Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Young Author's Day

Today was Young Author's Day at school.  This year the girls prepared facts about an assigned animal.  They showed us their facts and then we attended a presentation in their classroom where they'd done a slideshow with voice overs.

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Weekend Getaway

A couple of months ago, when I was looking at the YMCA site for information about summer camp, I came across the link for Camp Kanata, the YMCA's closest overnight summer camp. Not ever having been to summer camp, I was curious and clicked to see what it was about. On their page they were advertising a "mother-daughter weekend" camp in April. I wasn't sure about it since the girls had not been camping before, but it seemed doable since we'd be in a cabin and the camp staff would be providing meals, etc. A coworker's daughter had been a counselor at Kanata for years, so I'd only heard good things about it. So we signed up.

Given the events of last week, it was the best trip ever.  Just to be able to get away from the world for a few days with the girls and do activities together was the best gift.

We did archery.
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I taught them volleyball.
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We did arts and crafts.
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We canoed.
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We played music.
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We were just together.
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My only wish would be for more sleep!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

I Can't Smile Without....

my girls.

Last week's other big activity was the school talent show.  They went last year and immediately started planning what they wanted to do.  Mostly it involved gymnastics/dance, but once I explained to them that it had to be a repeatable routine, they leaned more toward singing.

I was kind of hoping they'd forget about it.  We had 5 more years in elementary school to take on this challenge, and most kids appeared to be older anyway.

Fast forward to this year.  Notices about tryouts were sent home, and they came home all excited.  We talked about the best kind of act that they could do, how much they'd have to practice, and the tryout/rehearsal schedule requirements.  They assured me they were up to the challenge.

We picked Barry Manilow's I Can't Smile Without You.  With mostly a chorus, they knew all the words.  I would be able to buy an instrumental karaoke version for them to sing with.   Forty acts tried out, and only 18 were accepted, and the girls were thrilled to make the cut.

Rehearsal went well, and they couldn't wait to go shopping for outfits.  Lily picked these out at Old Navy.  What you can't see is that they're wearing their first heels.

They were the first act of the night and did great.  I think they had a hard time hearing the music (as they get ahead of themselves at the end), but as one of only two first grade acts, it was awesome.

They're already plotting next year.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Last of the beach trip

Saturday the weather finally cleared and was nice - of course our last full day at the beach.  We headed out early to check out WonderWorks at Broadway at the Beach, and it was better than I expected.  No line at all, and practically empty even.  We had plenty of time to check out the exhibits without feeling overcrowded.

Lily on a bed of nails.

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Astronaut Madeleine
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The highlight was the indoor ropes course.  I had figured Lily would be too scared to go up, so we'd hold down the fort while Madeleine and Eric were above us, but she ended up going up as well.  No pictures because we had to lock everything up in a locker so nothing fell off.  Super proud of my brave girl.

We walked around Broadway at the Beach some more before heading back to the hotel for more swimming.  The girls loved the pirate ship playground by the beach.

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And they loved learning to play shuffleboard.

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

More Myrtle

For our first full day in Myrtle Beach, the forecast was rainy and a high of 42.

Like the rest of town, we headed out to Ripley's Aquarium.  For the 4 of us admission was roughly $75.  I got in line for tickets right at 9 and ended up going in around 9:20.  While the tube through the shark tank was really cool, we'd finished everything in the aquarium within an hour.
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So we went over to try and go to WonderWorks, but the wait at that point was close to 2 hours.  Yeah, no.

The girls were cold, and we tried to get them to walk around the shops.  We did some Old Tyme photos and had Hard Rock for lunch before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon of indoor swimming.

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The highlight of Friday was dinner at Medieval Times.  We hadn't told the girls about it, so they were excited to see us pull up to the castle for dinner.  They got really into the show, and were thrilled to cheer on our red and yellow knight, even though he didn't win.  Both girls were lucky enough to receive carnations that he threw earlier as a display of chivalry for winning his tasks during the tournament.
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Vacation - all I ever wanted

We were able to get away last week for a few days to the beach.  It was my first trip to Myrtle Beach since our 1990 senior beach trip, and a LOT has changed.

Based on friend recommendations and the weather, we stayed at the Dunes Village resort way north of central Myrtle Beach.  Since I had no idea what the weather was going to be like, I wanted somewhere with a lot of indoor activities, and their indoor water park looked pretty fun.  When I first looked in February our dates were 25% off, but I was scared by their cancellation policy and didn't book until March when it was 20% off and I had to book a Queen suite instead of just a studio.

But the suite was great.  Eric, Madeleine, and I slept in the bedroom while Lily slept by herself on the murphy bed in the living room.  It was nice to be able to just hang out while they were asleep and not be in the dark too.

I didn't bring a camera to the water park/pools, but you can check them out on their site.  We preferred the park in the Palmetto tower with the lazy river over the one in the Palms Tower which seemed more for the teenage set.  But we were in the parks for HOURS the three days we were there (arrival on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).

Saturday it finally got sunny so the girls were able to enjoy the pirate play area. 
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