Day Camp Pictures

We are almost fully recovered from last week’s day camp. The fun outweighed the exhaustion, but only slightly, and more for some than for others. The house is also recovering, although most slowly than the rest of us. With Chris gone last week there was no one around to pick up the pieces when everything fell apart, so it’s taken several days to get life back on track.

And because of course the house can clean itself while I sit here at the computer and blog – though to my defense I have cleaned the kitchen, done a load of dishes and two loads of laundry, and put away another two loads that have been hanging out in the hall for over a week, and I have spent two hours on the phone with car rental companies accomplishing absolutely nothing but a headache – I have pictures from camp to share with you. Not many, though, because I was with other people’s children most of the time and won’t put pictures of them on my blog. But Friday was field day, and things were so well organized that I was able to wander around and take pictures of my own kids.

First of all, though, I have to mention that the camp was held at Oxbow Regional Park, which is only about a half hour from our house and full of breathtaking scenery. It is also, we learned, full of wildlife, including deer who have learned that people are not necessarily something to be afraid of, but more something that leaves tasty treats laying around. I did not use the zoom to take this picture, and this deer showed no inclination to run away from me or the 15 chattering girls nearby.


For field day the kids rotated through six different stations with their units, competing against another unit each time. One of the stations required them to jump rope through a hula hoop. You can't tell too well from this picture, but I loved watching Vicki because she had her tongue sticking out the entire time. She says it's because the hula hoop was so small she really had to concentrate to get herself through it. I love it.
Even Ellie and the Widgets (3-5 year old kids of volunteers) got to participate. In this race they had to soak a sponge with water and then run across the field and squeeze it into a cup. Whichever team filled the cup first was the winner. The Widgets raced against the entering-1st-graders, so they were as evenly matched as could be hoped for.
At station 6 the kids were given popsicles and a shady spot to cool off. It was approaching 90 degrees, so this was welcome. I just love this picture.
When the kids had rotated through all the stations, they made the leaders participate in the most hilarious of the relay races, and Lexi offered to "hold the camera" for me. I realize that this is an unflattering picture on so many levels, which is why, you may notice, it's a smaller size than the rest. This race involved taking a partner and a pool noodle, standing one in front of the other, placing the noodle between your thighs, and running down the field, around a laughing teenager, and back to the start, where you pass the noodle to the next unfortunate pair. I have no idea if my team won or not. I was laughing too hard to care.
Despite the unflattering relay race I have already volunteered to help out again next year, so it looks like Oxbow Day Camp may become a tradition in our family. If nothing else, it unglued the girls from the TV for a week, and I'm all for anything that does that. But honestly, we all just had a really good time. In case you haven't noticed yet, we really like Girl Scouts around here, and everything the program offers :)