Camping weekend

Months and months ago, we agreed to go camping over Labor Day weekend with 6 other families we know through our daycare.  As the weekend grew closer, I began to wonder if we were crazy - I don't think of us as a camping family.  But luckily several of the other families were much more experienced, so we followed their lead and packed up the car for Loon Lake. 

From Sept/Oct2013

It turned out to be a great weekend, with lots of fun around the camp site.  The girls had so much fun with all the other kids around, the activities were endless.

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

Eila and John were bike buddies, cruising through everyone's camp sites.

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

The girls loved the tent, and luckily slept great at night.

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

But probably the best part was Loon Lake.  We spent lots of time at the lake, playing in both the sand and water:

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

From Sept/Oct2013

The girls were sad to see the weekend end.  And I was happy with how smoothly it went.  So I think there will be more camping again in our future, but maybe not until next summer.

Another bites the dust

Tonight Annikka pulled out her third tooth, and this time she did it completely on her own.

From July/August2013

She is really starting to look like a first grader, isn't she?

From July/August2013

Riding bike

When looking into summer camps for Annikka, I found a bike camp that sounded interesting (the kids would bike around to different animal habitats).  I talked to the director and was told that she didn't have to know how to ride bike but they didn't want her to come with training wheels (because it was too hard to ride on anything but cement with training wheels).  So in May I decided this sounded like the prefect goal for the summer, sign up for an August bike camp - either she'll be biking or hopefully she'll learn at camp (the director also told me that the counselors were happy to work on that with beginners).

Well, August got here and she didn't know how to ride her bike yet.  Now I was questioning my decision and began to worry that I would be picking up a crying, frustrated little girl every evening for the next week.  Here's what happened after the very first day of camp.



Yeah for biking!

EiLA

She's been able to spell it for a long time, but now Eila can write her own name!  E - i - L - A

From July/August2013

Wow, what a big girl she's becoming!

Fun in Eugene

From July/August2013

Art camp

Although she still tells us that theater camp was her FAVORITE, I think art camp comes in second.  Here are pictures from the final preformance, Annikka was a deer.

From July/August2013

From July/August2013

She made her costume all by herself, and she was very proud of her face paint.

From July/August2013

County fair 2013

We took the girls to the county fair again this year and luckily Eila was now big enough to ride the kiddie rides.  Annikka was ready to jump right in, but Eila took a little convincing to get on the rides (does she not remember Disneyland?).  Annikka was a great big sister and let Eila choose the first rides and sat with her.

From July/August2013

From July/August2013

From July/August2013

Eila won't go on the dragon rollercoaster, but Annikka remembered that it was her favorite ride from last summer.

From July/August2013

We ran into lots of friends at the fair, too.  Eila got to go on rides with Charlie (a very experienced big sister, and super sweet to go on the kiddie rides with Eila),

From July/August2013

and with Kartik.

From July/August2013

Then she was finally ready to try rides solo.

From July/August2013

They had LOTS of fun and I'm sure they'll want to go again next year.

From July/August2013