Sports Camp

This year was the kids' first time to do Sports Camp at church.  They loved every minute of it and it was such a great experience for us!  Quinn chose cheer as her sport (options were volleyball, cheer, football, baseball, or soccer).  About 2 weeks before camp started, she started putting cheerleading books on reserve at the library and reading them.  Melt my mama heart!  I love how that girl knows how to do research and is independent in collecting her books and studying through them!  She determined that cheerleaders need to drink a certain amount of water (through her studies in her books) and so she made herself a checklist for cups of water drank each day.  She also read about healthy eating plans, so she spent one day eating the recommended foods the book listed.  :)  She also learned several cheers from her books, so she was totally psyched for cheer camp. 

Beck has been all about baseball this spring and summer.  He asks us several times a day to throw him some pitches.  He started out the summer not being able to throw or catch or hit.  Now he's a mean hitter...he doesn't miss many wiffleballs pitched his way and even hits some over the fence!  He is really improving in his catching and throwing!  He is the cutest little left-handed baseball player I ever did see!  He has been tenacious about learning baseball this summer, and it is pretty adorable to watch!  So of course he chose baseball as his sport!  

One of the days was crazy hair and socks day.  Quinn wanted her buns each a different color, so I colored them for her with her hair chalks.  For Beck's hair, he was excited that he wouldn't really even have to do anything to it--it's already pretty crazy on its own!!  :)  I introduced him to mousse (which made him giggle like crazy!) and he adored putting it in his hair and making it wild and crazy.  Then I rubbed in orange paint and that extra-crazified it!  They looked pretty great!  

Besides learning their sports, they learned several great songs, learned a Bible lesson every day, brought homework that they did all on their own (!!!!!) to take back each day, and collected change to give to help bring Sports Camp to countries around the world where kids can't afford it.  Also, my favorite thing was that they learned a memory verse--they both memorized Hebrews 12:1-2.  I will have to get a video of them saying it, because it makes my heart so happy! 

The last night was coaches vs. campers.  Beck got a great line drive hit!  He was stinkin cute running the bases!  

 Here is his "team" huddled up listening to their great coach.

The cheerleaders had a cheer they performed on stage and a dance they did.  Quinn knew all her moves perfectly and was so good at both the dance and cheer!  We were so proud watching her, all business up there, doing her thing!!  

 On the last day we made cookies for the coaches.  Beck did the majority of measuring and mixing while Quinn was eating some lunch.  He was super independent in the measuring and mixing and I was so impressed at how far his baking skills have come!  And Quinn had the job of spooning out the cookies, which is a lot harder than it seems to get them spaced evenly and make them all the same size!  She concentrated and worked really hard at this part and the cookies turned out beautifully and delicious!  So fun to watch the kids develop in their cooking and baking!

Yeaaaa for Sports Camp!!!

New Kayaks!

Last summer when we were in Missouri at our lake house, Quinn tried kayaking for the first time and got pretty stinking good at it in just a few days.  She loved it and has been wanting to get kayaks ever since.  We've gone a couple times with friends and she enjoyed it so much!  So I had set away some money from photography jobs last year and dedicated it to the kayak fund.  We had been putting off buying them because we wanted to build a spot on the side of the garage for storing them....and of course that wasn't happening quickly!  A few weekends ago Matt got wild and crazy and cleaned out all the scrap wood and junk that was stored on the side of the garage (in the summer heat, no less...he's a beast!) and has started doing some thinking about the kayak/canoe racks he wants to build. We found a good deal on a used tandem sit-upon kayak on Craigslist and a single on sale at Academy, so we decided it was time to make kayaks happen!  We took them out the day we got them on Lake Woodlands.  Matt and the kids took the tandem and I had a fosterlove with me in the single because I like to live on the edge.  Paddling with a 10 month old between your legs is wild for sure!  :)  

 The kids loved every minute of it!  We saw some neat birds (I can't remember now which ones) and some baby ducks and the night was beautiful as the sun set over the water. 

 Of course Quinn was dying to take one for a spin on her own.  That girl is a boss on a kayak!  She was cruising all around the place!  She definitely has her daddy's paddling skills!

 I love Matt a little extra when he says yes to taking canoes or kayaks out, because it's mostly a whole lot of work for him.  He has to put the rack on the truck and do the majority of loading up and rounding up paddles and life jackets and ratchet straps, etc.  It's not a fun job when it is hot outside and excited, energetic children are trying to hurry you along, but he's a good sport about it because he knows we all love doing it....and I love that about him!!  And he's got major paddling skills, so I always want to be on his boat! 

 Hoping we'll have lots more kayak adventures in the days to come!!  Aren't my kids cute little paddlers???