Weekend review, Edition 8

Saturday found Aaron and I spending endless hours trimming the bushes in the front yard. I was originally only on "help move the ladder" duty, but Aaron wanted me to stay because he needed me. There was no way I could say no to that.

One of us was so intent on trimming that they didn't notice the extension cord was in the blades of the trimmer thereby cutting said extension cord in half. Aaron would say it was me, but since it's my story and my blog, I say he was the one who did that.

Sunday brought the return of Noah, my boyfriend for the last 10 years. He up and left me for two Sundays and I don't know how we survived without each other. He was more interested in eating his snack than telling me about his vacation or giving me hugs, but as soon as I brought out the gum he remembered how much he loves me. Even Keturah says we're a #1 couple.

These two peeps came over after church for the 18th time in the last 25 days. That number is not an exaggeration. Willigers has spent half his summer with us and Hannah's been here almost as often.

I think the amount of food- specifically the desserts- we give them keeps them coming back for more. Either that or we're just naturally lovable people and they can't resist us. ;-)

Two totally unrelated topics

Autumn came over the other night because we had some Very Important Issues to discuss and we decided to make Sweet and Sour Pork Rice Bowl from the Rachael Ray magazine. We had some issues we'd like to bring up.

1. The finished result looked absolutely nothing like the picture.

2. It did not take the 20 minute prep time as advertised. It took us well over an hour. Sure, we may have been slightly unprepared{for example, we didn't know we needed bread crumbs so we had to make them}but not enough so that it took us almost 3 times longer.

3. There should have been a warning about flying oil splatters which result in multiple burns.

4. We don't dislike R.R., we're just saying. We're experts at giving unsolicited reviews.

***

On a totally different topic, the rain has finally ended after 46{give or take a couple}days. We almost forgot what sunglasses are for. The sun is now shining and the weather is so beautiful I think it calls for a picnic.

This is my favorite place in the whole world to have a picnic.

Katie and I love having picnics on the lawn of "our" mansion by the sea.

And that's all I have to say for today. {Occasionally even I run out of words!}

This much cuteness should be illegal

This morning while I was sitting on the floor looking through mountains of pictures for a specific picture of Aaron, I came across some great ones of the twins. I thought I'd pick one or two to put up but I ended up with 8 instead. {That is remarkably similar to my method of eating Oreos.}

They spent most of their early days chillin' out side by side with their toys.

This little dude had the best cheeks around. He looked just like Fievil the Mouse.

Have you ever seen anything so cute in your entire life?

They became expert climbers, and fall off-ers, of everything in sight.

Oh.My.Goodness. She was so precious.

I don't know how they had the audacity to grow up.

The Babysitterville Field Trip

The first official Babysitterville Field Trip took place this week and it was a huge success.

The most successful part of the whole day was that I returned home from the Childrens Museum with the same two children I left with.

All attending the field trip were required to sit on the couch while my Uncle Brian read off a list of do'es and don'ts. Immediately following the first meeting, Brian called a "Daddy and Sarah only" meeting which was much less formal than the previous meeting. All he did was hand me a bunch of money and train schedule before telling me that "we'd be fine". I'm glad he had such confidence in me because my aunt was "SO NERVOUS" that she almost changed her mind about us going.

Taking the train to and from the museum caused almost as much excitement as the museum visit itself. Zachary is train expert and knew ahead of time which stop we'd be at next, which connecting trains you could go on, and which line took you to get to which station. Molly tried to sound smart too but her remarks usually resulted in Zachary saying, "Molly! That's not the Acela train! That's the Downeaster!!" in a very exasperated voice.

Acela train or Downeaster, we got to the museum without any mishaps. I'd like to point out that Why I Still Babysit reason #27 is so I can go to children's museums. I'm just one of those people who likes to touch things at museums and nothing is off limits at the children's museum. I learned that visiting a museum as a child and visiting as the person responsible for two children are two very different things. For example, I had to deal with meltdowns. This picture was taken approximately 12 seconds before meltdown #2.

I will never understand why all the meltdowns/breakdowns/loudest arguments always seem to happen when we're either supposed to be quiet{like at the library}or when tons of people are around. It happens every single time. It's possible I may have played the "we don't have to wait for the 3:00 train to go home; there's a 12:00 train we can take too" card. I hated using it but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We ate lunch outside and Molly tried swinging from the Weeping Willow like she was Tarzan. It didn't work out well for her but it was entertaining. I discovered that Zachary has a pigeon phobia. He would start freaking out every time one of the 30 pigeons came within 20 feet of him. This repeated the whole entire time we were eating lunch.

Despite various moments of meltdowns, pigeon phobias and Molly's drama, we had a fabulous time. Below is Zachary's "I'm having a really great day with my most awesome and favorite babysitter/cousin of all time" shadow.

Ok, maybe he didn't say that part about me but he was thinking it!

The Fabulous Five

It's Birthday City,USA around here. The latest citizen to have a big day is Marissa.

Of all the people I know who seem to be growing up way too fast, Marissa is not one of them. It seems like it's taken her forever and a day to turn 18.

Naturally the occasion called for a celebration so John, Marissa and I formulated a plan for Tuesday evening. We only brought John along so he'd pay. That's actually not the whole truth. We brought him because we're all friends but who were we to turn him down if he wanted to pay? Unfortunately, he forgot his wallet so somebody else paid but it's the thought that counts.

As usual, I was the designated driver since Marissa doesn't have her license and John's car is not registered. {What is the point of having a perfectly good car sitting in your driveway for 10 months and not registering it? Sometimes I just don't understand him.} At any rate, I was babysitting so by the time I picked them both up and we got to the restaurant, it was after 8:00 but as Mom often says, "the rich always eat late". {Although I'm not really sure how well the "rich" part applies to us.} Hannah and Ben were going to meet us at the restaurant and while Marissa was waiting for them outside, John and I had the following conversation.

me: "What are you getting?"

John: "I don't know. What are you getting?"

me: "I don't know either. Maybe this pasta."

John: "I'll probably just get this chicken."

me: "Oh, that looks good. Maybe I should get that too or you could just let me try yours.{I'm so generous with other peoples food.}Or I can see if I can get appetizer quesadillas as a non-appetizer."

John: "You do that and I'll get the pasta and you can have some."

me: "Just get what you want and not what I want."

John: "I AM getting what I want and it just happens to be what you want."

pause

John: "Oh my gosh, look at that cheeseburger. I should get that."

me: "Then get it."

John: "No, you see if you can get the quesadillas and if you can, I'll get the pasta and give you some of it. If you can't get them, you get the pasta and I'll get the chicken."

me: "What about the cheeseburger?"

John: "I don't want the cheeseburger anymore. I'm going to get the pasta or the chicken depending on what you get."

me: "Dude. You are making this so confusing. Just get what you want."

John: I was but now I don't know what I want!"'

me: "You are so confused."

I swear a version of this happens every single time I go out to eat. It almost takes away the relaxing nature of going out.

When we were done eating we walked around the plaza looking at the stores lamenting that they were closed so we couldn't go shopping. John and Ben were so thankful for that. They really had no reason to be surprised about it though because they were with three girls. The plaza overlooks a huge football field that the boys wanted to see and after standing there for about 20 minutes, I started wondering what we were looking for. It was dark and there was no game going on so basically we were just staring at a bunch of seats. I personally thought the baseball game on the giant tv was much more interesting. During this exciting seat viewing time, the topic of what to call ourselves came up. John, Marissa and I are the Three Musketeers but we had to think of a new name since we had Ben and Hannah. The Einstein in our group said, "why are you guys trying to put the word 'five' in front of the name? 'Three Musketeers' doesn't have any numbers in it." Let's just say everybody looked at Miss Einstein like she was crazy and she wasn't included in the rest of the conversation. I think we finally decided on The Fabulous Five{it's subject to change at any time}. That sounds like a band to me but I was out-voted 4-1. I guess it's not bad considering that Marissa suggested "The Five Felines". {I don't have any idea why either.} I'd much rather be called fabulous than feline! 

Take us out to the ballgame

Let's get one thing squared away before we go any farther discussing Friday's baseball game:

This is Erin

She was the night's MVBP{Most Valuable Birthday Person}and the reason behind our night out at the park.

Now that that's out of the way, we can move on. Because I live the closest to the ball park{for clarification,we went to see the Paw Sox, not the Red Sox}Autumn and Joanna came to my house for supper then we went together in Mabel{Autumn's car}to the game. We made an important stop on the way for some candy because after all, it was Erin's birthday which was the perfect opportunity for eating peanut butter cups and pretzel M & M's. Autumn also bought Chex mix because she was trying to be healthy or something. Little did we know that when they checked our bags, they'd take away our precious food for some unexplainable reason thereby robbing us of not only said food, but also the $10+ we spent 20 minutes earlier. The girl let us keep the M & M's{again,for some unexplainable reason}and told us "just put the other candy over there and you can pick it up on the way out." Needless to say, it wasn't there on the way out and we're pretty sure we know why-the girl ate it.

But moving on.

We sat in my favorite section-the first base line. We always sit there and I'm such a person of habit I probably would have been completely confused had we sat on the third base line.

For some reason, I really like the dugout. I can't tell you how many pictures I have that look exactly like this but I always take one anyways. I love when they're all standing for the national anthem. Speaking of the national anthem, when the twins and I were doing choir we sang the national anthem there twice. The first time it was just ours and the second time was ours and the Canadian national anthem.

By the 4th inning, things weren't going so dandily{is that a word?}for us. The other team felt the need to hit two home runs which gave them multiple runs and it was so not fair. At least we had the comfort of knowing the Paw Sox weren't losing due to us lacking enthusiasm. We were extremely supportive all night. So supportive in the fact that we just about lost our voices. Three boys in front of us were, thanks to many beers and feeling the need to show off to the eight girls behind them,were so over-enthusiastic that they were escorted from the park. One of the boys tried arguing with the security guard which, in my limited experience with staff and security guards, is never a good idea.

I always wonder what the players are discussing at these little huddles. Surely they weren't discussing how to win since they were already leading 9 to 4. I think they were trying to decide what restaurant they should go to after the game.

These two were the life of the party. They belted out every single song and did beautiful renditions of Take Me out to the Ballgame and Sweet Caroline.

Katie and I didn't get to sit next to each other so her first baseball game wasn't completely and entirely perfect, but it was close. I didn't think of asking her who her favorite Red Sox player is but I'm sure it's Jason Varitek. I know that because we're bestest friends and we always think the same.

A Pictorial Post

In honor of tonight's baseball game, here are a few of my favorite things about the Red Sox.

Trot Nixon

&

Shea Hillenbrand

image

I covered my all-time favorite last night but it doesn't hurt to bring him up again.

#33 Jason Varitek

Fenway Park

image

Naturally, it's been nice to see this twice in my life so far.

image

A necessary addition to any wardrobe

image

And last, but certainly not least, we have the Yankees.

I tried to avoid bringing this up this issue but I couldn't help it.

image

We all know who's better.

Picture catch-up

Unless you count unloading the dishwasher and sweeping the floor as newsworth{which I don't}there's not much to report from the home front.

I will now take this opportunity to introduce the latest but totally not the greatest of my ideas reserved for such a time as this: I'm going to do picture catch-ups. It's not a revolutionary idea{see: not the greatest idea}but I have pictures that for whatever reason weren't posted and I feel they should be.

Exhibit A.

The kids at the don't touch the animals petting zoo.

Exhibit B.

Elizabeth almost kissing the fish before they dissected it for biology.

I am witness to the fact that it did not, repeat DID NOT, turn into a prince.

Exhibit C.

After almost 6 months I've finally finished the sweater for baby Mari. It's such an embarrassment that it took so long but I do have a good reason. Whenever I would get stuck on it during the week I'd have to put it on hold until Sunday when Mrs. Blaser would rescue me from whatever mess I got myself into. If I think about the length it took to make by the number of Sundays in 6 months,it makes me feel much better. Hopefully, it will still fit Mari because judging by the pictures, she's a chubby little baby but Erika thinks it will still fit so I'm hoping for the best. Stephanie can always save it for the next babies.

***

Tomorrow night I'm going with my not-related-to-me peeps to a baseball game for Erin's birthday. It's bound to be a big event because 1) Erin is turning 20 and 2) Katie has never been to a real baseball game. Every summer I try getting her to one but it hasn't worked out until now. Being that expert ball game attender that I am, I tried giving her some tips in the wardrobe department: DO NOT wear anything that has Johnny Damon's name on it. He may be a great guy and all, but ever since he left the greatest team on earth for the you-know-who's that play in New York and wear a big white NY on their hats, it's unacceptable to wear his name. It's really become a matter of personal safety. I, of course, will be wearing my Red Sox earrings and Jason shirt.

Jason Varitek, that is.

Busy,busy,busy

Last week was one of never-ending action. I had barely been home from camp for two hours on Friday when Katie the Kool pulled into my driveway. We debated whether or not she should even come because it would only be a short visit, and I'm so glad she did because she helped pull me out of the proverbial* over-tired, hot, why-don't-we-just-move-to-Hawaii-where-things-are-{supposedly}perfect slumps.

*{I'm so glad I can say these words without be required to know the spelling. Thank you, Spell checker, for being my new best friend.}

K the K also helped me reupholster 15 chairs at 12:30 at night. How many people would do that for you without complaining? I warned her before she came that the house would be messy and we'd be really, REALLY busy working at the club, but I still felt the need to apologize at least once an hour about the fact that we were working and not sitting on the couch watching a movie. She didn't mind but then again she was very preoccupied with pulling her hand away every time I used the staple gun. You'd think after 19 years together she'd trust me enough to know that I wouldn't staple her hand to the bottom of the seat. I'll just blame her behavior on the late hour.

We'd never reupholstered leather chairs before but we're The Experts so naturally, they turned out well.

The next day was Mother Dear's birthday.

The creation of this birthday sign was a joint effort but the fuzziness of the picture is completely my fault.

The CCE came by for Mom's big day and brought with them all manner of wine, cheese, crackers, meat and an assortment of vegetables for the birthday supper. I just realized that we didn't ask Mom what she wanted for supper which means we'll have to have another birthday supper. Oh well, the more birthday meals the merrier. If I didn't already, I'd say I LOVE Daniel and Erika for bringing and making supper so I didn't have to. Not that I don't like cooking, it just freed me from having to think about it because Saturday was- surprise, surprise- another ridiculously busy day. I can never let a birthday go by without having something to do with the cake, so The Experts decorated the giant giraffe cookie I brought home from camp.
{Dad looked at this cake and said, "oh,what a cute camel!"}

And so ended my very, extraordinarily, insanely busy week. I'm so glad I enjoyed everything I did{except for the lack of sleep part}so it was a worthwhile busy! :-)

**Edit- Katie just emailed this to me: "I just wanted to thank you for having me over the past weekend! I had SO MUCH FUN!! I know a lot of people might not think drawing signs, covering chairs, and wrapping plant pots is the most thrilling way to spend a weekend with your friend, but surrounded by lovely green walls and a family I love, with my best-of-all-bests and fellow Expert at my side, what more could I ask for? =) It was a delightful time." 

Happy birthday, Mom!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Camp, day 5 {The fiesta and a celebrity}

The last day of camp was a giant fiesta.

Since it was Family Day, we weren't assigned to watch any children at the beginning of the day but we had other responsibilities like setting up and decorating the garden and helping with crafts. I'm sure it was an entertaining morning for anyone who was watching 15 buddies trying to untangle and hang Mexican decorations at 8:30 in the morning. For sleep deprived, energy drained people, we did a very nice job{if I do say so myself}.

I was in the middle of helping to make paper plate maracas when I was pulled to watch Israel while his mom was at a doctors appointment. Kelsey came over to the maraca table looking for a volunteer to stay with him so I said I would do it. I totally was thinking of a different child so I was pretty shocked when I realized it was Israel and not Jaime. Jaime would have been much calmer; Israel is a very loud child. "CAN WE GO ON THE FIRETRUCK? WHERE'S MY CLAPPING THING? WHAT ARE ALL THOSE KIDS DOING?" He was much more interested in playing in the grass then watching the staff event but he did get into it a little and shake his "clapping thing." Israel's just a very on-the-go boy who didn't want to spend time watching doctors get made into tacos by having "taco food"- green spaghetti for lettuce, vanilla pudding for sour cream, and so on- poured on them before they were rolled up in a towel. I'm so glad I wasn't a victim of such messiness.

Oh yes, I ate lunch with a celebrity.

Ok, well she's not really a celebrity but she does work with people who are celebrities. Maybe they're not real celebrities. Actually, they're not celebrities at all. However, I really like them and since I'm easily star-struck, they're celebrities to me. The lovely lady works for my favorite radio station and knows my favorite dj and favorite traffic reporter. {Yes, I do have a favorite traffic reporter.} If you've ever heard Tim and Brian you'll understand why they make my early morning drives much happier. The thing that kills me is that I was too shy to ask the lady her name even though I was dying to know if she's on the morning show too. I didn't want to assume she was and be wrong, but I didn't want to just straight out ask her. I am WAY over-analyzing this.

I have two three more comments then I'll be quiet:

1. Eating lunch with an almost-celebrity would have made my hour.

2. I will feel so stupid if I find it she is on the radio because all we talked about was the guys. I would feel terrible knowing I didn't tell her I like her too. This is getting to be way too much for me to handle.

3. Playing baseball with almost-Red Sox on Monday, eating with almost- celebrities on Friday...clearly this has been a big week for me.

Back to the camp. It was sad saying goodbye to the children but thankfully not as sad as I thought it would be. I plan on volunteering again next year and all my favorite children plan on attending so we'll all be together again soonish. 

Camp, day 4{an attempt at a short post since I’m so tired from all the activity}

I don’t know if it’s because it’s Thursday, if we really did more than the other days, because I only slept a total of 5 hours last night or a combination of three, but today was a lot of work. We packed so much into our day. For Meg{my buddy partner}, Jared, Brandon, Jaime and I, the day’s activities included, but were not limited to, the following:

A concert complete with dancing, jumping, wiggling, shouting, bubbles, spray bottles, and more dancing
Bringing the boys to the bathroom
Having a snack
Finding the bathroom
Playing outside
Climbing in the firetruck
Painting flower pots and making tissue paper flowers
Jarred and I being the subjects of a newspaper photographer during the whole above activity
Hula-hooping
Eating lunch
Somebody needs to use the bathroom again.
Making real flower arrangements- I was so impressed with how pretty the arrangements were. I never would have thought that so many children would do such a beautiful job. The boys arrangements were especially impressive seeing how they’re…boys.
Oh look, we’re near the bathroom so why don’t we go in?
Gymnastics- The kids loved gymnastics. About every half hour throughout the day Jarred would ask “is it almost time for gymernatics?”. All the flipping and crashing almost made Meg and I lose about three years off our lives.
Another snack, another trip to the you-know-where.
A few rounds of Duck Duck Goose to pass the time.
“I need to use the bathroom!”- In case you didn’t pick up on it, we spent a good amount of our day in the bathroom. {“Did you wash your hands? Good. Did you use soap? Well then, you can just turn yourself right around and go wash them again.”}
Going home.

Jared and Brandon just made my day. They’re so cute that the percentage of my future sons I’d like to have might have jumped all the way from 25% to 40%. They’re at the cute stage where they’re just starting to act like big boys but they still like sitting on our laps and carrying their stuffed animals everywhere. Jaime was the most serious in our group but the kid sure did know how to get his groove on during the concert. A newspaper from their town was there to interview Jarred and his brother Jacob about the camp so the photographer spent almost all morning with us {I don’t think he spent much of his time with Jacob because he seemed glued to us the whole time}. The fact that having a photographer two feet from my face didn’t faze me proves that my body was running on a very small amount of sleep and therefore I was past caring. Normally I’d be all “oh my goodness, I have to look good!” Hopefully, I’ll be able to get and scan some of the pictures so I can put them up. We’re not allowed to take any pictures during camp{hospital policies, yada yada}but since I didn’t take the pictures it's ok to show them. I’d love to have a picture with one of the kids. It’s probably a good thing I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera; I would end up with way too many pictures.

Tomorrow is the last day so I'll have to say the sad goodbyes. I can't think about that anymore so I'll just go to bed now. I'll be much more useful to people after I've had some quality bonding time with my bed.

Camp, day 3

Two days at camp week are really BIG. One is Family Day and the other is field trip day. Today was field trip day and we went to the zoo. I love the zoo so I was probably almost as excited as the kids.{As a side note, I think it’s good that I’m going into a profession that lets me do the “kid things” that I still like to do. After all, how many bankers get to spend a Wednesday at the zoo? Exactly. Not very many.} My Buddy partner was Alyssa who is also a preschool teacher/zoo lover. She just went there with her class so she knew the latest zoo news and got all of us excited about the elephant show. We were in charge of four boys: Dylan and Evan(twin brothers), Jacob and Shane. Considering we had four boys, our day went very smoothly.

Everyone from our camp wore matching orange shirts and you know what happened when we got off our bus? We saw another camp with about 125 kids standing in the parking lot wearing orange shirts. So much for standing out. At least the giraffe on our shirts shot us way up there on the coolness scale. The parking lot was also the place of great tragedy. Kelsey, the director, told us the zoo “didn’t have an elephant any more” which is just another way of saying “the elephant died on July 28^th”. I would have just said “the elephant died” so we wouldn’t have to deal with the “where did the elephant go?” and “will it be here this afternoon?” questions. It was traumatic for about three minutes but thankfully the kids{and adults}loved the other animals so the poor elephant was soon forgotten. There was even a deer forest we could walk around in. We didn’t get to pet any deer because another group thought the best way to feed the deer from their hands was by charging at them. You’d think by the 10^th unsuccessful charge they’d have realized that they scared away every single deer but they didn’t.

Our boys were those zoom here, zoom there, zoom everywhere zoo visitors. Poor Shane could barely keep up with the other three but he was perfectly content to walk…very…very…slowly…while the others ran ahead. Jacob was very kind to him and kept saying “come on, little dude! You can come with us, little dude!” Speaking of Shane, Alyssa and I felt so bad because we didn’t realize{Kelsey forgot to tell us}that the reason he was so much slower than the others and why he didn’t want to eat his lunch was because he’s still having his cancer treatments and probably wasn’t feeling great. We thought he was just one of those slower children; he is only 4 years old. He had a great day at the zoo though which is basically the point of the camp. We want all the former/current children with cancer to have fun just like “normal” children regardless of what they may be going through. Where was I? Oh yes, the boys were really fast. They were so fast we saw all the animals{except the rhino which we somehow missed}two hours before we had to leave. We brought them to a bird show to use up some time but it only made Alyssa and I roll our eyes at the lady telling us how “Baby is the most honest bird we have here are the zoo. She always tells us just how she’s feeling.” Really? And how does she do that? All she does is nod her head and say “cracker”. We finished our field trip by spending the rest of our time at the playground playing with Autumn and Leif then boarded the bus and went back to the hospital.

It was such a fun day but I am so, so, so, so tired from it all. If I don’t go to bed right now, I will be NO good tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a concert so I have to rest up. I can’t be falling asleep during The Chicken Dance or anything.

Camp, day 2

First up is a report on yesterday’s business about Rafael and Elijah: neither shed tears over the fact I wasn’t their Buddy today. Elijah waved at and talked to me throughout the day but Rafael was too busy keeping Katie on her toes to spend much time on me. That’s ok because I spent the day with Caitlynn and Catrina and it was a day in the park. They did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it and even when they were running around the garden they weren’t maniacs. Girls can be so easy.{It’s just more reiteration as to why 75% of my future children will be girls. Please don’t bring up how much I love Braden and Noah. That’s completely beside the point.} My Buddy partner was the other Sarah and she had Carisssa so in our group we had Sarah, Sarah, Caitlynn, Catrina, and Carissa. It was a slightly tongue-twisterish day.

The first event of the day was the bubble party. It’s official name was Bop and Pop party and all it involved was a dj playing music while a bubble machine blew hundreds of bubbles into the air. The idea was good but the dj wasn’t so great. The music was so loud it scared some of the little ones. Brandon, however, was not scared in the least. He would stand with his face three inches from the bubble machine with his mouth wide open so he could eat the bubbles. That kid had so many dried bubbles on him by the end of the day that his mother won’t need to put any bubbles into his bubble bath for weeks.

By far the most popular activity of the day was the giant gingerbread giraffes. Each child had their own to decorate with four colors of frosting and a colorful and sugary array of candies. Caitlynn and Catrina were so good. They didn’t lick the frosting off the spatula or eat any candy until they were done decorating. Autumn the Adorable was a decorator after my own heart. The candy on her giraffe was lined up according to size, color, and type. It just made me so happy.

Today is the BIG event…we’re taking a field trip to the zoo!

Camp,day 1

Today was the first day of the week-long camp for cancer patients and their siblings{ages 3-8} I'm helping at. Even though I've volunteered at the children's hospital for the last two and a half years,it was my first volunteering at the camp.

I was the Buddy{meaning responsible for all day}for two 7 year old boys named Rafael and Elijah. They were very cute and sweet all morning. They sat when they were supposed to sit and did what they were supposed to do when it was supposed to be done. When I told them it was snack time, Rafael even gave me a big hug and said,"you're my favorite buddy!". I thought we were all meant for each other but then the afternoon rolled around and I started to think different things.

Let's just say they became your average 7 year old boys.

I may pride myself at being some experienced babysitter who can handle just about anything that comes my way but there's a small distraction at camp that I never have to deal with while babysitting: his name is Jared and he's the only boy Buddy. Once Rafael and Elijah realized there was a boy who would pick them up and pull and push them all over the place, it was goodbye, Sarah! Both Rafael and Elijah are sweet boys, but they couldn't resist being with all the other boys 1,000% of the time. Consequently, I spent the next 4 hours chasing them around, trying not to lose them, and wishing for goodness sake that more guys would have signed up! I'm sure Jared spent the whole day thinking about the fact he was the most popular person at the hospital. I may or may not{leaning heavily towards may}have temporarily lost one or both boys more than once. It's not easy to keep track of two children who are running all over the place when there are 25+ other children around. As I found out, nobody was really surprised about what was going on in our trio; everyone else was very sympathetic to my plight. I don't want it to sound like I didn't like it because I did, it was just a lot of work. I think today would have been a little difficult anyways just because it was my first day.

And what did we do for fun?

We had a puppet show{some of the jokes the puppeteer told were so over our heads there wasn't any way the kids got it}. A reptile man came with a slithery, slimy collection of snakes, frogs and lizards. Elijah and Rafael had a major show-down every time he showed a new animal.

R: "I've held a lizard before."

E: "I've held a snake before."

R: "Well, I've held a poisonous snake!"
E: "Oh yeah! I've held TWO poisonous snakes!"

R: complete silence

We also played Wiffle ball with these two gentlemen:

{They were very popular among the ladies.} They play baseball on the AAA ball team of the Boston Red Sox. You may have heard of them. The highlight of my day was that I was SO the manager of our team{said team consisted of 9 boys who insisted on standing right behind the batter within inches of getting smacked in the head every time the bat was swung}during the game. My newest claim to fame is that I played baseball with the {almost}Red Sox, oh yes I did. If only I had known they were going to be there, I would have worn my Red Sox earrings.

Tomorrow we're decorating giant giraffe gingerbread cookies{a giraffe is the camp's mascot}and having a bubble party. I've never been to an official bubble party, but I can imagine that it probably involves large amounts of very large bubbles. The real question for tomorrow is will Rafael and Elijah be stuck with the apparently boring Sarah, or will they join the ranks of happy Jared buddies?

Starry, Starry Night

Being the budding astronauts that we are{not that I can actually spell the word without Spellchecker}, we went to a Starfest Saturday night to learn more about the sky above us. The first talk was about Kepler. The man informed us that what he was about to say wouldn't include any math, but then he proceeded to show us this:

That looks like math to me.

The Starfest was held at Katie's college but unfortunately, she couldn't go because her Saturday calendar included bridal showers and cook-outs. She's such a social butterfly. However, her parents came and brought children numbers 4,6,7,8,9,10 and 11. Anna blessed us with her cuteness.

We went on a very interesting walk where a basketball representing the sun was placed on top of a trashcan{very classy} and we'd walk ___ number of steps away to visualize how far each planet is from the sun and from the other planets. The guide would then show us a teeny, tiny ball that was scaled{in relation to the sun basketball}to the size of that planet. We only went Saturn due to the fact we'd have to walk all the way to another town to have the other planets accurately measured, but it was so cool to see how little the planets really are compared to the sun and each other.

Anna didn't understand that portion of the night and found it much more entertaining to make faces at me.

At the end of the night, we were able to look through binoculars and telescopes out in the field. It was slightly disappointing because it didn't seem as if I couldn't see much more than when I looked straight at the sky, but it was interesting nonetheless. One thing I discovered on Saturday night was yet another bonus of having a large family...your chances of winning prizes sky-rockets. Between the 9 O's there, they won 5 of the items being raffled. The rest of us didn't even have a chance.

In other weekend news:

* I received a reply letter from James who's in training in Georgia. Here's how the letter started: "Hello,Sarah, I wasn't expecting to get a letter from you". I don't understand that. I mean, I'm only the person who drove him home from school at least 60 times last year so he wouldn't have to walk home in the cold. I'm only the person who took it upon myself to become his self-appointed sort-of sister because he has four brothers and needed a little help in life. How could I not write to him?

* Joanna and I went to her sister's/our friends church on Sunday morning to hear reports on the missions trip some of them just took to the Dominican Republic. Joanna was holding her little nephew Nathan during the service and every time the music would start he'd raise his little arms and wave them all around. He'd make a great Pentecostal baby.