More from Camp

Peanut has always been relatively fearful. She does not ride many amusement park rides because she is "scared", she did not walk to the top of the lighthouse in Ludington, Michigan when she was 4 because she was "scared", at Disney World she hated the 3-D movies because she was "scared", get the picture? So, as excited as I was for her to experience a week at summer camp, I was thinking that things like the low ropes course and even horseback riding would scare her and she would sit out on several of the activities. The morning of our scheduled low ropes activity I chose not to even tell her what the low ropes course was.

Surprisingly, when we arrived at the course she was excited to jump on and give it a try. She even discovered that she really liked it!

She enjoyed climbing to the top of the net and was the first one to give it a try.

When we made our way through a grove of trees and I saw all of these tires hanging, I thought that this was going to be the course that she would sit out on. More surprises though, because she climbed up the platform and made it all the way across!

Each night we attended chapel (which was held in the woods and was beautiful) where we did fun camp songs and then the kids listened to a lesson about different biblical characters who were once lost but they eventually found the Lord, we headed out to some sort of game with the entire camp. It was fun to be able to see Sissy at meal times, campfire, swimming and game time. Here she is getting ready for the musical beach towel game.

I loved that all of the games were "team" games. Here Peanut is working with her team to get across the "lava" (grass) using only a handful of Frisbees. No one could step on anything but the Frisbees. If their foot came off the Frisbee and touched the grass, they all had to go back and start their quest to reach the pineapples in the middle of the circle all over again.

I'll end with archery for today. This is the one activity that Peanut says she did not like. It was difficult for her to pull the string back and make the arrow actually go anywhere without help from the adult or teen that was helping the kids.

Summer Camp

The summer is quickly speeding by. One of the big events of this summer for us has been waiting for summer camp. Last year Sissy went away to church camp for 6 days - the longest she had ever been away from the family - and she just loved it. This year, Peanut was old enough to attend; however, I was not really ready to drop my 8 year old off for nearly a week (and I'm quite sure she would not have lasted that long away from home on her own either). A friend suggested her and I counsel together at camp. Honsestly this was not my idea of a great way to spend a week of my summer! A bunch of cranky kids in HOT cabins with no air conditioning anywhere, getting up at 7 am and not getting to bed till 11 or 11:30 every night - does that sound like fun to you? Well, I am SO glad I went! What a blessing! The first night and day was hot but everyday after that, the weather was perfect. The children in our cabin were wonderfully well behaved and I watched as my Peanut strengthened Christian friendships, learned new skills and conqured fears.

By the middle of the first day I told my friend that I could not wait for next year!

Here Peanut is at the archery range learning how to shoot at targets. She really enjoyed this activity.

Christian sister pictures!! I love these!

I'll share more pictures of things like horseback riding, arts and crafts, and camp songs another day.

Summer Fun - Strawberry Picking

3 weeks ago we decided to go strawberry picking. It was the end of the season here in Michigan (for U-Pick farms) and we happened to go the very last day. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, not to hot at all and a beautiful breeze.

In all honesty I don't believe I've ever been strawberry picking. We have taken the kids blueberry picking before but never strawberries. The first thing I noticed was the smell of the breeze as we rode the wagon out to the field. YUMMM! I told the girls it must be what Strawberry Shortcake Land smells like. The other thing I noticed was how much the kids enjoyed it. Of course it could have been the fact that they knew they would get to eat yummy strawberries at the end of the day!