Today was so much fun splashing around in the wading pool and running through the water fall as well as the water fountain. Many of our campers that are new this week had never been there before so it was a blast to introduce them to it!
There is always a band on Wednesday's and today was Cazhmiere...a very talented band that plays top 40 hits from the last 40 years. We danced to Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, Van Halen and so many more...I will try and post a video of the kids learning how to do "The Bird" with one of the lead singers. The band loved having our campers there and enjoyed interacting with them!
Ugh, won't let me upload the video...maybe I can try it on FB... :(
After the concert we swam a little more and then headed back to camp...much slower than when we headed TO the pool! Lots of tired kids again today! Only two more days of camp!! This experience has gone so fast!! It seemed like 6 weeks was going to last forever and I would have all kinds of time to see everything...WRONG!! I am a bit in panic mode as there are still several things I wanna go see!
The good thing about staying at work late is that I don't have to be there until 8:30...although I got there early today because I wanted to stop at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts when I got off the train at Eastern Market. The commute didn't take as long as I thought so I was a little earlier than planned...worked out well because Tony had to go home and pick up some stuff he had forgotten and I had already left the house when he realized it.
Today we took the campers on a bus trip to the Smithsonian's American History Museum. We took them to the "Spark Lab"...a great hands on science center designed just for children! We divided our group in half and I took one group to another hands on area while Mr. Barry stayed with the other group in the Spark Lab. The children and I had a blast doing all kinds of hands on stuff...we tried to build a tower on a wobbly table top...it taught us about balancing all sides of our tower on the table. We also got to play with big pinwheels and fans...we could change the direction of the fans and watch how it effected our fast or slow our pinwheels went. Lots of fun stuff to keep us busy!
We had a picnic on the big veranda outside the museum. We love picnics, especially when there are pretty flowers to look at and benches to jump off of when we are done eating!
When we got on the bus home it was pretty full so I had four little campers hanging onto my legs...two on each leg, one on the front and one on the back of each. Much easier for them to keep their balance rather than hold onto the bar on the back of the chairs :) Other passengers are amazed at how well 25 kids can behave on the bus...we really do have such a great group of campers who just know what they need to do! Passengers on the bus love to ask our kids questions about our adventures each day...they get the biggest kick out of them!
Before we headed back to site we headed over to Turtle Park to play some more...so much fun to listen to them shrieking with excitement about being chased or chasing us! Lots of tired children go home each day.
After work I was welcomed home by 3 happy children...Meren was especially excited...it makes me laugh because they are with me all day...I guess having me home I turn into Cousin Jes (which is what they call me, and I LOVE it!!) instead of Miss Jes...the one who makes Julian and Meren rest instead of play outside with the older kids! Meren had to show me her flips she can do...where she gets down on all fours and then sticks one of her feet in the air. So funny, she really thinks she is something else being able to that...so filled with talent she is ;)
When they were headed up to take a bath I went to Potter's house for a visit...at this point I don't think they would have even known I was gone...they had been playing in the backyard with the ducks. They all know I really don't like being down there by those BIRDS!!
When I got home I started catching up on this blog...now it is after midnight and this adventurer is going to bed...tomorrow is our swimming adventure at Yard's Park :)
Today was our first day of camp at our new location. It isn't actually a new location, it was where camp was held last year. Adventure Camp was technically supposed to be done on Friday, but because Tony had several requests about extending it and Barry and I would both be here this week he called his contacts and got us this location just for this week.
We have a whole bunch of new campers and some of our old friends...what a great mix! We took a walking trip to Garfield Park. This park has some fantastic rope towers to climb, rope bridges to run across, lots of fun stuff...slides swings etc! We played hard all morning so we had a picnic lunch at the park.
Just a short distance from the park are a couple horse stables. Tony knows the owner so he made some phone calls and got it approved for us to go and visit. The children loved putting grass through the fence and feeding the horse. I guess there is supposed to be two but only the white one came out to visit us.
On our way home we stopped and played at Turtle Park. I am not sure if that is the official name for park but it has a huge cement turtle for climbing on, over and under, so hence the name. Turtle Park also has some great jungle gym equipment to play on as well as a large grassy area where the boys could run and play spy. Lots of giggle and squeals must equal a successful day right?!?!
Because Barry, Tony and I are the only staff this week I am staying on site until 6:30 when aftercare is over. It is so much fun to see the parents and share with them the fun things there children did that day. It is also kind of strange to be getting home after 7:00...the location is on the SE side of DC so I take the train and walk the 6 blocks home each night. Much different than getting done between 2:30 and 3:30 and only having to walk 5 blocks home in the afternoon. I won't be doing the cooking this week :)
Sunday was a great sight seeing day! We went to the Capitol building...although the visitors' center was closed :( We went through the Botanical Gardens...Amazing and then headed over to the Air and Space Museum...I could spend days in there reading about everything...sensory overload happened quickly because I knew there was no way I would remember all the facts and historical tidbits i as reading about!! I am hoping to get back there and go through Einstein's Planetarium before I leave...you have to pay for a ticket and I didn't feel like i had enough time to get my money's worth so hopefully I will have another opportunity!
Before we left the National Mall, Barry and I were discussing whether or not we wanted to hang out until dark to see the monuments at night...we decided to head home instead and if we had enough energy we would hop back on the Metro train and see them. That didn't happen...when we got home we started playing with Barnaby, Julian and Meren.
We had a marshmallow roast and found a big, huge garden spider in one of the bushes. Tony looked it up on Wickipedia to find out what kind it was and we discovered they are harmless to humans so Barns grabbed my camera and we went down to take pictures. Julian was amazed at how close I would get and shocked that I would touch it and the web. I asked Julian if he wanted to touch it and his response was a shocking "You will teach me how to touch it?!?!?!...you are the bravest person I know!" Hahahaha so darn funny! He reluctantly held out his hand and grabbed the web...what a brave little boy. The spider quickly disappeared and that was the end of our spider fun! I grabbed my camera and video taped him telling me about his spider adventure and now have proof that, at least for a short time, I was the bravest person he knows! I told Tony I would be playing that video at his high school graduation party!
Saturday I slept in and then headed to Eastern Market to cash my check and pick up some produce. Barry came along for the adventure...he is such a patient man! We went to Java Port City for a cup of coffee and some lunch and ran into Jack and Allison, a couple of our campers and their dad. Dad and mom used to work up in the Boundary Waters back in the day so it is fun to talk about MN with him. It was good to see all three of them one last time and get extra big squeezes from them again. :)
I had a blast looking at all the produce at the Farmer's Market section of Eastern Market...it costs a little more than safeway, but it is local, fresh and delicious. Picked up some sweet corn, bell peppers (who knew they had purple bell peppers, had to get one just for it's color!!) and other veggies to possibly make kabobs with. That never happened but we did eat the corn and it was delish!! The peppers will be used sometime this week!!
I got home in time to take a quick rest and head over to Potter's house...Potter had an extra ticket for the Arena Theatre's play previews, where they do a scene, song etc from each of their upcoming performances. What a gorgeous theatre with so many talented actors and actresses! After that we headed to Union Station to take advantage of Happy Hour at B. Smith's restaurant and bar...what a classy place! When I asked Tobin, the bartender, if I could get some olives for my beer they came on a carved bamboo skewer in a fancy glass. No plastic swords and shot glasses here!! We ordered a couple appetizers...one was Thai Chicken Wings...and instead of a handi wipe that come in a little packet that you tear open we were given a coffee/tea cup with a linen napkin rolled up and hot water poured over it...huh, who knew!?! It was like washing our fingers with a warm wash cloth instead of a fake lemon smelling piece of paper towel :)
We headed to Maryland to go to Target...Potter loves their book selection. So much fun at Target...even bought myself a pair of pants that is two sizes SMALLER than the size I wore when I got out here! Now to just keep losing the weight...and I was worried about all the hard work I had put into the Litchfield Lite going down the tubes. Haha, just come to DC and you will sweat and walk it off in no time!!
It is a sad face day because it is the last day I will see so many of the campers!!
We took a bus ride to Watkins pool and playground...what a fantastic place!! The children had so much fun swimming...what a bunch of fish!! One of their favorite games to play was hanging on Ms. Jes and having her drag them around the pool! So many giggles so it never got tiring! One of our 3 year old boys hung on to my arm so tightly that whenever I went under he did too. I would quickly jump up out of the water and he would be frantically wiping his face and then say "I'm OK, let's do it again!!" So cute...I am going to miss them so much, but the memories I have made with them will live in my heart forever!!
We had a picnic lunch on the playground and played some more...they would have stayed there all day if the decision was up to them, but alas, we had to head back to camp and get ready for our ice cream party to wrap up our camp season.
I had outside playground duty again...it was so much fun reminiscing with Ms. Angela and Ms. Morning about our summer adventures! The children wanted my camera again...of course I couldn't say no. What great little photographers some of them are!! Makes me smile just remembering some of the cute pics they took for me!! I am hoping to create and upload a Snapfish account or something similar so all the staff can upload their pics (we all took bunches each day to send to Tony to put in the daily email) and all the families can see them. Lots of cute pics that never got sent in the emails but would be fun for everyone to have access to.
So many parents showed up for our ice cream party...one family even brought several different cakes, red velvet, chocolate-chocolate and a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...YUMMY!!
It was good to visit with all the parents...share some fun memories of their children and it made my heart so happy to hear the fun things they had to say about the memories their children made with me. One little camper, Teddy (who will be president, or at least one heck of an attorney) won me over my first day there...and continued to warm my heart each day!! Every day on his walk over he had to bring me something, an acorn, a leaf, a neat piece of broken glass etc. Such a cutie-patutie!! His moms were so complimentary to me as well and were so thankful for the love and care I put into all the children each day and made it fun for them, Teddy would tell them stories about our day each night and always included Miss Jes :) Teddy and his moms were heading on vacation to their beach house after camp that day and so he gave me a big hug and I told him I was going back to Minnesota so I wouldn't see them again until next summer...he didn't really grasp the concept and his reply was "Will you bring me back a Minnesota Ginger Ale?!?!" Hahahaha, too cute! I told them they should come to MN so I can take them fishing on a frozen lake...teddy didn't think this was a very good idea because "even Miss Jes, you can't walk on a lake, even though you can do lots of stuff for me" aaah, heart you!!
After lots of hugs were given to lots of campers and their parents it was time for me to leave because I could tell my dam of tears was ready to overflow...not a pretty sight for anyone to see. I quietly slipped away and headed home to take it all in!!
This day was probably one of the best of my summer! We started out taking our campers to Eastern Market to listen to John Henry perform. What a fantastic concert he puts on!! The children had an absolute blast!! He had them rowing boats, running around like wild animals, doing fist pumps while singing a song about Washington DC...super cute and I wish I would have been able to video tape them!
After the concert we walked over to Lincoln Park and had a picnic with our lunches. We played on both playgrounds and got so much of our energy out. Mr. Barry had some of the campers climbing trees, some were playing spy and sniper, running all over saving the world. Needless to say, when we got back to camp there were lots of tired campers!!
I had playground duty for the afternoon and had a blast with the campers! I had my camera with so they wanted to take pictures with it. I wrapped the cord around their little wrists and let 'em go. Each time it was time to switch they would come back to me and I would transfer the camera from one friend to another...this went on for over an hour! Lots of fun pictures for me to look at that evening on my way to Fairfax to see Joe.
When I got to Fairfax Joe and I headed out of town...he was taking me to see a mountain sunset!! YYIIPPEEEE! I hadn't seen an actual sunset or a sunrise since leaving Minnesota...too many buildings on Capitol Hill! The views were amazing...I posted lots of pics on my facebook page. We even saw a pair of black bears. They were about 10 yards off the road, up the bank so Joe stopped the car and grabbed my camera to take some pics. He had to climb up the hill to get the pics...while I stayed back by the car ready to jump in it in case the Momma Bear came back. The moon was also rising so I got several great shots of that too!Definitely worth the drive...over an hour each way! Truly blessed to have such a great group of friends now in the DC area that are willing to go out of there way to show me a great time!
