Camp: Week One

Josh has successfully completed his first week of YMCA camp, and today we attended the parent picnic where the kids (ages 3-5) sang a song and recited a Bible verse. True to form, Josh sat with the group but refused to participate. The whole production was somewhat loose, and here's Josh heading toward some of the counselors during the song.

When I've asked Josh what he does at camp every day, he's told me he goes swimming and plays "Dead Fish." I asked him how to play Dead Fish, and he yelled back, "Lay on the floor and be quiet." We're going to adopt that game into our routine at home!

Chris' parents are here for the weekend and joined us for the picnic today. Here are some more pictures.

I think Molly will need to go to manners school at some point:

Here's a side view of Molly's Bozo hair, as we call it.

The last of the beach pictures

For all of our diehard readers, here's the last batch of pictures from the beach.

We took Josh to a mini-golf course after he chose a Ziploc bag of golf balls as his one purchase from the resort general store and asked all week if he could play golf. His game consisted of dropping the ball about a foot from the hole and three-putting it in. We've decided to continue our focus on basketball.

Molly had to ride in the backpack during the game, which apparently she wasn't too happy about. It didn't help my mini-golf game much either.
Here's Josh's unorthodox putting style:
We let Molly out of the backpack at the end for some pictures. Here she and Chris are posing in the stocks (it was a pirate-themed course).
More from the beach:

Molly and Josh pile on Uncle Randy

Chris celebrates a night out without the kids

The best thing about the pool (apparently only in my opinion): no sand.

More from the beach

Here are a few (or a lot) more pictures of what's been going on in Hilton Head:

We've discovered the joy of Rock Band, and even Josh has gotten in on the action. I cannot tell you how many hours have been spent this week playing this game.
We enjoyed two nights out on the town while Jenna stayed with us and kept the kids.
We have loved spending time with our friends, and Josh and Molly are thoroughly enjoying themselves. During a drive around the island on Tuesday Josh thought we were going back to Charlotte and began crying hysterically. We had to make a u-turn to show him that we seriously were not going home yet.
Molly and Josh are now official beach bums. Both of them love the waves and the sand.

On the Water with Josh

We all took a kayak tour this morning around an estuary in Hilton Head, where Josh enjoyed a free ride while Chris paddled him around. Josh seemed to enjoy the tour, especially when a dolphin surfaced feet away from our kayaks. We also saw spitting oysters (who knew there was such a thing?), a great blue Heron, a pelican and a mud crab and learned a lot about life in the estuary from our guide.Molly and Vivy stayed with Jenna, our babysitter from Charlotte who drove down for a few days, while we kayaked. Here's the rest of the crew: Steph, Emily, and Randy, who liked kayaking among the marsh grass.
Now we wouldn't really toss Josh off a dock . . .

The Beach!

After lots of creative packing and a really long drive, we've finally made it to Hilton Head Island. The weather was beautiful for our first day at the beach, and Josh and Molly were thrilled. Molly is enjoying the world's largest sandbox, and Josh had a great time swimming in the ocean and digging holes.
Emily and I thought it would be fun to dress Molly and Vivy alike for our vacation, so here are our little beach twins (or as Josh refers to the picture, "Two Mollys"):

Summer vacation has started. . .

so it's time to build diaper towers!

Josh and I have different feelings about the end of the school year, but it doesn't change the fact that we're going to be spending a lot of time together over the coming months. The first order of business yesterday was to use the latest bulk order of diapers for several building projects, including towers and forts. Josh was very proud of his work, and he even coerced the unethusiastic Molly into posing for some pictures with it.

One Milestone Down . . .

We were very proud today when Josh successfully walked across the stage and accepted his "diploma" for completing preschool. There was no stage diving or other antics, and he talked for the rest of the day about how Ms. Barbee called his name at the ceremony.

While Josh has made major improvements this year, large groups of people still freak him out. He did manage to sit with the other 70 preschoolers during the group performance of "It's a Wonderful World," but he picked his nose and chewed his nails instead of singing. We were just glad he stayed in his spot, and we recorded the whole thing for showing at his wedding or other appropriate occasion.

Here's Josh with Ms. McBride and Ms. Barbee, his teachers. We are greatly indebted to these women. Josh was pretty much done with the big crowd at this point and wasn't interested in more pictures.
Auntie Em also attended the preschool celebration.

Lions, Tigers and . . . a crush

We all played hooky today from work and school and spent the day at the zoo with the Humms, as we're trying to get as much time with them in as possible before they return to England. The zoo was great fun despite 90-plus degree heat, and one of the best parts for me was watching Josh and Charlotte, who was one of his first friends.

Josh and Charlotte haven't seen each other in three years, but I think Josh is still a little sweet on her!
Here are some more pictures from the zoo.

Molly spent most of the day in the backpack.

Flower children

Molly really wanted a taste of my snow cone.

Here's a rare family photo, with everyone looking a little rough after five hours at the zoo.

Molly at the zoo's play area.

We walked up a steep hill to the zoo's botanical gardens, but opted to take the tram back.

We made several attempts to get a picture of all four kids, which was hard! Here is one of our better pictures (i.e. everyone is looking in the general direction of the camera).
You know it's been a good day when this is your final picture: