For some reason Morgan was in most of the good pics from camp this past week! There were a few of Jackson, but just one that was really good, so I included it here. Camp is halfway over for the summer - 5 weeks done, 5 to go!

Here is Morgan with Liz, one of the summer staff - they were playing tribal games (Liz is part of the blue tribe):

Hanging out on the field watching games:

The kids had a lot of fun this week playing in the sandbox (aka sand volleyball court).  It became our late afternoon activity while we waited for all the campers to come up for dinner.  Somehow they both still found energy to run in the sand in the midst of the extreme heat (I sat in a chair in whatever shade I could find!)

Morgan and the ‘woof woof’

And finally, a good picture of how exhausted Jackson gets at camp.  I’m still waiting for the kids to sleep better and to actually still be rested at the end of the week!

And Mackenzie sure is a cool kid sitting in her bumbo seat!

As promised, here are pictures of the chateau, our summer home up at camp. I used a wide-angle lens to take pics of the inside, so it’s slightly distorted, but you can see pretty much everything that way. First, this is a view of the whole scene - the Chateau, the deck Gavin put out front, the patch of sod that was laid and the swingset that is not quite assembled yet. We also put a kiddie pool out here. The gravel was put down our 2nd week, which made a huge difference with all the mud:

Here’s more of a closeup of the Chateau - our awning broke in a heavy wind/rain storm a couple weeks ago, so hoping to get that fixed so that we can have some shade over the porch.  I can’t begin to tell you though how much I love the porch - it’s SO nice to have a place to put chairs, shoes, etc!

This is the back bedroom (the left part of the trailer as you see it in the picture above).  Gavin took out the queen bed that was in there and built in some bunks - the top one isn’t finished, but Mackenzie isn’t sleeping in here at night anyway.

In between the back bedroom and the main room is the bathroom.  This picture is taken from the bathroom looking into the main living area.  We sleep on the futon we brought from home, and Gavin again took out the little couch/twin bed that was there and moved over the table to fit our futon.

Finally, this is looking from the kitchen end back into the trailer, and you can see the bathroom straight ahead - you go through the bathroom to get to the kids room.

So this is our summer home!

Last Sunday the summer staff met to go swimming before heading up to camp. The kids had a blast in the water, and Mackenzie went swimming for the first time. She really enjoyed it!

Later on we put her in this little floaty and as I pushed her around the pool she fell right asleep.  Ah, the life!

Morgan also had a good time swimming and playing in the water:

Finally, here’s our sweet girl after getting dressed again:

Even though Morgan STILL hardly says any words, she is often found humming a song that Jackson has sung or that was playing on their kids music. Usually ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’ or ‘Brother John’ or something like that - she plays and hums away.

At night we have started a new routine where I sing her 3 songs - ‘Ring Around the Rosy’ and ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ (her favorites), and then ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ When I sing Jesus Loves me, she starts chiming in on the 2nd half of the song, literally belting out the words ‘yes’, and ‘me’ (in ‘yes, Jesus loves me’). She is completely off key and not even singing at the same time as me, but it is absolutely adorable - it’s hard to make it through the song without laughing. We need to get it on video some time. She is usually the last kid to get put to bed, so it’s the perfect ending to my day, especially if it has been a rough one. I look forward to one day soon when she says more words to hear her sing the whole thing along with me!

Last week was our first full week up at camp.  We had been there a few days on and off the prior 2 weeks, but last week we went from Monday to Friday.  We are living this summer in a travel trailer (approx 33 feet or so) that has a bedroom in the back, a bathroom in the middle, and a living area/kitchenette in the front.  It’s small, but it will work well for us, and Gavin has been working to transform it to fit our family a little better.  I’ll post pictures after our next week up there!

Here are a few pictures from our first week of camp.  First, Mackenzie spent a bit of time in the Baby Bjorn.  This is one baby item that I have had since Jackson was born, and it has gotten so much use!

Thursday at camp is camper’s choice day, where they can choose between horseback riding, water sports, or rock climbing.  Gavin had to drive the bus for the horseback group, so the kids and I tagged along with him.  After the group was done the guy at the stables let Jackson hop up on the hourse and ride around a little bit.  He did great!

After horseback riding we took the group to eat lunch at Fort Mountain State Park.  It had beautiful views, and as we ate our packed lunch, we ended up having to run back to the car/bus to avoid the downpour that came quickly.  So here we are all sweaty and dirty, with some of us too hungry to stop eating for the camera.

Here is Jackson and Zach.  Zach has been an intern at camp this past semester and has more of a leadership role this summer, and my kids really enjoy hanging out with him.

And finally, here’s a picture of the 2009 summer staff.  They are an amazing group of people, and have started off the summer doing an awesome job.

Grocery-

For the first time I went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market, and it was very interesting!  The produce unfortunately didn’t appear to be local (despite the name), but some of it was *very inexpensive - I got 2 pints of blueberries for .99 each, a whole pineapple for 1.39, peaches for .99/lb, a few other produce items and some sushi rice (a large bag for 7.99).  It was fun looking around, and I think it will be even more fun to go back with Gavin sometime to see all the things we can find there.  The place is huge!

• Spent: 16.75
• Full item value: 16.75 (probably more, but who knows… the blueberries alone were 2.99 each at Publix, just to compare)
• Saved: 0.00 (not really, but we’ll go with it…)

Kroger: For the first time I used my Walgreens Register Rewards here, as they really are just manufacturers coupons.  This is so great to know, as I hesitate to do the RR at Walgreens because they expire 2 weeks out, but knowing now I can use them at Kroger and probably Publix I will be more likely to do it!

• Spent: 4.84
• Full item value: 15.56
• Saved: 10.72 (69%)

Publix: Stocked up on organic milk and yogurt, splurged on raspberries (2.00 each), and got 3 bottles of All detergent.  I’ll include this in the amount even though it’s not food, but I will break it out for my own records in my money software.

• Spent: 34.02
• Full item value: 60.34
• Saved: 26.32 (44%)

Target:  Hebrew National hot dogs on sale plus coupon, and hot dog buns and bananas

• Spent: 7.04
• Full item value: 11.24
• Saved: 4.20 (37%)

Totals (including laundry detergent):

• Spent: 62.65
• Full item value: 103.89
• Saved: 41.24 (40%)

For those of you that keep up with this blog I have to let you know about my friend Sara - she is SO talented at sewing and creating super cute things.  She is doing a great give-away on her website right now, and she also has recently opened up an etsy shop with a whole bunch of adorable re-usable (and reversible) shopping bags, and coffee cozies. She is has teamed up with the Charleston Breast Center, and some of the proceeds from certain products will be donated to them.

Sara has been a great friend of mine since our days together at Furman.  She was a computer science major, like me (bet some of you didn’t know I’m a computer nerd ), and we had some fun times together.  She was a bridesmaid in our wedding, and lives in Charleston now.  Anyway, hope you at least check out the great things she makes - I only with I had the talent (and time) to sew like she does!

Here were her stats from her 4 month checkup on Monday:

Weight: 12 lbs, 12 oz (25%) - up 1 lb from her 2 month checkup.  By comparision, Morgan was 13 lbs at 6 months, in the 5%.

Length: 24 3/4 in (60%)

Weight for length: 2% - meaning she’s long and thin, just like her Daddy!

Overall she had a healthy checkup.  She has a few skin issues, a couple of which the doc said was yeast (in all her little folds) so told me to use Lotrimin/Hydrocortizone back and forth for a few days til the redness goes away.

She also has had a few tiny dots on her tummy for quite a while.  The doc said they were probably fine, but thought a couple of them looked more purple, so wanted to have her blood drawn to make sure her platelets weren’t low.  Trying to find a vein on a pudgy little 4 month old arm is not a fun task.  It took 3 of us to hold her still and poor thing screamed the whole time. :(  But her blood work came back ok, so we are thankful for that.

She slept hard that night, had a slight fever the next day from her shots, and has since recovered nicely.