Camp Young Lives 2012 - week 1

Two weeks every summer we host our summer-camp-at-home: Camp Young Lives.  This is a time to be intentional: to have fun and to learn more about God's Word and God's world. 

For our 5th annual camp, we return to SPACE!
(Focusing on the amazing vastness of our universe and incomparable gift of God's Word.)   

All scripture is given by inspiration of God.  2 Timothy 3:!6 

As the kids get older, it's been fun to have them taking on a more active roll in the creative direction of camp.  This year, the kids have had lots of great "space game" ideas, assisted in leading lessons, and helped to transform our sunroom into "Space Camp": decorating the windows and cabinets with large decals, hanging a solar system, creating hanging space ships, and building a space pod (followed by hours of imaginative space travel and tough battles). 

This first week:
We sang songs, dressed like astronauts, and learned there is no sound in outer space.  We counted stars, learned about light years, had puppet shows, and colored the solar system.  We copied texts like scribes and studied historical distribution of God's Word.  We crafted robots (gluing together and spray painting recyclables), space globes (balloons over electric tea lights), and flying comets (foil-covered wiffle balls with trailing ribbons); ate pudding-in-a-bag astronaut-style (with a straw); and enjoyed chocolate-covered banana rockets. 

It's been a great week!

Hair Time

Hiwot is very proud of her hair.  I want her to be proud of her hair!
Taking care of her hair has been a HUGE learning experience for me, but one that has given us wonderful bonding opportunities.   
I am a novice but determined - I want to learn how to take care of my daughters hair, and I want to be able to teach her how to properly care for her hair.  I am figuring out which products and styles work best for her hair (and require minimal maintenance).  Thankfully Hiwot is patient with me and seems to really enjoy our "hair-time" together.
I know I've had fun!

Our most recent hairstyle adventure: flat rope twists AND yarn extensions - my first attempts at both.
The yarn extensions add length to the hair, add volume to twists, and are a protective style: preventing the hair from drying, tangling, and breaking. 

We completed this style over a three-day period - mostly because our time is limited, but also because it's easier on Hiwot when we work in shorter sessions.  I set Hiwot up in a chair and she watches a movie while I work (taking many breaks to check herself out in the mirror!).


Day 1: bathed, conditioned, detangled, sectioned and "flat-rope twisted" with yarn.  After I finished the front section, I wrapped the yarn twists around two puffs.   

Day 2:  I sectioned and twisted the back with yarn extensions and knotted the ends.  The twists were secured in a ponytail so she could swim.
Her reaction to the twists was priceless - she was absolutely thrilled with the length of her hair!  

Day 3: I added beads and trimmed twists to same length.  (the back twists are her natural hair length). 

So far the style is holding up great, even with swimming and bathing! It's my new favorite : ) 
This seems to be a perfect summer do.  With proper maintenance, I'm hoping this style will last 4 weeks +. 

I am so pleased to see my daughter happy and proud of her hair . . . and she looks beautiful!

Exercising

I think she likes it : )

Swimming

The kids are THRILLED!

We have been gifted a SWIMMING POOL!

With our hot summers, it helps to have a convenient place to keep cool.  We were due to replace our plastic pool - with 7 kids eager to splash, there was no longer room for water!  Major Upgrade:  our generous neighbors gave us their old above-ground pool!

We are now having fun swimming in our HUGE 15ft x 3.3 ft pool!  It's been great - the kids are learning to swim and float, and are mastering handstands and somersaults.

Hopefully the fun will last.  We had to place the pool on our deck (eek!) - as it is the only flat spot on our property, and we have already had to repair one puncture received by a curious boy.  But, so far so good ...

Our water babies are having a ball!  (We're enjoying it too!)

Old Purdue

 

Returning home from Wisconsin wish just two kids in tow, we were able to enjoy a more leisurely route and enable Kolpin plenty of rest time.  It was nice to visit with friends in Madison, and to share a meal with family in Indianapolis . . . and it was a big treat to visit our alma mater: Purdue University.     

Enjoying a picnic lunch at the Engineering Mall, we marveled at how young the backpack clad students looked.  Then we remembered, as students, watching the obvious alumni returning to campus, pushing strollers and toting cameras - and realized that they had looked so old and to us back then.  

It's been 9 years since our graduation . . .  now WE are those "old" alumni, pushing around two strollers and taking pictures of our beloved  Old Gold and Black (and we didn't even have our whole crew - just imagine what those youngsters would have thought watching us tote around 8 kids - ha!).  

It had been six years since we've seen old Purdue.  It was good to be home. 

(and pretty fun to return as "old" alumni with kids!).  

Boiler Up!

During our brief campus visit, we revisited a favorite late-night-study-snack. . . 

It was just as good as we remembered : )

Hail, Hail to Old Purdue!

All Hail to our Old God and Black!

Hail, Hail to Old Purdue!

Our Friendship may she never lack.

Ever grateful, ever true,

Thus we raise our song anew;

Of the days we've spent with you,

All Hail our Own Purdue!

How We Roll

We are fortunate to have very good travelers.  But over the years, we have learned a few tricks that can help to set them up for success and make the trip more enjoyable for everyone . . .

• Regular restroom/ runaround stops.  We plan to stop once every 3 hours (or as needed).  The timing seems to work well for bathroom breaks, nursing a baby, and meals.  We have had fun finding random parks (green space) along our route with the Google Map API.  We park the van, put together a picnic lunch, grap our gloves and ball, and send the kids out to play, run, and explore.  It works well for us.  
• Books and games.  Eventually they all spill out and make the van a mess, but travel games and books sure do make the ride more fun.  We've had fun with lace-n-trace shapes, Magna-doodles, Etch-a-sketch, Dollar Store coloring books and plenty of reading  and picture books.  It helps to have plenty to go around (and nothing that makes noise!).  We do limit personal items in the car.
• Rotating seats.  It always helps to mix things up.  In our ride, the coveted seat is next to baby Maclaren : )
• Movies.  Yep, we LOVE having a small portable DVD player hooked up in the van (ours is strapped to a metal paint tray that's been shoved into the van's ceiling panel).  We don't want to rely too heavily on movie entertainment while on the road, so we do limit movies - no more than 1 between stops, and it sure does help make long hours in the van pass a bit quicker. 
• Audiobooks.  It's wonderful to turn on a book and enjoy the van going quiet as kids become enthralled in a good story.  Our favorites: the Jim Weiss collection, Chronicals of Narnia, Roald Dahl stories, and The Hobbit.  
• Snacks.  Well-spaced snacks can be a huge help!

One of our pit stops en route to northern Wisconsin:  a nature preserve north of Chicago.  

We hiked to a Lake Michigan overlook (the closest we got to the Great Lakes on our trip). 

Halfway

We are transplants.  While we have been living in the South for the past 7 years, we are originally Northerners.  After growing up in Ohio, getting married and finishing up schooling in Indiana, we lived for a time in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. 
Our time in the Twin Cities was short, but full of special memories.  Minnesota was home to our first jobs, our first dog, our first house, our first church family, and the welcoming of our first baby.  Minnesota is home to friends who walked alongside us during these impactful years of our early marriage.  We are so thankful for our time living in the great north, and for the friends who were like family, sharing life with us and helping to make our time truly special. 


During our vacation to Wisconsin, we weren't able to fit in a drive to Minnesota, but we were thrilled to have dear friends from the Twin Cities meet us halfway. 

We met together at Irvine Park in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin - 4 adults and 12 kids: two 8-year-olds, a 7-year-old, two 6-year-olds, two 5-year-olds, two 4-year-olds, two 2-year-olds, and a baby.  Irvine Park was perfect for our crew.  Hiking trails, water splash park, zoo and barn animals, cave, creek, swimming hole, and more.  We picnicked, played, and explored; finishing our day with pizza. 

It was a great time.  The kids are still talking about their "best friends from Minnesota" (and really want to come visit in the Winter to experience some snow!). 
 Thanks for giving us your day!  (and for dropping everything to be with us at the hospital the next day too!). 
We are thankful for great friends. 

 

Our crew of a dozen kids were quite the sight out for pizza. 

 

Wisconsin

Three weeks ago, we set out on our grand Wisconsin Vacation!  A two-thousand mile road trip, time with family and friends, and time to explore the Great Lakes and northern wilderness. 

Our Wisconsin vacation turned out a bit more exciting than we had planned.  We never made it to Apostle Islands or Door County, and the kids didn't get a chance to swim in two of the Great Lakes.  Despite our unfortunate change of plans, we thoroughly enjoyed Wisconsin and had a wonderful time - our family really helped to make this vacation special!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with relatives (Aunt and Uncles, cousins and second cousins, and Great Grandma) swimming, boating, and fishing on the Wisconsin River . . . complete with brats and cheese curds.
   

Our incredibly youthful 93-year-old Grandma is very proud of her 26 "grands" and "greats". 
It was wonderful to have 14 together during the week. 

Great Grandma Young with some of her "greats"

We were glad to return to Rhinelander with Kolpin post PICU for a farewell to family and another boat ride on the Wisconsin River.  Thank you Aunt Chris and Uncle Bob for your amazing hospitality and our wonderful vacation! (The boys are all ready to build houses in Wisconsin!)

The kids were excited to spot the famed Hodag while in Rhinelander!

"Discovered" in 1893 by prankster Eugene Shepherd, the hodag was described to have "the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end."  It was "captured" in 1896 and displayed to thousands of paying viewers until the impending arrival of a group of Smithsonian scientists forced Shepherd to admit to the hoax.