Camps and Craziness

My kids have been so busy this summer! I don't even have the space and time to blog it all. I'm going to try and hit the highlights that have come about recently. Nana asked how Emma was doing in art camp...she had lots of fun, of course. It wasn't as instructional as I'd hoped, but several hours a day with unlimited access to art supplies is never a bad thing as far as my girl is concerned. I was out of town during the last half, so I didn't have a chance to chat up any of the teachers and see what they had to say about her skills. But I guess I don't really need any confirmation! She's an artist through and through. Here is the pile of loot that she brought home: They did talk a little bit about perspective: My personal favorite is this underwater scene in pencil - I just love the squiggly undersea fellows: And here's a rendering of the Tooth Fairy, who visited Emma while Andrew and I were in Massachusetts: She spent this week in Camp Invention, to which she won a scholarship by submitting a creative timeline of the evolution of eating utensils. I know, right? Pretty cool stuff. It was a little - well, not what I had expected. But we had just come out of that super engineering camp with Andrew, so it would be hard to live up to. Here she is on Crazy Outfit Day. I knew they'd be taking apart small appliances and I thought the "inventing" part was creating something with the parts. But they didn't actually invent things that worked. Here is one of the inventions. I'm sure I can't remember right now what it does... At the same time, though, these are awfully young kids for that kind of stuff and she really had a lot of fun. This was a very creative endeavor. Her invention was this little "finger massager." And here is the poster that advertises her product. Just in case you can't read it, it says "Ahhh....Madam Muazel You must try this!" I kid you not! Madam Muazel! Ha! Ingenious. I will be the first to buy one once Andrew rigs it up to actually massage fingers! Speaking of Andrew, it should be known that he spent his weekday mornings in guitar camp this past week. He's taken piano for a few years now and, though he really has enjoyed it, I don't think it's his instrument. I realize that not every kid has an instrument that is naturally theirs, but in this family, we kinda do. And so the search has begun to find Andrew's musical voice. He's got a naturally great sense of pitch and a decent sense for rhythm. All that is to say that he really enjoyed learning a bit about the guitar. He even practiced without being asked, which says a lot. He already knows almost enough chords to play a little worship music with me. It was definitely a good start.


DAILY BLISS: another apricot tart :) and an excellent morning cup of coffee