Twilight (and not the vampire kind) Camp

A few weeks ago, Brookie went to Twilight camp. This is a camp for Girl Scouts that lasts only one week and goes from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m.

She was there with several girls from her troop, and she had a lot of fun.

Friday night, the last night of camp, they had a show.

They sang.

They danced.

They shimmied and they shook.

And at the end, they did a great big ginormous friendship squeeze.

A few girls from Kennedy's troop were counselors. Kennedy went camping with India this week, so she did not get to be a counselor, but next year for sure! Molly had a great time!

Girls Scouts is a fantastic organization...we are so lucky to have such great troops for our girls! Here is Brooke with Nicole. She went to preschool with Nicole, but now they go to different schools. However, they still remain friends because they are in the same troop.

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold!

Reading, Dancing and Sit-Upons

Well, well, well. It's Monday. And it sure feels like I could use a day off. Even though I just had three days off in a row!

I took Friday off for school-related fun. First thing was the Young Author's Fair. Children in every grade from Kindergarten to 8th write a story or a poem and then groups are formed. I facilitated a group, and was lucky enough to have both girls in the same group!

Here Brooke is reading as Kennedy looks on (with great excitement, might I add).



Here Kennedy is reading as Brooke looks on.

She read a poem that she wrote about friendship.


Proud authors...

After this, I had a few hours. I just couldn't decide what to do with myself on my Friday off, so I went to the grocery store. Then I packed a bag for Brooke. In fact, I packed two bags!

One bag for our weekend trip to Big Bear with her Brownie troop, and another bag for that evening. You see, our Brookie was in the school's talent show.

Brooke and these incredibly cute kids rocked the house...

They were the 3rd act. The boys sang "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson and the girls danced behind. You should have heard the audience's reaction. When the curtain opened, there was a collective "Awwwwww", because - look at the picture again - that's a whole lot of cute going on. Then the boys sang (AWESOMELY!) and the girls danced (ADORABLY!). They got loud, loud, loud applause and when they came from back stage to take their seats, that whole side of the auditorium cheered for them again! They felt a little bit like rock stars!

Miss Emily came and sat with our family. Brooke loves her so much...

Here she is in true rock star fashion slapping hands from stage after the show when all the kids from the performance came up to take a bow...

Ummm, really? REALLY?????? This might be too much cute for this early in the a.m.

Then we went to dinner. Then we got home late. Then we slept (not enough of that). Then we woke up and drove to Big Bear to meet the Brownie troop who had left the night before.

She swam in a cold lake...

She was one of the few that swam to a floating dock and climbed up.

Strike a pose! The girl in the orange ended up stranded. She could not bring herself to jump back in the water. Her mom stood at the edge of the water encouraging her to come. Probably the child would still be there because none of us moms had any intention of getting in that cold water to swim over and help her. Lucky for her there was a life guard on duty.

They made sit-upons that afternoon...a girl scout classic craft!

That night after dinner, they gathered 'round and waited for s'mores. What an awesome experience!! It was great to spend time with all the moms (moms I don't know that well because the kids all go to different schools).

Yesterday we drove home. August and I bought a much-needed mattress (delivery today, hurray!! No more back ache!) and I went to pilates (ow) and we had dinner and the girls took bathes/showers. Story time, lights out...and today it's back to work.

Looking forward to Friday already...

Perfect!

August picked Brooke up from school yesterday. When they get in the car, he asks "how was your day?" Her answer..."Perfect!"

Seems her library checkout card was found IN another book that another child in her class checked out that day, so she was ever so excited about that.

She then got to go to her Brownie meeting, which was also their holiday party, and she deserted August immediately for the table of brownies and Oreos with only one healthy food choice...vegeterian hotdogs, which she deemed to be "not good".

The Brownie troop worked on making cards for children in juvenile detention. Here is Brooke's description of this project: "We made cards for kids who are WONDERFUL {you have to elevate the tone to a higher sing-songy pitch for this word} children, but who made bad choices and are now in jail."

Here's hoping today is another perfect day, and that we all make good choices!

Saturday Nights

Tonight is Saturday night, but not just any Saturday night.

There are six children in our house tonight! Five girls, one boy.

Brooke is hosting her very first sleepover, and the guest is Quinn. They hatched this plan in First Grade's Room 11 sometime during the week. Quinn woke up this morning and packed his bag before I even spoke to his mother. They have been having fun all afternoon, and are currently settled in to watch Kung Fu Panda...

Kennedy has three friends over and after much giggling and talking and giggling and a trip to Blockbuster (some in PJs already) with more giggling (and a star sighting...someone from Zoey 101)...they are settled in watching Get Smart.

Now that I think about it, we (Brooke and I) BEGAN this day with a movie! We went with a few girls from the Brownie troop to see High School Musical 3 at Disney's El Capitan Theatre right on Hollywood Blvd. There was singing and dancing, and then we had lunch at Mickey's Soda Fountain right next door!

I'm not sure if she liked the Princess Sundae, though.



And no trip to Hollywood would be complete without a picture with a famous person. But seeing how we are on Hollywood Blvd, it's more likely that you will meet up with some, uh, let's call them "interesting characters" that love to take a picture with you.

The girls were underwhelmed, to say the least. And perhaps slightly disturbed.

After Brooke recounted this story to Quinn, she asks the question that is haunting the masses, "Is Elvis dead?"

Elvis has left the building. Good night.