My new obsession

ok, i have a lot of obsessions, but this is so cool! my oldest eats zero fruits and vegetables (i have mentioned this before) i mean ZERO!!! so i have been working on her to drink smoothies, trying to trick her into drinking veggies, mixed in with fruit, but she always fusses and complains. poor thing has a major complex about it. anyways, i stumbled onto this book and started making some of the purees (you hide them in cheesy dishes, muffins, brownies and meat) i made the tomato sauce with orange puree, the brownies with the purple puree and they taste amazing! you cannot detect the vegetables in there at all. the brownies have spinach and blueberries in them, we had a tiny piece with our dinner and no one had a clue. just smiles all around! i cant wait to make more and more of these, if i can get emily to eat even one serving of fruits and veggies a day i will be the happiest mom on earth! oh happy day!

Reality Tv

Elizabeth has been playing with plastic food and dishes forever, she carts the stuff around with her (along with the pacifier, blanket, her brothers cars) everywhere we go. recently though while playing over, around and on top of us while we watched tv, someone finally said, "Lizzie! Please go play somewhere else, we can't see!" to which she answered, "I am NOT lizzie, i am TOP CHEF!" well, that would be my choice of shows to copy considering we watch a lot of reality tv.

Getting back on my feet,

so to speak

new school shoes and playing with a new toy:

therapy for the brain, button making.

emily hasn't brushed her hair in like three days now, lizzie has worn the same dress for at least two, i am just in that kind of mood, no excuses here!

Camp Shiwaka 101

1. Don't sleep with a first aid kit in your pocket.

2. You need more "runners" than "cooks".

3. Don't place your table and sit-upons on the "mulch" because it looks softer. mulch is the food court of the bug world and you and your scraps are dessert.

4. "Hostess" at day camp can be a sorry job.

5. "Real" lemonade "tastes just like wine!" the next day, oh and the kids all agreed it tasted GOOD that way.

6. Runners eat first, and that includes dessert (when the runners get dessert last, they are not available to "run" right away after dinner, prime running time.)

7. Cups dont work at camp, even the most agile kid will trip and spill it at least once a day, water bottles only.

8. Make at least one mom come every single day with you so you both look like hell the last day together (no offense linda, ha ha!)

9. Clothespins are your friend.

10. Don't forget bowls and spoons when you bring cereal for breakfast.

11. Don't run to the lodge in the middle of the night or one of the Directors will chase you down in her car!

12. You can cook hotdogs on a long fork but you will burn your hand doing it.

13. It takes 4 kids to carry the utility box on monday, but only 2 on friday.

14. Your dish wash stand can't be over the kids heads.

15. Kids can sew their own ditty bags ( awesome job girls!) but moms probably should have.

16. You don't need to cook a 5 pound bag of spaghetti for 14 girls, but you can do it in a dutch oven!

17. Don't be overzealous when stirring spaghetti, or you just might put out your fire before you can cook your s'mores (yes i did that last night).

18. Always answer your phone in the morning on friday, it might be your husband bringing everyone coffee and looking for your campsite (sorry chris!).

19. Tell everyone to pick up their kids at 9:30 am on friday, even though camp is over at 10 am.

20. Last but not least, make sure you don't break your toe the sunday before camp starts!

packing up

the "polar" bears are restless

camp is officially "broken" (along with my toe! had to say that, sorry)

Camp Shiwaka Daycamp, day three

hello there! day three here:

ants on a log (in our case it was penguins on an iceberg)

"trust" game

emily caught peeking

lunchtime

goofing around

snowcone making

Day Two Camp Shiwaka

hobbling around at camp day two, i finally decided that pain of 8 on a scale from 1 to 10 just might be serious after all... had chris xray my toe at his work and listen to him say "oh!" and " yep!" to his buddy while i say "what! what!!" (remember i read ultrasound, zero ability to read x rays) they point at something and i SEE IT TOO!! that means it was a good enough crack to see, ouch!

"now what?" i ask them, they don't know so i have to spend 4 hours in the emergency room (catching a cold along the way dammit!) to get a walking/cast/shoe thingy and be shown how to tape my toes together, just lovely. oh, and it will take 6 to 8 weeks to heal.

let's take a tally: head cold, exhausted, weight to lose (6 weeks no excercise? yeah thats gonna be good), "officially" broken toe... three more days of camp walking up and down gopher holed hills... feeling a little sorry for myself? well, at least camp is fun!

so lets get back to camp:

they aren't quite ready for this, more like this

penguin crafts

"ice" bracelets

favorite photo of the day

our "all camp capers" for the day was wiki clean up (thankfully no photos of that) and flag lowering. the girls did such a great job!

Camp Shiwaka Daycamp, day one

considering i think i broke a toe or something last night (midnight meeting with our danish chair in the dark) and could hardly walk .... we did pretty good today!

first day of camp, i had zero expectations, just a show up and get through it attitude. our day camp aides were so awesome i am tempted to take one or two home permanently.... here are a few pictures of the day:

gourmet dining tables

caper chart (i have to admit that i squawked at the girls because "someone" had scrambled up the cards... only to have a shy child raise her hand sweetly and say she and a few others had put them back after the wind blew them out... ooops!!!)

snowman making in the lodge

a lot of walking... our all camp chore was "general camp clean up" which meant we did a litter walk around camp

ice block racing (did i mention the theme this week is polar adventure?)

crafts, crafts and more crafts

my office