Last Day of Sports Camp

Since Daddy dropped Dale off at sports camp in the morning, Rose got to stand by the tree by herself when we went to pick her brother up a few hours later.

Rose at day four of Dale's sports camp.

While we waited for Dale to be done with his last day of camp, Rose pushed her princesses in the swings.

For the last day of camp, the coaches revisited all three of the sports they taught that week.  I got to the park in time to see Dale shoot some baskets.

He made every one.

He also got to practice blocking.

He was pretty good at that too!

"Get that weak thing out of here!"

Then all the kids got their awards from their coaches.  Dale was the last one to get his award, and when they called his name they introduced him as "Rock Chalk Jayhawk Dale."

Dale's first sports award.  He was so proud.

T-Ball Day at Sports Camp

Day three at sports camp was wacky.  We did the best we could with what little we had in our apartment, but Dale was pretty proud of his outfit for the day.

Dale's wacky outfit included mismatched socks, a bow tie, and several band aids.

Day three was also T-ball day.  I was excited for this day, because I knew Dale was great at hitting balls.

There is a lot of waiting at sports camp, which is why some kids choose to pick their noses.  And then eat their boogers.

Little ones look so cute in those big batting helmets.

Here is Rose's view of sports camp from the playground.  Not too shabby.

Normally I would have a lot of cute pictures of my kids playing at the playground after sports camp, but my computer ate those photos before I was done loading them onto this blog post.  Bummer.  At least I got this one:

And it's a good one.

Basketball Day

Basketball day at sports camp was not Dale's favorite because "it was hard."  Nonetheless, Dale hung in there like a good sport.

Sports camp day two.

The camp always started with a game of tag to get everyone warmed up.  On this day, the camp played "toilet tag," which meant that if you were tagged, you had to stay frozen in the shape of a toilet until a teammate flushed you.  Dale made an excellent toilet.

Every day after camp, the kids and I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich picnic before we hit the playground.

Yes, Rose has a sandwich in her hand, but that doesn't mean she ate it.

The playground at Miramont Park is super duper fun.  Not only does it have a boat theme, but it has a big hill to climb with giant rocks on the top to explore.

We spent a lot of time on that hill collecting little flowers to store in our hats.

Once we finally got home that day, Dale insisted that everyone take a nap.  Well, everyone except him.

Dale the Mini Hawk

Moving to Fort Collins means more opportunities for our kids.  In fact, there are so many opportunities, we have to choose carefully, because we can't possibly do them all.  This summer Dale was old enough to go to a week long summer sports camp run by Skyhawks.  The week consisted of soccer, basketball and T-ball activities.  Dale was really excited to go to his sports camp.  He was ready to go with his new sports clothes, shoes, dump truck water bottle, and snacks.  He was really liking being a sports camp kid.

First sports camp photo.

Naturally Rose wanted her picture taken too.

The camp had kids of varying ages, and it seemed to consist of a lot of running around like crazy.  The coaches got quite the workout chasing the kids around the field.

Well, hello there, mountains.  Not a shabby view, eh?

While Dale was in camp, Rose and Mommy sometimes played at the nearby playground and sometimes shopped.  We had great girl time.

Ummm, yeah, a NEW boat playground.

As day one of sports camp came to an end, the coach finally gave up with his group and just had everyone be airplanes.

I would say it was a success.

A Quick Stop

We try to spice things up every once and a while and hit a new playground.  We'll call this new place the "firetruck playground," since it sits next to a fire station in town.  It was super hot that day, so I took very few pictures, but my two cutie pies didn't escape the lens altogether.

Sand and Shade

It's a given that we're going to go to the playground most days.  It was so hot this particular day that I sought out any patch of shade I could find at the playground and then begged my kids to stay in it.  It mostly worked.

Off to the playground with our sand buckets.

New sandcastle strategy.

I love the way Dale sits when he's working in the sandbox.

Rose is proud of her sandcastle.

After Rose built her castle, she spent some time swinging until she realized her sand toys had been taken over by a group of older kids.  She stood like this for a long time staring at her sand toys.

This is actually a milestone for Rose.  Normally she would scream "MINE" and grab her toys back.

This happened a little later...

I guess we wore her out.

A Few Days in Lawrence

While we had Monga visiting us in Manhattan, we decided to take a trip to Lawrence for a few days.  We needed some good cousin time, and Monga needed all her grandchildren together in one big messy cuddly lump.

We played non-stop for our two days together either at the playground or in Lily's bedroom, wreaking havoc wherever we went.

I rather enjoy watching strangers scramble to "rescue" Rose from playground equipment.  People seem to find it hard to believe that something so tiny could climb so high.  Rose may be small, but her will is mighty.

Just let her go.

A visit to Cale's backyard was in order on this trip to Lawrence.

Lily's cousin Cale.

We finished off the day with this lovely face.

A very common Rose face that is usually accompanied by a loud "NO!"