Girls' Camp Week

 

This is my view as I start writing this post. :)

On Monday, we got Nature Angel off to the Girls' High Adventure camp that preceded Girls' Camp.

How grateful I am for shared photo albums, because I can include pictures of events that I was not at!

All of the YCLs gathered together before leaving!

Favorite friends

Ready to raft!

Off they go!

In the evening, there was a coronation ceremony for the 4 girls who were voted Camp Queens. 
 They were some of the oldest girls who were trusted by their peers to be leaders at the camp where the theme was "Daughters of the King."

The 4 Queens with their sashes, crowns, and megaphones :)

Crowns notwithstanding, they're still just a bunch of fun-loving, silly girls.

Once the high adventure part of camp was over, they headed out to prepare camp for the rest of the girls.  This is the registration/welcome station.

The rest of us had a quiet day at home during which we did chores, read, and met with our case manager for quarterly paperwork.

But the next day, we got Little Princess and Ladybug off to Girls' Camp!

What a beautiful group of girls!!

Little Princess with her "pod."  These girls were assigned to be a group for certain activities.  On this first day of camp, they were friendly acquaintances.  By the last day, they were bonded forever.

Their evening activity that first day was a color war.

Ladybug is a warrior!

Early in the battle

Later in the battle--look at all of the chalk in the air!

My girls told me that their friend is still faintly green. :)

Back at home, we picked up some friends and spent several hours at our favorite splash park.

That's Lola and her friend on the swings, just talking as big girls.

Those tiny figures on the ball field are my boys and their friend.

They all went in and out of the water--mostly out.  They've really outgrown splash pads, but it's still nice to be able to cool off in the water once they get too hot doing their preferred activities.

The next day, while the girls were busy at camp (I'm done putting in pictures and tracing their activities now), the rest of us walked to the library.  

We spent a happy hour together in the cool library before braving the late spring heat to walk back home.  

The kids were invited to go over the house of the friends we took to the park on Tuesday, so once we had lunch and lots of water, I dropped them off to play for the next several hours.

Our evening went awry when I was notified that Ladybug had made some bad choices at camp and had to come home. :( 

I drove down to get her.  

I have since found out that I did not advocate for her enough.  I reacted to what the leaders told me instead of responding thoughtfully and asking them to investigate further.  Knowing now what I didn't know then, she should have been allowed to stay.

I apologized to her for my part in the misunderstanding, and I have a meeting with the camp leaders to share my concerns with them so that we never again put her through what she went through this week.

We were invited to swim with friends the next day, so we spent almost all day at the pool!

Then we went to church activities in the evening. 

The young ones received supplies for a pinewood derby event happening next month.  The boys played sprout ball.

We went to the park for our usual exercise activities on Friday morning.  On the way, we picked up a friend of the older boys, and the kids all played dodgeball while I walked.

Then, having no older girls at home, I took the 6 youngest with me to the grocery store.  

I haven't had to do that in years!

Though they are chronologically old enough to leave at home, they are not safe without someone to act as supervisor.  

I've been realizing that I'm going to have half a dozen helpers with me a lot more than I have for the past decade or so.

At least they're old enough to truly help with hauling groceries now!

One of the treasures we brought home from the library was Villainous--third book in a series by Matthew Cody.  We've read and loved Super and Powerless.  The kids were thrilled to find another book, and even though we're happily working our way through Gooney Bird Greene again, we also started Villainous this week.

I've been writing for about am hour and a half now.  My living room is still full of Legos, but the kids have moved on to other activities.  My favorite one is this:

That's Sir Walter Scott and Baymax studying family genealogy together. 😍

We're going to celebrate Sir Walter Scott with what we call "big sandwiches" (sandwiches made on French bread loaves and sliced to share) and homemade cheesecake (I made it yesterday).  Pixie made him a delightful family calendar that we all pitched in for, so that he can have his first office/cubicle decoration at work!