Weekly Wrap Up–The Fresh Air Week

This has been a crazy busy week as we’ve shown our Fresh Air child all about life in the country (even though we technically live in a city).   If you would like to read about all of our adventures, I posted the daily links below for you convenience.

Day 1 – The Frontier Culture Museum.
Day 2 -  Company picnic and the park.
Day 3 – Swimming and smores.
Day 4 – Hiking and fishing.
Day 5- Errands and an outside concert.
Day 6 – A tea party and the County Fair.
Day 7 – Low key and a group picnic.

Today we were up at 6:30 for a French toast breakfast before time to meet the bus.   Once we arrived at the bus waiting area, Ty`Nique acted as if we no longer existed.  I was disappointed to see that we didn’t get so much as a goodbye from her.

In other news, we had dentist appointments this week.  Both girls are still cavity free.  Olivia (at 10 years of age) has all of her adult teeth already and has been referred to an orthodontist for braces. We go for a consultation in a few weeks.

Here are a few fun photos of my girls from the week, I don’t think these made it into the other posts about our Fresh Air Fund child.

We technically have one more week off before school starts.  However, my printer has been in the shop all week and has really brought my school preparations to a screeching halt.  Wouldn’t you know the one year I buy a curriculum on CD would be when the printer dies?  

How was your week?   Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up!

Fresh Air- Day 7

Today was our last official day with Ty`Nique.  We had a more laid back day, with no real activities scheduled.  There were several reasons, first being they were all worn out from the week and second I wanted her to not be so exhausted on the bus ride home and third I needed to do laundry again.   The girls spent their day playing and being silly, and they watched the Princess Diaries.

In the evening we had a group picnic for all the the Fresh Air Fund host families in the area.  This was really a lot of fun, and very informative too.

I didn’t take any photos today, instead I spent time downloading the photos from the week onto two CD’s….that’s a lot of pictures, ya’ll!

Nothing exciting to report, just letting you know how our last day went.

Fresh Air–Day 6

The girls spent their morning playing together.  While they were preoccupied and giggly, I prepared a surprise tea party luncheon.  Once I had everything ready I told them to go find their white gloves, hats, scarves and fans.   The three came back as a very eclectic group, grins.

The mysterious Ms. Olivia.

The demure Ms. Ty`Nique

The coy Ms. Lindsey.

The Menu:

Dinosaur Shaped Chicken Nuggets
Chips
Fruit Salad
Fresh Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hot Tea

The girls had a lovely time acting all snooty. 

We discovered that, despite her claims to having tea at home all the time, Ty`Nique does not in fact like tea.

Once the refreshments were finished, the girls taught Ty`Nique the proper way to decline a tea refill.  For the record, this is to be done with an empty cup, not a mostly full one, ahem.

The girls then retired to the sun porch where Ms. Olivia and Ms. Lindsey taught Ms. Ty`Nique the proper way to curtsey and to waltz.

We then lost a bit of formality, as we returned to the kitchen to make beaded bracelets.

The girls had a couple of hours of downtime and then it was off to the county fair!  So far this week we’ve learned that Ty`Nique doesn’t like animals, dirt, the woods, the park or tea…and I’m guessing by her body language, and the look on her face that clowns aren’t a favorite either.

Ty`Nique does however like rides.  Although we had to work on the concept of getting in the back of the line instead of cutting to the front.

We had to divide up since our girls wanted to go to the petting zoo and the livestock barns.  Ty`Nique just crinkles up her nose and says it’s dirty and smelly.   Although, I’m quite certain that New York City is not always the cleanest and best smelling place in the world either.

Some of the shows were lame, VERY lame.  The acrobats were really good, although that freaked Ty`Nique out as well and she walked out, and I walked her right back in…because really it’s not all about one person when you have 5 who have paid to be there.

A final photo of the night.

Fresh Air–Day 5

Today was a “real life” day.  The girls had dentist appointments in the morning, followed by grocery shopping.   When we got home it was laundry day for me and the girls played.   They built a blanket fort (which I forgot to take a photo of), hula-hooped, played with Barbie’s and doll babies and watched the movie Brave.

In the evening we picked up pizza’s and went to the local park for free concerts.  It was youth night, so the bands were a lot more upbeat and everyone seemed to have fun.

Lindsey and Ty`Nique are both creeped out by costumed creatures, so they weren’t too happy about seeing the Sweet Frog mascot come through. They were even less thrilled when I whipped out the camera and made them pose. (Grins)

The pizza was most excellent.   Interestingly enough, we found out that bee’s are really attracted to the smell of garlic, either that or they are really big fan’s of Little Caesar's breadsticks.

The bands totally rocked. 

The female guitar player in the photo below (beside the gal in pink) was phenomenal!

Unfortunately it started to rain early in the 2nd bands performance, so we left.  It was a good night though.   Goofy girls are always entertaining.

Fresh Air–Day 4

Ty`Nique had never been hiking, and today was absolutely perfect weather for a walk in the woods.  High 70’s and no humidity is not typical for Virginia in August, so we took full advantage of it.

I let Olivia blaze the trail for us and I brought up the rear so I could take photos and keep an eye on everyone at once (multitasking mom, that’s me).  I was really happy to listen to Olivia and Lindsey identifying tree species and plants (yes, they really DO listen on those nature study walks!)

There are times when Olivia just amazes me in her similarity to her father.  Neither of them can find a gallon of milk in the fridge, but both can spot a deer like nobody’s business.  We were only a few minutes into our walk when Olivia stopped and whispered “There are two deer over there in those trees.”  Sure enough there they were.  To be honest, I’d have missed the deer.  I mean seriously, could you spot these two deer (below) at 50 yards without a zoom lens camera?

The girls pointed out various fungi growing on trees.  We also found a good supply of acorns, walnuts and hickory nuts to identify…and persimmons.  I fought off the urge to have them all try one…heh heh heh.

Then we hit a few playgrounds.

In the evening we took the girls fishing.  It was actually a bit chilly by the lake.  Lindsey is typically the queen of catching fish, but she was dethroned by Ty`Nique…she caught 11!  Look at that face! (and the little fish on the end of the rod.)

Between baiting the hooks, and taking the fish off the hooks these three gals kept Tom pretty busy all evening…and he loved every minute of it.

Bed time is hard, that’s when homesickness kicks in.  For an 8 year old, I think she’s being very brave.  It hurts this momma’s heart to see her upset at bedtime, and I know it hurts her momma’s heart in NY too.

On to more fun tomorrow.

Fresh Air –Day 3

Sunday morning we all headed off to church, followed by lunch and a trip to the pool.

Ty`Nique insisted she could swim.  I was pretty sure she couldn’t, so after asking her to prove it and seeing that I was right, we stayed in the shallow end of the pool.  The husband and I would take turns swimming out to deeper water with Olivia since she’s a strong swimmer.  Not to mention, there’s no way in the world I’m posting a photo of me in a bathing suit on the internet.

After thoroughly wearing everyone out in the pool, we went home for a barbeque.   Ty`Nique helped me pick fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden for the burgers.  I had to laugh when she said the garden was dirty and itchy.  Yep, that’s a garden…dirty.

And seriously, what’s a barbeque without s’mores?  For good s’mores, you need goofy children.

My heart broke tonight as homesickness finally hit and Ty`Nique began to miss her Mom.  Thankfully it was short lived and she’s once again a happy girl.

Fresh Air–Day 2

Our second day with Ty`Nique was very busy, and lots of fun.   My husband’s company picnic was held early in the afternoon with lots of fun activities for the kids.  Olivia and Lindsey would have camped out by the animal adoption station all day.  We made many trips back to the animals during the day.

Everyone tried golfing (for a gift card)….we are a sad group of golfers.  Although Olivia did get a hole in one.

Jousting was another fun activity that all three girls enjoyed.  Lindsey jousted with a smaller girl, and Olivia and Ty`Nique competed against each other.  Olivia and Ty`Nique went back three or four times to joust, once was enough for Lindsey.  Lindsey is on the right, with the red head gear.

Beautiful butterflies on our beautiful girls.

More jousting….

This is a major victory for us…after a good 30 minutes of working up to it, Ty`Nique finally held one of the kittens at the animal adoption center.  She still doesn’t look too sure about it.

These girls had snow cones, ice cream and cotton candy (after a healthy grilled burger/dog luncheon).  It’s a wonder they weren’t bouncing off the walls.  There may have been a slight sugar buzz, grins.

We also hit the park for a little fun on the way home.  You may recognize the train from the movie “Evan Almighty”, which was filmed in our city.

We wrapped our day up with a little playing outside, a little bit of Twister and doing our nails with Jamberry products (review to come soon).

We let the girls make homemade pizzas for dinner, and they did a yummy job!

Day 2 was a complete success, and we’re all worn out!