Camp buy me love

Whew! This past week has flown by! On Monday Tom left for a 12 day trip to New Jersey for work. He doesn't travel often for work and I'm grateful for that. I can manage the daily operations at home and with the girls, I just like it better when we're together. My mom offered to come spend a week with me and the girls, so she came Monday. Monday was also the first day of Girl Scout day camp for Casey. This was her first year going to camp and I had heard the girls that went last year had fun, so I was excited for her to go. So Monday was a busy day and from then on, the week just went quickly.

My parents live in Ottawa, a small town amidst the cornfields in northwest Ohio, where I grew up. Aside from the local Wal-Mart, the closest retail establishment to Ottawa is a 25 minute drive. So when my mom comes to visit us, we mostly end up shopping. When I was growing up my mom hardly ever bought anything for herself. My dad worked long, hard hours to assure that we had everything we needed and some things we wanted. None of us dressed in designer label anything and hand-me-downs were passed on, patched as required. My mom and dad always 'made due' with the things they had; I rarely remember ever going shopping for them. In turn, we always took a family vacation each summer to some place memorable and we had a pretty great above-ground pool at our disposal from morning to midnight every day it was warm. So when my mom comes to visit now and wants to go shopping, I like to think she's just trying to catch up for all those years she never indulged on anything. I used to think maybe shopping just wasn't my mom's thing. It was my thing. I was wrong. Maybe the resources just weren't available to her to tap this unknown interest. Because my mom and I can, and have, put some marathon hours perusing the retail establishments together in Cincinnati. All that saving and skimping my parents did while we were growing up has allowed them to enjoy and afford all of their needs and wants now. I enjoy watching my mom buy things for herself and spoil the grand kids as she sees fit.  And I imagine the management at the Kenwood Towne Centre, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, HomeGoods, TJMaxx, and IKEA are pretty happy to see my mom roll into town, too. :)

Graeter's ice cream (good thing Nana likes ice cream)

Coloring contest teammates

Coloring contest teammates

As I suspected, Girl Scout camp was a lot of fun for Casey.  I dropped her off at 8:15 each morning and picked her up at 3:30 each afternoon.  I was told that she cried the first day after she didn't pass the swim test each girl had to take to leave the shallow area.  Not every girl even tried to take the test and I am proud that she gave it a try and was competitive enough to care that she didn't pass.  If you ask Casey what her favorite part of camp was, she might say swimming in the pool (which was still a lot of fun in the shallow area), or her group getting lost on the nature walk when vans had to be called to retrieve them, or the super silly-fun names the older Girl Scout helpers made up for themselves (Smoothie, Cool Whip, Dory..) or the many repeater songs they learned.  Either way, every afternoon at pickup, the voices of little girls lifted from the arriving buses to the tunes of chants and songs (repeater songs) and it was fun to be a bystander to it all.  They got off the buses looking exhausted, yet excited to tell about their day.  It was a little sisterhood for them; maybe a little girls' sorority of some kind for one week of the summer.  She is already talking about nailing the swim test next summer at camp.  'Atta girl :)

Arriving home from day camp

This morning we packed up Nana and ourselves and came to my parents' house to hang out here for the next 5 days just because it's summer and we can.  Amy, Lorie, Jason, Braeden and Adysen came over today and it was great having the family together.  All that was missing was Tom :(   Dad (A.K.A. Papa) set up the kiddie pool and the slip-n-slide for the kids and the grill for burgers and dogs.  I love seeing the girls with their cousins and they all had a ball splashing, sliding, swining, biking and batting.  I look forward to some more of these moments in the next few days.  Knowing that the nearest Target is over an hour drive away leaves me feeling a little panicky, though - I mean what if I need something from the dollar bin in the next few days?!?  But fun memories will be made with family for my girls and I like that a lot.  That's something you just can't buy.

Casey, Braeden & Papa setting up

Emily contemplating if the water is too cold

Braeden sliding

Casey sliding

Helping Papa

The little girls' turn on the slip-n-slide

Casey helping Emily and Ady play baseball