End of Summer

The girls went to camp for 5 days --- Hailee has been there before but it was a first for Gabi. She said she went to camp in Bulgaria with Vikki and loved it. And she was pretty excited until we actually got there ....

Hailee was assigned to the Frontier group -- they were painting murals in several spots at camp. We dropped her off first ....
The place that Hailee stayed in was a wood roof with canvas walls. You can see in the picture below that there's a gap between the roof and the wall .... hence the netting that covers each bunk -- they have to keep the mosquitos out somehow .....
Gabi's group were the Trail Blazers -- her "home for the week" is behind her. A little more modern than Hailee's but not by much ..... at this point Gabi asked to go back home with us. We talked with her for a while about how excited she was to do this and how much fun the group was going to have. She was in "Go Glam" -- nail painting, facials, massages, swimming, makeup lessons, hair makeovers .... everything she LOVES!
Eventually we made our way into her cabin and made up her bed with the sleeping bag and pillow. Neither Jack nor I realized that Gabi had no idea what a sleeping bag was until she asked us where the sheets for the bed were. We had to give her a demonstration on how to open and get into a sleeping bag ....
Behind the smile you see above were tears -- it was a long, long hug that she gave as we said our goodbyes. BUT .... this is what awaited us when we picked her up 5 days later. An excited, smiling, singing, group hugging little lady .....
Hailee proudly showed off the mural her group had painted. She's standing by the tracing of her.
Here's most of the mural -- turned out amazing.

And Hailee worked on the cutout below -- don't the outlines and trees look wonderful?

Lisa invited us to be her guests at the annual work party -- it was held at the Racine Zoo. This zoo is a lot of fun -- you are able to get close to the animals. Here's the group watching the tiger play in his pool.

Can you guess what made Gabi stop eating?

A peacock was heading our way and she was not happy about it ..... shortly after this picture she picked up her plate and came to sit between Jack and I. She wanted nothing to do with that hungry guy. Too funny!!!

The giraffes were more to Gabi's liking .... well, except for the smell that is. We didn't stay too long.

Any takers????

Of course there were some kodak moments along the way ....

One of the great things about the Racine zoo is this nature path .... the kangaroos were out and the kids had so much fun watching them jump from place to place.

That brings us to the end of summer break -- today was the first day of school. The girls were up early and dressed well before it was time to go. Both were nervous but managed to smile pretty for the annual 1st day pictures on the porch.

One last thought -- one year ago Hailee & I were packing up and getting ready to pick Gabi up in Bulgaria ...... where did the time go?????