Independence Day

So the Independence Day Festival this year was fun. Second year in a row that my Girl Scouts had a booth at the Independence Day Festival. We ran three games, from 4-10. And earned a little bit of money in the process.



Then Bret showed up so we could all watch the fire works together.



Brenda's friends showed up and it was a party. Our town puts on a great firework display. It is the highlight of the night.



When we came home we lit off some sparklers and made it a complete day.

While They Were Away

So Marley and I had a nice quiet week together. We cooked together. We played. We watched tv and went to the pool.



And toward the end of the week we remodeled the girls room. We painted, redecorated, and added a bed so Marley could be one of the girls that belong in the girls' room too. She has slept in there ever since.

Off to Camp

And so my girls went to camp. Bret's camp was "You Can't Do That At Camp" camp, where she stayed up late, slept in, Toilet Papered other people's tents, made marshmallow guns, practiced their archery skills and lots of other fun camp activities. Brenda's camp was Adventure Camp where she went rock climbing, did a zip line, low ropes, canoed down the Little Miami River, learned to stamp leather, made stuff out of duck tape, etc. They both had a week of fun with new friends. Brenda slept in a tree house with her friends, Bret in a tent. They lived out in the wild world with latrines and cookouts. Neither one of them wanted to leave when it was time. But it was eventually time.



We picked them up and headed over to Uncle Scott's house (he lives near camp) for a little bit of fishing before we headed home. A great end of a magical week for the girls.

Camping Pillows

Brenda saw this from her friend's sister and wanted to have one too. So Brenda and Bret made some of their own before they headed to Girl Scout camp this summer. I bought two bandanas for each girls. I cut lines into the edges of each bandana and they tied the lines together, stuffed the inside and closed up the last few lines. Voila, they had their own bandana pillows. A big hit.

A Half-Price Book Worth Its Money

So Half Price Books had a summer reading program going on for the kiddos. If they read 15 min a day for 5 days and filled out the reading card, each child would get a three dollar certificate for the store. We went a few times and picked out books.



One time, Bret really wanted this book about slumber parties. Until she saw what was in my hands. A 400 page book filled with women posed in their underwear. Why were there 400 pages of women posed in their underwear?



So the girls could design clothes to put on them. They all enjoyed the book so much that I went back and purchased the other book of the same kind. What girl doesn't like to design clothing? I don't know, I am sure there are plenty. But not in my house. Our best book find of the summer!!

*Editor's Note*

I usually refer to "the girls" as Brenda and Bret. And Marley is separate. I noticed I have done that a couple times already. So just a FYI. "The girls" doesn't include Marley for some reason. My brain separates her from the girls. Maybe because she will always be the baby. :-) In spite of the fact that she has transitioned this summer into her own bed.

The End of Dance

At the same time period as swim team was going on, so were Marley's dance lessons. Our community public school PTA runs a dance center during the school year. $75-$100 for 9 months of tap, jazz, ballet, and sometimes hip hop lessons. Then there is a recital at the end. Amazingly great deal for dance lessons. Not like I am prepping my girls for careers in the Chicago Ballet or anything so for that fab price my girls get together with friends once a week to get some basic lessons in dance. Well there were six week summer clinics this year.

Since the girls were both at camp two of the weeks, I signed only Lily up for her first ever dance classes in tap and ballet. Lily's good friend Lillie was there with her which was great. Lillie's sisters are in swim team. So for the last couple years Lily and Lillie played together at the swim meets. This was a chance for them to be together for something else. Maybe they will dance together again this fall...



So Tuesday while I was sitting in a tent with the swim team, Lily was dancing on the small dance floor/stage for all the parents (for us of course that was Big Bret) in her last performance of the summer. *Chuckle*

Falling Behind - Stingrays Are Number One!!

Yes I know I am falling behind. It has been a month. So I am back with somewhat of a pause in my life. A month or so of swim team... It is a week long committment. MWF we practice from 9-10 or 10-11. T TH we compete against the other teams.



A swim meet goes something like this... Maybe my girls will swim a relay medley #5. Then they might swim two or three events like 25 meter free style, breast stroke, fly, and/or back stroke. So those events for my girls have usually been number 27, 47, 57ish. Then they might end with a freestyle relay. Relays are 4 kids one at a time tagging the side as the next one swims off across the pool. (In case you aren't into swimming and don't know what a swim meet entails. I didn't my first year.) We will arrive at 5:30 to stretch and warm up in the pool. So the meet will take from 6:30 to 9ish. Most of the meet is spent NOT swimming obviously. There will be maybe 71 or so events. Each event might have one two or three "heats" usually where new groups of kids will swim the same event.




Parents are asked to work at least 2 home meets as timers, runners who take the time to the computer people, ribbons (the people who put the stickers on the 1st 2nd and 3rd place ribbons), food bar, etc.



Then there is championships. This lasts two days. The first day we will get there at 7am for warmups. The 12 and under girls, and 8 and under boys swim first. The older kids get there ready to swim by 3:30 and they swim until 8 or 9. Then the second day is relays. Also anyone who was the top in any event will come back and compete again. We start the second day at 12ish and spend the rest of the day there. Again, each child might be in 3-4 events the whole championship. So for instance our second day my girls swam event 5 one was heat 1 and one was heat 2. Their next event was 67. So we sat around in the Stingray tent for hours until it was time to swim again. To give you an idea, I knitted most of a sweater in two days. I don't mind. I don't suggest it for the short tempered. Bret will go to the meets, but NEVER to the championships. Too many people, too many kids, too much chaos and noise for him. It is best to know your limits before you go into a thing like this.



Why do we do this? First of all I should say I told myself after the years of hockey, and all the money we poured into that, I would never allow that craziness to happen again. This sport costs us $20 a season per kids. We get 5 months of training, during the meets the kids spend hours hanging out with friends cheering them on and having a great group time. It is all about the team. And they LOVE to do it. This was Marley's first year on the team and she has been so excited to be part of the team!



We will do it again next year I am sure. We regained our number one status in our division again. Yay Stingrays!

Elmo - An Unschooler??

Today Marley wanted to watch Sesame Street and we hung out a bit before I had to finish packing for Girl Scout Camp. Elmo, Big Bird, and Snuffy were starting up a Y School to learn more about the letter Y. Elmo went out to find a teacher. Each person he asked said they were too busy to be the teacher but told him a little more about the letter Y. He taught what he learned to Big Bird and Snuffy but he couldn't come up with a teacher. Then suddenly they realized that he WAS the teacher. Hmmmm.

Vacuquin

My unschooler, when she didn't have a manequin to dress up, she used the vaccuum cleaner instead. All in all, they have become good friends.

Brenda's Discovery

At a party for her friend the other day, Brenda made an astounding discovery. While trying to lick icing off her body, she figured out that her tongue cannot not touch her elbow.

The Big Welcome Home

Marley had a harder time being dropped off for camp by the day. She loved being there when she was there. And the first two or three days were ok. But by the end of the week she was panicking when I left. She was getting exhausted by the end of the day and not getting enough sleep, perhaps. Today was her last day and we cleaned up her playroom and had a picnic with her when she came home!!

**Art Classes**

Actually, I sat with Brenda and Bret to work on making faces. I told them if they get nothing else from this but one thing, I would like it to be the realization that the eyes are not on the top of the head, but rather approx in the middle. We made a face graph of sorts to show where all the parts are in proximity to the other facial parts. I thought Bret's portrait was worthy of showing up on the blog. I was extrememly impressed.

Lily at Camp

When I came to pick Lily up from camp today, she gave me a frown and turned away from me. "I don't want to go home". She helped collect eggs from the hens, fed the rabbit (lettuce), made and painted a tree house, cooked bread in the outdoor dutch oven, then ate the bread with butter and honey, climbed a tree, and much much more. Mostly there was a boy who wanted to marry her that followed her around and sat by her. She wasn't amused.

Crafts at the Park

We made decorative cups today at the grand reopening of Crafts at the Park. Glad it is on again. They even let me take the craft home for Lily because of course SHE IS AT CAMP ALL WEEK... :-)

Neusole Glassworks Flowers

Our flowers from the Neusole Glassworks tour last week. One of the best field study tours of the year, we all agree!! Brenda's is blue and green, Bret's is red and green, mine is blue with a clear flower.

Two Down, Four To Go

Brenda and I took a picture of us getting ready for the big night.



Here are Josh and Brittany after the graduation for a couple photo ops.




And the three generations of Coshnitkze's all together for the big moment. Josh and Brittany are off to college soon. Yay for them moving on to new things :-)

Kids Workshop at Home Depot

Home Depot Kids Workshop. The first Saturday of each month from 9am-noon. Each month a new project. Always a cool project for the kids to learn how to build.

This month we made mini-foosball sets. Next month - Periscopes. August - School Bus Pencil Organizer. There is always something cool going on at Home Depot...

Out on Field Work

We went on a tour of a glass blowing company here in town. Ten minutes away. Never heard of it until the tour was set up.



We watched a demonstration of them making a really cool vase from beginning to end. How they add colors to the glass, how they blow the glass, how they get the glass off the big metal pole it is on while it is being worked, the cooling process, etc.



Then we all took turns making our own glass flowers.



Quiet possibly my favorite field work ever!!



I texted Lisa to tell her we HAVE to set this up for the Girl Scouts. And she said no. That we should set it up for us adults instead. Evidentally there are classes, community outreach programs, tours, all kinds of different activities available through these amazing people!!

A Sad Anniversary

If you know me from around, or if you keep up with us in other ways such as reading our blog, you might remember our painful summer last year. We will be at Girl Scout camp this year on the one year anniversary of Marley's assault.

Not trying to dredge up the past. Marley mentions the boy in passing seldom anymore. The boy is still under house arrest, for whatever that is worth.

But I would like to take this moment to remind you to appreciate the police, fire department, detectives, etc. in your area. You never know when you will need them. Hopefully you will be so lucky then for them to be as amazing as Detective Matheson was and no doubt still is.

Since last summer, I know of another family that is going through something similar, only it is with their older daughter and dad. The mother said she is so thankful for the detective in charge. He was amazing. I asked her, was it Detective Matheson? She said it was and we smiled a sad smile together. We both agree. Detective Matheson, you are great!!

Lemonade Anyone?

Brenda bugged me about having a lemonade stand for weeks now. Then she finally got tired of hearing me say no I guess so she set it up with a friend. I was beat. She went over my head to do what she felt compelled to do, so if you can't beat em join em. Her goal is $30.00 so she can buy a pillow pet. "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow pet..." In 3 days she has earned $16.00 already and that doesn't include what her friends and Bret have earned too. Or what she has had to pay me for supplies.

And of course, because Brenda and I had to look it up, there is a Girl Scout badge for this. LOL.

Bridging Pics

This first picture is Lisa Bridging Bret into Juniors. "Do you promise to do a good turn daily and live by the Girl Scout Law?" Lisa is the talker. I do much of the work with the girls, but when it comes to speaking in the crowds, I am thankful for Lisa. That is her department.



Next is Bret helping a Daisy become a Brownie. "Twist me and Turn me and show me the Elf. I looked in the water and saw..." My Brownies one at a time took the Daisies over the bridge and twisted and turned them so they could see "themselves". lol. It was sweet!



This is Brenda earning her first Junior Star. Lisa stuck me in front of the crowd for this one, because she was announcing the girls as they came down the aisle.

Those girls just keep getting older and older. What will next year bring??

Yum Yum

There is an issue being put on the ballot about the treatment of farm animals in Ohio. It is gruesome and sad. I am not about "saving" the animals, but what I see makes me physically sick. That said, here is our dinner tonight...

Yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with a good friend. We went to Aquarius Star, yum yum, and chatted for something like 4-1/2 hours. We had Cucumber Gazpacho soup and black bean taco salad. I haven't tried to recreate the gazpacho yet (not because it wasn't amazingly delicious, I assure you.) However, this is my recreation of the taco salad, except my Goddess dressing isn't near as fabulous as theirs was, so I just added a dollop of vegan sour cream. And notice our fresh home grown bed of lettuce that the chili sits upon. Brenda and Bret cleaned their plates! Bret even grilled us some corn and veggie kabobs while he was making his barbq ribs and steak. lol.

Memorial Day Parade

So here we are, those of us that showed up to march in the Memorial Day Parade. And throw candy (we are still having issues with what Gently Toss means, evidentally lol.) and recognize our military forces that have in the past and still do support our country with their lives and commitment.



And wasn't this town nice enough to "fit the Girl Scouts in" to the ceremony after the parade. Rachel got to put up the flag with a boy scout. Those weren't my words and that is why they are in quotes. Can you hear my sarcasm? Not really offended, but why an all boyscout color guard? And why do the Girl Scouts sit in the grass while the boy scouts participate fully in the ceremony? And to our 30 or so Girl Scouts, there were 5 boys for the scouts. I don't get it. But I will try to change it. lol. It was a good time. Donuts and Juice afterward.

Upcoming Fun

(This is Bret and Eva last year at Me and My Gal Camp for Girl Scouts)

Monday, May 31 - we march in the Memorial Day Parade
Monday, Jun 7 - Lily starts day camp for the week
Monday, Jun 7 - Swim Team continues
Monday, Jun 7 - MWF craft day at the park begins
Sunday, Jun 13 - TACamp for the Girl Scouts
Tuesday, Jun 15 - Lily's dance classes start
Sunday, Jun 27 - begin Residence Girl Scout camp for Brenda and Bret