birthday, camping con't

Our Birthday girl got sang to at the chapel. This was hard to get a picture of as the sun was so bright in the windows. But as this is apparently a special memory of hers from camp I had to share. This is her and Pastor David.

I7 went crab hunting. When he came back he was telling me how his group caught four crabs but only one had pincher's. When I asked how come only one had claws he explained how well they all did but only one was big. So I guess he wasn't worried about getting pinched from the smaller ones as much!
James only stayed for one session on Saturday and then he headed back for town. He had a softball game that afternoon. I suppose it's a good thing he went because as it was the team was one man short, but they managed to overcome the odds and win the game. This is the first game he's been able to make as he has worked most Saturdays of the last month.
I'm always amazed how the kids seem drawn to male figures when daddy is away. I wonder if it's the same when I'm away. I am glad we have some good male role models that they can go too when they feel the need. I spotted I7 playing scrabble several times with different men of the church. Which makes me think we need to start using this game to work on our spelling words! Grammy Mary dig out that game for when we visit! I7 informed me that Mr. Tim won the game but that it didn't upset him. Can you tell we've been working on good sportsmanship LOL!
James picked us up at lunch time and we decided to go to the beach some more. The kids had fun finding rocks.


Now what I didn't get a picture of was I6 floating around. She amazed me. She has never been one to want to get splashed or our head wet. She was out there just floating on top the water, looking for rocks underneath like it was nothing. Has she ever come a long way!

Here's a wacky picture of the trio of rock collectors.




The little guy was sleeping during our beach adventure. But he woke up in time for snack.



ok, back up a minute. Something I forgot to mention. The camp was across from a small airfield where people tended to jump from planes. So we watch a lot of people land like this...
Here are some more random pictures from the weekend.






We did have a fun week of school last week. I have some blurry pictures of the canoes and modeling dough the kids made. I must pull out the camera manual sometime soon and study it! This week we are talking about Ben Franklin, How Jesus is Our Rock and Rocks and Minerals. We are starting to learn about Tchaikovsky. Although we all stumble over his name We do recognize some of his music!

camping, birthdays, recovering-oh my!

We went camping with church Saturday and Sunday. We had a great time although as I'm still finishing up the laundry that this one over night created I'm not so sure I'll be quite as enthusiastic about the idea next time. As I unloaded the bags I realized that we brought a lot of sand home with us,joy more laundry than I thought!
But on the plus side of things we were right on the water. My room was to the left in the photo and the kids were right next to me although their room jetted out to the ocean a little more.


This is from my room Sunday morning. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise.



As per birthday tradition, the little boys and I blew up some balloons to go surprise the birthday girl. Well, they tried anyway;)

Here is our birthday girl! She was so funny, she came to me Saturday night saying mom the ocean is too loud I can't sleep. Then she ran in the room Sunday and said "mom, I forgot that the ocean was right here!"
Just a little side note, the room the bigger kids used was also the nursery during camp so all those toys stacked behind are not ours, no I didn't over pack like that!

part 2 will come later.