30 July, Carrot Harvest

We have not spent as much time in the garden this year as past years, I guess we simply had too much to to this time.  At any rate, it was time to harvest the carrot crop and Friday was the day.  Please understand that we have been growing carrots for about three years but have never gotten what could be called a great crop.  With that said, what we pulled out of the ground this time was better than in the past.  You can see that the campers liked the crop even though it would never make it in the market. 

Sara took Ruby to the mall to have her nails done.  Everyone was pretty happy with the end result.

Sister Ann came to visit, along with niece Jan and her son Justin.  We all went over to John's pool for a swim. 

 

John's pool is a salt water pool so we have to rinse all the salt off after a swim.  The campers think this is pretty neat.

We had a huge dinner at Roger Brown's and by 8PM everyone was in bed.  Whew!

29 July, The Fire

Ah, the start of a normal day.  Coffee, newspaper, breakfast, everyone happy.  This is Elizabeth's last morning with us so we decided to have a swim in John Joyce's pool.  John lives next door.

His pool is a salt water pool and has powerful water jets for exercise.  After 45 minutes the campers were nice and tired.

After swimming and a snack we walked over to a neighbor's house.  She has been flooded five times in ten years so she, and her insurance company, decided it was time for a change.  The change is to raise the entire house 8 feet!  They are supposed to start the raising today.  When we saw the house it had huge steel beams in place and the city was disconnecting the water and gas lines.  

Elizabeth's Dad (Frank) picked her up and they headed home.  We will miss Elizabeth.

As quiet time was winding down we started to hear fire trucks...and they sounded really close...like right by our house.  That's because they were parking on all sides of our house.  In fact, there were ten trucks responding to what turned out to be a mattress fire.

Looks like lots of smoke damage but no structural damage.  The firemen were working in 95F heat. 

Isaac remembered seeing two of these trucks at the library earlier this summer.

28 July, Boating today

Even though the campers got to bed late they were still up by 0700, which caused me to be out of bed earlier that I really wanted.  Liv and Ruby were able to Skype with their Mom (causing some backlash when Elizabeth and Isaac realized that they did not have the same opportunity).  It seems that everything has to be done four times....all at the same time....if one has a glass of water ALL have a glass of water, etc. 

Today we decided to take the Sara C. out for a tour of the harbor.  We walked over to the marina.  Note that part of the street has been closed off...we do not normally walk in the middle of the street but it felt neat to be able to break convention safely.

Sara C. on the Sara C.

Elizabeth drove the tug.

We docked at High Street Landing where the campers got to see a large collection of jellyfish.

It was hot enough to rest in the shade of the lighthouse museum.

Then we rode the ferry to Norfolk.

On our return we once again boarded the Sara C. and headed back to our marina.  It was pretty hot and all the campers were 'starving' so lunch was the next item.  

This time we had Nutella, watermelon, and cantaloupe.  The campers were overdue for some quiet time but we had to put then in separate rooms in order to actually have quiet.  They need lots of rest to get ready for swimming lessons.

27 July, more movies

Here's a hoot.  It's 10:30.  Isaac is reading to Sara....she thinks that he is going to sleep, he thinks that she is enthralled with the story he is reading.   The girls are all on the third floor saying that they are going to sleep.  Liv and Elizabeth are on their cots, Ruby is wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the floor.  Ruby wants to be with the older girls so bad that she does not care that she is not even in a bed.  The big girls are so happy to be camping out that they don't care that they have a 5 year old between them.  What a hoot!

We just watched 'The Point' on DVD.

The kids were enthralled with the whole movie.  It was like watching four zombies.  Sara and I loved it!

Earlier we had swimming lessons.  Ruby and Isaac had a ball doing their normal stuff.  Liv perfected her back stroke.  Elizabeth worked on her underwater summer-salt.  Everyone had fun.

We started out with pancakes (from scratch) and things went out of control from there. 

We had story hour at the library which included making plastic bottle sea scapes.

The campers then had stickers to attach to their plastic bottles.  You had to be there to appreciate this.  Afterwords we sat on the library steps and put more stickers on the bottles...very cool. 

The younger campers had a quiet time while Elizabeth and I went to Yorktown to fetch my motorcycle.  Elizabeth took the time to nap in the car....both ways....but did not see any need for quiet time or a nap.

Just in case you missed it, this has been a time of personal accomplishment for Isaac and Ruby.  He has been rewarded for pooping in the toilet, she for dry pullups.  This is a big deal.  We reward each with M&Ms.  Now, for all you adults, don't expect the same reward!

Now, at 11:00 I hear subtle noises from the attic.  Giggles and such.  Sara is the bad cop putting the campers back into bed.  Tomorrow is another adventure.

26 July, The Zoo with Elizabeth

This morning we gained a camper, Elizabeth Phillips.  Elizabeth is my niece and she lives in Richmond.  We thought that her first day at Camp Peter would be a good time to go to the Zoo so that was our morning adventure. 

The spider's web was a huge hit.

And we just had to watch the geese walk around and poop!

The train is a huge hit and was the favorite exhibit for Isaac.

After we got home from the zoo we checked the mail and found a letter from Chris Casey to Liv and Ruby.

 

After quiet time (which was not very quiet) we headed over the the YMCA for swimming lessons.  Elizabeth chose to do free swimming while the other campers were in their classes.  Elizabeth already swims like an otter so she really had no need for lessons.  Liv worked on her breast stroke and back stroke.  Here you see Liv begging for mercy from Miss Nicloe.  No Way!!!

 

Now at after 10PM the campers are watching "The Music Man" with Sara.  This was an experiment: a classic movie to compete with the high tempo animated modern fare.  I'm not sure it's a success.  We will see if we have campers singing 76 Trombones or such tomorrow.

Update from Sara....while I was typing the blog the campers decided that they would rather go to sleep than watch the rest of the movie.  In other words, the soft shoe musical got a huge thumbs down.

23-24-25 July, trip to NC

We loaded everyone in the car and drove to North Carolina for the weekend.  That simple statement makes the whole operation sound clean and simple.....WRONG.  It's a 4-5 hour drive to Penderlea so we decided to only go half way, stay in a motel, and drive to Penderlea on Saturday.  That way we only had two hours confinement for the inmates.  We also stayed in a place with a pool so we could wear down the children.  Of course we had fighting, singing, name calling, book reading, and 'I spy with my little eye'.  Somehow Isaac got a gummy bear stuck to the inside of his shorts.  All the while it was 100F.

Oh well, the trip to see Sara's parents was still a success.  The kids got to explore the garden, see Blackie (the cat), pet Browine (the stray dog), and entertain Sara's folks.

Everyone had a good time until it was time to head back to the motel.  More of the same in-the-car stuff.  Thank goodness for the pool where the girls got to demonstrate what they have learned in swimming class.  Isaac was so excited about his ability to jump in the pool that he was jumping before I was ready to catch him.  Then he goes to the bottom of the pool and slowly pops up all smiles...and wants to do it all over again.

The trip home today was simply more of the same....hot....fighting....and finally home to lunch and nap time.  Whew!  Oh, my camera battery was dead so I only have my cell phone photos to offer. 

22 July

A friend asked me how we were coping with the campers, how they had changed our routine.  As I thought about this it came down to a bunch of simple things:  We never have enough milk.  Normally we have to look at the expiration date on a 1/2 gallon of milk and make sure we get the freshest possible so it does  not go bad before we can drink it.  Now we buy a gallon at a time and it's gone in the blink of an eye.  These days we have the washing machine going almost constantly and the dishwasher runs after each meal.  I get up at 0630 or earlier, normally it's closer to 0800.  The paper is mine to read at my leisure, now I have to strip out the weather and comics for others.  A quick trip to the store is a thing of the past...a quick trip to anywhere is a thing of the past.  Tomorrow when we go to North Carolina it will have to be in two cars so we can keep the fighting to a minimum.  We take naps.  We watch G rated movies and love them.  We have to refer to our friends as Miss or Mister somebody, or better yet, as Lucy's Mom (Lucy being a dog).  Has our life changed?  You bet!

This morning we met up with Elanor and Evan (and their Mom) for some chalk art on the sidewalk.  Of course we had to have a bit of 'toss the ball'.

  Then we alternated between hopscotch and drawing.

Some campers thought that it would be fun to have war paint like an Indian.

We also found time to go to Betsy's kiosk where our friend Officer Jason let the campers play in his brand new police car.  

When the mailman came he left a package and a letter for the 

campers.   Inside they found lots of toys and greetings from Wendy (Liv

and Ruby's Mom).

Sara took the campers to the park to play.  When they returned an hour later everyone was flushed from the hard play so we though that quiet time would indeed be quiet.  Not so!  Here it is 3:30 and Ruby is coloring, Isaac is fighting sleep as hard as he can.  Liv and Sara are out getting their nails done.  I'm having to spell words for Liv so she can write something.  At least I'm not being asked to spell DUMB or STUPID this time.

We will not do a blog entry for 23, 24 or 25 July because we will be in North Carolina visiting Sara's parents.  Wish us luck.