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It's all in the hat from Hawaii!
Throughout my “Midsummer projects” thus far this summer, I’ve been traveling to and from children’s activities and summer sports.
It’s been great to find desired activities the children are happy to participate in to keep them in shape over the summer months. Instead of becoming slothful and lazy with the sun’s heat and humidity factoring, they have been eagerly awaiting their special times to get out and boogie.
With so many children in the family, not everyone gets the same amount of activities during the year, hardly feasible with the family’s schedule and mom’s sanity. So before the end of the schooling year, I like to interview them for possible ideas that may strike a fancy with them to keep building muscles and obtaining proper cardiovascular endurance levels.
This son has been extra active this summer, making up for lack of sporting this past fall and winter. He’s not a sport lover necessarily, though he definitely loves to jump on the bandwagon with his siblings.
Batter Up!
They stand victorious and pleased with their final game.
His late spring and early summer inline hockey league just ended this week, the final game winning was a tough go, with a score of 6-5 in a 5-minute overtime. They beat the best team in the league on the final day, losing most of the time to everyone themselves, so indeed this was a victory thrill!
Something else to add to the growing collection.
The heat in the arena was climbing on the thermometer, and the boys were all rewarded with a medal and team photo shoot for the local newspaper upon completing the game. Off they also went to the cafeteria where an entire meal awaited them, hotdogs for players.
Basketball Camp!
A "Extreme Christian Basketball Camp" caught our eye for a five day morning session. He missed the first day when his golf lesson time was changed to midmorning, but so enjoyed the other four mornings at basketball camp with his friend.
The final game, played outdoors for
all the parents and families.
They played, ran hard, learned the game well, and the parents were able to view a final game on the last day. For a mere $10.00 for the entire week’s fee, it included snacks each day, a t-shirt and medal presentation at the end. What a deal!
Buddies happy with their golden awards.
His golfing continues, a six lesson's weekly session with other boys to learn the game. So far, they’ve chipped, putted, and used the driving range. The final day’s session is a golf tournament around the course. It’s not uncommon to have golf balls scattered all over our back property from the children driving their golf balls out there each day, and then having to scoot about to pick them all up later on. It’s a perfect yard for such a sport, even if that’s all they do is drive the ball to perfect their distances. His older siblings had a lesson today, and they’re now ready for a round of golf, all around the golf course now. They’re hoping to play with their older brother and grandmother when they come for a visit, and hubby has offered to drive them around in the golf cart.
Happy to be here!
Proceeding with the official welcome
and check-in for the boy's camp.
It has been an extra special summer for this young boy, also able to attend the summer church camp recently with the many young boys. This was an experience like no other for him, a whole week away from home with an overnight camp offering a schedule to make anyone’s eyes cross.
Inside and Outside of the cabin.
Nothing special, just a sleeping area at night.
The boys went canoeing several times, learned archery, had muscles screaming on the push-up contest finale, sweated profusely up and down during their rope and rock climbing sessions, hiked, swam, learned their catechism and had daily mass and bible work to do. As boys are prone to do, they ate a lot of food, had nightly campfires, and slept very little. When we picked him up on the final day, he was holding back tears of emotion. With great fatigue speaking initially, he said the camp was too long because he missed me too much. So cute! But, if given the opportunity to attend in the future again, he would be there in a flash.
With their birdhouses, they're ready
to be formally excused from camp.
Today is day six since the last day at camp, and finally the fatigue factor and sheer exhaustion he was plagued with is now disappearing. He happily tootled off to a makeup session at the golf course with his siblings, the one he missed while at camp. The stories are still cropping up in conversations, those camp tales, with side splitting laughter ensuing from stories of the crazy seminarians who surprised him greatly when suddenly standing up in their canoes and jumping from boat to boat, tipping out forty boys and other men and priests into the lake waters. A crowd of spectators on the shore eventually gathered to watch the nutty scene before their eyes, laughing and hilarious momentum accelerating before their very eyes! Canoes were overturned, boys vested in their lifejackets were giggling heartily, and grown men were obviously having the time of their lives. Unbeknown to some, apparently this is a yearly tradition, a ritual for all, though our son wasn’t privy to the information before it all began.
Dripping wet, the boys learned to use clotheslines well during their stay in the woods, and amazingly clean clothes became a beloved find in their cabins by weeks’ ending.
Oh to be a kid again!
But then, maybe I’ll just have to look at being a volunteer next year at the girls’ camp our daughter wants to be a part of, and have the time of my life there the same way.
