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

Jackpot, Honey

Chuck-E-Cheese prize glasses in my bed at 6:45 a.m. Saturday

Friday night Casey went to a friend's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese's.  Emily was awake most of the night before and that meant I was too.  I decided to just drop Casey off at the party and go home and take a quick nap because I was sooo exhausted and this party wasn't over until 9:30 (that's getting a little too close to my bedtime some nights).  I knew she was safe and looked out for at the party because the moms I knew were staying there.  As I arrived to pick her up, I made eye contact with a couple of the moms who were smiling at me and shaking their heads.  I know this look.  I used to see it almost every time I picked Casey up from religion class this year.  Casey had been her entertaining self and had said something that some adult thought was amusing.  Apparently Casey had been quite lucky at the arcade games there and had gathered a large number of tickets that she got to trade for junk prizes.  At one particular game, as a burst of tickets came spitting out of the machine, I guess she started to flap her hands in front of her and gasp/laugh/exclaim something to the effect of, "Oh my gosh!  Oh my gosh!  I hit the jackpot!  My mom is going to be soooo proud of me!"  Over and over.  Our dear, funny, dramatic Casey...

My big (funny) girl

Emily at the pool

It was a pretty low-key weekend here.  The girls and I went to the pool Saturday and Sunday for a little while and then I managed to catch Emily's cold.  So I think I'll try to get to bed early tonight.  Tom left today for New Jersey today for training.  He'll be gone almost 2 weeks and my mom has come to hang out with me and the girls here this week.  If I can get over this cold, there will be shopping this week.  And if I can't get over this cold, there will still be shopping this week :)  After the girls go to bed mom and I sit up and watch Food Network or House Hunters on HGTV and talk until we both start nodding off sitting up on the couch when she's here.  I like these times with mom.  A lot of times I wished we lived closer but I know if we did, we probably wouldn't get as much of this quality one-on-one time; it would probably be more quick visits and would be more every-day ordinary.  So we spend many nice relaxing evenings catching up on family gossip when we do visit each other for days in a row ....

Casey's first day of Girl Scout day camp was today.  This is the first time she's gone and she looked so little and yet so big with her backpack of gear stuff this morning.  Camp is from 8:30 to 3:30 each day and if the rest of the week is as much fun as today was, she'll be looking forward to camp next year already this weekend!



Before first day of camp

After first day of camp

Emily's vocabulary continues to expand.  Now she does not hesitate to tell me, "I know!" when I ask her to do something and she is currently calling everyone, "Honey."  It is completely adorable.  What is not adorable are the fits lately.  Ugh!  We are coming to a crossroads of communication with Emily.  She is understanding more, yet does not have the vocabulary to express herself entirely.  And when sister does not feel she is understood or does not agree with a request (like holding my hand in a parking lot or coming to get her hair brushed), she begins to cry and have a fit.  Ugh!  (have I said that yet?)  Ugh!  It's a phase.  I know that.  But it is frustrating sometimes.  I tell myself to be patient with her and it is times like these that I come to a crossroads.  We try very hard to not treat Emily differently and we have the same expectations for her as we do for Casey, but there are times when we need a different approach with Emily.  We only have 2 kids, so maybe every parent manages situations on a kid-by-kid basis; I don't know.  Or maybe it's just part of our special family dynamic.  Either way, it's a phase Casey didn't spend long in, if ever, so we are working through it.  The tantrums never last long at all (I'm not trying to portray a scene from Super Nanny or anything),  and before we know it she's distracted and moved on to asking someone to read her a book...."Please, Honey".

Playing office on the girs' ironing board

"Honey, come here!" on the register's mike