Brooksfield - Summer 2015 - Mia and Sophie

Brooksfield is my all around favorite camp!

Sophie and Mia played tennis, swam, ran around on the playground, did arts and crafts, helped maintain a garden, had a few field trips and generally got to enjoy a free and easy summer time day camp for four weeks with mostly the same kids.

At the end of camp, the kids put on a small show where each age group sings a song or two with choreography. The kids really look forward to this, which means the parents get to hear them practice their songs around the clock for weeks. Here you are on show day...

Mia waiting to perform.

Sophie excited to sing.

Mia's group getting ready to rock and roll.

Swim Team

Swim team is a lot of work. For the kids and the parents. There is daily practice, and there are weekly meets. The coaches encourage regular attendance, and the kids really want to attend. For parents, this means keeping a pool bag packed and ready to go, and volunteering at meets and all the other swim team events that seem to happen weekly - pancake breakfasts, dinners, etc. Is also means early mornings on practice days. As much effort as it is, I've come to believe that it's worth it (as long as the kids want to participate). 

What I like about it is the absolute independence and camaraderie that the kids have with the team and at the meets. They entertain themselves for hours at the side of the pool during the meets, prepare for their swim events, challenge themselves with new strokes, and cheer on their team mates. 

Regardless of their swim times, they always seem to have a huge sense of pride and accomplishment at the meets and afterwards.

Zoe with a  swim team friend.

Sophie and Mia running home after a meet.

At the end of the season, they have a swim team party with a potluck dinner, awards and open swim. There is also a slide show with tons of pictures from all the practices and meets.

Mia getting her award. Zoe wasn't at the ceremony this year because she'd left for sleep away camp the day before.

Open swim!

Hershey Park

On the way to drop Zoe off at Camp Lakota, we made a few detours. We stopped at Gettysburg, PA to soak up a little history and then we went to Hershey Park. The kids were way more interested in Hershey Park. I was also really impressed because it was much bigger and catered to a greater age range than I expected. Given that we were running around to different rides the whole time, we have almost no pictures...

Rehoboth - July 1015

A long weekend in Rehoboth was great timing after school and before Zoe was to head off to sleep away camp. We only needed to do a little bit of outlet shopping to get her the rest of what she needed. Otherwise, it was pretty much all beach and Funland.

Sophie is still enamored with Zoltar. We visit him regularly when we're on the Boardwalk.

Lightsticks at night on the beach has become a favorite activity.

I still can't believe my kids are big enough to be riding this. It goes in circles and upside down. 

Another high-ranking favorite ride this trip.

Lemonade Stand

The girls had been begging to host another lemonade stand, and so we agreed on July 5th we'd make it happen. Thank goodness we have incredibly supportive friends and neighbors. I sent out a quick email before they were about to begin, and the neighbors came out in force. The girls sold out of lemonade, brownies and cookies within an hour.

Brownies were a little late coming out of the oven. I'm bringing out a pan to waiting neighbors.

After the sale, I found these all over the kids writing tables. In hopes that we'd agree to let them have a lemonade stand, they had cut up several napkins and written "Who wants lemonade at a  lemonade stand?" on the front and "50 cents" on the back with all kinds of rainbow designs. I'm not sure if the signs were intended to convince us to let them host a stand or if they were forgotten advertisements that never made it to prime time. Zoe, Mia and Sophie had each written several of the signs.

As soon as we cleaned up, the kids were asking when we could have another one. 

Alaska - Family Portraits

While on the cruise ship, there were often opportunities for family portraits. But before even boarding the ship, we couldn't resist this one from the Vancouver Aquarium.

There were regular on-boarding and off-boarding photo opportunities.

We were fortunate to be invited to a cocktail hour with the Captain. It had been a long day, and we weren't sure if the kids could keep it together. Thank goodness for a large plate of chocolate strawberries that kept the kids entertained!

 And, then there were formal photo shoots. We were never prepared for (or dressed for) really formal pictures, but we got a few good ones.

So happy!

One of my favorite photos ever of Scott and Zoe.