Terre Haute Favorites

It had also been forever since we spent a Saturday in Terre Haute.  We stopped for lunch at our favorite, FiFi's Lunchbox for a Porchetta Cheesesteak and a Mighty FiFi burger.

Camden sampled the HBC Balls (hashbrown casserole balls) and a unicorn explosion milkshake.

We spent the afternoon at the renovated Children's Museum.  This has been one of our favorite places for years, but their improvements are fantastic!

The biggest addition was a ropes course.  This one was more sturdy/less shaky than other's Camden has done, so she took to it quickly and did more obstacles than usual.

For some reason she doesn't hesitate on ziplines.

She was doing so well until the "snap" on this obstacle...and she was done with the ropes course for the day!

Salty Cowboy & Unicorns

Date night with Kevin (about a month ago) took us to Zionsville where we met Aunt Carole & Uncle Ric at the Salty Cowboy.  They make tableside guacamole which is about the best you will find anywhere!

After dinner we stopped by a little quaint cafe where they had Flying Cupcake desserts.  The unicorn cupcake was too much to pass up for baby girl.

Swimming

Randomly catching up before recapping spring break.  Camden is mid-way through swim lessons at Wabash.  She has her coach from 2 sessions ago (Joey).  He was on study abroad in the fall or we would have had him again.  She works hard for him and he is so great with her.

Lots of high fives & cheers.

He asked me after the first day what I wanted them to work on.  I said I was really wanting to see her do some competitive swimming, but was she ready?  He emphatically said, "Yes."  Then added that her freestyle & backstroke were "crazy fast" for her age.  I wondered about endurance and he said she was good on that...she swims a strong 50m which is impressive for her age.  He offered to move to breaststroke & butterfly, but we decided to continue to work on technique, flip turns, and diving in the pool.

Love all the teaching in this clip...even the instructors in the background.  She was starting from "cold" at the flags to practice her flip.

Teaching her to count from the flags to the wall.

Perfecting technique and counting to the wall.

Invention Convention & STEAM Night

Camden decided to participate in the annual invention convention at her school.  The students (working alone or in pairs) come up with a new idea or an adaptation of an existing idea. 

Camden went with adapting lice removal kits to include a dye that would help identify nits so all could be removed and decrease the chance of recurrence.  I had told her about the red tablets we had a school when I was younger that colored your teeth where plaque still was after brushing.  She thought that could be adapted to work with lice.  She prepared a poster of her idea along with her rationale.  Some kids were able to do a mock-up of their ideas, but since hers required some advanced chemistry knowledge, her presentation was simply the idea.

After a pizza break, Kevin and Camden enjoyed some of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities that were set up around the gym.

Controlling a robot (small ball) on the iPad to create a work of art.

She didn't win any place in the invention competition, but it was a good process to go through...plus it was a really practical and potential invention.

Camp Pictures

Thankful that a teacher on the school trip took pictures and posted on Facebook.  Camden had so much fun (despite a headache) and has added Camp Tecumseh as a summer request.

They did big group times with skits and songs, but also lots of small group activities throughout the camp.

Meetings at the flag were key parts of the day.

Great memories created.

On one of their activities, Camden found a shed.  She was so excited to be allowed to bring it home!

Camp Tecumseh

Busy, busy, busy.  I have not had time to catch up on all of our adventures of late.  Next week should be filled with updates.  But, today, Camden heads off with the 5th grade class (and a few parents) to Camp Tecumseh for the big hoorah of completing elementary school.  Last year was the last 6th grade trip to Chicago with their move to the jr. high, so they reimplemented this trip as the final New Market field trip.

Waiting for the gang to leave.  She is excited!

She was the first one out to the buses.

It's supposed to be rainy, but 50s.  Should be a soggy, fun mess!  Sorry (not sorry) that I was not selected (names literally drawn from a hat) to go.