More Camping

Well, they survived camp!!! Plus we let them come back home to live with us afterwards - hahaha!! There were only 12 girls at the horse camp and about 100 kids in the wilderness camp, so there were VERY few pictures of Austin and quite a few of An. These pictures are more to help capture what they did as opposed to them being the ones actually in the picture.

 Ansley and Major - we learned his name finally ;0 turns out he was the oldest horse at the camp.

He was also one of the fastest horses at camp .... and they put the three shortest girls on him - what!?!

 The beloved blob! This is known to be one of the MOST fun things to do at a camp!! To make it work, someone jumps from the wooden tower on the right onto the back of the blob which then launches someone off the front of the blob into the water! The person in the lake is on a standing paddle board type apparatus and is the "lifeguard" ... both kids LOVED it and the "bigger" the jumper the better the launch at the end .... so they liked finding a partner who was not their size - hahahaha!

 An and friends decorated this horse named CT after their class about Native Americans.

 An and friends waiting to go back home after doing the "blob"

 An and friends from the cardboard boat race ...

 An's group won the cardboard boat race (she is in the back of the boat as the "steerer" ... and mainly because she was one of the 3 smallest girls on their team. Ansley admitted the other group had a much better boat but they chose the three biggest girls on their team to be in the boat and when the last one "jumped" in the boat, it all fell apart.

 Austin's group at the campfire on the 4th of July. They learned how to build a proper campfire while there and jot to enjoy it on a 93 degree day with only 97% humidity - ha!

 This was the "reptile" dude...if you look hard, you can see Austin in the middle of the shot on the upper left hand side....it sort of looks like him ... but he doesn't look like the same kid we dropped off to camp just a few days prior (more to come on that later)....

 Austin's group also learned to use this type of tree stand; they seem very complex to me, but Eric has a few of them, so now Austin can use them too.

 More pictures of tree stand climbing...

 Austin's group making fresh squeezed lemonade ... still not sure if there was a lesson behind this or just a way to cool off in the hot Georgia sun!

 Austin's group took lessons on how to shoot 12 gauge shotguns and 22 rifles. I swear I thought this woman was either a Whitlow or maybe a non-McCollum relative of ours ...

 Austin's group doing archery; the kid in the very front is Dylan again; the camera person LOVED Dylan ;0

This was how the whole camp started out on the 4th of July. An's group and Austin are in here somewhere.....I think An is on the left hand side in front of a kid in a blue shirt .... but who knows ;0

Regardless, they all had so much fun!! I will post pictures from the closing ceremonies later ... and more on Austin's changed appearance :(

Camp

We shipped both of our kids off to camp this week ... actually the same camp, just different "sections" of camp. Austin's is wildlife and Ansley's is horse camp. These are the pictures from Days 1 and 2....An you can CLEARLY see but Austin is literally hiding or just simply covered up in all of his pictures ... but a Mom knows her kids heads and he is thus in these pictures too. It is a bit like "Where's Waldo?" only substituting Austin's name ;0

This is the group picture for Austin's camp - he is there with one of his best friends from Kindergarten and his brother who was in the same grade as Ansley. They go to different middle schools but their Mom was also Ansley's 1st grade teacher, so we are a bit inseparable! 

 An on Day 1; somehow their hard work of "checking in" warranted ice cream later in the day!

This was from Day 2 (Monday) she looks like she is having fun at least!

 This muddy mess below is from Day 1 for Austin's group; they went through the mud course!! What a way to welcome in a bunch of boys to camp!! Austin is hiding in the upper left hand side of the group of kids and his friend Braden is in the front row on the far left looking like he LOVED the mud!! ..... I LOVE how all these campers are "hooking their horns" all the way in Georgia!!! They must have forgotten about the Sugar Bowl ;0

If this mud fest was on Day 1, can you imagine how bad these clothes will stink by Friday when we pick them up?!? Gotta LOVE camp!!!!

 Again, where's Austin" He is right in the middle with a black baseball cap on (birthday present from the Phillips ;0) and they appear to be making a bird house ... I think ... anywho, his friend Dylan is on the far left side in the orange shirt, so at least I knew this was Austin's group ;0

Gymnastics

An has been doing gymnastics for quite some time now and I never video tape her because she is funny like that...but her current studio/site is closing down, so I got one video today of her doing a new trick....don't ask me what it is called....I forget!!! 

It is not the best quality (no shock there) but at least you can see her do her trick; hope you enjoy!!

Mardi Gras

Eric and I had the chance this past weekend to head down to Baton Rouge to see his Aunts and Uncles and several of their children/wives/kids, etc.  It was LOTS of fun and we actually took a picture - a rarity for us!  A&A stayed home with Eric's Mom and had LOTS of fun playing with their Uncles and an Aunt.  Eric's Dad is in the hospital so they all went to see him to help him feel better soon!!  Clearly A&A did not miss Mom & Dad one bit!!!

After I saw this picture, I realized we are getting old .... how did that happen!?!

Cotillion

So we decided to sign Austin up for a local Cotillion group this year; he said he was not a big fan of it, but that's okay - we thought they did a good job reinforcing things we try to teach him at home.  The last night of the Cotillion was yesterday and at the very end, the kids dance with their parents of the opposite gender to "show them their dance moves" .... HA!! Eric thought these were worth documenting - not sure either of us really knew what to do!!!

In theory, he is showing me how to do the ChaCha here - it was so hard not to laugh hysterically at his instructions - just being honest ;0

At least we got a good picture together - as you can see from the room in the background - it was a FULL house!!  There were something like 170 5th grade kids from two of the local elementary schools who were in his group.

In the end, the best part for the boys was getting to dress up and hang out with their friends - Austin and the other boy in this picture, Braden, have been great friends since Kindergarten so it was fun to see how much they have changed over the years.  And I almost fell down when I saw how happy Austin was to take this picture with Ansley in it too; I thought maybe he was not feeling very good - but then a friend reminded me that smiling was something they had worked on in the Cotillion classes - duh Mom!!!

 

Side note, when the kids were dancing with each other, the most bizarre thing would happen...the lion's share of the boys would NOT look at the girls and the girls would make eye contact when they first started holding the boys hands, but then very quickly they too stopped looking at them - as you can kind of see from the picture above, Austin, his dance partner, and even the boy to his right are staring off into another direction - of course, when asked about this, Austin claimed it was because he did not want to look at the girls and he was watching/talking to his friends to his left - but Oh My Goodness - it was SO FUNNY!!!

Better

Austin is feeling much better - he seems to have gotten over his little bit with pneumonia - so we are all doing quite better!!

His grade goes to the symphony every year during the Fall and all of the 5th graders get dressed up....Austin wanted to wear his suit, so here he is (smile)!!!  Ignore the fact his shirt is un-tucked at the bottom of his jacket - I had run out of time that morning to take his picture, so this was his after school was over, just got off the hot bus pic!!

Pneumonia

Since this is basically my baby book for our kiddos, I feel I have to make this entry (sad, sad face)....Austin has pneumonia.  He officially got diagnosed yesterday at the Urgent Care clinic after asking to go to the hospital.....Mom of the Year award right here!!!  No one can take that award away from me now!!!  You know it is bad when your kid actually asks to go to the hospital.  He has been home with a fever from school since last Tuesday.  Needless to say, he, I, and Eric are ready for him to go back to school.

More later....room with a view