Sophia's closing ceremony at camp

Each girl scout "level" did a skit/song for the audience which was made up of parents and siblings. Sophia was a frog in her group.  She's on the right side crouched down until her big froggie debut of bouncing! Not even jumping.  Everyone know that frogs jump and not bounce.

After each group performed we had the opportunity to eat some girl scout cookies.  Sophia just loves them and Lilly and I passed.

Here's the brownie song on video.  Yes, it's long and Sophia's part isn't until the end.  Click here to watch the video. 

Here's a picture of the girls that Sophia went to camp with this year. From left to right they are: Cameron, Haley, Sophia, Elizabeth.

Lilly had two play dates with Summer this week.  And then Lilly and her best buddy Carlie had a play date at our house on Friday for a few hours.  Look at how much they love each other.

Summer camps

Sophia's week-long girl scout camp started this morning bright and early.  It's from 8:30 - 4:30 every day. She was up at 6 am and hopped immediately into the shower to get ready for her big day. She attended camp last year and absolutely loved it.  She's been looking forward to this week all summer. This year the theme of her week is called "Take the Stage". I'm hoping this will allow Sophia to explore her talents like singing and acting while building her confidence.

She's got a few friends also attending this week. Haley, Elizabeth (from our girl scout troop), and Cameron (not a girl scout) all signed up together. When I dropped Sophia off this morning I tried to take her picture, but she insisted that I leave without snapping even a quick one. I have a feeling that I was embarrassing her. Oops!

There is a closing ceremony at 3:30 on Friday where the parents get to see what the girls have been doing all week.  I know they go swimming and canoeing every day and I think they also do a craft each day. Sophia didn't mention any acting or singing today so we'll see what she;s done all week on Friday at the ceremony.

Every time Sophia and I discussed her camp I could tell that Lilly was feeling left out and really wanted to go to camp too. Not necessarily girl scout camp, but she wanted something special to do all to herself.  So, Michelle and I took Lilly and Carlie to a cooking class today and called it camp. When we picked them up after class I could tell that Lilly didn't have a good time.  When I asked her she confirmed.  There goes $20 down the drain.  She may not have enjoyed it because the recipe they made was campfire potatoes.  Gross. The potatoes weren't even cooked all the way through.

Carlie goes to day care Tuesday - Thursday so Michelle can do the accounting for her dad's mini storage business.  We'll probably try to think of another "camp" for Carlie and Lilly to do on Friday.

Sadie and her pal, Lilly

The country club pool with Haley and Carlie

Friday was a big day for us. We had a pool play date with Haley and Carlie at the country club where their granddad is a member. I'll tell you what, if I belonged to that club, I would be there every day. There was hardly anyone there. There were two diving boards in the deep end (10 ft) for Haley and Sophia to jump off of while performing "tricks". I think Sophia thought she was doing tricks, but each jump looked exactly the same to me. (smile)

The girls must have asked 100 times when we were going to leave the pool.  They were so excited because Haley was spending the night at our house with Sophia and Lilly was spending the night with Carlie at her house. I think I ended up with the harder of the two pairs especially since mine didn't go to sleep until 11:30 and that was only after I climbed into bed with them.

We eventually left around 4:30.  The last half hour was extremely excruciating for them. After everyone was dry we parted ways. When we got home Haley and Sophia ran straight up to Sophia's bedroom and I didn't seem them for about an hour and a half.  After that they were attached to my hip. They asked me if I would color with them. So I did. Then they asked me to play a few card games with them. So I did. Then they asked me what else we could do together.  So were sorted out the border of a 1,000 piece puzzle.  That took a long time and I was grateful. 

A side note:  When I got the puzzle last week I thought the picture on the box was cool.  It's a crazy looking beach scene.  Well, when we started to do the puzzle I couldn't figure out how to start.  The four corners didn't match the images on the corners on the box. Strange....  Then I read the instructions that came with the puzzle.  Have you ever heard of a puzzle needing a page of instructions?  What I found out was that the image on the front of the box is the before picture and the puzzle that I'm supposed to put together is the after image.  Despite the difficulty of the task I've managed to get the whole border finished and have started slowly making my way through the puzzle from the outside edges - working my way to the center.

I found out later from Michelle that the younger two girls entertained themselves the entire time night.  She did get the easy pair.

Here are a few pictures taken the pool. 

Here are a few pictures from the sleep over at our house.  

Haley taught Sophia how to make duct tape purses, wallets, and a dog collar for Sadie. Sophia is now obsessed with creating duct tape things. As soon as we dropped off Haley on Saturday morning Sophia asked me if I would take her to the store so she could purchase some funky duct tape of her own with the $10 that Aunt Carole mailed to her.  

Here they are wearing their matching pajamas.  Sophia gave Haley the pajamas as a birthday present when she want to Halye's sleep over party. 

Don't these two look like they're up to no good?  They planned to stay up late and tell each other their deepest, darkest secrets.  This was Sophia's idea. She actually revealed one of her secrets to me.  I don't really feel like I'm betraying her because it's kind of a funny deep, dark secret. Here goes:  Sophia said she broke a necklace of Lillys that Will bought for her while we were in Hilton Head. 

I kind of thought she would reveal a little bit more about her super crush on Tug.  He was in her class for first grade. He was the genius of the classroom. He'll be going to another school next year, but Sophia insists that they are going to get married some day.  Wouldn't that be neat.  Instead of high school sweethearts they could be grade school sweethearts.  He's almost as tall as she is...so there might be hope afterall.

Here's a couple of pictures that Michelle shared with me of Carlie and Lilly playing and then watching an American Girl doll movie eating some popcorn.

 

This last picture shows the feast that Michelle made for them at breakfast. Pancakes and bacon.  Lilly doesn't eat pancakes because she doesn't like them, but she loves bacon.  Instead of telling Michelle that she didn't care for pancakes she told her that she liked pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles on top.  

Michelle sent me a text teasing me about what I was teaching my youngest to eat for breakfast.  I cracked up!  I can just see Lilly using her serious voice and telling Michelle like she eats that every day.  Of course I informed Michelle that Lilly was telling a tall tale. Michelle told me they ate the whipped cream and that's about all.

Trip to BJs

We made a run to BJs and the girls asked to walk down the toy aisle as soon as we got through the door.  I made them wait until I was done shopping for a few things. 

As we walked past the toys they couldn't resist asking for everything they saw. When I said no to all the toys they started asking me to buy them a movie. This begging really gets under my skin.  Lilly's gotten a bit of a lip on her lately and she repeats the request over and over in her most whiny voice and tells me that she won't stop until I get her something. This little game of hers doesn't work on me.

Here's a picture of some extremely large bears we saw. Sophia told me that if got one of the bears it would be her largest stuffed animal.  Well, no kidding. Lilly can barely hold hers up. 

It's a little too big

This costume dress used to fit Sophia, but it's been passed down to Lilly for her dress up pleasure even though she really doesn't play dress up.  She's never really been into it except for a few months last fall when she practically live in her Princess and the Popstar costume. She finally decided to try this pretty green dress the other day. I had to clasp the straps together in the back with an extra large hair clip to get it to stay up on her shoulders. 

By they way, don't you think she looks good in green?  

Just recently I decided that she looks best in bright colors.    

Lilly at the beach

It's kind of funny.  Every time we go to the pool or the beach I slather on sensitive skin sunscreen with zinc on Sophia and Lilly's faces. The zinc never rubs in the whole way. You can see Lilly sporting this fashionable look in the picture. 

A puppet show

On Wednesday of last week I took the girls to church for a black light puppet show.  It was awesome. The girls were completely in awe of what they were seeing, but when the lights came on the performers ruined the magic.  The began displaying their puppets and explaining how each one was  constructed.

 

After the puppet show there was a workshop where all the kids were encouraged to make their own puppets. The supplies were endless. You name it and I bet it was there. Everything from leis to lipstick. 

I was one of the adult helpers at the workshop and helped lots of kids get their creative juices flowing. Each adult helper was in charge of 5 of 6 kids and responsible for helping them design a specific character from a bible story.  Our story was the story of Moses floating down the river in a basket. Sophia got the part of "reeds".  You know, the kind that grow beside rivers and streams.  She made the coolest puppet reeds that I've ever seen.  She used 3 or 4 green pipe cleaners, wrapped them with green streamer tissue paper, bent them a little so they weren't all clumped together pointing straight up and then put a few green jewels on the top of her reeds. You can see Sophia holding up her green reeds in the back row on the left side. You can kind of see her face too.

For fun Sophia chose to make a sock puppet and turned it into a dog with floppy brown ears. I can't remember what she named it though. She has a name for each and every single one of her stuffed animals and she remembers how she acquired each one too.

Lilly chose not to make a puppet, but to be my assistant. She was my runner. Any time I needed a glue stick or fabric or scissors she was there to handle the job. She didn't want to make a puppet because she was "scared".  Of what, I'm not entirely sure. She's been on a kick lately.

The older she gets the more shy she is becoming.  Over the weekend she attended two birthday parties of girls from her class last year and once again clung to me because she didn't want to participate.  The first party was a princess tea party at a place called Tea Par Tea. Clever, right?  Our group was in the Alice and Wonderland room.  They also have a Lego room, butterfly room and a walk in the woods room which was quite dark except for the twinkling lights in the trees.

Even though this wasn't a drop off party and I was going to be there the whole time Lilly still didn't participate until half an hour into the party. Sophia used to do the same thing, but (knock on wood) has grown out of it.   

The second party was at her friend's house. It was scheduled to be a three hour party and it was a drop off. Sophia came with me to drop Lilly off at Olivia's house and when we got there she tricked me.  She immediately took off her shoes like the other girls and seemed like she was going to run and play with them, but instead she hid behind me and wouldn't let go of my arm. I eventually broke free and Sophia and I hightailed it for the car. Olivia's mom invited Sophia to stay, but Sophia told me later that she didn't want to hang out with a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. I guess I don't blame her. Lilly ended up having a great time as I knew she would and came home with a small stuffed animal and a huge bag of candy (which always makes her smile).  And to think, I just threw out all the 4th of July parade candy because the girls kept leaving their wrappers all over the house: on the floor, on the couch, on the stairs, in their bedrooms and it drives me insane. 

Vacation Bible School

I taught the preschool (ages 3 and 4) class for the fourth year in a row.  24 kids this time! I had two adult and two youth helpers so that made it a little easier to manage.

The kids were all so shy at the beginning of the week. Some of them clinging to their moms at drop off, but by Wednesday things changed.  As they got more comfortable with our daily routine the boys started acting up a bit.  I have to say the girls were as sweet as can be, but I think I'm partial to little girls.

Sophia had a fabulous time and couldn't wait to go back each day.  She memorized all the songs and had the hand motions down pat too.  At her sleep over this past Friday night she performed all the moves for Haley and then convinced Haley to join in the fun.  It was cute.

Lilly was one of the clingers.  She hid behind my legs and refused to let go each morning until Thursday when she walked right to her name tag and sat down.  Each day she said she had fun, but she definitely didn't love, love, love it like Sophia.

4th of July, 2013

We took a trip to Grancy and Big Daddy's house and celebrated the 4th of July with them this year. The girls got to play with Jonas and baby Caroline. Believe it or not, this is the best photo of the group out of the seven that I took.  

We were there for a few days and seemed to be really busy the whole time.  
We had fun going to the Fairfax City 4th of July parade with Aunt Christina and
baby Caroline.  The girls brought home tons of candy and a few t-shirts perfect for sleeping in during the summer months. Look at these adorable photos of the girls on that hot, steamy day.  

I talked (and begged) Will to take us to see fireworks.  He reluctantly agreed, but pretended to sleep in the car on the way and seemed to be in slow motion while we walked to our FANTASTIC spot.  Sophia and I made it just in time for the first firework and Lilly and Will joined us a minute or two later.  The display lasted for 20 minutes and we all enjoyed it...including Will.
 
During our visit we did tons of fun activities including going to Chuck E Cheese, swimming in Grancy's neighborhood pool, grilling out with Rob, Christina, Caroline, Grancy and Big Daddy. Grancy made a red, white and blue jello salad in the shape of the United States to celebrate the 4th of July.   It was so yummy.  

Lilly decided to spent a lot of her Chuck E Cheese tokens in the photo seat. Each time you the machine takes a picture it spits out an ID card. Just take a look at all her different poses/facial expressions. 

I think the girls really look alike in this one.  

Here's Sophia playing on the awesome addition to Grancy and Big Daddy's yard. Sophia especially loved swinging on the swing.  In fact, on a few different occasions she was outside playing on the playground all by herself. Way to go, Grancy!  

 

Lilly absolutely adores babies...especially cousin Caroline.  She asked several times if she could hold her.  Lilly grinned from ear to ear each time.  I suspect she felt like a really big girl holding a baby. Sophia, on the other hand, would look at Caroline from afar and act quite aloof.  

 

 

We made it home just in time to spend the next five days at 

Vacation Bible School (VBS), but that's another post. 

10 minutes

Sophia and I just finished this 100 piece puzzle in about ten minutes.  At first she was frustrated that she couldn't find any matches, but she was grinning ear to ear at the end when she put the final pieces into place.  We're going to get a few more....I'd like to get a 500 piece puzzle and see how long that takes us.  Days, I bet.