Camp Kostopulos

I’ve committed to do something and now I’m wondering if I made the right decision.  I signed Morgan up for a week of summer camp at Camp K.  I’ve never let any of my kids go to camp this young, 8 years old, and am having an even harder time thinking about sending Morgan, the one who I tend to overprotect, to camp.  Her friend is going to be there too and I know it will be a good experience but I’m still struggling with the decision.  I called up the camp director and he reassured me that I could have as much contact with her as I wanted.  I could call or visit everyday, pick her up at night and bring her back in the mornings, etc.  And then reminded me that the kids have a blast while it’s the parents who have a hard time with the adjustment.  I know this is true but I just envision Morgan at night, waking up, climbing out of bed, waking up all of her fellow campers.  And good luck to the person who’s in charge of brushing her hair every morning.  Hopefully they’ll get a good laugh when she fights them and calls them “Jafar” (the meanest villain she knows).

We visited Camp K a few weeks ago on their family open house day.  Thought it was a good idea to get Morgan familiar with the camp before sending her up there for the week.  Hadley had a dance performance at the same time and had a major meltdown (major as in . . . laying on the floor, screaming, kicking her legs and rolling around all over the house and ruining her dance costume and then getting mad because I couldn’t do her makeup on her wet, tear stained eyes.  That kind of meltdown) about not being able to go with us.  Hopefully it will work out that she can go with us next year.

We had lunch and then hit their huge yard sale.  Everything is donated from different stores and nothing has a price on it.  They just ask that you make a fair donation to the Camp.  It was hard to tell what was the yard sale piles and what were the “claimed” piles.  Crazy how much stuff people were grabbing for just one family.  Griffin got bored with the yard sale stuff and decided to get his “Spiderman” on.

We hiked all over the hills.  Looking for the horse coral and rock climbing wall area.

The horses were a big hit.  This was one of the main reasons I wanted to take Morgan up . . . to get her used to riding horses.  She did her best to resist getting on the horse.  We finally had to just pick her up and put her on.  Honestly the second she was sitting on it, she started doing her usual, “Wahoo!  This is fun!”  She got off the horse and asked if she could go again.  By the time it was her turn she had forgotten all about how fun it was and fought getting on the horse again.  But, once again,  loved it once she was riding.  Hope they make her get on it while she’s at camp!

Morgan waving to spectators.  She’s ready for the parade!

Mia shows off her new butterfly ink to Morgan

We ended the day with a little fishing.  No one caught anything.  I was just trying to make sure none of us were caught.  Morgan was swinging the fishing line all over the place.  I think I’d be fine with Morgan skipping this activity at camp!

Hopefully camp will be just as much fun for Morgan!  They just need to let her swim everyday and she’ll have the time of her life!

Our very first (and last!) . . .

We finally did it.  Our family’s first garage sale.  The kids have always wanted one but I’ve never been patient enough to gather all of our treasures (crap!) together at the same time and then WAIT until the big day to carry it all out into our front yard.  It’s just so much easier to clean out one room and take all of the  unwanted, neglected toys to our local thrift shop right then.  

My house was was long over due for spring cleaning.  It was exploding with stuffed animals . . . in the storage closet, toy boxes, kids’ closets, beds, floors.  I finally decided I wasn’t willing to store Jack’s frog collection or Ryan’s monkey collection indefinitely, until they had their own children.  I came up with a plan.  They could keep all of the money from their stuffed animal sales if they would let me sell them.  They chose their favorites and kept a close eye on the remaining ones throughout the day.   

Ryan made one last quick look for any monkeys he wanted to keep after someone tried to buy his beloved “Cha Cha”.

It was a fun experience but I would never do it again.  It was so much work and preparation to get all this stuff together and presentable.  Garage sale people are only looking for steals and don’t want to pay more than $2 for anything.  We ended up spending more money on batteries for the toys than we made on the toy.  We still had a lot of stuffed animals left over.  I ended up buying them for $.50 each from Jack and Ryan so I could take them to the DI.  They walked over to the grocery store and spent all of their earnings on chips, drinks and gum.  We ended up making around $150 which surprised me since most things sold for $.50 to $1.   And the best part of having a garage sale?  I was finally forced to  clean out the toy room, storage room and closets!

Worth the wait.

Happy 39th Birthday Gavin!  I bought U2 tickets for Gavin’s birthday.  Not this year but his birthday last year.  I felt instant regret after buying them.  Knowing they were my favorite band, not Gavin’s.  Spending way too much money on the tickets when I could have purchased less expensive seats.    Then right before our scheduled show Bono hurt his back and needed emergency surgery in Germany.  Our show was put on hold for a year.  I thought about the tickets from time to time wondering if I should just take them back and get a refund.  It wasn’t like we hadn’t seen them before.  We saw their Elevation tour 10 years ago and it was good but nothing I’d spend hundreds of dollars on again.  Luckily I never did anything with the tickets and let them sit in our drawer for 15 months.  No regrets with this show!  It was nothing like I’ve ever seen before.  The stage, the music, the lighting, the message, the vocals, the backdrop (blue skies and snow-capped mountains), the memories, my hot date.  All of it!!!   They put on an incredible show!  I’ve grown up with this band.  It’s been the soundtrack of my life.  Each song representing a different time . . .  junior high, high school, college, dating, shouting out the songs with my best friend as we drove all around the city, pre-mission, marriage, children, triathlons (Gavin’s, not mine).  All of the big times in my life had U2 playing in the background.  Well except for the day I got married.  That had a lot of Celine Dion but one day when I re-do our wedding video, I’ll be sure to at least include “Beautiful Day”! 

Turns out it takes a lot of trucks to haul all of the band’s stuff around.  Not to mention that stage that was almost as big as the stadium!

The stage

A little bit of the show.  The video doesn’t do it justice but it’s the best I’ve got.



Better video footage of All I Want Is You/Love Rescue Me from the show.

One of a kind

We feel extremely blessed and grateful to have Gracey in our life.  She made an instant connection and friendship with Morgan two years ago.  That scary day when we weren’t sure if we had made the right decision to have Morgan not go back to the cluster classroom but attend her regular neighborhood school for 1st grade.  Not sure if she would fit in and be included with her peers.  Gracey reached out to her and took extra special care of Morgan.  That friendship and love continues to grow and we can’t imagine our life without Gracey! 

She made the big decision to get baptized and wanted our family to be a part of her special day.  She asked Gavin if he would confirm her a member of the church.  It was such a privilege to be included in such an important event in her life.  She is the most tender, sweet, loving, caring 8 year old you will ever meet!  She cried through the entire thing and seeing her pure joy made everyone in the room cry happy tears along with her.

The cute sister missionaries who taught Gracey about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

You continue to amaze us Gracey and we love you so very much!!!

End of the school year.

Which means lots of performances.  Recitals.  Awards.  Field trips.

We got to go eat lunch at school with Morgan.  She always gets so excited when she sees us walking down the halls or catches us peeking into her classroom.  So you can only imagine how excited she was to have us stay and eat lunch with her!

She had her 2nd grade music program.  I was smiling ear to ear throughout the whole performance.  I love watching Morgan interact with all of her classmates and friends and seeing my girl do the same thing all of the kids her age are doing.  Morgan’s unpredictable and I never know if she’s going to happily participate or sit with her finger in her mouth, looking down at the ground.  She started sitting and not wanting to do it but as soon as she heard the music she couldn’t help but stand up and sing along.

Ryan earned the Tiger Pride Citizen Award “Cooperation" for his 6th grade class.  This award is usually only given to one student in the classroom but Ryan’s teacher decided to give it to Ryan and his best friend, Tate.  She said the reason she chose two boys this time was because they cooperate all of the time with each other.  They are always getting along even though they might compete with each other.  If they see someone being left out, they are always the first ones to go over and ask them to join their group.  It just felt like the right thing to have both boys earn this award together.

Ryan is receiving this award for cooperation.  The sixth grade teachers know that we can 
count on Ryan to cooperate with us in and out of the classroom.  
He is always willing to help the teachers and his classmates.  Ryan sets a good example 
by cooperating with the teachers the first time he is asked.  Ryan works hard 
and is a good friend to many students.  He is a great example to all of the students.

Ryan and Tate with their teacher, Mrs D.

I got to tag along on Ryan’s field trip to the zoo.  It was a perfect spring day and weather for the animals.  They were all awake and playful.  So were the kids.

Jack had his final band concert last week.  He had a solo in the concert and did so well!  He’s really loved playing the trumpet and surprisingly never complained about having to wake up early several mornings a week to go to Advanced Band practice.   

All of his hard work paid off.  Check out this trumpet solo.  Go Jack Go!  (He is not the crazy dancer kid in the middle but the one on the back row, far right).




Griffin has really loved his preschool.  He’s made lots of new friends and gets asked to play by someone everyday.  It keeps him busy but he loves it!  He’s all about friends and play dates!

He got to be the circus ringmaster at his spring preschool performance and did such a cute job with all of the songs.  It was just last year that he refused to sing any of the songs and just sat there asking me how much longer until the program was done.  You’ve come a long way, baby!

He told me that this was his favorite song.  “Because it makes me miss you when I sing it at school”.
Ahhhhhh.  You know the way to your mama’s heart!

We took all of the kids out to lunch after their school program.  

Watch out Kindergarten!  You’ve got a wild one coming to your school!

Surgery

My dad is going in for surgery in the morning and was lucky enough to spend the day in the hospital today.  Getting chest xrays, blood draws, respiratory therapy teaching, etc.  We decided he needed a little more chaos in his life and took the family up to see him tonight since the kids won’t be able to visit him tomorrow in the ICU.  He’s having a lung biopsy to get an exact diagnosis.  Please keep him in your prayers.  Thanks! 

Downtown

We spent the evening at The Gateway for Hadley’s singing/dancing performance last night.  Since it was such a beautiful Spring day, we decided to make it a family affair.  We were actually a little hot as we watched her perform with the sun setting on our faces.  Not that I’m complaining because I love the warmth and sunshine and it’s long overdue!  It was such an enjoyable evening.  I love it when we find an activity that works for all of the different ages in our family.  It was fun to experience a different part of our town, too.  I always feel like I’m a tourist walking around The Gateway.  

Hadley is the group, Sensation, and did such a good job!  I love watching my girl dance and sing with a big smile on her face!

Hadley and her friend, Jayden

We sat on the stairs around the fountains while we watched the performance.

Dinner in the Courtyard.  

Frozen Yogurt.

Enjoying the warm weather and frozen yogurt together.

I’m proud of my girl and the progress she has made this year.