Love Week

While Kevin and I painted other kid's faces, Camden got to play at the carnival and get her face painted.  She chose a shark.

Side note: The thing I heard most throughout the two nights was, "That is so cool that Kevin is doing this."  He was a big hit - and did some great faces!

Face Painting Class

This week was Love Week at our church.  Large groups of us were heading out to do community service projects throughout our town every night.  Kevin and I signed up to do face painting at two carnivals in low-income neighborhoods.  This is always a huge hit and the coordinators were able to buy professional paints for the activity.

In order to be best prepared, we had a class on Sunday to learn how to use them and practice.  Kevin tried out his technique on Camden.  She wanted a kitten.

He did a really good job for his first attempt ever!

She thought she actually WAS a kitten and when I asked to take her picture, she proceeded to BE a kitten.

A Day at the Office

Camden went to work with me for two days.  My boss was on vacation and she has an extra work space in her office for students.  This was a perfect set-up for Camden.  She was able to work/play on a great computer - with 2 screens!

She was really fantastic all day!  We did have to clean up the space from lunch and snack crumbs, but nothing too bad.  She loved the days too!

Another Visit

Tooth #2 came out while eating popcorn at GaGa's.

Gymnastics Camp

The other lessons we have done this summer was gymnastics.  It took the form of a "camp" with a week of lessons every night.  The final night she got a t-shirt and everyone got to show off their skills to the parents.

I love how cute the tshirt tied in the back over her leotard looks.

After warm-ups, they did headstands and handstands.  Both of which she could do fairly well, but very briefly!

Despite what it looks like in the picture, she has a cartwheel almost down.  SUCH a big improvement over a year ago.  I'm beginning to think the improvement in both swimming and gymnastics is just growing up!

The beam was also much improved.  She did small jumps and an awesome tuck dismount.

Finishing a flip on the high bar.

Swim Lessons

Camden is doing two rounds of swim lessons this summer.  Basically every Tuesday and Thursday morning in July she is at Crawfordsville Aquatic Center for lessons.  This first round only had one other student in it, so it was very close to personal lessons.

It's amazing how one year can make a difference, as well as two-on-one instruction.  She just has more control of her body, listens well, and gets more instruction.

She has really improved in her floating and kicking skills.

She has always done well in the water and has a mean doggie paddle which serves her well.  But the best part of these lessons is she is finally learning to do an actual freestyle stroke.  That's her arm coming out of the water and propelling her forward.  She is doing remarkable well!  I really hope the next session is a small class as well so she can continue in her tremendous progress.

VBS Closing Program

On Sunday of the week Camden went to VBS, the church invited the families for the closing program and a carry-in lunch.  For the VBS portion of the service, the kids sang about 4 of their songs and the mission organization SoleHope shared about the project the kids did.

Afterward, we went out to the shelter had had a yummy church lunch.  Pitch-ins are the best!  The kids got to ride around the church grounds on a tractor wagon and they also got to throw whipped cream pies at the youth minister for each of the Bible verses they learned. 

His wife wiped his face off every 8 or so pies, but there were probably 25 or 30 kids who splatted him 4 times each.  He sure took one for the team!

Fair Oaks Farm - Pig Adventure

A new attraction since we have been to Fair Oaks is the Pig Adventure. 

Like the cow tour, we got on a bus and went to a pig farm down the road.  Everything is biosecure here, too, so we could look at the pigs through windows.  There were three sections of pigs at various stages of breeding.

Camden's favorite activity was "taking" an ultrasound on a pig statue.  Depending on how fast you moved over one section you "found" various piglets (or at least I think that's how it was determined).  Camden found 8 on her first try and 8 on her second.

Camden found 17 on her last attempt.  The kids also got to print out a picture of their ultrasound to take home. 

The final section of the barn we went to was the newborns.  One of the farmers brought out the newest piglet to show and to answer questions from the "audience".  This pig was 3 hours old.

 

It sat nicely in the farmer's arms until the end when it truly squealed and squealed.  Camden thought it was hysterical.

In the building we left from and returned to there was a really cool indoor ropes course.  We planned to do it when we returned but the bus made an additional stop back at the main entrance and we decided to get off there.  There was a high course (for adults and children) and a low one (for little kids).  Camden thought it looked really fun, but I think the big one may have turned out to be a little too challenging for her and the small one too easy.  We opted to play on the outdoor stuff a bit instead.

I do have to say, the inside of the Pig Adventure building was well decorated and had some great signs.  My favorite...

Fair Oaks Farm - Outdoor Adventure

There are great adventures outside of the buildings as well.  She did some wall climbing.  She went two times and got about 2 slots from the top and wouldn't go any further to ring the bell.

She liked repelling down.

She loved this little train, too.  It's such a small kiddo ride, but she wanted to ride it twice as well!

She loved the trampoline bungee.  It didn't have much bounce to it, but she was able to learn how to do a flip on it.

My favorite picture of the day...

There were several more activities, but the last I got a picture of was the pillow bounce.

Cow Adventure, Continued

When we returned to the main buildings, we watched a 4-D movie.  Camden squealed when air blew on her or the chairs vibrated.  Made me excited for Disney in the fall when there will be many of these types of shows and done 200% better.

Then we walked through the indoor exhibit and played on a few things before heading to other buildings.

Kevin had to do all the hard work to get this merry-go-round to work!

We stopped in the birthing barn.  One calf had been born very recently and we got to watch mamma get him all cleaned up and the calf struggle to stand up for the first time.

In the other stall, another mamma was in the middle of labor.  We waited a while, but finally out came the new calf.  The worker came in shortly there after and pulled it away from the mom and checked out if it was a boy or a girl.  We actually moved on and never did find out!