Hazy Days at the Craft Shack

If you came to visit my house, you would never think that I was a crafty person. I am creatively challenged when it comes to decorating my home! You won't walk away with any cutesy ideas or want to bring anyone here to see what I have done, that is for sure! But for one week each year, I morph into THE CRAFT LADY at cub scout day camp! I spend months searching for great craft ideas and filing them away to choose the best ones for use at camp. I can make things you would never imagine out of paper and tape (paper rockets, anyone?) and I even learned how to use a woodburner this year! This was my 5th year working on staff at day camp....the first year I was in charge of the tot lot and the other four have been in crafts. It may be my last and that is a little sad. I did not sign up to be the craft lady next year because I am unsure what life will hold with Shelby graduating and going off to college.

I even get a little misty-eyed when I think of it. I can't imagine a summer without one sweltering week in the heat crafting with a bunch of 7-10 year old boys who think I am the best crafter in the world!

Who knows.....they may not be able to fill my position and I could be persuaded to come back!

Savannah Swims!

Savannah has really been working on her swimming this summer and I cannot believe how much better she has gotten. Check out this video of her swimming at our last meet of the season!

Road Wins This Round

In the ongoing battle of a boy and his bike vs. THE ROAD, another victim has been claimed.....(Shelby says this is way too gross to put on my blog, but hey, we document the good, the bad and the ugly here! Besides, this is 2 days later and looks SOOOOO much better than it did.) Anyway, for all the brute strength and coordination Samuel has, he seems to have more than his share of bicycle accidents. He has been flipped over the handlebars twice this year alone! Our neighbor has brought him home scraped up and bleeding from his crashes on the way to the pool. So when the latest crash happened, I wasn't too overly concerned. I was out shopping for day camp supplies (kill me now, but that's another story that I will share next week!) and got the call from the pool that Samuel had crashed and stubbed his toe. I hurried back to the pool and found Samuel happily eating a snow cone with his foot all wrapped up. He didn't want to unwrap it for me, and he wasn't crying, so I wasn't too concerned. However, about 5:00 pm he comes to me and unwraps it and I about threw up! The scraped up part on the knuckle of his toe was incredibly deep, like a big chunk had been taken out of it. There were pieces of black asphalt in it and I wasn't about to dig them out! So off we went to Immediate Care. They soaked it then xrayed it to be sure that all the road grit was out (there was concern that some may have embedded in the bone....gross, I know!) and then debrided it off all the dead skin, packed the wound and wrapped it up. They sent him home on an antibiotic to prevent infection. Then the next day, we went to his regular doctors office where we went through the whole process again (minus the xrays). We will go for one more visit Friday and then hopefully he will be good to go. Apparently the risk of infection is highest the first few days so they like to keep an eye on things. Needless to say, the bike is currently parked in the garage and there will be no more bike riding with flip flops.....at least not this summer!

In Training.....

Guess who's cheerleading this year?
Yesterday was uniform day and she was SO excited to run home and try hers on!
It was a little late, so the video is kind of dark, but cute nonetheless!

Summer Swim Team

I know I haven't posted about it at all, but we have been doing LOTS of swimming this summer! Here are some pics of our swimming in reverse order.... Joshua was awarded a trophy for most improved swimmer, which made his night! He has worked really hard this year and as soon as he starts to eat and gets more brute force, who knows what will happen???

Caleb at the swim team banquet making a very funny face! He didn't get to swim much this year between the state tennis tournament, scout camp, EFY, and youth conference. He missed it so much, he has asked me to keep swim team season open next year so he can hopefully qualify for champs.

Savannah in awe of her medal....it had a swimmer on it that "swims" when you move it side to side.

Samuel getting ready to swim at champs. He was the only one of our kids to qualify this year, and he did GREAT! He got 2 gold medals and one silver medal! That boy was born swimming!

Joshua assuming the "coaches position". He was really good at standing alongside the pool and cheering his teammates on. He even gave Savannah a few pointers that have really sped up her swim times! In every sport Joshua has been in, he stands out as a coach!

Samuel (in the bright blue swim cap with goggles on) waiting at clerk of course for his race. He is in the 9-10 yr. old age group and is swimming in the top heats with the best swimmers at age 9.

Not really sure what this look is, but it totally made me crack up when I downloaded it off my camera! Chris must have taken it while I was timing at the meet!

And yet another funny face!

Savannah and Coach Chris giving her a few last minute pointers....it must have worked because between Coach Chris and mini-coach Joshua, she ended up getting 10 seconds faster!