Camps, Gammy, and Sewing...oh my!

How is it August 13th?  Seriously? I have so much catching up to do.  First of all, Aubrie went to basketball camp this year.  She was SO nervous about going.  So much so, that on the first day she cried and gripped my hand.  She was 1 of 2 girls that were in her age group and she couldn't get the ball to the rim when she took a shot.  Adam was worried about her having a bad experience and her not liking basketball, but she ended up liking it.  She was so nervous the first day that she starting talking about how we should have a party.  So I went along with it, making small talk.  But every day she brought it up on the way to camp.  Soon it turned into a huge party with balloons and Popsicles and 90 of her closest friends because talking about it seemed to take her mind off of being nervous about camp.  I spent most of my summer getting out of the grandness of her party and scaling it down to a smaller party.  She would still just get really nervous when we got there and later in the week she only cried when she got frustrated because she couldn't make a basket. But she LOVED being with Uncle Steve at Lipscomb.  She got an awesome shirt and a new basketball.  It was a great camp and we look forward to doing it again!

Uncle Steve

All I said was I would like a picture of you going to camp.  This is the pose I get.  :)

Get it, Aubrie.

We loved watching her out there.  She did a lot of skipping, spinning, waving, and daydreaming.  It brought back a lot of memories for us of being in camps AND working camps.  My freshman year, I had to report to school early because we had to run camps.  We had TONS of crazy kids. You had the clingy huggers (Aubrie), the wild kids, the non-listening kids, and the "I don't care about this sport but my parents needed daycare" kids.  Adam had a hilarious encounter his senior year at a Belmont basketball camp. He had a kid who said his name was Justin and he was a unique combination of the wild kid/non-listening kid.  He NEVER answered when they called his name.  They would be yelling his name to come over to the group or to hold the ball and the kid would not listen.  Finally on Thursday, Adam saw his mom in the hallway picking Justin up and heard her say, "Come on, Kevin."  Adam stopped her and said, "Hold on.  His name is Kevin?!?" and the mom was like, "Uh, yeah!"  Hahaha.  When Adam asked him about it on Friday morning he just said that he liked the name Justin better.

Next we had dance camp.  I don't know if you remember our experience last year with headlocks and fighting among my own children, but this year went better for my princesses.  Emilie has really matured and she really enjoyed herself this year.  She came home and asked, "Mom? What's digified mean?"

Check out these poses.

They learn all about manners, etiquette, being dignified, as well as doing some dancing.  On top of that, every day they have a new Disney Princess there at the camp that they can take pictures with, dance with, and do activities like a craft or special snack that relates to that princess.  They really hit a home run on the last day because they had Elsa and Anna there.  Amazing!  Check out the Nashville Dance Center's website in the spring to sign up for next summer.

Adam's mom made Aubrie's costume

Lana was visiting the week before and I asked her to make an Elsa dress for Aubrie to use for dance camp and for Halloween.  They get to dress up as a princess on the last day.  Emilie wanted Anna's coronation dress, which was easy to find, but I couldn't find a decent Elsa dress anywhere, except for expensive ones on Etsy or Amazon.  So we bought the material and gave Lana the vision and she whipped this dress up in no time.  It was amazing and she got a lot of oohs and aahs over it.  Plus, she made a cape for Emilie's Anna dress.

Adam sewing with his mom.  :)

She also made these curtains for our playroom.  LOVE THEM!

I joke with her and tell her to retire so I can lock her in a room and have a sweat shop, but I'm half kidding.  She also made Kyle's nap mat cover and blanket for school.  He wanted "Maynor" (Mater from Cars), so she sewed one together in a day.

Aubrie also went to Art Express Camp this summer put on by our Preschool's art teacher.  I knew this would be her favorite camp and I was right.  The whole week they studied Normal Rockwell.  Aubrie came home talking a hundred miles a minute about what she learned.  They obviously did a lot of art projects like painted baseballs, made t-shirts, created a flag, and did bubble wrap feet painting just to name a few.  And the snacks.  They hit a home run in the snack category.  Every day was a new Norman Rockwell painting and they had snacks that related to it.  They did a Christmas painting one day and everything about the day was Christmas.  So I'm not talking goldfish and water.  I'm talking cold hot cocoa with marshmallows and Christmas cookies. I kept thinking that there was NO WAY Mrs. Jessi was making money off of this camp by all the stuff Aubrie was doing and everything she got to bring home.  Definitely got our money's worth there and she learned things which is a huge plus.  You can check it out at their facebook site.

I was so blessed to have my mom in town for the week before school started and my birthday.  She usually comes for a week in the summer to hang out.  She got to witness some of dance camp and had some serious bonding time with Kyle.  The girls call her Gram but he renamed her "Gammy".  And he doesn't just say Gammy.  He yells Gammy.  He wanted her attention every five minutes for something.  He followed her around and she taught him how to do exercises and squats.

playing cars with Gammy

riding bikes with Gammy

Mom also helped the girls make cupcakes for my birthday.  Aubrie loves cooking with my mom in the kitchen.  She helped mom make the cupcakes and then the whole crew helped do the icing and sprinkles.  Aubrie actually got in trouble for talking ugly while we were icing cupcakes and it was about the third time that day, so she got a spanking and got sent to her room.  From the monitor, we heard her crying and then she prayed through her tears, "Dear God, Please let something cool happen because I've had a rough day.  I haven't made good choices.  You're a blessing and I thank you.  Amen."  I loved it.  She came out of her room refreshed.  I pray with the kids every morning on the way to school.  They each take a turn and pray out loud and it really has helped them pray with ease and learn that they can talk to God about anything!

Cupcake central.  Please notice Adam isn't working at all.

Grating carrots with Gram

While icing cupcakes, Kyle got to sit on the counter next to Gammy and ended up giving her some yummy kisses!

My birthday is always exciting because Adam takes the kids to Kohls or Target the day before, sets them loose, and they pick random stuff out for my birthday.  This year I scored some pumpkin dish towels, a water bottle, a 2 cup measuring cup, and a REALLY sparkly necklace!

This picture doesn't do the necklace any justice to the sparkle and how heavy it is.  It must have jumped out at the girls when they walked by

For my birthday, I just wanted to lay low.  We went to church and then I picked Zoes kitchen for lunch.  The kids weren't that thrilled.  Adam let them all have milk with the straws and Kyle probably squeezed his and turned it into a geyser about three times before we removed it permanently.  Then, Emilie didn't like what we ordered.  When I made her take a bite of her roll-up, she started gagging on it and threw it up into my hands.  Made such a big scene that the manager came running over and asked if she was choking.  No sir, she just likes to throw up food she doesn't feel like eating so she can get out of eating it.

Then we came home and I had Adam help me organize things and throw things out, which for me, is the best gift ever. I even made this awesome headband holder for the pantry door out of oatmeal containers.  We've got quite a collection! I had a blast.  He hated it.

We actually have had a great deal of car problems with my Tahoe.  It's ten years old with 140,000 miles on it.  I love it dearly and want to drive it for another ten years.  But I went to put it in reverse the other day and it wouldn't go.  So when I tried it again, it made a loud clank and then caught the gear and reversed.  I called my car expert (dear ol' dad) and discussed the symptoms and we both agreed that I needed to get it in the shop ASAP before I get stranded at a light.  It has had trouble shifting into second gear for about a year, but now we are going downhill quickly.

Luckily, my friends at Walker Chevrolet took care of me.  They loaned me, at no cost, a 2015 shiny silver Tahoe to drive while they worked on mine for 6 days and returned my car in good shape.  Of course, it was sad to see the shiny bright Tahoe go bye bye, but I was such a nervous wreck with the kids making it dirty!  Emilie cried when we got our old car back.  She named the new car "Angel" and said, "I'm going to miss you sweet Angel!" real dramatically in the car bay as I was loading them into our old Tahoe.

This summer we got really good at riding our bikes.  Emilie fell in love with her bike, became good at riding, and outgrew her bike all in one summer.  We went and bought her a cheap boy's red bike and stuck some streamers in the handle bars and she didn't seem to care.  Her legs are as long as Aubrie's.  I predict they'll be wearing the same size next summer.  Anyway, we went on a lot of bike rides with the kids.  We would bike around Radnor Lake or we would ride the trail to Crockett park and then play on the playground.  We got to get together with our buddies a lot and had fun all over Nashville!

Baby Rhett was NOT feeling the group activity that day...

A Radnor Lake outing

The splash pad downtown by the Titan's stadium

Playing in the creek after a bike ride to Crockett Park.  That's sweet Mikey and family.  He was in my class last year and now he's a preschooler.  I'll miss him a lot!

What a whirlwind summer.  I'll wrap up for now and start working on my back to school post.  I hope everyone has had a great summer.  We have had AMAZING weather!

Love to all!





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