Camping Trip!!!

For those of you that know me, you know that camping would not be my first choice (or 2nd or 3rd) of a great time. But, now that I am the mom of a boy I told Jason I thought we should go camping and create some of those fun memories because while I don't think it's great Daniel would probably LOVE it!



So, we bought a tent, loaded up the car with everything essential I could think of and off we went to the lake for the weekend. Our friends from Indianapolis met us there with their boat and camper and we had a big weekend. We spent the night in our brand new tent on Friday. None of us got much sleep, I think from the excitement and strangeness of it all. Daniel was so excited!!! Then on Saturday we had a fun day on the lake, boating and riding the tube then we came back and roasted hot dogs, marshmellows and made s'mores and had great fun telling stories around the campfire. This is exactly what I had hoped for - what a great camping trip! Saturday night we were beat and knew we would sleep really good on our 2nd tent night.














Well, at 2:30am we started hearing thunder and at 3:00am the storm rolled in. So I thought, 'OK - this isn't terrible - it will rain for awhile and then tomorrow the sun will come out and dry everything off.' Yeah, right. What actually happened was it POURED down rain for five solid hours. I mean it was a total monsoon! Just when I thought it couldn't possibly rain any harder, it did. It was crazy! At first, it wasn't bad but after a few hours I started feeling drops on my face. Uh oh! We pulled our air mattress more toward the middle of the tent and pulled the blanket up over our heads. Daniel slept through the beginning, but then he woke up and said, 'Mom, we need to go home!' We couldn't pack up in the rain so we just hunkered down and toughed it out.


(on a side note - often when Daniel complains about something I will tell him, 'That's part of the fun!' Like this - 'That's part of the fun of eating a taco - a lot of it will drop out of the end.' OR 'That's part of the fun of splashing in puddles, you will get your feet wet.' OR 'That's part of the fun of eating s'mores, your fingers will be sticky.' So we are lying there trying to survive the monsoon and Daniel says to me, 'Mom - This is NOT part of the fun!' How right he was!)






The next morning, it was still raining. So we packed up all of our wet sleeping bags, duffel bags and sopping wet tent and headed home. We pitched the tent in our backyard to let it dry out before packing it away for our next adventure. When will that be? Hmmmm.....it might take me awhile to forget about this one and be willing to do it again. It was the perfect camping trip, right up until that crazy storm!

King Daniel

They were learning about Queen Esther this week at summer camp, so they were talking about kings and queens. When I picked Daniel up yesterday he had a crown and this cool armor.

It was so fun to see how excited he was by a box covered in reynolds wrap! He kept putting it on and taking it off to show everyone. What a sweet thing. This may seem too juvenile for him, but he didn't go to preschool and get to do all this fun stuff when he was 3 or 4, so it's still new and interesting to him.

So, once they had all of these kings and queens all decked out - they had a tea party! Daniel told me he was worried that the kings would have to pick a queen and they would have to stay together for the whole party. Yuck! But they didn't have to do that. Whew!

Chores

For the summer, we have implemented a few new things at our house that we wanted to work on with Daniel but have been too wrapped up with school to think about! One of those things is weekly chores and an allowance. Not that he doesn't help out around the house but I made a list of all his chores for the week and put a chart on the refrigerator. Every time he completes a task, he gets a sticker. (It's really surprising to me how motivating a simple sticker can be!) At the end of the week, if he has completed most of his chores, he will get an allowance. We are going to use this opportunity to teach him about tithing and saving too.

Can I just tell you, it's a lot of work! It's so much quicker for me to just fold his laundry or run the dust buster in the bathroom myself, instead of supervising him doing it (which involves whining, correcting, complaining, dawdling, disctractions and all around silliness). But, I know it's important for him to contribute to the household and have some responsibilities. He is also very excited about earning some money!!

We have been totally lax about bed making (I know - my mom would be apalled!) but part of our chore chart is for him to make his bed every day. The first few times it was new and fun, but that has worn off and now it's just a chore. Not his favorite chore! But he is very meticulous and does a great job placing all of his 'pets' (as he calls them) in a nice lineup!

And, I have to show you this - I came in to his room the other day and he had written up some signs and taped them to the wall over his bed. It was so sweet, I just left it up. That tape will probably take off the paint, but it's just paint.

(I don't know if you can read that last one, but it says, 'God you are the best and you are a great God!') WOW!

Things I love this week

- Hearing Daniel pray 'Thank you God for making this earth, so I can play in it.'

- We are a complete family again - Pop is back from Michigan!

- Good dinner with good friends - we love you Bible Study group! Have a great summer. See you in the fall!

- Chick-fil-A YAY! (Daniel and I have been rhyming this week - this one was my favorite!)

- In this week of thunderstorms I am noticing that my umbrella stand contains: 3 pirate swords, 2 baseball bats, 1 kite and zero umbrellas. Ha! Not very organized, but what a sweet sight!

Passport

We finally got Daniel a US passport. When adopting internationally, every country is different but in Ukraine the child is allowed to retain their citizenship. So, Daniel is a dual citizen of Ukraine and America.

Check it out - he is ready to travel now:

Summer Days

The cord for my camera is still missing, but Jason is my hero and found me another cord so my pictures have been downloaded and now I can update you on what's been going on with us! It's been a busy few weeks....

Daniel tested for his GREEN belt in Karate:

He's really excelled at karate and you can tell he is more comfortable with the moves and the routine. We're taking a break from karate for the summer, but we will probably pick it back up again in the fall.

We've been trying to get outside and enjoy this nice weather. We've been geocaching, bike riding, going to the park, splashing in the fountains, rolling down grassy hills, playing soccer and enjoying some family time. A friend got Daniel a super cool rocket launcher for his birthday so we've been having fun with that too:

Last year was such a success with Daniel's tomato plans, this year we decided to plant two! We have one plant for BIG tomatos and one for little guys. Now we are wanting the rain to come back! We'll let you know about our progress by the end of the summer...

I am really trying to be deliberate this summer about not filling our schedule up with too many things. It's a short summer and there is lots of fun to be had. I just want it to be family fun with us spending time together and not just bouncing from activity to activity but really having quality time together. Our sweet boy is growing up so fast and I know it won't be long before he is too cool and/or too busy for us. We are enjoying this time, making memories and cherishing these days.

Goodbye First Grade

Thank you Mrs. Peterson for all of your hard work with Daniel this year!