Happy 4th of July! I just got back from Girl Scout camp, dropping off Allison and her friend Jenna. The two are spending the week on a travel camping trip to Assateague Island. The island is just off Virginia Beach near Chincoteague and Ocean City. Assateague is full of wild ponies(ever read Misty of Chincoteague?). The horses are said to have come from Spanish exlporers whose ships capsized with the horses on board. The horses swam to shore and have lived wild on Assateague island as well as up and down the North Carolina shore for hundreds of years. Each summer, the fire dept in Chincoteague swim the wild ponies and foals over to the mainland from the island to auction off the foals(hence the book Misty of Chincoteague). This helps to keep the population from becoming too overwhelming for the environment. And they can monitor the ponies that are left by tagging them. Our family has always talked about camping there on the island at the Nat. Park, so now Allison is going to have chance to scope it our for us. The GS counselors say they plan on taking the girls to the Park Ranger presentations -they will learn all about the marshland and the wildlife, including the ponies. They will even have a chance to go to Ocean City-the beach and boardwalk. The girls will be camping on the beach-a small group of only 6. I am sure they will have a terrific time. I'd like to go there sometime for a dune buggy tour and kayak tour. I just heard the bad thing is that there are lots of bugs, especially biting flies. I hope that the girls are spared.
Last week Allison had a lot of fun learning all about field hockey. Tom enjoyed buying all of her equipment I think. Allison told the instructor that she was interested in trying out for the high school team and they recommended that she continue with the intermediate class to learn more about strategy and game playing. So now Allison is scheduled to attend the intermediate class next week before we go on vacation. I am glad she is enjoying the new sport. She is still doing her karate and piano this summer too.
Scott and his Dad however have decided to take a break on karate. We are having a hard time getting Scott to his lessons-they only meet during the week and the ride is a bit far. The classes are earlier in the day and I cannot get off work to get him to his class-mainly Tom has been flexing his work hours to get him to the classes. And Scott would like to try gymnastic lessons next school year, so we told him we would give it a shot.
Last week he spent his day at the YMCA summer camp and loved it. The camp traveled to the National Zoo in DC which he enjoys, however, he was disappointed they did not get to see more of the animals. This week he will be at the Y again taking extra swim lessons. Scott's favorite time at Y camp is when they go exploring the pond back behind the Y. He loves to catch newts.
He also experienced his first cavity last week. I had to get the kids new dentists because noone at our clinic would fill cavities in kids under 18yrs old! That is just crazy. So I took both kids to a family dentist and it turns out Allison did not necessarily have a cavity, but Scott had two. Both of the cavities are in baby teeth but close to the root, so they decided to drill. Scott had his first experience with novacaine in his mouth and drilling-he thought the drilling tickled! I don't think many kids would laugh during a trip to the dentist! He is actually looking forward to having the second cavity filled! I was just glad to see that the dental hygienists were so nice. The dentist was OK. Not overly friendly. And they are dropping our insurance by the end of the year, so we will be right back in the same place we are now-looking for a new dentist! Or maybe a new dental insurance!
Cookie survived her cone and tshirt combination following spaying last week. I noticed however that she seemed a bit swollen at the surgery site so I asked if the vet could take a look at her. He agreed that she was swollen and said it looks like she is allergic to the sutures! How is it that a hypoallergenic dog has allergies?! Go figure. He took the stitches out right away since it had already been a week and she was healed enough. She certainly was happy to have the cone and tshirt taken off and to get back to running and rough housing with the kids. And I think she has been enjoying her new haircut(that only took 4 hours!). I don't spend that much time at the salon! And it must have taken me an hour last week to fill out all the paperwork on her now-county registration, rabies vaccination, lost pet ID for the microchip implant we got her while she was having surgery. (Why can't we have our kids microchipped in case we lose them?). Cookie was even happy to walk up to our local park on the 4th to visit with all the neighborhood kids and dogs dressed up for the neighborhood 4th of July bike parade.
We actually did most of our celebrating on Friday the 3rd when we went to see our Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert and fireworks at a local outdoor music theatre. We have gone quite often in the past and they have a very nice fireworks show complete with music. And the guest conductor was a native Detroit boy. He mentioned that he loved the tv series Dallas as the orchestra played the theme song, and that it was a bit unusual for a Detroit boy to have an interest in cowboys. I can only imagine. We usually pack a picnic dinner when we go and often run into someone we know. This year we spotted my GS coleader and her kids and father in law. They had arrived very early and sat way up front so we could not squeeze in next to them. Instead the kids and I visited long enough to share their brownies before heading back to our spot on the lawn. We had to mooch off their dessert because Boston Market had sold out all their desserts with their dinner special. I usually pick up a Boston Market chicken dinner for our picnic during the concert. You can also bring in wine-our favorite part. So no Boston market dessert; I figured I would just buy a little something for the kids at the food booths at the concert. Half way through the concert, we stood in line for ice cream and sno cones. While we were in line, they ran out of ice cream, and before we got to the front of the line, they ran out of ice for the snow cones. Thank goodness there is a recession, or we'd all be fat from all the stuff we buy! Oh wait, we couldn't even buy our dessert! Or maybe it is a dessert conspiracy. Anyhow, the kids did not want kettle corn or cotton candy, hence the reason for mooching off my friend and her fine brownies. I think we got the better end of the deal.
We were also feeling very patriotic that week as I ran off to the BWI airport with my coleader and her daughter and Allison to finally pass out our 250 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that were donated to the servicemen and women returning home. We join an organization called Operation Welcome Home and they organize a welcoming committee for each flight arriving at the airport along with goodie bags-and sometimes GS cookies. My girls spent 2 hours during a meeting making thank you cards and we tied each card to a box with ribbon. Allison and Jeannette were there to lead us all in the pledge of allegiance before the troops got off the plane and made their way through our cheering group. Each soldier received a box from Allison and Jeannette, so if you contributed to our cause, thanks again. The soldiers really appreciate it-and there were a lot of women on this particular flight. Not to mention dogs and cats being brought from overseas! We were just sad that we only had 250 boxes of cookies to pass out since 300 soldiers got off the plane that night. Never fear, we will be busy selling again in September so keep us in mind.
Hope you are all having a great summer!