleep was very elusive.  I don't know if a month on the couch taught him to be a better sleeper, but so far he hasn't been waking me up more than once a night, and some nights not at all.  Bedtime is the only time Dode and I have to talk without children interrupting so the last month has felt very lonely and isolated for me.

Not the pregnancy I was planning on

After four rough pregnancies, I decided that this pregnancy was going to be different.  It had been over eight years since I'd been pregnant.  I'd been eating a plant based diet for two years.  I exercised vigorously 5 days a week.  I planned for a pregnancy that I would sail through with comparative ease, the glow of pregnancy lighting my days.  The reality is quite different!

As we walked into the Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic to get our ultrasound at 12 weeks to check for genetic abnormalities, I said, "This is the only time I'm coming here this pregnancy."  Maternal Fetal Medicine specializes in high risk pregnancy.  I'd had several visits with them while pregnant with Miriam once we realized my amniotic fluid was very low.  For those visits, I was either wheeled down the hall from my hospital room or got visits right in my room.  Walking into the clinic with my own two feet was refreshing, but still, it was going to be the only time!  As soon as the ultrasound technician ran her magic wand over my belly, revealing two occupants, my vision of a perfect pregnancy became clouded with a new reality.  Twins automatically equal a high risk pregnancy.

I decided that I'd have the ideal twin pregnancy.  I'd gain the correct amount of weight, have babies that grew appropriately, have a body that cooperated fully, and my babies would have to be introduced to the world not because they decided it was time to come early, but because at 38 weeks they had worn out their welcome.

Once again, my warm fuzzy vision has come up against cold hard reality.  After my second visit to "the place I was never going back to" for our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks, we met with the perinatologist where he gave us all the good news.  Babies are right on for size, they're close to the same size, they are in separate sacks with separate placentas, my cervix is longer than average.  Basking in all the good news, I was ready to get up and leave when he mentioned a "little wrinkle".  I currently have a complete placenta previa and an anterior placed (front of uterus) placenta that covers my C-Section scar.  Both those things can resolve if the placenta moves upwards as my uterus expands, and with twins it should be doing a lot of that.  Both those things can cause serious consequences if they don't resolve.  Consequences for me, ranging from bed rest to severe blood loss to hysterectomy.  In order to monitor everything, I need ultrasounds every two weeks to check on things, ultrasounds at that place I was only going to once this time, Maternal Fetal Medicine.

So, I'm making the best of where we are.  For now, I haven't had any problems with the previa.  Spotting and bleeding is a warning sign that things are not OK and I would need medical intervention.  I'm gaining weight, not as much as I'd like to or should, but the scale is going up.  My nausea is 80% better.  My uterus has been nice and quiet, not irritable like it has been with the last three pregnancies.  When I lay in bed at night, unable to sleep because of worries about what's ahead, I tell my body, "Cervix: long and strong", "Uterus: relaxed and impenetrable".  

It's not the pregnancy I had planned.  It seems filled with scary complications I never anticipated.  (Dode says he's not at all surprised given our history!)  So far, two ultrasounds have brought scary news.  I'm a bit worried about the future ones!  But the excitement of waiting to welcome two new family members is overcoming all the fear.  If I could use my will to sweep away all the complications, I would.  Instead, I'll use my strong will to make the best of where we are.  For now, we're pregnant with twins and couldn't be more blessed!

A break from blogging

So, after blogging almost once a week for over two years, I suddenly (unexpectedly) took three months off.  Why?  I was sick as could be.  For over a month, I didn't leave the house.  I either lay on the couch or in my bed when I wasn't running to the bathroom.  There was no blogging because many of the fun things got canceled.  The things that did happen, I wasn't there for and didn't feel like writing about.  Family vacation was cancelled.  Family activities were cancelled.  Dode did his best to get out with the kids but it made me sad to be left behind.  My life became centered around trying to make it through the day so I could go to bed at 8:00 pm and not feel sick until I woke up in the morning.

The children started to wonder at this strange sickness that mom just couldn't shake and a few of them were getting seriously concerned for my health.  It was time to spill the beans.  I was pregnant!  Some of the children were absolutely excited from the beginning.  Others were neutral.  Some were horrified.  "Just knowing how babies are made makes me cringe to think about it."

During pregnancy I've always been nauseous and I've often thrown up early in pregnancy but this time, it was like no pregnancy before.  There was no way I could do anything.  I didn't even feel safe to drive.  It hit me at 5 weeks and just kept getting worse and worse.  I thought that maybe because I'm a mom of "advanced maternal age", my body was just having a hard time.  Well, being a mom over 40, I was eligible to have an ultrasound to screen for Down Syndrome.  When we went in to the ultrasound at 12 weeks, we got a big surprise.  Twins!  Now I knew why I was so sick!

Being pregnant with twins is exciting and terrifying at the same time.  I'm not even thinking about the exhaustion, chaos, and diaper bill when they get here.  Right now, my biggest worry is keeping them safe and sound inside me until they are ready to face the world.  Another worry is helping them grow nice and big.  I was given a prescription for Zofran by my doctor.  It helps with the nausea but by the end of the afternoon, I am very sick.  I often sit at the dinner table and stare at my food, trying to force myself to eat.  Elizabeth is very concerned for me so while I'm sitting there with may face in my hands, staring down at my food she'll ask, "Mom, how are you feeling?"  I just want to snap at her, "How do you think I'm feeling!  Look at me!"  Since the beginning of my pregnancy, I've gained very little weight.  I never thought I'd step on the scale and be frustrated that it's not moving upward!

I've delivered four babies.  Twice with a Family Practice Dr. and twice with an OB.  I prefer using a family doctor because they deliver their own babies, as opposed to an OB who is only on call certain days of the week for deliveries.  I also like the "one stop shopping" approach of a family doctor.  Any non pregnancy health issues can be taken care of at checkups.  After the baby comes, the same doctor can do my after care and take care of the baby.  So, I started off with a family practice doctor this time, against Dode's wishes.  Dode prefers that I am seen by someone who specializes just in pregnancy since I've had a hard time each time.  Well, as soon as we found out I was having twins, I became a high risk pregnancy and it was time to switch to an OB.  The doctor who helped with Elizabeth and Miriam has retired from doing OB so I am using one of his partners, who happened to have performed the C-Section on Miriam.

As a mom of advanced years, I qualify for a new screening test called Cell Free DNA screening.  I never knew this, but floating around in the blood of a pregnant woman are DNA particles from the fetus.  (We asked if women have DNA from all the babies they've ever had floating around inside and they said the test is still so new, they aren't sure how long the DNA lasts.)  Through a blood test, they can isolate those particles and test for Chromosomal abnormalities.  This test does away with the risky amniocentesis test, which can cause miscarriages.  At my age, the chance of an abnormality are 1:10.  We have absolutely no intention of ending a pregnancy if something was amiss.  I just wanted to know so that we could prepare and make sure that the doctors were also ready to start helping from the first minutes of life.  My screening results came back a few weeks later, normal.

A side benefit of the Cell Free DNA screening is the discovery of gender.  With a single pregnancy, the gender verification is over 99% accurate.  With a twin pregnancy, not so much.  The test only looks at the presence of a Y chromosome.   So, the results we could get are: there are no boys or at least one boy.  We told the doctors office that we want to find out the gender when we're all together as a family and I recently received an envelope with the results inside.  I'm a bit hesitant to open it since it might not give us an answer.  I have an ultrasound coming up in a few weeks and am thinking of holding off until after that.

One thing I'm excited about with this pregnancy is getting a big tummy.  I've always had a tiny baby bump, so much so that on that last "40 weeks" photo, I have to place my arm around my bump to press my shirt down and make it more visible!  Well, this time that shouldn't be a problem.  In fact, I had to stop wearing my normal clothes pretty quickly.

Dode says I'm breaking my own rule by creating a blog post with no photos.  I've felt so sick, there was just no way I was up to smiling for the camera.  Hopefully, that will soon be gone!

Fourth of July, 2013

Well, this post is a little late but things have been a bit crazy around here!  After the children had so much fun being in the Fourth of July Parade last year, we knew early on we'd be doing it again this year.  details here In order to consolidate our effort, we used the same theme on our float that we were using for day camp, Outer Space.  The absolute highlight of the float, and of camp, was the rocket Dode built.

There was a rusty old oil drum out in the swamp next to the house.  Dode got the inspiration to turn it into a rocket.  The first hurdle was pulling it out of the swamp.  The oil drum weighs hundreds of pounds.  After years of sitting there, it had firmly settled itself into the muck.  Dode wrapped tie down straps around it and slowly pulled it out onto the pavement with our big van.  Then, he got to planning.

Dode's master plan

The skills Dode uses for drawing maps come in handy when we're designing something.  He can draw something up in AutoCAD, add some "to scale" people, and we can see if the proportions are off.  His vision was for a rocket that looked like something a bunch of kids could build in their back yard.

Everything on the rocket is metal and he used the help of his dad and a friend from church to do most of the welding.  He also would do a bit of welding himself, then go watch a YouTube video for tips, then weld some more.  The only things we needed to buy for the rocket was a sheet of metal for the nose cone, a pipe to attach the nose cone to, and some rubber guard to go around the raw edges.

finished rocket

Pretty close to what he designed!

Once the rocket was built, getting it onto our parade trailer was a bit of work.  Dode build a wooden launching platform so the rocket would be at an angle.  Dode, Isaac, and Jacob used every bit of strength they had to slowly hoist it onto the trailer.  One difficult part is a little nozzle that comes out of the bottom back part of the rocket (part of the original oil drum).  They had to lift extra high to get that nozzle up and over the wooden frame.  I think they all walked away holding their backs!

A friend from church came over the morning of the 4th and worked with the children to decorate up the rest of the float.  We re-used fringe I bought last year for the Nativity float.  Everyone helped attach it to the float with stick on velcro.  Then, they hid the ugly trailer with long lengths of muslin (also Nativity float!)  We have a Yoda and knew he had to go somewhere on the float.  He ended up perched on the cardboard covered lawn mower.  We have a fog machine and Dode was able to rig it up in the back of the rocket, powering it with our boat's battery to add to our blast off effect.

We all dressed up in steam punk clothes (or a loose approximation of such!) that I'd gathered up at garage sales.

We had to get to the parade early to set up and since we were once again pulling the trailer with a lawn mower, Dode had to change the hitch on the trailer to the lawn mower adapter once we got to town.  But, we got it all put together with time to spare before the parade.

Coming down main street.  Our friend Brad drove the lawnmower covered in a cardboard rocket.  Dode objected, he HATED the cardboard covering the lawnmower.  I told him it would look like kid built rocket vs. grown up built rocket.  Any doubt who won?!  I'm sure the Girl Scout troop behind us loved traveling the entire length of the parade in our fog cloud!

My mom hollered for Isaac to stay with us long enough to join us for a photo but he bailed off to hang out with his friends at the end of the parade. Anastays's friend Sidney is standing between Dode and Anastaya.  The children thought riding on the float was great fun.

  My mom and Greg came up to watch us.  Spotting Boma in the crowd was the best part for the kids.

2nd place, again!

After the parade, Boma and Greg took us out to dinner after which they headed home and we went to watch the town fireworks display.

Making the float was a lot of work (especially that rocket!) but more important than the float, we're making memories.  That's what makes it all worth while.  We plan to do it again next year with the cub camp theme of Medieval.

William's 9th birthday: A boat ride

William's 9th birthday fell on a Saturday this year so we celebrated as a family by going on a boat ride. We got the boat ready and Dode decided to check the battery before pulling out of the driveway.  Totally dead.  He spent an hour charging it and it was still dead.  He'd washed the boat a few weeks before and Miriam had been playing up in front.  She'd left the radio on and we'd drained the battery until it was absolutely spent.  So, on the way to boating, we detoured to Costco to purchase a new battery.  We always avoid Costco on Saturdays and for good reason, it was crazy.  You have to purchase the battery in the tire area and the four people standing in line in front of me were all purchasing tires.  So, the wait was long while they decided which tires, which extras they wanted.  Then, after purchasing the battery, I had to stand in the customer service line to get my core charge back.  Finally, we were on the road with a running boat, several hours behind schedule!  We launched from the Highway 20 boat launch under the bridge connecting Fidalgo Island to the mainland.

We boated down the channel to LaConner, passed under the rainbow bridge and landed at Goat Island.  Goat Island at one time was the home of Fort Whitman.  Fort Whitman was used from 1911-1944.  It was built to guard the Deception Pass and  Saratoga Pass entrances into the Puget Sound.  It contained one gun battery with 4 disappearing guns, Battery Harrison. When the fort was decommissioned at the end of World War 2, all the salvageable metal was removed and it was deeded to the DNR.  It was simply abandoned, there is no visitor's center, interpretive signs or even any formally built trails.  We knew about it because Dode had visited there with Isaac years ago and Elizabeth and I were just there when we took a boat ride with Captain Dave in the spring.  I knew the rest of the children would also enjoy exploring the fort.

 We walked up the user built trail to the old fort on the island.  We ate our picnic lunch there and did some exploring of the gun batteries.  Miriam was hesitant to go into any of the dark tunnels, even with her parents.

Trees, moss and ferns are overtaking everything.  William is standing on the stairs the lead up to the area where the men could load the ammunition into the guns.  

The structures are fully covered in graffiti

our birthday boy

We knew there was a sighting structure somewhere on the island so we used Dode's phone to search the internet to see if anyone could tell us where it was located.  The trail to the sighting area is definitely not used as much as the trail to the fort but we made it to our destination with no problem.  The children enjoyed climbing around it before we headed back to the boat.

Where the soldiers used to look out over the water for enemy submarines.

side view of sighting structure

Miriam wore her swimsuit all day.  It looked a bit funny to see her hiking through the woods in just a swim suit!

Dode thought Miriam needed to use the bathroom so we started to head over to the South end of Goat Island where there is a campground with a pit toilet.  (He didn't know that she'd used the bushes.)  Unfortunately, it was really shallow in that area so we decided to turn around and head back.  We were almost back to deep water (literally 5-10 feet from it) when we hit a rock and damaged our prop.

The damaged prop, ouch!

After that, we couldn't do top speeds in the boat without feeling a lot of shimmy but we still had a fun day.

Anastaya relaxing on the boat

The water of Puget Sound was smooth enough for some tubing.

We boated under the Deception Pass bridge and stopped at Deception Pass State Park where we played on the beach for a while and everyone used the bathroom.

On the way back under the bridge, we towed the girls in the tube.  People on the bridge looked down and waved.

It's a warm day when you're swimming in the sound!

Here's our route.

Once we were done playing at the state park, it was time to head towards home.  Jacob was home from work by then so we called ahead and he had a pancake dinner waiting for us.  It was a nice way to end the day.

2013 Day Camp Days 3 and 4

Days 3 and 4

Monday is always the most chaotic day of camp with everyone trying to figure out what they are doing, both den leaders and station leaders.  Tuesday usually runs pretty smoothly as the station leaders have all run through their classes for a complete day and the den leaders feel more confident.  Wednesday is the 2nd most chaotic day as we change to new classes which means things might not work, supplies might be missing, the boys might not be interested.  Here's what we did for days three and four.

Space Ships

I'd ordered flying disks from Dollar Tree that they could decorate but they ended up on back order.  We made foil covered paper plates instead.  They actually fly really well.

Trying to land their space ships at the "space station".

Car Launchers

Decorating her launcher.

My step dad Greg cut and partially assembled the 150 launchers for us.  Each boy got to decorate their launcher and select a new hot wheels car.

We don't have any pavement at camp so I bought a sheet of plywood the boys could race their cars on.

Robots
They rotated through some fun games: giant kerplunk, ladder golf and knock over the laundry baskets.

They also tried to work together at their "robot factory" to pass a marble from one piece of PVC pipe to another without dropping it.

Giant Kerplunk to test their precision as robots.

Aliens

They decorated alien visors from Oriental Trading.

They built popcycle stick and rubber band catapults and launched their aliens into space.

instructions here

Cooking

Eating "zero gravity" food

We also made campfire eclairs.

Day camp has many variations on the "food on a stick" genre.

After baking their crescent roll, they filled it with pudding they made in a bag and frosted it with chocolate frosting.

The Moon

Oreo phases of the moon

 Race to the moon relay

Two teams with their flags planted on the moon

William modeling the astronaut outfit ahead of time.

The boys dressed up in tyvek astronaut suits complete with 2-liter bottle rocket packs, rubber moon boots and 2 gallon bucket astronaut helmets.

They had to dress like an astronaut, make their walk to the moon, then return to their team, take off the astronaut outfit and help the next person dress like an astronaut.  It was a fun game, and I thought it up myself!

during the relay

Blast Off

Kool-Aid squeezers paper rocket launchers

Balloon rocket races

Nature Walk
Every year the boys get to take a nature walk down to the river.  This year, on Tuesday morning I asked the property manager if the trail was ready for us.  He said he thought it was but he'd make sure.  It wasn't long before I saw a truck load of workers head down to the trail and soon we heard weed whackers and chain saws running.  They worked all day to get the trail ready for us to use the next day.

Here's part of the path.

How many camps get this kind of beauty so close by yet don't have to worry about it during the regular part of camp?  The nature walk was some of the adults favorite part of camp.

This large tree is on the nature walk.

Repeated from days 1 and 2:  flag football, archery, bb guns, den time