Camp Grandma

The girls got a week at Camp Grandma in Thousand Oaks for the last full week before school starts.

First on the list, finding a temporary "Not Our Cat Cat." Named "Lionheart" by the girls, this neighbor feline spent all week with us begging for attention.

 Including looking for them and meowing at the door all hours of the day and night.

 Quick educational trip to the beautiful Santa Barbara mission before heading to the beach.

 Lunch with Grandma Carol.

 Building sand castles.

Enjoying every last moment before driving back home to San Jose.

Pasta, pasta

The girls were lucky enough to score two birthday parties last weekend. The first was at Cucina Bambini, where they learned how to cook fresh pasta.

Decorating the chef hats, which pretty much no one wore.

 Making the dough.

 Using the machine to make the noodles.

 Getting teary-eyed chopping onions for the sauce.

 

 

 Cupcakes and pasta!

 Party #2 back at the house with more family and friends. 

And more pasta. By request, Amalia and I had made two pans of lasagna the night before. (Thank you, Aunt Novella, for the recipe!)

 Opening gifts with Joaquim and Ian.

 Minecraft creatures.

Amalia and Grandpa resting their eyelids after a long day.

Birthday twins

One of my best childhood friends, Danielle, happens to have a daughter, Peyton, born on the exact same day as Amalia. We had dinner with them last night to celebrate.

Lily was thrilled.

Letter from camp

We received a note home from Lily with an update on camp. With one week down and one more to go, all seems well:

Kennolyn 2: Return to Paradise

This Sunday, we dropped the girls off at Camp Kennolyn for a full two weeks away from home. This is Lily's second year, having done one week last year. Amalia got no such easing in period, and just dove right in.

Burning off some steam at the beach before camp.

After eating at Tortilla Flats in Santa Cruz.

Rolling down the main avenue to camp central.

Amalia's cabin - Acacia.

Amalia's cabin is straight ahead. Lily's is on the right.

Cabin counselor Beki helping Amalia tie her shoes. Mom helping make the bed.

Lily's cabin - Elm.

Dad helping Lily make her bed.

Amalia's cabin mates and counselor Beki (on the left) and the other counselor who we didn't meet. This is a postcard we received today that reads: "Greetings from Cabin Acacia! Amalia is having lots of fun here at camp. Her favorite activity is swimming where she has been placed in the advanced class! We are getting ready for Outpost tomorrow night which Amalia is super excited for!"

Lily's cabin mates and counselor Becca (on the right) and the other counselor we didn't meet. Of note is that Malia (center) and Lily were cabin mates in Fern the previous year, and the other three girls were all cabin mates as well. It seemed to be coincidental. This is a postcard we received today that reads: "Greetings from Cabin Elm! Lily has settled back into the camp lifestyle with ease and has already bonded well with all of the girls in the cabin!She has been so excited to get involved in all of her activities, especially horse riding which most of the girls in the cabin are also participating in which is awesome! The whole cabin is stoked to eat some yummy foil stew at Outpost this week!"

While Lily was at camp, she got this birthday card from her cabin counselors from last year when she was in Fern. This camp thinks of everything!

An actual photo of the camp!

Heather and I have also been sending notes to the girls via an email system where they receive our email note, print it out, and deliver it to the girls' cabins and place it in envelopes they designed specifically for that purpose.

Lily's first belt buckle

Today Andy took a very-nervous Lily to her first competitive archery shoot. The Mt. Madonna Bug Shoot is in Watsonville, about an hour south of San Jose. It was an all-day affair, with Lily shooting from about 9 this morning to 5 in the afternoon, with a 15-minute break for lunch. There were hundreds of competitors coming from all over the region.

Lily was really nervous about participating and almost didn't enter. I think she only agreed to go when she learned last Thursday evening that Nali (her friendly competition from class) was planning to go. Nali is also 8 and going into 4th grade.

There was a small group from Cal Sports Academy, the club where Lily shoots: Nali and her parents, Lily and Andy, Chris (in the back), Michelle (one of the instructors), and Michelle's sister, Elissa.

 

 The younger ones got to shoot closer in. (Still looks pretty far away to me.)

 Nali and Lily posing with the big kids, who were shooting from their regular distance.

 Goofing around while waiting for their turn to shoot.

 How awesomely bad-a$$ are these girls?

 Who's afraid of spiders? Not these girls.

 Hanging out with Chris, who shot in the adult group.

 Taking on the giant scorpion.

 Woo hoo! Lily won her female age group!

And earned herself her very own belt buckle! Now we just have to buy the belt to go with it. Nali took 2nd. Andy says there were about 9 or 10 girls in the Cub group, which went up to age 11.

 Proof: the scoresheet.

Hitching a ride in the back of a pick-up back to the parking lot. Happy girl. 

 Serious hardware.

 Waiting for her at home.

 Proud girl. Rightly so.