Fun in the Sun

It's come to my attention that we haven't expanded on the kids summer vacation. And considering they have an astronomical amount of time off school they have been up to quite a bit besides cottaging.

Watch out Karate Kid, Cam now knows all your secret moves after spending a week at, you guessed it, "Karate" camp. Along with his friend Oliver, Cam came home every day pretty exhausted, which is the point. Cam had some mixed emotions about his time there, we had a few separation anxieties when it was my turn to drop off the boys. I even committed the sin of taking him back home with me to put him in bed for extra sleep. All in all, by Friday PM pick up I am pleased to report that he had liked his action packed week; although the Thai Chi was a little boring.

We then had a few slow weeks where we bummed around the house and caught up with some friends. We had a walk in the ravine with Angela and her girls one Thursday and got caught in a huge downpour, only to be caught again in another huge downpour that night at Abbie's soccer. Wouldn't you know it, it was our turn to coach and once the rain stopped our wet Blue Jets wouldn't move and lost pretty badly. That was the Thursday before the tournament and if you have been keeping up to date know that they did actually win and have the bling to prove it:)

As we had a messy June with our renting situation, Andy and I were in no mood to be planning birthday parties. So poor old Jas and Abs had to wait and Abbie is still waiting. I had bought Jasmine a Nancy Drew mystery CD game at a bargain price of $5 at Walmart thinking it would pump up her pressies. It was only when she opened it that we realised that it was a host-a-mystery party game, so viola! We had a party plan. So date set, out went the invitations and we have a Nancy Drew/Dinner party/movie/sleep-over. We first sent off the mini detectives on a training exercise, armed with photos of sections of the ravine where there were hidden balloons with numbers on them. They then had to add them all up to get the magic number being our phone number(yes you can use math everyday).As we have never been involved with a mystery game it was hard to know how it would go down. Luckily it all turned out fine. We had set up several rooms, one for the crime scene, Nancy's room, a Cyber Cafe, a mystics room and police station. We had 9 kids running from room to room, going onto the Nancy Drew's website for clues, they even had to ring a phone number for a secret message. Eventually the mystery was solved and everyone could sit down for dinner. After watching a movie I took the girls on a midnight walk (at 11pm!) through the ravine which freaked a few kids out but no one was lost. I think everyone pretty much went to sleep by about 12.30am so it wasn't too bad. Although the kids weren't too pleased to see their parents in the morning i can assure you Andy and I made them feel wanted:) So one party down two more to go.

We were a little late getting our pool up this summer. With a few dramas on the way, such as a family of mice chomping on the old pool, we eventually got there. They are so much fun, even Andy and I go for a swim around and around as that's all you can really do. It's definately great entertainment and all the neighbours know when we are home. I think that our pool has had more use than some of the bigger in-ground pools around us.

Abbie was at a summer sizzlers camp last week with her friend Amber. These camps are run by the Parks and Rec centres, and a bunch of teens try their hand at amusing the kids with heaps of activities. Abbie really enjoyed the art side of things and came home with a painted bird house and other stuff.This week Jasmine and Abbie are attending a Theatre camp. Out of all the camps this is a big hit. After only one day i've had an earful of everything they have been doing. This is right up their alley, and at the end of the week Andy and I get to watch them in action as they will both be preforming a play. You'll never guess it, but Jasmine is one of the main characters, she's pretty chuffed.

While the girls are away it's the last time Cam and I will spend alone before the new school year starts. You may be thinking that I may get teary and maybe I will; but my future of free time is looking pretty good right now. It means getting to the gym regularly and more tennis until they bring down the nets. Until then Cam and I have this little time together, although at the moment he is at a friend's house and he had a friend over yesterday and I'm not sure how tomorrow will pan out; but I'm sure we'll spend some time together :).

Jo, out.