SAD DAY

I hate this day. Gracie is gone and the house seems so empty. I drove her back to Portland (the halfway point) yesterday morning so Genna could pick her up. They still have another at the Gent's in Haslett, then they go back to VA and Gracie STARTS SCHOOL! Boy, do I mourn the passing of time.

It was a great 5 days, even if we didn't get to do "horse camp" this year. I wonder what the next year will bring . . . .

CAMP NANA - Day three - Wednesday

Cold and rainy today. We are going to have to see what the day holds. We started out the morning by Gracie waking up at 6:3o! Way to early for my taste, so I wrapped her up in bed with me, turned on Nickelodeon, and got two more hours of dozing. Nice! Now she is downstairs coloring her houses while her cookies bake (no mixing, just package opening).

CAMP NANA - Day two - Tuesday

Day Two of Camp Nana starts out beautifully, if a little late (Gracie is hard to get moving). We finally get to Meijer Gardens around noon for PB and J picnic lunch in the gazebo in front, before heading inside to the Lena Meijer Children's Garden.

Gracie splashes in the Great Lakes Garden pool, then we head down to the Story Garden for a reading of Eric Carle's "the Very Busy Spider" and a community construction of a web.

After a tram ride through the sculpture park, we stop at DaVinci's Horse, for some horsing around.

After Meijer Gardens we head across the street to another beautiful garden, this time in Kathy McD's back yard.

We have a lovely dinner of hotdogs on the grill (Gracie checks that off her list of things to do, then we end with (what else?!) S'MORES!

NOTHING BETTER THAN OOEY GOOEY S'MORES!

After our picnic in Kathy's yard we are off to see a movie - "Ponyo". Gracie likes it, but I don't. Maybe "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" will be more to my taste! Maybe tomorrow we will see "G-Force".

YEAH!! IT'S CAMP NANA 2009!!!!

WOW!! IT'S CAMP NANA TIME AGAIN! While Mom, Dad and Charlie are in Lansing, Gracie has Nana all to her self!

On sunday night, after everyone leaves, Gracie gets out the new Cat-opoly game that Nana brought home from Beaver Island. She loves playing it so much that she is VERY late getting to bed (9:30), and starts right in playing on Monday morning. By 10 she has beaten me fair and square, has all of my property and all of my money!!

After we finish the game she chooses, as her second adventure, a LONG session of crafts - making badges to wear and coloring the "flatty houses" for the train set.

After peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at home, it is off to the Nature Trail and the Rockford Dam, two of her favorite places.

After the long (1/2 mile) walk to the end of the nature trail boardwalk, there is the mandatory stop for ICE CREAM!!

After the VERY MESSY Superman Icecream with sprinkles, Gracie washes off at the canoe ramp. After dinner of fish sticks, T.V. and more coloring, it is off to bed for a book and listening to some soft bed time music with birds, loons, wolves and whales. A very good first day!!

Camp Nana Thursday - probably the BEST DAY OF ALL (for me) . . . .

. . . . since it was HORSE DAY!!! We got a REAL horse riding lesson from Emily at the Equestrian Center in Rockford.  It was one of the coolest days of MY life, I don't know about Gracie's . . . . .

Thursday Morning - 6:15 and she is still asleep, but not for long . . . .

Wednesday was SUCH  big day, and she was really VERY good.  We had a long discussion about how she did not want to miss out on anything today because of making wrong choices and she was very conscious of the conversation all day.  Made it much easier on both of us.

We started the day with cookie baking (to take to the zoo), then arts and crafts (the Fairy House and paper fairies), then mail call (the very exciting arrival of the REAL Fairies!), then lunch and off to the zoo, a ride in the ever popular Swan Boats, then seeing the lions, a dinner picnic at the Dam, then ICE CREAM!  After all that it was back to home so she could check on the Fairies and put them to bed, then listen to her TinkerBell CD until she fell asleep.  She was out like a light by 9.  Whew.  No wonder I was tired last night.  She's 4.  I'm 63.  That computes to 15 times more energy than I have. 

"All" we have today is Mini Horse Camp for an hour, then maybe another stab at Meijer Garden on our way out to Portland to meet up with Daddy Chad.  Tonight I will collapse in bed.  I'll be tired, but that little girl sure has made me HAPPY!!!!!!

Wednesday - HUGE HUGE day!

I am too exhaused to write tonight.  In fact, I may be dead by morning.  I have a knot on my knee, my legs are nearly paralyzed and I can't keep my eyes open.  And tomorrow is another day . . . .  On the bright side, the Disney Fairies are the biggest hit I have come up with.  Better than Pretty Ponies!