Another Week, Another Camp

 

Summer is amazing; friends, family, sun, outdoor activities and excuse to eat chips and s'mores (helllllo lake time!). Our neighbor Cecile recently threw a dooooooozy of a party and invited us, and the kiddos over. Super generous of her, right?! She even had a DJ (!) and a top-notch caterer (mini chocolate mousses, fresh donuts from the fryer, smoked salmon smoked on premises ... you get the picture).

The kids were totally dressed appropriately until about 8 p.m. - when I went and put Lily in her PJs. I know you're shocked but, I did not dress her like Hugh Hefner for the entire party. It's just that the party was SO fun and they were groovin' to the tunes so I just didn't want the party to end for them (and trust me, neither did they). She had been wearing a totally appropriate adorable girly girl outfit (though Jamisen was in his fireman regalia all night). They were so cute on the dance floor. And, we even got compliments on how well they were behaved. NO JOKE! Multiple people complimented us on our children's behavior. Seriously, a parenting high.

Weekends are for family time ... and marathon training (more on that later). We have been loving our summer routine of Farmer's Market + outing. They were recently introduced to shave ice (i.e. SUGAR SUGAR SUUUUUGGGGGAAAAAARRRRRRR!) In addition to the SUGAR, the kids have been particularly fond of the water - whether it's at Lake Samish or here at our "Whoah, can you believe this is here in our town!?" Blvd Park beach. They play in it for hours (!). Now, we just need to teach them to swim.

Jamisen and I do lots of art projects and Lily is getting into the fun now too. Here, we did water colors and then put different grain sizes of salt onto the paintings to see how the different crystals affected the watercolor differently. Then, we turned them into thank-you cards.

Jamisen has been going to a new summer camp every week. This is fun for him because he makes new friends and, gets to push himself beyond his comfort zone weekly. It's a whole new camp, new teachers, new location, new habits and new rules. Best of all, it's new toys and projects (!)

He did two weeks of Farm camp this go round and loved the chickens and the bees (a lot!). Tonight, he ate two helpings of string beans that we grew in our own garden ... probably as a direct result of Farm Camp. It's amazing to see him blossom with healthy food since he understand where it's coming from. And, it helps that we have a very aggressive garden!

I've started treating the kiddos to homemade ice cream for breakfast. Well, I mean, not ice cream. But they think it's ice cream. I make a huge fresh batch of stevia-sweetened yogurt two days before and then strain it so it's rich and thick. Then, morning of, I pull out the ice cream maker, toss some berries and the yogurt into the ice cream maker and the kids feel certain they're having ice cream for breakfast.

They can hardly stand it - the process takes about fifteen minutes and they watch it the entire time. Auntie Sharon got us an ice cream maker years ago (!!) that gave up the ghost last summer so we have a new compact Cuisinart one that works pretty quickly and produces delicious frozen yogurt. I mean, eh hem, ice cream.

Ah yes, the half marathon training. So there's a very stupid part of me that wants to do a marathon. I've done 9 miles now and it was  ... (oh man, God is going to strike me down for saying this) ... easy (ducking). So, there's part of me that wants to do the full 26.2 miles. Which is dumb. Studies are very clear that this is not a smart idea for a lot of reasons ... but anyways, running is going great. Chris is being supportive with my long runs and is cheering me on (literally, this last 9 miler, he tracked me on his GPS and showed up 2X in the car with the kids to give me water and give words of encouragement; it was the best boost ever!!). Also, did I mention I hate running? That's right. HATE IT. Give me a gym and weights any day. I HATE RUNNING. So, there's also another vote against actually doing a marathon. Currently, I'm signed up for two back-to-back halves with girlfriends and when that's over, I'm pretty sure my running career will also be over (famous last words?).