A Robin's Nest

Late last week, Thomas spotted a robin's nest in one of our tea olives in the backyard.  He wanted to show the boys the nest and determine whether or not a baby was inside.   Hayes, not familiar with how to approach a possible baby animal, walked right up to the bush and shook the leaves.  Shooting out of the bush came Baby Robin!  He was able to fly enough to make it to our swing set, but that was as far as he got.  We panicked as we watched his struggle as he continued to attempt to fly.  Where was Momma Robin?  About ten minutes later, she showed up, but we knew Baby Robin was not going to be able to fly back to the nest, even with Momma Robin's help.  Thomas decided to take charge.  He ventured outside with a bucket, caught Baby Robin, and returned him to the tea olive bush.  We hoped that Baby Robin could make it to the nest from there.

The next morning, after not seeing any signs of Momma Robin, Thomas checked out the nest and discovered that it was empty.  (We are hoping that Baby Robin's frightened flight the day prior convinced him that he was big enough to leave the nest. ) It was then that Thomas pulled the nest out of the tea olive tree for Ben to keep. 

 

Ben is eager to take it to school for show-and-tell so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep it in one piece until school starts in September!

Ben's 5!

Ben, the firecracker of our family, turned five this past weekend.  

As we grew closer to Sunday, we were literally counting down the number of "sleeps" remaining until he was five.  When the 23rd finally arrived, Ben woke up early and had a plan for the day.  We were going to do the following:

- open presents before breakfast

- have doughnuts for breakfast (his choice was chocolate glazed with sprinkles)
- play outside
- eat Maki Fresh for lunch (he likes their panko shrimp bowl)
- sing "Happy Birthday" and eat homemade chocolate chip/butterscotch cookie cake

- do Legos with Dad
- see the movie Monsters University
- and then crash before dinner (well, that was not part of his plan but it occurred).

I did have him help me fill out the Carroll Birthday Questionnaire reflecting his personality as a now five-year-old.  Most of his responses are accurate, though I question his answer for #11 as I would say breakfast foods (eggs, bacon and toast or biscuit) would be his faves.

Happy Birthday sweet Ben!  Thanks for living your life with such gusto!  We love you -

E's Evening Activities at Camp

Each night at camp, the girls participate in something called Evening Program or "EP" for short.  From what I can deduct from pictures and the blog, the girls have watched counselor skits, worked to solve a camp dinner mystery, participated in talent shows and a vespers service, listened to a concert, and attended a carnival, just to name a few of their evening activities.  We've spotted Eleanor in some of the "EP" pictures throughout the session. 

Early on, for night two or three, the cabins each did a skit.  Eleanor's cabin did a lip sync to One Direction's song "Up All Night." Here is her cabin before their performance. 

It's showtime!

One night at camp, the girls had a dress-up dance party on the tennis courts.  Eleanor and her friend Caroline were definitely dressed-up, though I'm not quite sure what they were dressed up as!

I can't wait to hear what she says when I show her this picture!

According to E's counselor, E and Caroline were regulars playing tether ball during the nightly free period. 

Finally, earlier this week, camp served one of the campers' favorite meals - tacos in a bag.  E talked about this meal any time we talked about Camp Greystone food as it was one of her favorite dinners.  It actually makes my stomach churn when I hear it described - each girl gets a bag of Fritos and then they walk down a taco bar line to fill up their bags with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, etc. 

 

The girls LOVE the meal, and the camp turns the meal into a picnic dinner.  (These two pictures are funny to me because Eleanor is the only one in her pjs.  I'm not sure what she was thinking, but I can't wait to ask her!)

I'll be interested in hearing which EP was her favorite. 

Mail from Camp

Eleanor has been a prolific writer while she's been at camp.

 

We have received multiple letters from her nearly every day.  (She'll write Thomas and me our own individual letters.  At one point, I was getting more letters than Thomas, and he was starting to get his feelings hurt.  E has kept the mail equal since midway through camp.) She almost always has written some quick message on the back of each envelope and sealed the envelope with her signature colored duct tape. 

A letter home from camp will never top the infamous one we received last year,

but you can definitely tell that Eleanor is maturing in her letter-writing skills.  My favorite letter from her this year at camp was not mailed home, but was written to her dear friend Margaret.  

Margaret's mother sent me this picture, and I had to write Eleanor to ask her about the letter.  I thought surely some talk at camp (during one of their morning "Breakfast Club" lessons or at night in their cabin with their counselor) had suggested treating the time at camp as if were time aboard a ship on a three-week voyage.  "I am writing you from a ship on the Atlantic." When I finally heard back from Eleanor, she explained that she came up with the idea herself, from some "Discovery lesson" they had at school this spring!

We have appreciated all of her notes, as she has kept us very informed of the goings-on at camp.  She's even been good about responding to questions I ask her in my daily emails.  (Yes, we are allowed to email the campers but they cannot email back.)  Thanks for all of the mail, Sweets!

Boys' Dinner Choices

With both Thomas and Eleanor gone most of this past week, I let each of the boys choose what we ate for dinner one night. 

Not surprisingly, they selected traditional kid-friendly fare and made dinner preparation simple for me.  Hayes asked for tacos while Ben requested chicken tenders (I make them with almond meal) with mac and cheese.  At least these two nights I knew the boys would eat what I cooked for them!

Photos of E from Camp

While Eleanor is away at camp, we get to see her smiling face each day in the thousand or two pictures the camp posts on their website.  Since I left her in tears at drop-off, it was comforting to see that she quickly rebounded, as I had expected.  As the parents pulled out of the property, the camp staff was already busy taking cabin pictures.  Here is the Tentalow Upper 6 crew for this year's June Camp with their counselor Elizabeth!

 

Shortly after the cabin pictures, it appears that the staff lined up on the main "road" through camp to cheer on the campers. 

 

 

We then found these pictures of Eleanor and her good friend Caroline as they hit the tetherball "court" on their first night during free period.  (E's counselor has since written that she and Caroline play tetherball often during their free periods during the evening.)

 

(Caroline's thumbs-up in pictures is a code to her parents that all is well.)

In the first week until we got our first piece of mail from her, we used the camp photos to deduct what 12 or so activities Eleanor chose for her time at camp.  Some of the activities she selected include ceramics,

 

 

 sewing,

crafts, 

horseback riding (I love how she wore her Keeneland t-shirt to her first day of riding!), 

 
 

painting,

golf,

 cooking,

 and swimming. 

She's also signed up for kayaking, track, archery, water park and high ropes.   

Think they are having fun this first week??

Visit to Melbourne

With Eleanor at camp for three weeks and Thomas traveling a good bit for work, the boys and I decided to head down to Florida for a visit with Mimi and Papa.  Early in our visit, the weather did not cooperate as we had a visit from Tropical Storm Andrea.  Then, once the storm passed, we had a good bit of Florida sunshine and heat.

The boys would have lived in the pool if we had allowed them.

 

They both swam each day until their fingertips and the bottoms of their toes were raw and bleeding! 

Hayes quickly remembered his favorite game in the pool - jumping off of Mimi and Papa's rock to catch a ball.  Any chance he could get, he'd have an adult throw the ball to him.  I even joined in on that game when Thomas arrived for the weekend and volunteered to be the all-time thrower.

Of course basketball was played during our visit. 

 

Games of H-O-R-S-E, P-I-G

 

and two-on-two took place in the heat of the day.  It was good to see that Papa still had his form!

 

I spent much of my free-time trying rather unsuccessfully to keep the boys off of electronics.  I was grateful any time I saw a boy with a book, especially when I found Mimi reading to Ben.  (Thanks, Mimi!)

 

We all could have stayed longer as the backyard pool makes a good life too easy.  Unfortunately, home beckoned.  One last highlight of our trip was a visit to the cockpit on board our Delta flight.  

 

For this flight, we intentionally were the last ones to board as I did not want to get involved in the race to get on the plane.  As the last ones, the gate agent walked us down and managed to get the boys in the cockpit.  The pilot had to remind me to take a picture!  Before heading to our seats, the pilot asked both boys if they'd like to say anything over the PA system.  Who would have guessed that Hayes would have been the one to volunteer?!  He did and he said, "Good morning!" with a loud chuckle that quickly followed. 

Thanks for having us Mimi and Papa!

H's Manners That Horrify

One of Hayes's friends took him out to dinner a few Saturday nights ago.   At some point, Hayes decided to put his feet on the table as some sort of joke. 
The friend's mom thought it was hilarious (Hayes claims it was because she had taken off her shoes and he told her that I never take my shoes off in public), and took a picture that she then emailed to me.  In her subject line she wrote:  Hayes says you'll be horrified by this . . . " and he's right! 

Camp Greystone Drop-Off

Last Monday morning, I dropped Eleanor off at Camp Greystone in Tuxedo, NC for a three-week stay.

 

Eleanor attended the one week sessions at Greystone each of the last three summers and truly cherished her short time there.  This summer, we encouraged her to go for a longer session - she will be personally challenged by the longer stay, she'll get to meet more people and develop lasting friendships, and she will have time to learn new skills.  She was game to try it, and had a few friends from school and church who would also be there, giving her some familiar faces if she ever needed to feel the comforts of home.

 

One of her best friends from school, Caroline P, was assigned to the same cabin, Tentalow Upper 6.  They decided to be bunk mates, with Caroline on the top as Eleanor preferred the bottom.  Both Caroline and Eleanor are heading to new schools next year so I know they will cherish this time together. 

Eleanor shed a few tears when I left, more than she had in the prior years.  I think three weeks seemed a little daunting to her as I walked out the door but I know that once the girls start going, they don't stop until it is time to pick them up at camp on the 21st.  Thankfully, the camp posts a thousand or two pictures each day of the campers if we ever want to see E's smiling face!