Weekly Review June 27 '09

I hope all the dads had a nice Father’s Day! I think Frank did… He didn’t have any presents to open since he got his new grill last week, but we did get him some cards and I took care of everything so he could relax all day. We also made him a nice “southern” dinner—fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, and biscuits—yum!

Scott spent the week helping with cub scout day camp. They always need boy scouts to help the adults with all the different stations, and volunteering helps him fulfill some of his community service hours (he has to have 75 hours to graduate from high school). Day camp was every day—8:30 to 3:30 Monday through Thursday, and noon to 3:30 on Friday. Scott helped with the sports station all week. I was worried that he would find it rather boring and tiring (I always did!), but he never complained and when I asked him on Thursday if he wanted to do it again next year, he said “Yes, it’s fun.” He was outside all day and he got very tan!

Scott's new tan lines

On Monday we had one of Jared’s friends from church here all day (Joseph) because his mom went to girls’ camp and needed places for him to go during the day while her husband was at work. Joseph was well behaved (and polite—he complimented me on both meals and thanked us for having him over!) and Jared enjoyed playing with him so it was nice to have him here. I was busy all day with little chores and I also finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book. It was better than I had remembered. That evening for family night we went for a walk—the whole family, including Snickers!

Jared, Tanner, Seth and I went camping with my friend Jeanine and her two younger boys (Kalvin and Brendan) Tuesday through Thursday. We spent Tuesday morning getting all packed. After Seth woke up from his afternoon nap we headed to the camp ground. We got there in time to unpack and make dinner. Jeanine and her boys got there ahead of us; they had gone swimming and then came back to the campground to get a fire started for us. We had made foil dinners for everybody, so I was glad they had a fire started already! After dinner we made s’mores and visited. We were having so much fun that we didn’t realize how late it was and didn’t get to bed until after 10:30.

Tanner, Jared & Brendan playing games

Jeanine getting a little work done

Unfortunately, Seth liked to hide behind the cabins!

Kalvin was a total angel, though, and followed Seth around and played with him!

Seth refused to sleep in the porta crib, so he ended up with me in my bed which wasn’t too bad since I had a double bed to myself. I discovered that he thrashes around a lot when he sleeps, though! It took Seth a while to settle down—he kept asking “What you doing, Mommy?” “What you doing, Tanner?” “What you doing, Jared?” He finally fell asleep, though. I can’t say I had a great night’s sleep, but I’ve definitely had worse!

In the morning we made French toast with strawberries, bacon, and sausage for everybody. Yummy!! Then we cleaned up and played some games until lunch time. After lunch we went to the lake for a swim. (We were camping at Cunningham Falls State Park—the same park we visited on Memorial Day. They have a beautiful lake there with a nice sandy beach.) The boys had a ball. Seth liked throwing sand and mud, unfortunately, but he also liked wading in the shallow water and helping to build sand castles. We got back in time to make dinner—Jeanine and her boys made us hot dogs. We also had more s’mores as well as roasted bananas. We got to bed a little earlier, but still kind of late. Seth had missed his nap so he fell asleep around 8:00 and slept until 8:00 the next morning (although he was restless again!) Between Seth and some loud people who were making lots of noise around 1:30, I still didn’t sleep too well but it wasn’t too bad. (We were in cabins and we had neighbors on either side of us, but until the last night we were the only four families there. The neighbors on either side of us were really nice. The loud people must have arrived late on Wednesday.)

Tanner & Seth

Kalvin & Jared

Jared & Seth

Teamwork!

Architect at work!

Yehaw!!! Tanner & Seth enoy the twisty slide.

Seth loves the slide

Thursday morning Jeanine and her boys made us pancakes, sausage, and bacon for breakfast. Then we started packing everything up. Jeanine took the boys down to the lake for another swim while I finished packing our car. Seth stayed with me and he was content to play in the front of the car while I put everything in the back. Then I went to pick up the boys and we said good bye to Jeanine and boys. We had a great time and are so thankful they invited us to camp with them! The weather was perfect (not too hot, not too cold, no rain) and we were camping in such a beautiful area. We saw lots of squirrels and chipmunks and even a couple of deer. It was relaxing and fun to get caught up with our friends.

Hunting Creek Lake--the picture doesn't do it justice!

After we got home the boys helped me get everything unpacked and put away. We also washed dishes and got the laundry going. Frank arrived home shortly after we finished all that. He went to pick up Scott from day camp about an hour later. It was nice to see them again—we missed them! The rest of the evening was busy finishing laundry, making dinner, and getting caught up on other chores. Tanner had a summer party that evening from 6:30 to 9:30 with some kids from school. Frank took him to that, too.

While we were gone, Frank kept very busy with work and Scott was busy with Day Camp. They got a pizza the first night we were gone and made pancakes the next night. Scott said on Thursday evening that it was nice to have a “home cooked” meal, which made me laugh since all I’d made was BLT sandwiches! I told him he was just missing that little dose of “mother love” I put in all the meals I make!

Friday started early—we had Joseph over again and he was arriving between 6:00 and 6:30. Actually, he didn’t actually show up until about 7:00, but we were up earlier since we weren’t sure when to expect him. He was only here about an hour because he had 11 year old scout camp that day starting at 8:30. (Jared and Joseph were born in the same year, but Joseph’s birthday is in June so he’s already 11 but Jared won’t be 11 until October so he doesn’t get to go to 11 year old scout camp until next year). Anyway, I had a busy day being “chauffeur” as well as catching up on a lot of things that didn’t get done while I was gone camping. Besides dropping Joseph off at his camp, I also took Scott to day camp at 11:30, picked up Scott at 4:00, and took Scott to go ice skating at 8:00. I also did more laundry, got the grocery shopping done (2 stores) vacuumed, etc.!!! I was exhausted by the end of the day. Frank worked about 4 hours in the morning, came home for a few hours, and then went back to work at 3:00 and didn’t get home until 10:00 (he picked up Scott at the ice rink on his way home). Scott went ice skating with a group of other kids who had volunteered at day camp all week. The other boys and I had movie night.

This morning Frank is back at work (he’s fixing some problems for a new client here in Frederick). The boys and I did scouts, got bathrooms cleaned, and Tanner mowed the lawn. Now the boys are playing games. We’re going to the library later and I’m sure I’ll find lots of other little chores that need to be done before the day is over! (There is always an endless supply of those, it seems…)

Now that our camping trip is over, I hope to get better organized and into a more regular summer routine!