Lego camp- June 26.

Besides VBS, each kid got to choose one summer camp.  Georgie got to stay in the 3 week preschool extension that lasted until the elementary school dismissed for the summer.  June went to Daisy Camp.  Henry picked the Lego Robotics Camp.

I was surprised on the first day that he was added to the advanced group of 4th to 6th graders. 

But Henry was pumped because the advanced group worked with the Lego Mindstorm set that allows you to program the robots on the computer.  For this camp, they designed robots and used a light sensor to program the robots to sumo fight.

The objective is to program your robot to back up when it senses the black line.  Hopefully, your programming will keep your robot inside the line and push the other robot our of the circle.

Sometimes things got interesting in unexpected ways.

At the end, everyone put their robots in and chaos reigned.  

Henry had so much fun, he immediately called up Uncle Jim and asked if he could borrow his Mindstorm set when we visited Ohio in the summer.  He's also since made up his mind to save up for a Mindstorm set of his own (it's $350!).  Henry's also tried out for the Lego Robotics team at school.  There were only 10 spots available and he made the team!  

Beat the heat in the water- June 22 to 25.

I don't know how I didn't know about this, but behind a park close to our house is a little sandbar and the perfect creek for wading.  And it provides much needed shade from the intense sun.  

We called our friends and met them there one morning.  

I think Georgie anticipated that it would be much deeper.

Bea chilled in her seat on the bank and tried not to get splashed.  I tried my best not to hold her.  It was hot!

June and Charlie led the expedition.

Until June became disappointed in something. (Such is life for a Turner girl.)

Henry spent the morning catching a ton of minnows.  We took them home and killed them in mere hours. 

We went back to the creek the next day.  June and Georgie tired of the water and left to go swing.  Henry stayed in the water and caught more minnows to bring back to the Turner house of aquatic death.  I was really feeling bad, guys.  We briefly flirted with pet ownership when June started collecting lightning bugs and mosquito larvae (I'm not kidding), but the failed fish experiment quickly reminded me of why I never want a pet.

The next day, we visited the lake with our friends. 

Bea had the best spot to chill in the hammock chair, as long as no kids tried to swing or spin her.  (It was mostly Henry.)

While the rest of the kids swam, Amelia won first place in our hearts by chowing down on some Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos.  Every once in a while she'd stop to sweetly say "Spicy!"  She is the best.

Wrapping up part 1 of summer vacation- June 26 to 27.

After 3 weeks of non-stop fun, we were all getting a little tired of each other.  Then a Thursday brought Bea's 2 month appointment (with 3 shots).  (She's 11 pounds 15 ounces, by the way.)  Add in a water boil advisory and the fact that we were leaving on an epic vacation the next day and we were all frazzled.  But our friend Paloma brought us bottled water, the other Turners in the neighborhood loaned us a teenager to babysit, and the Davis girls went out for pizza with us and the invited Henry and June over for a sleepover.  When I remarked how nice it would be to have a little break, Maddie thought for a minute and said "But if we take 2 kids, you still have 2 kids left!"  Don't I know it, Maddie.

We took the van in for a check-up before we left on our trip.  So for a mile home from the shop, we piled 4 kids in the back seat like in the olden days.  They thought it was great.

World Cup fever took over Clemson.  It was really cool that they played the games on the big screen at the soccer field.  We headed down to watch the USA-Germany match.  But it was a 1pm and it was HOT.  Henry stole my big floppy hat.  I tried to shade Bea under my legs, and the kids ate about 2 pounds of goldfish.  Then we bailed.  We'll try again in 4 years.

On Friday, we should have been packing, but instead we invited Sylvia and Amelia over.  We had a little bowl of candy that accumulates from parties and whatnot.  In the bowl is also a few chicken feet (or chicken "hands" as Georgie calls them).  We opened one on a dare.   Sylvia was not a fan, but she at least gave it an obligatory nibble. 

Amelia (now officially my favorite kid ever) devoured it with abandon.  I want to keep her.  

 

That night, when we REALLY should have been packing for our morning departure, we instead attended a birthday party for our friend, Laurel, and her mom, Miss Beth.  

We passed Bea around to any adult who would have her, while everyone else tackled that huge water slide in the background.  It was seriously 30 feet tall.  It was amazing.  I stayed off because I was sore from falling off the brick wall in our backyard the night before.  I was walked down the steps and jsut tipped over sideways off the wall.  Never underestimate how clumsy I can be.

At the end of the party, the guys and Georgie helped roll up the slide.  That's HALF of it. 

Then Georgie started hamming it up for the camera.

I'm not tired! It's only 9:30!  

Cooking and VBS- June 20 to 22.

Henry constantly asks to feed Bea a bottle.  This sweet shot of Henry caring for her sister was taken about 3 seconds before she lost it and would not let anyone feed her a bottle because she DID NOT WANT IT.

We gave up the fight and the bottle was set on the counter and forgotten.  Forgotten for about 24 hours, when Henry found it and fed the whole thing to Bea without her fussing at all.  The good news is that she survived day old milk without any distress.  Phew.

The kids all attended a local Vacation Bible School for the week.  On the last day, they had a big show to show off their new songs.  And this VBS was flashy, so it was a big deal.  First up, the little ones sang "We are the clay and you are the potter."  Georgie is right in between the 2nd and 3rd heads from the left.  (I wasn't elbowing for room at the front for a good video.)  Of note, that second head belongs to Mrs. Simoneaux, June's old teacher.  Georgie just about lost it when she found out that she was going to have Mrs. Simoneaux for her VBS teacher.

Next, a cute cover of "Believer."  But the real treat is at the guitar solo when Maddie (beside June-front and center) shows her moves without ever cracking a smile.  She takes her dancing seriously.

Next up, June really gets into the choreography.  This girl loves some hand motions.

  

Again, Maddie shows us how it's done at the guitar solo.  And June waits for the hand motions to start back up.

If you watch one video, make it this one.  The girls LOVED this song.  And June rocked it.  

On the last song, all the kids were on the stage.  Georgie is in the front, right next to the person taping in front of me.  June is behind the kid int he red hat.  And Henry is in the second row from the top, beside the tall boy and behind the tall girl.  You can catch glimpses of all of them from time to time.  Georgie sang, Henry did some motions, and June left it all on the stage.

All of that performing makes a kid hungry.  So Henry treated us to some waffles after a week of cooking us treats every day.  The girls enjoyed the waffles at the bar.  

For lunch, we cooked ramen with ham and a poached egg- just like in the movie Ponyo.  I was hoping the movie might encourage them to try something new. 

 They all gave the noodles a try.  But mostly it was the ham that was the big hit.

Poor sweet Bea doesn't cry much, but she really wanted to sing on the stage and try some ham.  So we took a video for posterity.  10 week old baby crying.

Video Catch up- May and June.

We have way too many devices.  Smart phones, ipads, cameras.  It's really getting out of hand.  And it is especially frustrating to try to collect all of the pictures and videos from all of these devices into one common collection.  So, I'm finding that I've missed some things.  I wouldn't want you to miss out on any cuteness, so here are some videos from May and June.  

May 16- Georgie's end of school program.  We didn't have great seats, but we did get a little of Georgie's performance.

May 18- Georgie explains her message to papa on his birthday.
May 28- Bea was 6 weeks old and discovering how to kick.  There are also some cute baby sounds in there.  I'm pretty sure this video was taken at 2am.  Because we were up.

May 30- Georgie sing a song referencing "Cock-a-doodle-doo in the kitchen."  I think it was from her school.

June 2- Georgie sends a birthday message to Magda.

June 2- Bea loves the bathtub.  
June 18- Bea at 9 weeks.  A little bigger, with more smiles.

Summer break- June 14 to June 19.

We didn't really have any big plans for our South Carolina portion of summer break.

Bea practiced her smiling.

Georgie practiced her coloring.

You know she's concentrating if her tongue comes out.  Though Georgie is generally yapping our ears off non-stop and demanding attention, she has often pulled out her crayons and coloring books and settled in at the table to spend a good amount of time coloring.  

We took advantage of a nice day to do some yard work.  Bea did not care for her chair.

What are we working on?  Pushing back the ivy/kudzu/poison ivy that is very quickly trying to envelope our yard.

And I finaly moved all of my seedlings out of the bags and into the ground.

Henry has earned our trust and now is allowed to cook on his own.  He wins because he probably eats a quarter of the cookie dough.  We win because we get cookies!  Plis, we justify it by saying it boosts his confidence.

He's also working on his cuddling skills.

He's taking lessons from a master.

"Guys, am I going to be wrapped up like this all day?"

Then Henry did his best sleeping baby impression. Getting this kid to smile for a camera is impossible.

We realized we've been neglectful of tummy time, so we did a modified version.

Not impressed.

She lasted a few minutes like this.

June can not stand that Bea's head isn't big enough for the bumbo yet.

Our days are spent mostly with Maddie and Katie.

Henry flexed his cooking muscles and made cake pops this time!

And Georgie and I got silly with my phone.

Of course, she had to give Miss Tricia bunnies too.

Bea doesn't always appreciate her sister's love.

But sometimes she does let us put her down for a few minutes.

Camp Webak- June 11 to 13.

June has been in Daisies for 6 months and just about flipped when the brochure for sleepaway camp came in the mail.  Was she interested?  Yes!

So was her friend, Laurel.  So they both signed up for the 3 day-2 night "sampler" camp.

 apparently, they got the oldest, most primitive cabin.  I was glad they didn't get a cushy air-conditioned cabin. It's camp!  (But it was still much nicer than any cabin I slept in at 4-H Camp Palmer as a kid.)

We opened the place up, so June and Laurel were able to claim dibs on the top bunks.

June was really sad to see us go.

Back home, we were surprised at how quiet it was was just 3 kids in the house.

June's camp is nestled up in the mountains on the way to Asheville, so we drove up early to have a look around.  Henry's pointing out Table Rock as we try to beat the thunderstorms rolling in.

And we stopped outside Pumpkintown for ice cream.

When we arrived, these two were sweaty, exhausted, and not ready to leave. 

This kid LOVED camp.  They swim in a lake and a pool, ate pizza, stayed up late during a storm and adored their teenage counselors.  June also didn't spend a dime of her canteen money on arts and crafts, but spent it all instead on stuffed animals.  (3 of them.)  She did manage to save a dollar for a patch for her vest.  

Bea was so happy o have June back!

And then she fell asleep.

Fresh from a bath, we're still flirting with the idea of curly hair!