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!

+Camp Nana - Tuesday

We ran some errands in Rockford, made an olbligatory stop at Aunt Candy's Toy Store, she had lunch, then we packed snacks and headed down to Gr to the Children's Museum. Paid the parking, paid the admission tickets, THEN they went to stamp her hand. Micro melt down that escalated into a heavy duty meltdown of epic proportions. Full blown scream fest. She tried to hide in little places to get "alone time", of course those places were also places that many of the hundreds of little kids wanted to play, too. MASSIVE ANGRY MELTDOWN (the kids were "bothering" her -- more like looking at her as if she had six heads). In the end, after about 20 minutes of angriness, tantrum and stamping I gave up and took her back out, to the car and back to Rockford. Moral of the story here - she does fine one on one, but in a crowd of kids she doesn't know like that, look out baby. Especially if she has a hand stamp or wrist bracelet she wasn't expecting. Honestly, once she got started and the embarrassment set it, she just couldn't stop herself. Wow. We ended up sharing a shrimp taco and lemonade (she had eaten lunch, I hadn't) at 2:00 on Plainfield, then the playground at Belmont school, then the Library til 5. She is tired, even said she is ready for a bath and bed (she wants to listen to her new book).  I am mentally exhausted.

Monday, July 07, CAMP NANA - day ONE

The long anticipated day dawned full of promise and sunshine.  Chad met me with Gracie in Portland (1/2 way) about 10 A.M.  We made the switch then headed back to G.R.  I have discovered Disney Fairies and turned Gracie on to them, so our first stop was at Michael's to buy supplies to convert Genna's old tree stump Mouse House to a Fairie house.  Many MANY bucks later we were on our way up the road again.  The next stop was to Meijer Gardens where we were SUPPOSED to have a wonderful day in the flowers and meadows.  However, the thunder rolled in, the skies opened up and our day was (literally) washed out.  It did stop raining for a bit in the afternoon, however, and we made a stop at the Dam in Rockford (one of Gracie's very favorite places).  I dragged along after her as she ran ALL the way to the end of the new boardwalk trail.  That was fun but then we had to come all the way back!!!  Even though the day was yucky in the middle, it ended well.  Gracie got tucked into bed with a new storybook CD about Tinkerbell and her friends, and she slipped off to sleep with Fairies dancing in her head.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today, so we are going off to the Children's Museum and the Library, both indoors and DRY.

Gracie Mae is coming to Camp (Camp Nana)

The other day I got a phone call from Genna.  She said Gracie had something to tell me.  "Nana!" she said.  "I am coming to your house - to Camp Nana!  And we are going to do all sorts of fun things!" 

She was so excited she could barely speak.  I didn't know any of this, but she did, so apparently there were "other forces" at work. 

When I recounted this to my friends one of them chirped up "Why you should have t-shirts made!"  I though that was a GRAND idea, so I hied me down to Pegasus Sports and did just that!  I pick them up from the printer tonight and the "campers" are scheduled to come tomorrow (or not - Genna changes her mind A LOT).