Happy July 4th!

Hello, and welcome to another edition of wheretheburkat.  You may be wondering where the name of the blog came from.  Funny story.  I have my ninth graders do an extra credit project at the end of each year.  The assignment is simply - Impress me.  They have to show me that they have learned something throughout the year, but the format in which they present the learned information is up to them.  A few years ago, a few goofy boys did a music video.  Neither the music or the lyrics were great (though I recall the dancing was fantastic!), but the title was, "Where the Burk At?"  I took that as an ironic nod to my excellent grammar teaching of NEASWAP (Never End A Sentence With A Preposition).  Yes, I realize my second sentence of this blog ends with a Preposition, but I think my wonderfully crafted 6th sentence makes up for it.

Back to camp.  We are in the midst of the second week, and we are definitely getting into a groove.  Here is our daily schedule:

6:45-7:15 - Maizy wakes up.  Marc gets her and lets me sleep for a precious few extra minutes.
7:30 - Everyone up, gets dressed, pack our stroller bag.
8:00 - We go to the flagpole for raising of the flag, some dancing, the sports report, the Modeh Ani (the waking prayer), and general announcements.  Maizy will inevitably start screaming at some point, so I bring her in to the Chadar Ohel (Dining Hall).
8:15 - Breakfast.  Maizy will now sit in her high chair one out of every seventeen meals.  The others she will stay in her stroller as long as I'm feeding her.  She has a strawberry or blueberry yogurt.  When there are eggs (she's allergic), she will eat a very nutritious cereal choice, such as fruit loops or cocoa puffs.  Today, though, there was french toast, and she was a happy camper.
9:00 - We've been making it until the end of breakfast in the dining hall lately, and after the meal and the prayer, we begin our rounds with Marc.  Marc goes around and supervises his sports staff, and we go with him, stopping to play and be general nuisances as each one.  We usually start at the soccer field.  Soccer and conditioning are occurring, and while Marc supervises, Maizy and I find some cones or balls to play with.  Maizy actually lifts an 8 pound kettle bell, but I think she's just showing off because she knows that kettle bells are my least favorite gym activity.  We then walk over to hockey, tennis, and basketball.  We usually pick a few flowers along the way.  Then we get to Maizy's favorite, the leadership center, in which there is gymnastics and martial arts.  Maizy sees the mats, and she yells "Out!"  When I unstrap her, she runs over to the mats and does somersaults to her heart's delight.  Sometimes we go check out golf, volleyball, and archery, but usually we hang out with the mats for a while.  We hang around until 10:30 or so, and then Maizy and I walk back to our room to rest for a while and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  If Marc doesn't have time off in the afternoon, then Maizy and I might go to the pool before lunch.
12:00 - Lunch.  Maizy has been asking for a nap at this time, so we've been skipping lunch, but today, we stretched her nap until 1:00, which was much better because she slept longer and wasn't so cranky at night.  Lunch was very fun today.  After eating, the music director took the stage with his guitar and did a medley of American hits.  The kids were doing conga lines and going crazy.  Lots of merriment.
1:00-sometime - nap.  It's sometimes an hour, sometimes three, so I never know what will happen.
4:00 - When Marc is able, we will all go to the pool.  Usually this is when the pool is closed, and the aquatics director gets to relax in the water, but he's fond of Maizy, so he lets us sneak in and play.  A lot of days, though, when it's been super hot, the whole camp is at the pool at this time, and that's a bit scary for Maizy.  We knew it would happen, but she definitely has many fan clubs, and sometimes when twelve girls surround her all at once, she freaks out a bit.  She loves the pool, though, although I have a hard time keeping up with her because she runs in and out, over and over, and she's wearing water shoes, so she doesn't know that my feet are getting very burnt soles!  She is still a daredevil.  She stood in line to go on the diving board the other day.  She doesn't understand that she can't swim yet, so she'll walk in and try to keep going even when her head is covered.  And she'll get upset when I move her shallower!  I'm happy she's not afraid of the water, but I'm not sure if I will be able to teach her to swim by the end of the summer.  She doesn't yet have the attention span or patience to stick with something for 10 minutes.
5:30 - Maizy and I get an early dinner and eat in the room.  The camp dinner is at 6:30, and Maizy is usually too sleepy by then, so it's been easier to eat at our home-time.
6:30 - Play, bath, milk.
7:30 - Maizy goes to bed.
7:30 - Marc comes home from dinner and can stay home for the most part.  Sometimes he has his guard duty from 9 pm to 1am, but he has someone to keep him company.

Here are the videos of the day:

She's an odd duck, this one.  

xoxo, Marcy