Kool-aid

When all is said and done, happiness is all about being able to make kool-aid!!

Signs of Summer

I know it is summer at my house when there are beach towels and bathing suits hanging all over the bathrooms waiting to dry out so they can be used the next day!

Camp AJ

For the fourth summer, Nathan has attended the most anticipated camp of the year, Grammie Camp! My sister and I invented this for our family's version of a week at the grandparents. Both Nathan and his cousin Ashton have been able to make so many good memories of their Grammie and Grandaddy and have been able to develop their friendship. Since they first went to Grammie Camp when they were 7, they made the rule that you had to be 7 to go to Grammie Camp. Well, Ashton's younger brother is 6 this year, so this was their last year with just the two of them. And in 3 years, the youngest 2 cousins will get to go. Can you say a free week for me and Jennifer!!! All the kids at Grammie Camp!! I am not too excited yet, but we have started making tentative plans!

But this year, the plan was for her to come to Charleston after dropping Ashton off in Columbia and spend the week here with me. Since this also meant 3 boys here (one 6 yr old and two 4 yr olds), we decided to make our own camp...Camp AJ, for Amy Jennifer. It was a lot of fun! Tiring, but a lot of fun. Since it started out as a whirlwind (I stopped in Columbia on the way home from Atlanta and then drove her to Charleston at 10 at night), I will summarize in a whirlwind of a sentence!! Pictures to follow.

We went to the pool; we went to the beach; we went out to eat every day!; we ate at home some; we went to Target; we went to the waterpark; we went out on the boat; we walked the bridge and went to the park; we made train cakes and sunshine cookies; we attended a play at Pattison's Camp; we made photo books and tie-dyed t-shirts; we played with the water rocket and slip and slide; we went to the beach again; we went to the pool again; and the boys played hard everyday with all of Camden's toys! The toys were very happy to be played with!!


Playing with the water rocket!

Playing at the beach

The campers and their train cakes that looked like cars!

Playing at the playground

Camp Counselors Jennifer and Amy

Declan, Josiah, and Camden: the AJ campers! And yes, we all wore our tie-dye shirts together out in public!!

Making our photo albums.

More beach time!

Sunshine cookies!

Always have to have a silly picture!

Having fun on the boat!

We all had a blast! Just enough fun to have a good time, but not enough to make the boys want to come back to AJ camp instead of moving on to Grammie Camp!!

Tic tac toe

Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church and the theme was Pandamania, or God is About You. Nathan and Camden both were able to attend the night session while I was a helper. Camden is actually a year too young to go to the real VBS, but since he was the only 4 year old in the preschool section and the only other child was only one year old, they moved him up to the rising K5 group. He was a little anxious at first, but started to really enjoy all the excitement.

Being the youngest, he spent a lot of time following along with what all the other kids were doing. He especially liked raising his hand to answer questions. But he didn't really know the answers! The first time someone called on him, he answered "Tic tac toe!". Of course this produced laughter and he liked that. So he kept answering questions with "Tic tac toe" all week. What is really funny about this is that he doesn't even know about the game tic, tac, toe.

I was on the story telling team this year and the guy working with me egged him on one night by calling on him. Of course he answered "Tic tac toe". By the fourth night, all the kids in his group were answering "Tic tac toe". That night our story was about Peter and the persecuted church. We walked around the church grounds pretending to hide from Roman soldiers and then had our story in the secret hide-out. After the "tic tac toe" answer, George decided to turn that into our code to use when we saw Roman soldiers. This was our code for saying "God loves you".

Camden and Nathan both learned at VBS this year, and even though some of the stories were over Camden's head, he did come away from VBS knowing that God loves him; that God is wild about him. He came away knowing about "tic, tac, toe". So next time you are out to dinner and playing the simple game of tic, tac, toe on your child's menu, remember...God loves you!!! Tic, tac, toe!!!