Mom Camp

Did I tell you my brilliant plan to survive the summer?  It was total genius.  We can't afford to send our kids to camps, so I decided I would have "Mom Camp" and teach them everything I know in one summer.  High-five!  I made a list of different camps I could do and the kids chose what they wanted to learn.  We started with Cooking Camp.

On Day One we learned about the food groups and I taught them to make breakfast.  Harrison is now our resident pancake maker and Chloe takes care of the scrambled eggs.  We also made some fruit smoothies.  Now I just have to teach them how to make hash browns covered and chunked and they can get a job at the Waffle House and start bringing home the bacon.

On Day Two I taught Harrison how to make rolls and Chloe and Miles helped me with freezer jam after we went to a local fruit stand.  Another cooking camp triumph!

On Day Three we did French toast and syrup, because I had some stale bread and had forgotten about cooking camp.

On Day Four they made homemade spaghetti sauce with homemade meatballs for dinner.  It was delicious and I was so proud of them. 

On Day Five we went to the pool.

The next week, my amazing friend, Mandi, hosted a soccer camp at the elementary school near her home.  She invited all her friends to bring their kids to the soccer field for an hour every morning while she taught them the basics of soccer.  Here's the kicker (See what I did there?): she seemed to enjoy it.

Mandi told me she should have been a P.E. teacher.  I think anyone who has ever said that out loud should definitely be a P.E. teacher.

Soccer camp was the greatest week of Miles' life.  He slept in his shoes and called them his "soccer camp" shoes for the rest of the month.

Mandi wisely split the kids up into different age groups and had her lovely assistants do some drills with the kids.  Thanks, Laura and April!

Even Chloe and Harrison couldn't resist the fun of soccer camp.  She's not usually eager to participate in sports and Harrison is older than the other kids.  Mandi let him help out with drills, too.  She's the genius.

That weekend we went to Chicago and it was really fun.  The week after that I went to Girl's Camp.  That weekend, the Bloomfields came for a visit.  I believe it was the next week that I realized I do not have the energy of five 18 year-olds and my dream of doing Mom Camps all summer officially died.  We went to the pool.  We went to the zoo.  We went to the beach.  We played video games and the kids discovered Gilmore Girls.  We survived the summer, even without my brilliant plan.  Next summer I'm hiring Mandi to come up with my brilliant plan.