Little Inventors

Back in March, Madeleine came home with a flyer from school in her backpack.  It was information about a camp to be held at school during the summer called Camp Invention, and it pretty much decided for me what we'd be doing for child care this summer since I'd have to find other things to work around it.

I saved up a box of recycled materials, and they each took a "take-apart" item to explore and see how it worked.  Maddie had my old desktop computer, and my brother's house flooded last week, so he had a dead one to spare for the cause as well for Lily.

They came home each day super-excited about their activities and wanting to go back the next day.  Lily points out registered trademark symbols *everywhere* we go and tells me what they mean.  They were excited about using real tools.  I've heard a few more big words this week, and I know they'll want to go back next summer.

It was from 9am - 3:30 pm, so I had to enlist my parents to do drop offs and pick ups.  Dad also attended their presentation of their duck launchers on the last day.

Makers

This past weekend we attended the Maker Faire NC at the fairgrounds.  Madeleine has been interested in inventing for years, so I talked it up as a way of seeing what other people are doing.  She has a lot of ideas and ambition, but not so great on the follow through.

Luckily there was space available at the weaving table when we walked up.



That got them started and we were able to take home the looms and project with us to finish.

They were also excited to see the Scrap Exchange booth, but since we'd been up there last weekend it wasn't quite as exciting.



It was very crowded, so we probably only were able to see about 50% of the exhibitors and didn't get to watch any of the combat robots.  Lily did like one of the robots wandering around that had cameras for eyes.   They liked the giant marble contraption in the middle but didn't want to help in construction.  They just kept picking up the dropped marbles.



We did finish our weaving when we got home though!

Performance Highlights

Lily and Maddie had their first grade end-of-year performance today.  I asked them to select which songs were their favorites, and I've posted them here so as not to bore you unnecessarily.  This is their first concert that they were close enough together where I could zoom in and get them both.

These boots were made for stomping

In case you don't know, we have a creek in our yard.  With no fence.  The girls have never wandered near it or messed with it without asking us.  All week Madeleine has asked about going walking in the creek on Saturday, so after helping us weed the side yard they did.



I was unable to find rain boots for Madeleine this year, so she's wearing a women's size 7 garden boot from Target (the smallest they had).



Guess who got deep enough the water went in over the top of her boots?

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.

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.

I taught them volleyball.

We did arts and crafts.





We canoed.

We played music.

We were just together.


My only wish would be for more sleep!

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.