Summer vacation: Camps are done!!!

Our summer break has been very busy until yesterday. Summer ended up skipping the last day of school. The night before that was her dress rehearsal for her dance recital at which, of course, she was super adorable. In her first dance, she wore a flower girl dress from a wedding she was in last summer and ballet slippers. She and her daddy were stars in my eyes as they danced their Daddy/Daughter dance. It was a much different look than her Gitchie Gitchie Goo costume which was like a purple flapper costume...at least in my mind. I'm not really sure what you would call it. But, it had lots of purple fringe hanging down, purple gloves, purple ribbons in her tap shoes, a choker and a sparkly headband. She was still totally sweet in this "wilder" costume, but a lot more flashy. She did not seem nervous at all during either dance and made me a proud momma for sure.

The following day we stayed at home and hung out in lieu of going to the last 1/2 day of school. One of her friends from school had a birthday party at Pump It Up that afternoon at 4:00, and she was very excited to go to it. She ended up playing mostly with the boys from her class, namely Brody. They were playing dodge ball or something like that with balls. She had a great time and it was fun to see her smiling as she played and played. We went and hung out at a friend's house after where she got to play with her friend Abby. They had fun until the fireflies came out and then it was time to call it a day.

The next morning we got up and headed to the library to check out some books for summer reading. She is doing very well at reading, but she does not like it. She seems to always tell me that when I make her alternate pages or paragraphs with me when we are reading at night. I don't understand it since she does a good job and does not struggle a lot, but maybe it is just the wrong time of day for her to be reading since she is tired it being the end of the day and all. It's different for me too not being the only one reading. I do miss the days when I did all of the reading and she just listened, but learning to read is part of growing up so she has to have her turns too. She doesn't seem to mind reading to her animals when it is her choice. She is working on a Magic Treehouse book, but has not finished it yet. She has quite a collection of them. They seem to be her favorite series. I think mine (of books for her age level) is Junie B. Jones. She has a book report due the first day of school on the book of her choice, so I hope that goes over well and she does not decide she doesn't like writing either! 

After checking out our books, we headed to Mellow Mushroom for lunch with our friends Selena, Willow and Harper. The kid's favorite thing to eat there seems to be their parmesan pretzels. Summer also likes the steak and cheese calzone. She is never one to turn down steak! When our bellies were full, we headed to the zoo to check out the new exhibit that opened a month or so ago. It was fun to see the new animals as well as the ones that have been there for years. We never have gotten tired of going there and love our family membership!! To the kid's delight, we stopped by the carousel for 3 rides before leaving. I love that you can get unlimited rides with a family membership.  Makes it easy to let them have their fill and be the "good guy" at the same time.  That was not the end of our day with the Lynch's. Next on our path was Cold Stone Creamery where Summer chose their Oreo filling flavor with a KitKat mixed in. She gobbled it down without even giving me a bite! Not that I usually ask for one.  I try to behave myself and not eat anything there when I can. 

Our adventure for the day was not over yet as we made our way to our firepit by the creek. Lexie joined us for our campout. We tried to catch fish, but we only fed them. It was still fun, but not as much fun as it would've been to be reeling in fish. When we finally got the campfire going, we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. I put a can of chili in the hot coals to cook since my baby girl is spoiled and doesn't eat hotdogs. Not that I blame her. I totally don't like them either, but chili does make them edible. Between 10 and 11p.m., I tried to get the girls to sleep in their tent, but it was a little warm outside and they were not anxious to go to sleep. They did finally drift off and slept through the whole night in their Winnie the Pooh tent. The next morning Summer woke up with bites all over her legs despite her leggings. It was a mommy failure moment for me even though we did apply bug spray several times throughout the evening. Apparently, it is wise to spray your clothes too. Either that, or wear jeans. My legs seemed fine. Overall, it was a camping success since we stayed out all night. We left around 7:30 the next morning which was not a moment too soon. I was ready for a shower and they needed a bath themselves. We ended up cutting their "shower/bath," as they call it, short and heading over to swim at my aunt's pool until time to go to her dance recital. It went off without a hitch and Summer got a dozen red roses from her daddy.  I am imagining that he was influenced by his friend Paul's decision to get his baby girl some flowers, but it was sweet nonetheless.  Needless to say, it was a fun busy day. Summer ended up getting to spend the night with Memaw and Nanny after her dances which was icing on the cake for her. That's definitely her favorite place to go!!

There was little rest before her next adventure: Tennis Camp. She was finally persuaded, after many "NO'S!," to go when she found out her friend Lily from school was going. Apparently a friend was all she needed. It turned out that her friend Callahan also ended up going.  It was a good thing because Lily turned out to be in the younger group and Summer was in 7 & 8 year olds. She gave me some hard times about leaving her a few of the mornings, but there were not too many tears shed. One morning, she had a belly ache, but I think she just needed to potty or didn't want to stay. After the first day of camp, I asked her what her favorite part was. She replied, "We got popsicles and candy." So much for the tennis part! One day, she and her friend Callahan were having a hard time getting along and she told me that he was causing her "so much stress." It was funny to me to be hearing her having "stress." I guess it comes in all forms though. She ended up getting Most Improved Serve at the final ceremony where she also received her camp t-shirt which she says she will probably never wear. We'll see. Sometimes I think she is all tomboy, but others she seems girly. She has especially gotten into painting her nails (and mine) the past two weeks. I am not sure if that is just because she wanted to use the birthday presents she got, a manicure set and a pedicure set, or if she is indeed going to become a girly girl. We'll see how much use they get this summer.

After we left Tennis camp that Friday, she headed to do one of her favorite things in life--have a grandbaby sleepover at Memaw's. I dropped her off at my mom's work and they went to meet her cousins for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. They spent the afternoon swimming and playing. The next morning they had a nice walk and swam and played some more. I called and checked in several times and she was always happy as a lark. She was especially happy that she was going to get to spend 3 nights instead of 2 like she sometimes does. I guess Memaw and Nanny are pretty special if they can keep her from missing me for 3 days!!!

On Monday morning, I met them at my mom's work and we headed to the condo to waste a little time before Aerials camp. There was not one moment of dread in her when we headed there. This was what she had been waiting for!!! She absolutely loves aerials. Last year, her friend Willow went with her, but this year she was going alone. That did not bother her until it came time to choreograph her routine for the final performance at the end of camp. She got herself all worked up that 2nd afternoon when I came to pick her up. I had gotten their early so I could watch some of it, and I noticed she was frowning while sitting on the trapeze. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then I started to wonder why she looked so unhappy. I went in and talked to her and she told me she could not think of any more than 2 tricks to do in a row. She was very frustrated and not easily talked out of it. Her favorite instructor, Ms. Yuti, came over and tried to help her figure out which tricks she knew and how to do them under the bar, then sitting on the bar, then standing. She was still too stuck in "I can't" to listen so we called it a day and headed to the house. She told me she would not be going to another camp unless she had a friend or was going to aerials on a regular basis.  I guess the pressure of having to make the decisions alone this year for her routine was a little overwhelming at first.  That was the only day she had a bad day, and I'm glad. It's not fun seeing your kids all bummed out, but it is part of life. Everything cannot go perfectly unfortunately. She picked "Everything Is Not What It Seems" as her song for her performance. Again, I was a very proud momma! She's definitely my shining star!!!