Footie and Camp

[przed]

This weekend we picked Ros up from her first sleepaway camp. She was happy to see us (and there's nothing like the smile of your child as they run towards you after a week away) and also had a great time. Not surprisingly, climber that she is, the aerial park/zipline was her favourite thing. (The zipline is 900 feet long and passes over a river. More power to her. I'd never do it.) She's already decided if she goes back to the same camp next year she want to get the week pass for the ziplining that'll let her do it whenever she wants.

The one downside (for me possibly more than Ros) was that the friend we sent her with is much less active than her and mostly just wanted to do the arts & crafts activities, so Ros didn't get the full camp experience. She didn't try canoeing, alas, and was most disappointed she couldn't get her friend to do the fishing activity. (The Sweetie's dad is an obsessive fisherman and Ros loves going fishing with her grandfather.) She's already launching a PR campaign to get one of her friends who is more active/more malleable to go to the camp with her next year. We've also pointed out that she doesn't have to do the same stuff as her friends all the time, but I know that's a bit tough at this age.

Here's Ros in front of the camp map and bulletin board


And here's a close up of the bulletin board that made me smile.


I'm adopting that as my motto, me. *g*

This week's soccer game was brutal. We're in the middle of a heatwave, and it was still over 30C with high humidity during our game. And since it's prime vacation time, we were down to seven kids, which is how many kids you need on the field, so everybody had to play the whole game. We kept switching the forwards and defence, and the ref gave us a water break in the middle of each half, but it still wasn't fun. Ros said she "wanted to die" after the first five minutes, but then she got used to it.

When it was clear no one else was showing up and they'd have to play the whole game, one of our players started saying "But what if someone gets injured?" over and over again. Three guesses as to who got a ball kicked into the side of her face. She was more shocked than hurt, but we still had to play a person down for a few minutes while her mom got her calmed down.

As a consolation for the injury, before the unfortunate ball incident the same player scored a rather nice goal. Since we kept the other team scoreless (through a miracle in the first half, when we had our enthusiastic but inexperienced goalie in net but the other team kept kicking wide) we managed a 0 - 1 win! That's our first win in a while, so yay!

Today the heat wave continued and we had a practice. The Sweetie and I were taking bets as to how many kids we'd get. He guessed five, and I was hoping for six. The actual number was four, but at least they were enthusiastic in spite of the heat, and we got in some good passing practice.

Comments

[dine.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Ros had a mostly good time at camp - that can be so fun. here's hoping she has just as much fun if/when she returns! I really like the bulletin board poster - I think I'll adopt that motto for life myself

[przed.livejournal.com]

I was hoping she'd enjoy herself, and she totally did. She'll be going back to a camp, it'll just be a matter of deciding which one and which friend(s) she wants to go with.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

I'm glad Ros had a mostly good time - if she wants to go again that's certainly a win, I think *g* And it can be weirdly pleasant to be parted from close relations for a short while just to have the joy of being reunited and appreciating them really acutely for a while *g* Yay for the football win too - it must be hard in the heat.

It is a great thing to be a fruit loop *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

I don't quite mean to undersell it; she did have a great time. I just think she would have had an even better time if she'd been with friends who did all the active stuff.

The football win was an unexpected bonus. Given the heat and the fact that the opposition had a mostly full roster, I thought we were going to get killed. The footie gods were with us.

All my best friends are fruit loops!

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

She looks really happy! And I love that motto - will probably turn it into an icon!

[przed.livejournal.com]

She seemed really happy and has not stopped talking about camp.

If you turn that motto into an icon I shall totally steal it from you. *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Here you are! With love from me!!

[przed.livejournal.com]

Hugs!

And okay, since I'm an inveterate tweaker, I couldn't resist trying to get the text a bit bigger, especially since I'm at work with my snazzy graphics program. Yours if you want it.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Great! Snagged but not uploaded yet. I was more concerned to get the size right and get some kind of contrast into the text - your resizing of the text is lovely.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

It's a good motto. :D

I'm glad to hear that Ros had such a good time.

[przed.livejournal.com]

That motto gives me confidence that we sent her to the right camp. :D

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Nice to have her back, and that she had a wonderful time (except for those activities she couldn't try out--but maybe next year!). Wonderful photo of her, too, as always. I am still constantly amazed at how quickly she is growing.

Eek for soccer in horribly hot weather. Yay for the win, but, gah. Mind you, I'm a wimp when it comes to high temperatures and humidity.

Summer is just flying by, isn't it?

[przed.livejournal.com]

Ros is already planning on going to a camp (or two!) next year, so there will definitely be more chances for other activities. (Isn't she getting big? It's crazy!)

Soccer in hot weather is not the most fun thing ever. Walking home from work yesterday I barely felt like putting one foot in front of the other, let alone running around on a pitch. Still, I keep telling myself that this is better than minus 20 and having to wear boots and a parka.

Summer certainly is flying by. How is it nearly August?!

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Very glad Ros enjoyed camp! It's a shame about the less-active friend (although as that very friend all through my life, I'll put in a word for the arts-and-crafts-over-running-around type *g*) - I hope Ros gets to go with someone who will go adventuring with her next year!

I always think Ros's photos show what a credit she is to you - she always looks so sunny and happy :)

I love that poster! Fruit loops Unite! \o/

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm cool with arts & crafts (I was both an active kid and one who liked sticking my nose in a book and doing crafts) but I wish there'd been a bit more balance. On the positive side, Ros did a really lovely tie-dyed t-shirt.

As for Ros' pics, remember I'm choosing which ones I post. There was a classic one I took on the London Eye where she was displaying truly epic amount of pre-teen attitude about the fact that I was daring to take her picture. She's an expert at the eye roll. *g*

That said, she's generally a pretty happy kid. All the kids at camp get a "Queen" prize, and Ros' was "Happy Queen." Hopefully that means we're doing an okay job.

Fruit loops unite, indeed!

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Aw, I'm glad Ros is back, had a good experience and would like to do it again (with some tweaks!).

The notion of 'summer camp' was always an exotic idea to my Brit generation but now, although still not as commonplace as in Canada and the US, my daughter and her friends are quite used to going away from home. I guess it's always a worry that the camp won't suit, or provide a bad experience in some way, so it must feel very reassuring that Ros was happy.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I hoped she'd have a good time, but there was always an outside chance that it might go pear-shaped. She still has occasional horrible bouts of separation anxiety when we get one of our babysitters (all of whom she's known since she was a baby) so we were just hoping that didn't kick in.

I did summer camp, of the Girl Guide variety, and completely loved it, but that was a much less swank experience than Ros got. We had big old canvas tents to sleep in (at the big provincial Guide camp the tent was on a wooden platform; at our local one your air mattress and sleeping bag went right on the ground) and cooked our own meals over camp fires that we build ourselves. (I suspect that not many camps trust 10-year-olds with matches anymore. *g*) Ros slept in a dorm with bunkbeds, and the meals were in a dining hall.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I'm happy Ros had fun. Yeah, it's hard to leave your friend behind and at that age they can be quite testy with each other if one tries to be independent. I hope she has a friend who is a better explorer next year.

Yuck. The heat is awful everywhere! But yay for a win!

[przed.livejournal.com]

She's been so keen to go, I'm glad she had a good time. And hopefully she and whoever she goes with next year can either be more in sync or primed to try some stuff apart. (I'm actually wondering if she'd go back to that camp without a friend. She's a very social kid and made other friends while she was there.)

The heat is brutal, but hey, at least I don't have to wear a parka! *g* And definitely yay for a win.

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

Glad Ros had such a good time and I think I too shall adopt that motto :)

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's a good motto. *g*