SoBro Camp Day 5

Our last day of camp arrived and I was emotional almost before it began. There was still an extreme heat advisory and our activity for the day was baking cookies and giving them to people in the neighborhood. 

Poorly planned idea considering we had to have the oven turned on all day long in a room with no AC but we persevered and made it through the day and the kids enjoyed it. 

I hated to have to leave all of these little angels (and devils) we had come to love but was glad to be getting out of our sketch hotel in its sketch 'hood. 

After we said our goodbyes, we hopped on a train and headed north. 

We were met by Caroline's aunt and cousins and taken to an amazing farm in Connecticut. They provided us with luxury towels and bedding, an amazing view and one of the best dinners I have had in a while. 

SoBro Camp Day 4

We were back at the camp on Thursday. There was an extreme heat advisory in NYC and it was blazing but we made it through without any catastrophes besides a few melt downs from the kids. Our service project was to write letters to people that the kids are thankful to have in their lives and to plant a flower for them. They wrote the sweetest letters and Elijah's was the best. He wrote the sweetest letter to Ansley, his camp counselor, telling her how much he loved her and how glad he was that he met her. She and I both teared up when we read it.

We decided to head to grand central station for dinner at the food court since we were all spent from the heat and needed to get our things packed and ready to leave the next morning. Kim was especially glad to know it was our last night since she had a run in with a rat the night before!

SoBro Camp Day 3

On Wednesday, we broke up into our color groups and went on a scavenger hunt in Central Park, which means we had around 100 campers on the NYC subway. This was a little stressful considering I wasn't even completely comfortable navigating myself around on it but at least it was a straight shot and we didn't have to switch trains. I was with the white group which was 3rd and 4th graders. I'm pretty sure I was more excited about going to the park than they were. We didn't win the contest but we did have a blast.

After camp was over, we went back to Manhattan for dinner at Pete's Tavern. We had the nicest waiter with one of the heaviest NY accents I've ever heard but his wasn't annoying. We all liked it and kept asking him questions so we could hear him talk. Apparently Pete's Tavern is a hot spot for the famous folks. The walls were covered with pictures of all of them that had been there. I saw Tom Selleck, Brangelina, Johnny Depp and Rudy Giuliani to name a few. I forgot to snap any pics while in Pete's but did get some on the walk to and from. 

I'm really beginning to love NYC and the people and the transportation and the buildings and the noise! Wha???

SoBro Camp Day 2

After yesterday's lesson of running a lemonade stand, we were able to put it into action today. We set up our stand at the corner of 138th and Beekman and started selling at 10. 

I quickly taught the kids that being obnoxious and making lots of noise to draw attention to us would help to sell more drinks. We made up songs and dances and cheers and it really brought the people to the stand. I'm sure the 100+ degree temperature helped also. At lunch we had a mad rush from the construction workers across the street. 

We felt we had a pretty successful day by raking in $136.60 and that was verified by Brad when we were told we made almost $100 more than last year. 

We traveled to the north part of the Bronx for dinner at New Hawaii Sea. That area of the Bronx is being revitalized and didn't feel near as dangerous as where we are staying and working. 

SoBro Camp Day 1

Day 1 of Week 2 of camp and the kids arrived early.

As I talked to the kids, it was evident that they really love camp and were so excited about another week. 

The day started off at Promised Land church with everyone together in a big group worshipping together. After that they broke up into their age groups and went their separate ways. 

Lawanna and I are the group leaders for the service projects and our first event was selling lemonade for Many Hopes, an orphanage in Kenya. The first day was devoted to explaining to the kids about the orphanage and how to run a lemonade stand. We also made up fliers for the kids to take home to advertise our stand. 

They did a great job and were REALLY excited about getting to sell lemonade...and getting to drink lemonade. 

The church where we were working and where the writing and music blocks of instruction were being done is about 12 blocks away from the Promised Land church and the parks where they have game time and free time were a few blocks away also so the kids did a lot of walking throughout the day and they got to play in the fire hydrants that were running. It looked like a lot of fun!

We also had plenty of time for acting silly and doing a lot of playing. 

By the time it was all finished, we could barely hold our heads up so we decided to head back to the SheriDan, not the Sheraton, order pizza, hang out and go to bed early!

I met some really amazing kids today, kids that I have already bonded with. There are some real standout superstars but mostly they are babies want nothing more than to he a kid and to be loved. I can't imagine what is going on in some of the households they are living in and it breaks my heart to even think about it but I hope and I pray that what is going on with this ministry can help and save some of them. 

New York, NY Day 1

My spot for the next week is right in the middle of this.

Made it to NYC late Saturday and went straight to the hotel to sleep so yesterday was really our first day & since camp starts today, it was our only day to really do anything on our own.

We started the day off w/ my very first subway ride & made our way to church at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 

It was a great service and the worship was the best I have ever seen. Their choir sang at The White House earlier this year for the inauguration. After church, we went to Manhattan and had lunch at a little NY pizzeria, Bella Vita.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Times Square and going to see a broadway play. 

Mary was the only other person out of our group that wanted to see a play so we stuck it out the rest of the day together. I didn't care what play I saw, I just wanted to experience a Broadway play on Broadway so Mary chose to see Cinderella. 

It turned out to be a great play. There were 3 very young girls sitting in front if us and watching them get so excited as Cinderella's look changed was worth the money! The rest of the day was spent finding our way back to the Bronx, having our camp orientation and dinner at an authentic Latin restaurant in the Bronx, Pio Pio. That was an experience! Now I'm off to meet the kids :)

Outdoorsman Camp

The only thing that really happened with us last week was I thought about getting ready for my New York trip but still have not packed with 10 hours until take off and J went to Outdoorsman Camp in Paris, TN. This is the 4th time he has been and was moved up to the 13-16 yo group this year. He said it was even more fun being in the older group :( He's growing up way too fast. 

Drew went along again this year. Mel & Chuck dropped them off Sunday and I grabbed them on Thursday. 

This is the scene when I arrived. I cannot imagine having that many boys in my house at once. Ick! 

We stopped in Jackson to eat some lunch, watch World War Z and go to Gander Mountain. This happened after all of that....The sight of him sleeping and looking so sweet & innocent still melts my heart.

The weekend after a holiday

What does the weekend look like after you've spent two days of the work week enjoying a holiday? If you are in school, it looks like this:

Not my ideal weekend but my 4th of July was worth it! 

Golfing on the 4th

I had to go to work for a little while on the 4th so it started a little yucky but it got better pretty quick. We picked up Griffin, J's friend from baseball, and took off for the lake house as soon as we had a chance. We made it to the golf course in time for a late afternoon round of golf. It was K & I against J & Griffin. It was a friendly little round and we weren't too worried about the score but I will be the first to say that my team won!!

Teeing off on the 1st hole

Jake & Grif

This one is the 15th hole and it gave us a few problems. Making our balls go missing was the main one....

Shiloh Falls is a beautiful place to play. After we finished, everyone else had made it to the lake house and we headed over to Pickwick Pizza for some cold beers and lots of pizza with the fam. It turned out to be a pretty great day :)