Monday immediately started off rough! I woke up a little late, not knowing why I was up so early, and then we forgot the posters for Camp, so we had to come back to the condo to get them. After setting up Camp for Ice Age Charades and Escapades, it ran pretty smoothly.
My favorite sign for this week
I had Drama Club this week and my twelve kids were so excited to put together their very own play. They came up with a story about two mystical sea creatures who are feuding over fish. It turned out really good and I'm very excited to show it to their parents tomorrow. This week I got to go to the church with the little kids while my older kids went to the park with a girl who works at the Park. Miss KitKat, Robyn, wasn't feeling well so I helped her with the kids while doing a low active game. The kids had fun with it. Before we knew it the day was over and we headed home to watch The Dolphin Tale (great heartfelt movie). After that, we had ten minutes to return the movie before starting The Bachelorette. We rode our bikes to the closest Red Box, and returned home just in time to start the show.
Tuesdays are always fun, as I'm sure I always say, because it's pool day! We have our wonderful ride up to Key Largo and then it's off to the pool! Everyone who knows me well knows that I am afraid of pretty much everything, so would I jump off the diving board? The old Janise, NO! The new, adventurous Janise, YES!! :) I couldn't believe I did it, but I promised one of my boys that if he went off the high dive, I would go off the low dive. He did, so I did! It was awesome and I will definitely go again next week! When Camp was over, we headed over to the beach for a little while and relaxed. While we were there we saw a ton of those little tiny crabs again. They were so funny because they would climb up the fence to get into the bushes.
Now Wednesday!!! WOW what a day! The kids must have all had a rough morning because every single one of them had nothing nice to say to us or each other, so it made for a very frustrating day. They also had issues hitting each other, cursing, and just being plain obnoxious. Wednesday was probably and hopefully the hardest day at Camp this summer. I really hope we do not have any other incidents like this again because it made me really not like children, and for me that takes a lot. But we shook it off after Camp and headed to the store to get some nick nacks for the kids. After we rode to the store, Robyn spotted the ocean on the opposite side that we usually go to, so we made our way over to see it. It was a beautiful little spot with a nice boat dock that outlooked the ocean, and we watched the sunset for the first time this summer! It was so beautiful watching it slowly go down over the water. This was the best part of the day because we just sat and watched as nature made our night peaceful again.
Robyn chasing a bird
Bliss
Thursday, again, was field trip day. We grabbed the kids and headed down to Key West to explore the Shipwreck Museum. On the way down, I sat next to a boy named Aiden and we listened to Alvin and the Chipmunks radio. He was loving it! Once we got to the museum, we split the group into two and took the first group through. To be quite honest, it wasn't the most exciting field trip I've ever been on, but it was interesting and I got to see a great view of Key West.
The view from atop the tower
The other side
Scuba Man
Our tour guide guy and the statue guy
Miss KitKat and Miss Skittles
Once both groups went through the museum, I stood watch outside the museum while the other girls took the kids who had money to buy a gift in the gift shop. When everyone got back, we boarded the bus and headed over to the rink where we play games and have snack. The kids got to play a new game called scatter ball, and they had a blast. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. When we got on the bus though, we had a sticky situation. One of the kids' backpacks was COVERED in ants....yes...ANTS!! There were like 4000 in one seat. It was NASTY! Luckily though, I was the last in line, so I didn't go in the back of the bus and I chose to sit up front with the little kiddos. As the boys played with their "swords" aka paint brushes, I listened to music until they wanted to play with my Mad Libs, so we made up some funny stories about poop and farts(all things boy). When Camp was done, Robyn and I took a bike ride up to Walgreens to get some envelopes and a movie. It was a nice 5.5 mile bike ride! :) Oh! Sidenote..on the way back, I accidentally hit one of those cute little crabs, but fortunately, I hit him on the side, so he just did a little flip and was totally fine! whew! When we got back home, we watched Man On A Ledge! AMAZING movie! I definitely recommend it. After the movie, one of my favorite summer shows premiered their second season, so I watched that and got Kristen hooked. It was a long day so I passed out pretty much right when I hit the pillow.
Friday was AWESOME! We headed to Camp,and I was excited because we had a lot of fun stuff planned for the kids. We practiced for our Parent's Presents all morning before heading to Rotary Park. At the park I taught a few of the kids the card game Egyptian War. At first, they were totally rebellious, but after one round they were addicted. I was quite happy to share my fun game with them. On the bus, I sat next to Alex who is 7 years old. He told me that he didn't like Parent's Presents because his mom never comes because she has to work and his dad lives in Jamaica, so he hasn't seen him since he was a baby. I told him that it was ok his mom didn't come to Parent's Presents because I was there to watch him and I was so proud of him. I also shared with him that I haven't seen my dad in 9 years and if he ever wants to talk to me about being frustrated and mad that I would listen. Then, at Parent's Presents, he was in the front row, singing loud with a big smile on his face. I cannot tell you how wonderful I felt when I saw that. :) After Parent's Presents, we had a marshmallow carnival where there were 4 areas the kids could go to. I was in charge of eating the marshmallows off of strings without using their hands. Robyn was in charge of a marshmallow drop which was probably my favorite. The kids got to dip the marshmallow in chocolate sauce and then drop it into someones mouth while standing above them. They had a blast when they got to drop it on me.
Alex being so nice dropping the marshmallow in!
Then, Miss KitKat(Robyn) gave it a try(from what I thought). Instead, while my eyes were closed and her standing above me, she squeezed the chocolate sauce all over my face. It was hilarious! The kids were laughing while I licked the chocolate off of my face.
When we were done with that, we made snow cones for the kids. Jimmy rented us a snow cone machine and we scooped 'em up for the kids. Once they were done with the snow cones, me and Robyn put on a plastic suit and some goggles and got ready for our first Cream the Counselor of the summer. I was so excited to get pies thrown in my face by the kids. Just to hear them laugh and enjoy making us messy made my heart smile. :)
Before
First pie on my belly...whew!
It was up my nose!
Stickin through it!
Couldn't stop smiling
After
All Smiles!
After getting completely disgusting and messy, Robyn and I drove home, showered and cleaned up, and headed back to Camp for the last half hour. Since our Camp clothes were filthy, Jimmy said it was ok to come back in regular clothes. We came back to Camp and none of the kids recognized us out of our Camp clothes, it was funny. After Camp we came home and decided that me, Nikki, and Kristen wanted to be Certified Scuba Divers like Robyn, so we headed over to Tilden's(the shop) and signed up to do classes, dives, and certifications over the next two weekends. Then, it was beach time! We hung out in a nice little cove at Sombrero Beach until the sun went down.
Here in Marathon, there is nothing to do... literally! Since we've been here we haven't gone out past 10:30, so we wanted to break that habit. There is a restaurant called Castaways that clears out their dining room around 10:30 and turns it into a club. We had heard good things about it, so we decided to give it a try. After getting all glammed up, we called a cab and made our way to the club. Well.....It was interesting. No one showed up until about 12:30 and we headed out at 12:45 because of our 1am curfew. It was an ok place, but definitely nothing I am used to. We saw our friend Andre there and met a nice guy from Fort Lauderdale who was funny and had a lot to say. It was a nice change of pace for us, but we needed to get home and rest up before yet another adventurous Saturday.
We woke up at about 10 to 7 and packed our lunches before Miss Ali picked us up a little after 7. Miss Ali has a friend named Ernie who does kayaking as a hobby, so he took us all out in the middle of the ocean and we kayaked for a couple of hours. I got into mine though, and there were like 20,000 ants...YUCKY! So we killed them and got on our way. It was so peaceful and cool in the early morning. At one point, we came across a mangrove island sort of thing and we could either go through it or around it. Being the adventurous girls that we are, we went through a small tunnel to get to the other side. It was so neat! We broke our paddles down so they were smaller, and we steered the kayaks through one after another. It sounds so easy, and Ernie made it look easy, but Nikki and I had a few issues. There was more than one occasion that I rammed into her and she backed into me. We got a few laughs out of it.
Robyn and I were sporting some magnificent hats
Us with Ernie
Once we were done kayaking, at around 10:45, we came back up towards Marathon. We stopped at a really nice beach in Veteran Park and ate our lunch while overlooking the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. Afterwards, Miss Ali dropped the three of us scuba girls off at the condo while her and Robyn headed to Indian Key to go kayaking again. Later, we found out that they saw an ALIGATOR!!! I am soooooo jealous! I really hope I get to see one before I leave. Anyways....while they were doing that, I took a quick nap before heading over to Tilden's for our first pool lesson for scuba diving. I thought it was going to be an easy little introduction to scuba diving, but silly me, I thought wrong. We had to do a 200 yard swim(for shallow water lifeguarding I only had to do 100 yards, so I just about died...good thing I cheated...shh don't tell!) :) Then we had to float on our backs for 10 minutes(that was quite nice and relaxing). Lastly, we had to swim one lap in one breath(I did ok on that one...I think I looked like Superman underwater with the way my arms were). Once the tests were done, we put on all our gear and did some skills. Now, we are back at home, and I am finishing this extremely long blog while the girls are researching trips to do so we can continue having amazing weekends while we are here.
Now here are some side notes I would like to add:
I just bought a new computer! My old one died the week before I came and I was just going to stick it out and live without a computer all summer, but I have homework to do, programming, blogging, and skyping that I need to do and it would be easier if I had my own computer.
I have been trying to send out post cards once a week, but sometimes it is tough to get everything done, so I am sorry if I haven't sent you one. Just shoot me a text with your address if you would like one. Or you can send me something in the mail with your address on it and I will send you a post card in return. (I will accept cookies, candy, money, toys, ect. haha) :)
Lastly, thank you for reading my blog!! I am so appreciative of all the love you show me by reading my blog. I am so happy I get to share my experience with all of you. I can't wait to get home and share all of my pictures and stories of the kids and I with each of you.
Grandma and Grandpa I miss you and our lunchtime visits with Jada screaming in the background. Thank you for taking such good care of Julena!!
Momma I miss you too!! I know you're doing ok without me because you are the strongest woman I know!! And thanks for bugging Julena for me! :)
Julena!! Of course I miss you! We talk everyday, but there is nothing like curling up next to you in the wee hours of the morning with your stinky breath in my face. :)
Lo thanks for the card. I was so happy when I checked the mail Friday night and found one single card in the mailbox with my name on it! I even took it to the bar with me haha :)
Karen take care of Julena while she is with you! AKA don't let her kiss more than 2 boys in one hour ;) haha just kidding!
Susan Brown Temple Brown Dorris I am so happy you read my blog! I love reading your updates on Dylan, Phil and Kimmie. You are such a great mother and I love hearing how well they are doing and what great adults they have become.
To everyone else who is reading! I love you, I miss you, I'll see you all soon!
-Live. Love. Laugh. Janise
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