More Camp

Camp ended on Thursday and we had a great time!  Here are more pictures of the week in Arts and Crafts.  Michelle and I were making plaster to make footprints in the sand:

 On Thursday we made ice cream sundaes.  They looked so real!

Emily brought home an extra turtle that the kids made on Tuesday and she made her own:

 

Here are some pictures of Emily and Abigail having fun at camp.  They were in the preschool area each day and had a Junior Camp.  But each morning they enjoyed playing in the worship center before camp started:

 Abigail helping Shannon take roll for her group:

 Emily met a girl in her class named Emily and they were the best of friends all week.  Emily wouldn't go into class each morning until her friend got there . . . good thing Emily came each day!

I gave my camera to Matt's mom so she could get some pictures for me of Emily and Abigail.  Emily loved going to the worship center each day to sing with Matt:

By the end of the week some of the young 2s were still having a hard time, but Abigail did great all week:

 

She learned how to play soccer (didn't get pics) and T-ball and basketball:

 

 

One of the crafts Abigail brought home was footprints with God.  Here she is making her craft:

The finished product . . . so sweet!

On Thursday after camp we had to finish cleaning up the Arts and Crafts room so Emily and Abigail had a snack in the hall while we cleaned:

 

We enjoyed Camp Hickory 2011!!!!

Camp Hickory

This week we are having our camp at church.  It's a sports and arts camp mixed with devotionals and songs.  I've really enjoyed helping out this week with the camp!  They opened it to preschoolers this year so Emily and Abigail are getting to attend.  Technically Abigail is too young but since I was volunteering they put her with the 2 year olds.  I was afraid she might feel overwhelmed but her teachers and other staff have been telling me how well she has been doing.  They took the 2 year olds outside yesterday for soccer and they said she paid attention to the coach and when he asked them to put their foot on the ball she did : )  They also had their own worship time once the big kids went to their activities and when the song director was going over the motions to the songs they said Abigail did her best to follow along and did her version of all the motions.  I would have loved to see that!

We started out this weekend getting all the registration packets together.  Here was our kitchen and living room most of Saturday while Joe and I got the packets together:

 Abigail wanted to play in the pile of shirts so I gave her one to wear and she was happy:

Emily and Abigail entertained themselves with the piano and played while we sorted:

Here are some pictures I took today of camp.  I think it's neat how they have the kids separated.  They have them in groups by color so all activities in the worship area and lunch time and bathroom breaks, they are with their color group and team leaders:

But on their name tags they have an Activity 1 and an Activity 2 that they have chosen for the week.  The choices are basketball, soccer, cheerleading, arts and crafts, painting, or mixed media.  So if they pick basketball for activity 1 and painting for activity 2 then those are the two activities they do all week.  So when it's time to break for an activity, those of us helping in the particular areas get all the kids for our activity.  I'm working in arts and crafts:

After activity 1 session we break for snack and have a small devotional time with our kids.  We have 3 group leaders in arts and crafts so we each got 9 kids and sat down to eat snack and talk with each other and share on the topic of the day and pray together:

Then it's back to the worship center for some more singing and then we get the group of kids that chose Arts and Crafts for their 2nd activity.  The devo time and time in the worship center gives the activity leaders time to clean up and get ready for session 2:

I've been really impressed with one of our teens, Matt, who is in charge of all the activities in the worship center.  He has done SUCH a great job with the kids!  He shaved his head for this week : )

 

After session 2 we take them back to the worship center and they have a Bible lesson time and then head to lunch.  We spend this time cleaning up our two arts and crafts rooms and then head to lunch.  All volunteers have lunch prepared for them!!!!  This has been an extra special treat.  After lunch everyone heads back to the worship center for some group activities and free time and announcements and then all groups head to the hallways for carpool time.

I am really having a great time!!!!  And Emily and Abigail are enjoying the preschool version of it.  Their version of camp is more like a day at preschool with art time and outside time.  Emily told me that yesterday she played soccer and today she played basketball with the other 4 year olds.  Emily will be old enough next year to participate with the "big kids".

Happy 4th!!!

We had an enjoyable 4th of July!  On Sunday the girls wore some sun dresses that were made several years ago when Emily was a baby.  Michelle and DeeDee made matching outfits for the 4 grandchildren at the time:

So on Sunday, Emily wore Sarah's dress and Abigail wore Emily's dress.  My how time flies!!!

 When we got to church, Jason got up to lead singing and we noticed that Joe and Jason were wearing the exact same shirts : )

Sunday afternoon, Joe and Emily went to see the new Cars movie and had a great time together!  And then that evening we had dinner with our neighbors.

This morning we went to the Marietta square to enjoy the festival.  This is our 3rd year to go and we had a great time together as a family.  It was much hotter this year so there weren't as many people there.  This made it nice for Emily:

While Emily was spending her tickets on jump houses, Joe and Abigail went in search of fans and came back with prizes!  Abigail tossed a coin and it landed on a free t-shirt for Joe and a gold necklace for Abigail:

We then ate our traditional festival food of corn dogs!!!  I brought some fruit from home to get some nutrition in for the day : )

 Just chillin . . . .

 

Tonight the Lydas came over for a cookout:

 

 

The girls enjoyed playing in the dirt : )

 

After dinner we made our way downtown to watch the fireworks . . . . but about the time we got all setup, a police car came around blaring on his loud speaker that the fireworks were postponed due to the rain:

Oh well . . . . they have rescheduled them for Tuesday.

 Happy 4th of July everybody!!!!!!

Water Park Part 2

Well we attempted the water park again on Friday with friends again and had a MUCH better time this go around.  We met April and Riley and Shannon and Kyle and Sydnee on Friday morning when the park opened.  Emily was still sensitive to the water in her face, but after lunch April talked us in to going to the wave pool.  I thought Emily would be too scared but that girl got out there and rode the waves and let it splash all around her and had a great time!  She made me nervous with how adventurous she was being.  Then we went around the lazy river several times and had a blast!  Who knew!  So thanks April for suggesting that we try these two areas of the park because I never would have thought Emily would have enjoyed them.  We were there from 10 - 3:30 and Emily didn't want to leave : )

Abigail even got drenched because she walked thru all the water sprinklers in the play area while Emily rode her favorite slide.

 

 

 Emily even attempted the middle slide this time.  She was too scared to go down this one because the rush of water at the beginning was bigger than the other slides: