Sam's Home!

Yeah, we picked up Sam from camp today. His first words after Hello were "Next year I want to go ALL summer!" He loved it. (I did sign him up for first session again, I'll have to think about a full summer - that's a long time for Mama!)

As we were sorting through his laundry, he said "I have a few ideas for school." I asked for details:

"Well, I think we should do more religious stuff. Like we should do the whole Birkat (grace after meals) all the time, like at camp. And when we study Torah and Hebrew, it should be fun, like at camp. Not just reading and studying, but having fun learning it. Playing games. And we should pray more. At school, we're always learning the prayers. At camp, services were really fun, and it wasn't even like we were praying."

SOOO funny, since before camp, he was bemoaning the fact that Ramah is a more religiously observant camp than some of the others, and he'd have to pray every day ("but we do that all year in school!").

He looks so adorable. I'm so glad to have him home! And Micah and Sofia were happy to see him. The two boys played mostly really nicely all afternoon and evening.

Rest of the week was a blur. Wednesday evening was Micah's bunk night at camp. Just when I thought I couldn't hate bunk night more - RAIN. UGH. Had to follow Sofia around with pizza and cooler in the rain. UGH UGH UGH.

Micah was somewhat helpful:


Fortunately it cleared up enough for a game of Newcom between kids and parents - Micah helped Sofia throw the ball:


Sofia LOVED watching the game - she kept cheering!


Thursday while Sofia was in school, I had the most wonderful massage at the local day spa. I'd signed up for 90 minutes, but she worked well over 2 hours - I just barely made it out in time to pick up Sofia. Major muscle tension.

Got home, started making lunch, and got a call from Micah's camp nurse - he was having some sort of allergy issue with his skin, itching all over. So I had to go down and get him. When we got home, Sofia watched a movie while Micah and I slept. Thursday night I went to dinner with some friends. Ah. But my sinuses are still so bad, so I wasn't very comfortable.

Friday I had to wait around for the plumber, and I felt yuchy anyway, so still no gym. Oh well. Then drove back to Ikea WITH Sofia (what was I thinking?!) and bought my new table!!! Yeah. I built it today in between loads of laundry:


It's only an inch wider than the old table, and at its smallest length it's only 3 inches longer. But it extends all the way to 102", with two inserts. Yeah! And it's flat, which my old table no longer was. :)

I picked up David at the airport bus at 5om, and then dropped the kids home for the sitter. Lovely grown-up pool party at J's house Friday night. Much much fun.

Saturday I had to read Torah, so off to shul. Sofia was a terror, and my head was killing me. And David was jet-lagged. So when we got home, grownups slept until 4pm. Whew. Then out for some errands and dinner.

And then off to Ramah today. There was a little presentation of singing and dancing by the kids, which Sofia loved.






Micah was happy to meet up with Itai, one of the Israeli Emissaries who had been at his school this year:

(When he wasn't with Itai, he was following Benzi around, our friend from shul who was on the tech crew).

Sam and Max actually got up to dance, but of course they buried themselves into the back of the group:


And then we came home:


We did laundry all afternoon, it's still going...

Tomorrow, Sam starts summer school. Aside from not wanting to get up early, he's actually happy about it. He always has fun at summer school. Sofia has a dentist appointment and later a swim lesson, and Micah has camp again.

And David is home! (Well, at least for another day. He has to go to NH for Wednesday and Thursday).