The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 6

[legalslave]

Hey Alicia -

I decided you needed a new signature too!!

Kate, she's gonna flip!!!

 

[tinknme]

Angela lots of prayers going out to you & your family

I have a prayer request for all of you, I found out that my sister-in-law has colon cancer, liver cancer and ovarian cancer. She will have to have a very aggresive treatment.

 

[tinknme]

MNSSHP tickets are on sale. Just got ours!

 

[legalslave]

Amy, it looks like you had a wonderful day - good for you to take a stress break! I love all pictures of Alyssa, but the flower-sniffing ones are the best! She has a wonderful profile!

 

[mgkkgdm]

Amy and Kevin,

Alyssa is the most beautiful little girl... Great pictures Amy

Paul

 

[tinknme]

Have fun Kristine!

Hello all...

I am finally done packing!! We head out tomorrow at 5 am!! First trip w/out kids in a while....

I hope everyone has a good week...

Kristine

 

[tinknme]

Great pictures!

Here a couple of pictures from after Matthews Blue Belt Test tonight...

 

[tinknme]

Julia looks so pretty! You can tell Nick is not feeling well, hope he feels better soon

Just so I am not totally negative tonight - I got this costume for Julia at a garage sale for $5

she looks so cute in it and she knows it which means she is pretty funny to watch! Nick being the ham that he is had to jump in a few pics - please excuse the diaper - he is so hot he doesn't want clothes on

 

[UP Disney]

Deb-

Can you PM a list of the items that Mickey got? I think Vicki added some things to the box that she won't tell me about and I want to make sure I don't send duplications!!

I didn't send anything more than what I told you YET!!!! I do have a couple more things planned but haven't got it all together yet.

 

[Eeyorecln]

Since it was a university course, I read Beowulf in Olde English. Couldn't figure out what was going on. Maybe the translation would improve the story.

I grew up in Northern California, and my parents and I went to the Ashland, OR Shakespeare Festival every year throughout my junior high, high school and into college (until my parents divorced) years. We saw 3 plays per day for several days and were on They have a reproduction of the Old Globe Theatre that is wonderful, and they perform Shakespeare under the stars. It is glorious. They also perform Shakespeare at one of their indoor theatres, often with other period costumes, giving the work new undertones.

Imagine Merry Wives of Windsor in 1900s dress, with suffragettes picketing for the vote. Brilliant!!

Now that my mom is back living in NorCal, we are talking about getting tickets to Ashland again. How I've missed it!!

Jennifer

I didn't know there was a shakespeare festival out here. I'll have to check into that. I've always loved Shakespeare's comedies and love stories.

 

[tinknme]

Heidi prayers for your family

 

[tinknme]

Amy I love the pictures of Alyssa smelling the flowers!

 

[tinker1bell]

I really shouldn't be here as I should be gathering things for my Brownie troop sleepover but I can't resist playing.

Plus I have a cute story to share from my Brownie meeting and a question.

We were discussing what to bring to the sleepover. I said you want to put your toiletries in a bag. Before I could tell them what I meant by toiletries one of the other adults said "But what is a toiletry?" One of the Brownies said it is where boys go pee when they don't have a bathroom, they go pee on the toilet-tree. This had everyone including the girls .

I went on to remind them how they are supposed to write their name on everything they bring with them as there will be about 100 girls and last year at camp we only had 8 and nobody could remember what belonged to them even though they were supposed to put names on everything. Imagine that with twelve times more girls.

A little while later I told them not to bring to bring a night gown to wear. I said they could wear one if they wore pants underneath. Some wanted to know why not. Before I could answer, one of the other girls said in case your nightgown comes in up the back you don't want someone with binoculars to see the name on your underwear. We all lost it, I could not believe it. We were probably laughing for two minutes.

My question, we were going over the day and resident camp brochure. I have really been trying to push getting these girls to summer camp, even last year. One of the girls said her Mom won't let her go until she is going into sixth grade, mind you all of these girls are between 1st and 3rd grade. I then said you could go to Day camp as you will be home at night or perhaps you could go for a short 3 day program.

At what age would you let your kid go to a day camp and what age would you let your kid go to a resident camp? A camp where you don't know the adults but all have went through background checks, etc.

I am asking because I went to a day camp probably before I went to kindergarten. My first overnight camp experience was for a week the summer before second grade, I went with my second cousin to a camp about an hour away from home. The only person I knew at camp was my second cousin who is 2 days younger than me.

I know these girls would love camp as they were begging me to call them in sick from school the next day because they did not want to go home. This is not meant to be judgemental, I am just curious. I know different cultures and families feel very differently about this, as I met people in college who had never slept away from home before or traveled more than 2 hours away from home.

I don't have any kids and I want to know what your opinion and experience is on the matter. Thank you in advance.

Becky

Becky,

I really do love my three kids but when they were little, I used to want just a minute of down time. When my oldest was about 4 he went to (Oma camp) for the weekend. That is my DH's mother. I was still home with DD but I welcomed the time. She had told me that once DD was potty trained then she could come but each kid went for a few days by themselves separately so they would have that time with Oma and Opa. As for camps, once they were into Scouts, they wanted to go to camp in the summer and I would sign them up for the one or two week stay and they had no problems at all. Never once did they want to come home early. In fact my oldest son went back and did lifeguard duty the year after he stopped actually going to camp. He said he wanted to give back for the years that he had so much fun.
He also went to Turtle Camp ( swear I did not make that up) for kids that have Asthma.
For about 4 summers my oldest son and DD went to church camp that my DH went to when he was growing up. It was for a whole week. They loved it, not a problem at all.

Here at the Rec Center, we have All Day Camps when there is no school and the kids love it. Then for the summer we have a choice of three day camps for the kids to chose from. Two of them start at the age of 5 years old. They are held at different locations and some kids will go every day and some that chose just certain days each week depending on the parent's work schedule. If I had had that kind of thing available when my kids were young, I would have taken advantage because the camps are structured and the kids are always doing something. Field trips, sports, crafts just about anything else you could think of.
I would just give the advice that if a parent is thinking of sending their child/children to camp, that they take the time to visit the camp and get to know the counselors. Go some of the field trips if that is possible.

 

[KMH1]

I've been trying to keep up, but I decided I better review from page 1781 on to jot down some notes.

In the meantime, here's lots of and for you all!

Thanks for your sweet words about Alyssa. All of the DDA kids are so cute...I love looking at the pictures you all post!

Amy

 

[UP Disney]

I had a fantastic day! The sun was shining and it was 55 degrees so cool enough to be exerting ourselves. I love playing in the trees at camp. The recertification training was pretty fast & furious so I didn't get time to take pictures. I'll look for the ones from last year and try to post some so you can see me playing in the trees. The high ropes course that I work on is 25 feet in the air. It is a lot of fun. We take any girls that want to do it through it at camp. The best part is having the counselors do it. My mother did it when she was in her early 60's. I've also had some other women in their 50's go through it. There is nothing more amazing than the pride they exude after completing it successfully.

 

[Eeyorecln]

As I seem to have diarrhea of the mouth (or fingers) tonight, as my mother would say, just one last story before I hop off to bed.

I went to a literary reading by David Sedaris earlier this week. Haven't laughed like that in ages. He is hysterical! If you haven't read any of his work, do yourself a favor and pick up one of his books. They include Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day (about living in France as an American), and the Santaland Diaries (about his experiences as a Macy's Christmas elf wearing green tights). He read us some of his new work and we laughed until our cheeks hurt.

Not so unlike being on the DDA some nights!

DBF, some friends and I are off to see Jimmy Buffet on Friday night (tomorrow for me, today for the early risers!). Wish us luck as it is supposed to rain and we have lawn seats! It hasn't rained all week, and isn't supposed to the rest of the weekend, but it is supposed to pour all day tomorrow and tomorrow night. Yuck! I hate mud.

Then Saturday night, two girl friends and I are having a grown-up princess party! We are going to watch Princess Diaries 1 and 2, Princess Bride, and probably Cinderella. We are going to use Amy's famous cookie recipe and make cookies in tiara, shoes and other girly shapes. I have several tiaras which we will all have perched on our heads. Think we are going to run around in our jammies too. All of this while the guys are at Hooters and Dave & Buster's for a bachelor party. I'd say it's a fair trade, wouldn't you?! Frankly, I think we'll have more fun!!

The girls and I are dying to go to the new Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo-tique at Downtown WDW. I haven't seen where it has an age maximum, and we want to get princess up-dos with sparkly tiaras and glitter in our hair. What is Disney if not a place to be a child again. So bring on the princess fun!!

As you can tell from all my posts tonight, I have my serious side (work, literature such as Shakespeare, Junior League) and my fun side (Disney!, DDA, BABW, Princess stuff and anything pink).

Okay, time for bed. Talk to you all at some point this weekend or on Monday!!

Jennifer

Have fun at your princess party. I would love to have a princess up-do too. Sometimes, my DH laughs at me trying to do the things I didn't get to do as a child.

 

[Eeyorecln]

Since you all were chatty last night telling stories, I thought I would share one. As y'all know I have been on my diet and have been walking with the dog every morning. I have a 30 minute window I try to keep within and as we have gotten healthier and faster, our walks have taken us further afield from our house, but still in our general neighborhood/subdivision.

I have two students, aged 4 and 6, who live a little less than a mile from my house, but on the same street/cul-de-sac, and they have been seeing me walk some mornings when their Mom or Dad takes them to school.

Yesterday, in class, I told them that I was almost to their house on my walks. I told them that they ought to look for me today because if they told me which house was theirs I would wave at them as I went by this morning. They looked at their Mom and she started to laugh. She informed me that I would have no trouble finding their house because for the past 2 weeks, every night before they go to bed, the girls have been using sidewalk chalk to write
HI MRS. H on their driveway!

How cute.

 

[Steffy]

Well, I'm never catching up and that's okay.

As Flylady says "you are not behind." So, I'm just going to jump back in where I am.

Tinker1bell gave me a sorta Readers Digest version.

Hugs and pixie dust to all. Seems we've had more than our share of "thin" again. Hope it will get thick soon.

I'm exhausted and going to bed. But just wanted to say hi..

 

[Eeyorecln]

Now that I am all caught up I will say good morning to everyone!

I took today off to clean my house. My parents are coming today to spend the weekend and celebrate Alyssa's birthday on Sunday. Tomorrow we are going to an afternoon matinee at our local dinner theater for a production of Wizard of Oz. Chick-a-Lick caters it!!!! Yum!

Alyssa. Have a fun week-end.

 

[Eeyorecln]

Yeah, another quick catch up morning! Just what I needed on the last day of the month. I guess I just don't get why there's always such a big push to cram extra billings into the month. If it doesn't bill today doesn't that just mean we start off May a little ahead?

Hopefully, I'll get to be around a little bit this weekend. My BIL comes in today for a conference in Boston and will be staying with us. I'm not sure how much that means we'll see him since he comes in this morning from the CA red eye and leaves Sunday night, plus conference stuff in between. However, it's nice that someone is actually coming to see us for a change instead of us always being the ones to fly out there.

Now, if I could just think of a good place to go to dinner tonight. Tom says that he wants Terra to pick and we will go to her favorite place. Luckily, she doesn't think of Chuck E Cheese as a restaurant or we'd be there. Instead, her response was "a place with chicken". Well, that narrows it down.

A few things I hadn't posted on yet:
Denise - I hope that your morning is going smoothly.

Glynis - I missed posting earlier, but I am so sorry to hear about your presentation. Don't worry though as you will do great recording it today.

Kate - I hope that Nick is feeling better this morning. I am glad that you had a nice time last night.

Have a nice week-end and dinner out.