Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

On my second full day home from girl scout camp my mom and my grandma wanted to go somewhere that we could stay cool. So we decided to go and see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two. I loved it. My mom thought I would be scared, but I wasn't scared and I didn't cry at all. Before we went to the movie we stopped at home so that we could get my Harry Potter robe from when I was Hermoine for halloween two years ago. My favorite part of the movie was when Molly Weasley said "get away from my daughter you witch!" My grandma likes that part a lot too, because her favorite character in Harry Potter is Molly Weasley. I thought Hermione was really cool in the movie too. I also liked the part when Harry broke the elder wand in two pieces and threw it after he had defeated Voldmort. I also really liked it when Harry defeated Voldemort and you saw Voldemort die and break into a lot of pieces, even if it was just a special effect. After that I also really liked it during the 19 years later part when you saw Harry and Ginny with their children walking onto platform 9 3/4s and you saw Albus Severus Potter and Rose Weasley sitting in the same compartment on the Hogwarts Express. That's how I had lots of fun seeing the last Harry Potter movie!

Day Forty Two

Both Meghan and I slept in on this lazy Sunday morning.  Today was HOT, apparently July wasn't quite done with us.  It was decided among all of us (me, Meghan and my mom) that the perfect way to spend a HOT July afternoon would be by sitting in a cold movie theater.  So we loaded up and headed off to the new theater on Roosevelt Road and went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  All of us loved the movie, only two of us cried during any part of the movie.  I'm also quite impressed with the Icon Theater on Roosevelt.  Having spent the better part of the afternoon in the cool theater it was time to head home and get ready for the week ahead.

Today's Academics:

• Filmography 101: Harry Potter movie vs. book

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express, by Megan MacDonald
• The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Francis I, by R. J. Knecht

Today's Images:

Gotta love a fleece Harry Potter robe and flip flops on a HOT July day

 

My mom said I had to take a picture of Meghan in this dress

The Last Day of Passport to Fun

Today was the day for the last Passport to Fun activity. The country was Brazil. We made snakes for our hats with pipe cleaners and pony beads and also put on googly eyes and a sticky foam tongue. Today was also my first full day at home after girl scout camp. My mom hugged me A LOT and most of the time it felt like she was never going to let go. We also did LOTS of laundry to wash all the nasty stuff I brought home from camp. We had dinner with my grandma from Subway. In the afternoon mom taught me and my grandma how to make friendship bracelets. I finished the friendship bracelet that me and my grandma had started making earlier this year and my mom taught my grandma how to do the zig zag. That's all the fun things I did today.

Day Forty One

On the morning of Meghan's first full day home we headed to Michaels for Passport to Fun.  It was our last Passport to Fun activity of the summer and we both enjoyed it and made pipe cleaner snakes which was the hat swap from Brazil.  From there we headed to my moms for more crafting and I taught both of them how to make friendship bracelets.  It's my newest crafting skill and I'm much better at it now than I was 20+ years ago.  They both got the hang of it pretty quickly and we all had fun working on different bracelets and patterns.

Today's Academics:

• Who would let her go long enough to do anything academic?

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Francis I, by R.J. Knecht

Today's Images:

 

Day Forty

Let's skip to the very most important part...Meghan came home from Girl Scout Camp today!  My mom and I drove out to Ottawa to get her and waited in what my mother would refer to as almost unbearable heat at the end of the day as all the girls quietly walked out into the field by the flags.  They were all quite far away and as the girls came out my mom pointed to one and said "now that's what I expect Meg to look like, hair all down and kind of looking like she's been through the war."  I looked at the girl once more and said "I think that is Meghan."  So we waved and Meghan waved back.  Her hair was down and curly from not having all of the shampoo washed out, but she looked wonderful.  She was full of camp stories and camp songs and in general camp magic.  She even let me hug the stuffing out of her without complaining once.  After we'd gotten her all loaded up we headed to the town of Ottawa for a evening snack at McDonald's before the long drive home in the dark.  Without a doubt I asked her to tell me about every minute of her days while she was gone.

Today's academics:

• It was all about memory and retelling every detail of every day.

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Heidi, Johanna Spyri

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Francis I, R.J. Knecht

Today's Images:

Can you spot the girl with the long hair all down and big shirt untucked looking a little bedraggled?

Here is her whole group singing their song during the closing ceremony

I stopped hugging long enough to take a picture of her up close after her week at camp

Chowing down on Chicken McNuggets after a week of camp food

Girl Scout Camp

My mom and I decided it would be easier to do this all in one post, instead of one for each day. Even though she tried to make me remember every single thing I did in the order that they happened, I think that is too hard. After mom dropped me off on Sunday I went to my tabin and unpacked and then I got changed into my swim suit put my clothes on over them and went to the shower house. Then we took off our clothes, took a quick shower to make sure all the dirt and things were off of us and headed back outside to the pool. We then learned the rules of pool and started our swim tests. I jumped into five feet deep water and then one of my counselors, Birdie, had to swim over to help me. That was the end of my test and I had to become a white cap. The differences between the four cap colors is how deep the water is you can swim in and how good you are at swimming. White cap is the lowest, next is the red cap which can go in five feet deep, next is the green cap and the blue cap which can both go in the deep end which is ten feet of water. Then I went out and showered again to get the chlorine off. After that we went back to our site and sat under the shelter which is where I made my name tag earlier. Then they told all of the water snooper to go to the fire circle so that we could talk about what we wanted to do during the week. We decided to go night swimming and creek walking and lots of other fun things. That night for dinner we had macaroni and cheese. It was shells and I loved it. One of the great things about meals at Camp Pokanoka is that for breakfast if you don't want the real meal you can have cereal which is cheerios or rice krispies and at lunch and dinner if you don't want the real meal you can have PB&J. So I didn't starve. After every meal we went out on the hill by the swimming pool and sang lots of songs. I learned a lot of new songs and I haven't stopped singing them since I came home. After singing at dinner we always went to flag lowering and sang taps. To get to flags you had to walk through the silent tunnel, I even got to help make the silent tunnel once. After flags on Sunday we went back to our campsite and made s'mores. That night our tabin was really loud and I didn't sleep at all. Also our neighboring tabin, eagle, was really loud that night too. The next morning we went to flags and did the pledge of allegiance. Then we went to breakfast. Our morning activity was going to the Adventure Course. We only got through three activities before it was time for lunch. The first activity there that we did was that we had to pretend that the Illinois River had flooded and there was no other way to cross the river so we had to all get on to this little bench and stay there for ten seconds and we couldn't step off onto the wood chips. The second activity was where there were a bunch of tires hanging from strings and we had to get across them like we were in the forest hanging from vines. I was really scared so my first turn I didn't make and my second turn I didn't make so I was allowed to skip the activity. The third activity, everybody had to hold hands with the person in front of them and the person behind them and we had to walk all the way around on a wooden horseshoe, if somebody fell off and let go we had to wait for that person to go to the end and then that group had to catch up. If you didn't step off the end straight you had to go all the way to the end and start over again. That afternoon we had capers, the time when we clean up our campsite, my caper was litter. Then we had tabin time which is basically like shoes off after lunch and capers. Before tabin time our counselors would pass out the mail if you got any. After tabin time we always went swimming. That night after flags we had our night swim, it was only the water snoopers and we were allowed to swim however we wanted. After our night swim we went to fairy village. We took the wild turkey trail to a big sign that was fancy that had two big fairy statues next to it and said Fairy Village. We saw the Queen Fairy and lots of other fairies. On tuesday morning we made water snoopers with old cans of mandarin oranges and a rubber band and a plastic bag. Then we went creek walking. Creek walking is when you actually walk in a creek. We walked a long way and saw water striders and millipedes and lots of tree roots. We also walked down some small waterfalls and we saw a dead fox that was being eaten by maggots. Then it was time to turn around and go back for lunch. Then after lunch we went to our campsite and talked about the rules that we would need to follow for our hike to the Illinois River the next day. That night we had a cookout for dinner and we had whacko tacos. Whacko tacos are tacos without taco shells. Our dessert for dinner was puppy chow. Puppy chow is chex cereal, melted chocolate chips, peanut butter and powdered sugar. It was really yummy. The next morning we had breakfast at our site so that we could sleep in to get ready for our hike. Then we left for the Illinois River. It was a long hike. Then we played in the river and made moats. It was cool when the speeds boats came by because right after they passed there were big waves that filled up our moats. We also saw a gigantic ship on the Illinois River that passed so Mouse made us all get out of the water as the ship passed by because right after the ship passed she knew there would be humongous waves because after we saw this big spped boat pass the waves were pretty big but since that ship was even bigger the waves would be even bigger. Then it was time to go back for lunch. That night after flags we had camp wide activities. My first activity was going to the Woodland Theater and using objects to make a play with them. My next activity was going right over by the swimming pool and we all had to sit facing away from the counselors and the counselors put pieces of duck tape that said words on our back and we had to find our pair. I was parmesan cheese and partner was chedder cheese. My next activity was going to near the flag pole where one person covered their eyes with a bandana from each group of three and another person out of the group pushed the person around listening to the third person in the group telling them what direction to move. I was the person with the bandana over my eyes. My next activity was sitting at tables on Hickory House deck and drawing pictures of what we thought we should do to help our Earth. My last activity was going behind Hickory House and having a dance party. Then it was time to go back to our site for bed. On Thursday morning the Water Snoopers made yarn dolls while Artrageous, the other group living in Whippoorwill made origami hats. Then both groups made lanyards, mine got lost. The lanyard that I made was my first lanyard ever. That night after flags we had a dance party and then we walked to meadowlark for a campfire with the whole camp. All the counselors sangs lots of songs and did skits. One of my favorite skits was when Pineapple made a candy shop and she had another counselor go to "Counselors R Us" and get a counselor that fit Pineapple's description. Friday morning we ate breakfast in our campsite again. Before we could eat breakfast we had to pack up all of our stuff. For lunch we had a cookout and we cooked pizza over the fire. After lunch we cleaned our tabins. The first thing we did was we swept the tabin floor. The second thing we did was we made sure there was nothing in our tabin that was really big like clothes or stuff that no one claimed. The third thing we did was we were supposed to bleach our mattresses. Purple Martin started bleaching their mattresses but we ended up having finish bleaching after swimming. That night after dinner we practised for the closing ceremony, whippoorwill sang a song about the Chicago Fire. Then it was time for the closing ceremony and flags. We all walked out through the silent tunnel and our parents were in the audience watching. We were only allowed to wave at our parents not to scream and yell at them since we had just walked through the silent tunnel. After the flag each campsite sang their song, Whippoorwill went last. Then it was time for our parents to line up and pick us up. I was really excited to see mommy. Then I ran to my grandma. After that we headed to the closest McDonalds for a little snack and so that I could start to tell my mom every single thing I did. We continued my story in the car even though I wanted to fall asleep and it was really late. Thats how I had lots of fun during a week at Camp Pokanoka.

Day Thirty Nine

This morning after coffee at Panera, I went down to Michael's as Meghan's proxy for the Passport to Fun activity.  This one was from South Africa and they were making foam lion hat swaps and friendship bracelets.  After starting (somewhat unsuccessfully) a friendship bracelet there, I bought some more embroidery floss and took it home to make Meghan a friendship bracelet as a surprise (she won't read this until after she gets it, so I'm fairly certain it's safe to share that information here.)  This process went much better at home:

The rest of my day was really fairly mundane.  I went to Merrillville, Indiana to replace my charger and I spent the rest of the day at home.  Maybe perhaps my anxiety over the lousy weather in Ottawa or my anxiousness to see Meghan tomorrow and hear about her week took over and manifested itself like this:

Tomorrow at this time Meghan will be home and I'm sure there will be much more exciting things to write about.

Today's Academics:

• Meterology

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• I'll find out tomorrow, YAY!

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Francis I, by R.J. Knecht

Today's Images:

Day Thirty Eight

It appears that Ottawa may have gotten some rain today and they may get more overnight, but her week is supposed to be all about water, so I guess rain is appropriate.  She's prepared.  I had a fairly lazy morning then I headed downtown (this time by train) returned a book to the library and met up with a friend I rarely see in the late afternoon and we got caught up and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Boy is their a lack of things to blog about when Meghan is gone, not to mention a lack of things to take pictures of.

Today's Academics:

• Rain rain go away...

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Remains to be seen, we'll know in 48 hours.

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Francis I, by R.J. Knecht

Today's Images:

Day Thirty Seven

Another full day without Meghan, I think I'm adjusting, it's just weird after 8 years of never being away from her for more than a day to have her gone for several full days in a row.  I check the weather in Ottawa a lot and it seems to be good although hot, but as far I can tell there hasn't been any rain to put a damper on her fun.  Numerous people are concerned about her hunger strike, she isn't known to be adventurous when it comes to food and most camp food is on her no list, but I'm assuming she isn't the first picky kid to go to camp and she'll eat because she's hungry.  It's how I learned to drink milk again after years of avoiding it like the plague, of course I was also 16 years old and much more reasonable when it came to food and most of the time I actually like camp food.  So this morning I headed off to Michael's (by bus of course) because this is the last week of Passport to Fun and Meghan was very concerned that I get all of the details on how to do the sand art today for the China/Tibet activity.  Not only did I find out how, but I got a kit so she can do it herself.  The hat swap is a foam tanagram and we're all set for that.  Then I skeedaddled over to the post office again, because even though I said I wouldn't send her anything else, I got her one of the slap bracelets she's been dying to have and got a pink padded envelope and sweet talk the ladies at the post office counter and they PROMISE it will arrive in Ottawa in 2 days or less.  That accomplished it was time for lunch and I headed back the way I came and had a tuna salad sandwich at Panera, which I enjoyed while reading in the hopes of possibly finishing my book so that I can return it to the library tomorrow.  That done I headed homeward.

Today's Academics:

• Camping

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• She'll fill us in later as to whether she read or not at camp

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Day Thirty Six

This whole blogging thing was so much easier when I had Meghan to talk about and to photograph.  But I promised her I'd keep plugging along while she was gone, so here I go.  What did I do today?  Well I fielded several phone calls and texts from people who are quite concerned that I'm going to fall apart in my childless state this week.  Really I'm fine.  It's quiet but I'm fine.  I also went downtown (by bus of course) and mailed a letter to Meghan from the main post office.  I'm hoping it will actually get there before she goes home, one never knows with the USPS.  Then because it was on my way home I stopped at Whole Foods for gelato.  Mmm....gelato....Meghan who???  Speaking of gelato, my cell phone always tries to correct that word and make it legato, how is it that my smartphone doesn't recognize gelato? Then after I got home my cell phone rang with a number I didn't recognize from an area code I didn't recognize and I had a heart attack thinking it was about Meghan.  It turned out to be Rutgers University calling to do a survey for the City of Chicago about internet usage because our new mayor wants to improve internet service in our fair city.  Once my heart resumed beating I was polite and even participated in the survey.  That pretty much does it for my day. 

Today's Academics:

• We'll have to wait for Meghan's return to determine if there were any

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Not sure about this one

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

That would be me mailing a letter to Meghan

Mmm...gelato

It was a postcard perfect day and amazingly not too hot.

Day Thirty Five

Usually in the evening I have to prod nudge Meghan to go blog about her day.  Tonight no one was here to nudge me and it just suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't done an update.  We woke up to rain storms (I guess we shouldn't be surprised since there have been massive rain storms for three straight days) it continued to storm as we got up and got dressed and got ready to leave.  It stormed while we stowed Meghan's camp gear in the car and it stormed a good portion of the drive to Ottawa.  (Once again Illinois not Canada.)  We left a little early because we knew we had a least one stop to make and because I was nervous with many of these storms there have been multiple road closures because of flooding and I didn't know if that would be the case for us.  So of course we got to Ottawa extremely early and decided lunch was needed and we headed to Cracker Barrel. I have never been to a Cracker Barrel that wasn't absolutely packed with people and this one was no different, but we spent our 15 minute wait wandering around the store and sitting on the front porch in rocking chairs playing checkers.  After lunch it was time to make the short trip to Camp Pokanoka and get Neghan signed in.  She's participating in program called Water Snoopers but her group is called Whipoorwill.  Apparently they have a bird theme at Camp Pokanoka.  Once she was signed in and once her gear was dropped off at her cabin and she had made her nametag she dismissed me.  Despite what people thought might happen I was just fine and I'm sure she was as well.  They had plans for swimming this afternoon.  I headed back to the city making great time and spent a quiet (unless you count the phone ringing, then it wasn't that quiet) evening by myself.  I also headed out to mail Meghan another postcard which she'll hopefully receive before she get home.

Today's Academics:

• Camping...don't people sometimes call it outdoor education?

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• J.K. Rowling, by Marc Shapiro
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodges Burnett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Grown up enough to go and spend a week at Girl Scout Camp, but she still loves to ride the pony at Meijer.

Rocking on the front porch at Cracker Barrel

Meghan loved playing the peg game while we waited for our food.

Dropping her gear by the Whippoorwill wagon, they used tractors to pull the wagons full of gear to the different camping locations.

Notice the bird theme

Meghan thought this would make a good picture for the blog

Her Tabin (that's not a typo) Purple Martin (again with the bird theme)

She's making a nametag by decorating a piece of wood

Moments later I was dismissed, so there are no more pictures.  But she did actually request that I take this picture.

Day Thirty Four

Today was the last full day I'll have with Meghan until next weekend.  I drop her off at girl scout camp tomorrow afternoon so I spent the day seeing if I could get us surgically attached so then she would have to take me with her.  Ok seriously, first we went to Michael's for Passport to Fun.  It goes without saying we took the bus and despite the fact that today saw the largest amount of rainfall in a single day since 1871 when they started keeping records, we managed to stay dry and avoid the rain.  Today's Passport to Fun was on Mexico.  Given that we are almost at the end of the wonderful Passport to Fun program and in fact Meghan will only be able to attend one more, I have to give Michael's major props for the activity, it was awesome and we enjoyed every activity.  Then it was time to head home and make sure we had pulled together everything she was going to need for camp.  With lots of teamwork we were able to get her all packed and we're reasonably certain that we didn't forget anything except for the flashlight I promised I'd buy her tomorrow.  With that out of the way, we went out for dinner, I had a groupon for Leona's and as Meghan said we needed to have a special "I'll miss you a lot" dinner.  It gave me a chance to remind her three more times of all of the things she needs to remember while she's gone.  We also had a few talks about missing each other but we knew the week would go super fast and she'd have a great time.  On our way home we stopped a redbox and rented How to Train Your Dragon because apparently I was pulling out all of the stops on our evening and felt a movie would top it off well.  Tomorrow we're off around 10am and I'll try to update the blog in the evening.

Today's Academics:

• Filling out "All About Me" for Girl Scout Camp

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• J.K. Rowling, by Marc Shapiro

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Meghan loves to sit in the expanding part of the bus

At Leona's, check out my mango lemonade

Michael's Passport to Fun Mexico and Packing for Camp Pokanoka

Today was the day for the Mexico Passport to Fun activity. We made a Mexican sun. It was made out of yellow and orange model magic and markers. After that we made tissue paper flower hat swaps. It was made out of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner. It was really fun. Then we went home and starting packing all of my stuff, we did some laundry and mom wrote my name on EVERYTHING and we put everything in my new duffel bag that we bought at Sports Authority the other day. Then mom grabbed the supply list and read everything off so that I could make sure I brought everything. Then she put the supply list in my duffel bag so that I can make sure I bring everything home. Then I did a little "all about me" homework sheet that I needed to do. Mom spent the day reminding me of all of the rules and things I need to remember at camp. She'll probably remind me all over again tomorrow once or twice or maybe 15 times. Then we went to Leona's for a "I'll miss you A LOT" dinner. I had cheese lasagna and chocolate milk and mom had two different halfs of different kinds of chicken sandwiches and a mango lemonade. Then we rented a movie from redbox and it was How to Train Your Dragon. Then we went home so that we could pack my sleeping bag and then watch the movie. Maybe some other time this summer we can rent Gnomeo and Juliet or some other kid or family movie from redbox. Now mom says I have to get ready for bed so that I get a good nights sleep for camp. I'll try to remember everything or write it down while I'm gone so that I can update the blog when I get back.

Day Thirty Three

We woke up to mercifully cooler temperatures.  However when we headed out we had just barely boarded our first bus of the day when it started to pour and when it came time for us to get off that first bus it was still pouring and we got soaked, we had umbrellas and such but it was raining so hard I don't think anything would have helped.  My shoes remained soaked for the rest of the day, although they were starting to return to their normal dry state when we were almost home.  Our focus today was to make sure we got Meghan ready for camp and I can safely say that other than actually packing we're just about ready for her to go.  It meant a stop at Target today and another stop at Sports Authority, but we're getting close.  As we were heading from Target to Sports Authority we realized we were outside the Rookery which may be my most favorite historical building in downtown Chicago.  We popped in (Meghan was certain we were going to get kicked out.) and walked around the lobby.  We also decided we were starving and thought that the Potbelly was the perfect place to eat lunch and we were at a table that actually had a view of the rookery lobby.  Sports Authority is not really all that special but this is a seven story sports authority and we shopped it well but ended up going back to the 7th floor more than once.  We got the last of what she needed (but then remembered she needed a flashlight too) and headed back towards home.  This doesn't sound like much of a day, but we were both exhausted by the time we got home.  In three days we're already saving money on the 7 day bus pass and in fact we've taken 22 bus or train rides in that time and total of 101 in the last 33 days.  I went through and labeled most of the things she's taking with her and I even decorated the backpack I got her to put her camp stuff in. 

Today's Academics:

• List making

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett
• J.K. Rowling, by Mark Shapiro

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Eating Lunch in the Lobby of the Rookery

Meghan with the Board of Trade building in the background

Meghan's new hand-decorated bag

An Adventurous Day

Today we had an adventurous day. Earlier we went downtown so that we could make sure we had everything I needed for Girl Scout Camp. There was lots of shopping and even more bus rides. First we went to Target but didn't really find what we were looking for.   After that we took another bus, we were walking down the street heading to another bus when mom realized we were across the street from the rookery so decided to go in.  We looked around a little and read about the history of the building.  Then we had lunch from the potbellys that was in the building.  Then we went to Sports Authority because mom promised she would look for hiking boots for me before I went to Girl Scout Camp. We found this nice low hiking boots that were grey and green and they were really pretty. We also found me a new chair for when I got to Owasippe next year because I grew out of my old chair and mine is nicer than mom's and it only cost $5. We also got a mess kit, which is a cup, plate, bowl and utensils in a mesh bag. We also bought a new duffel bag for me to pack in. This morning when we got downtown, it was raining REALLY hard and we got soaked. Mom's shoes took all day to dry and she was squishing everywhere she stepped. I wore crocs so the water just went in and out of my shoes so they weren't hard to dry since they were rubber. I can't wait to leave for Girl Scout Camp on sunday and now I'm almost ready to go. We were about to leave the store and we noticed that we didn't get a flashlight so we were going to go back but then mom thought we should just stop at Meijer on our way to Ottawa, Illinois. That's how I had fun and adventures all day long!

Day Thirty Two

Today was yet another scorching HOT day in the city.  Anytime you walked outside it was like hitting a wall of hot air and an immediate "UGH" came out of your mouth.  But this evening is cooling off for the most part, it's still supposed to be in the high 80s tomorrow but not like it's been the last few days.  We started off taking the bus to another bus and going to Michael's for another awesome Passport to Fun activity.  This time it was on Greece and once we'd finished that we headed on two more buses to a train and another bus and then Joann for Meghan's first quilting class.  We are so crafty this summer.  I spent her class time at starbucks where they have a special deal where you get grande cold beverages for two dollars after 2pm.  We also managed to squeeze in crossing a few things off of our list in preparing for Meghan next exciting journey to girl scout camp. 

Today's Academics:

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Michael's Passport to Fun Grecce and Joann Applique Apron

Today was the day for the Greece Passport to Fun activity. We made a Greek Urn. We bought a small ceramic flower pot and used white paint and blue foam to decorate it. We also made torches for the hat swap. We used brown paper and red, yellow and orange tissue paper. I think we will remake it in foam so that it won't get ruined and ripped on my hat. After Michael's we went to Joann to take quilting 101 and make me applique apron. It was really cool except when I burned myself on the iron twice then it was hot. I can't wait until august to take my next quilting class and do a lot more quilting. It was REALLY hot outside today. That's all the crafting stuff I did today while having fun.

Day Thirty One

Holy Hotness Batman!  To say today was HOT may not fully describe how the weather was, even with the word in all caps and everything.  But that didn't stop us from being out and about.  It did however make us travel smarter.  It was time for a new bus pass but this time we opted for seven days since she'll be leaving for girl scout camp this weekend and I don't know if I'd get as much use out of the pass next week.  We also got a bottle of COLD water to help with the whole hydration thing and then headed for the bus to downtown.  We got lucky and in general had little to no wait times for buses or trains, and the CTA tracker helps us keep track of that and I purposely made sure we didn't head for stops too early so we weren't standing in the sun waiting on transportation for any longer than a few minutes.  Today Meghan had her second sewing class and this one was hand sewing instead of machine.  I spent another 3 hours at starbucks which was actually almost too cold.  I opted for iced coffee today since the heat index was over 100 all day. 

Today's Academics:

• Our main focus is really getting ready for girl scout camp

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

Again apparently sewing makes you hungry

Joann T-Shirt Creatures

Today was my second class at Joann and we made t-shirt creatures. We took a bus downtown so that we could get on the blue line and then we rode the blue line to Damen. Then we took the number 50 Damen bus to Elston and walked to Joann. It was REALLY hot today. Really Really HOT! I thought we were going to melt. By the time we got to Joann me and my mom were practically covered in sweat. Since we still had a little bit of time to waste we started getting the materials I needed for tomorrows class. Then it was time for the class. We started by drawing the shape of our t-shirt creature on to our t-shirt and pinned the pieces in place. Then we cut out the shapes. Then it was time to sew them together, we used a needle and embroidery floss. We started sewing and then when we were almost done we left a little gap and then we turned our piece inside out and stuffed it with fiberfill. Then we finished sewing the piece. Then we pulled out the pins. After that we added pieces from felt to make eyes, mouths and noses. I only finished one small creature but I hope to do more soon. When we were done at Joann we went to Strack and Van Til where they have customer in training carts that I got to push around the store. After that we went to Subway for lunch and then the dollar store to buy gatorade so that we had something to drink while it was so hot outside. Then it was time to head home. We decided when we got off the blue line to stop at my grandma's house. So we snacked and played aroyund until my grandma came home. Then my grandma took us to McDonald's for a late night milk shake snack amd then she took us home. This was how I had lots of fun on a very HOT day.

Day Thirty

Really thirty days of smmer already gone.  Today was HOT, but a one point we were so cold in a store that I actually walked outside to warm up.  It was kind of nice since I wasn't sure I'd ever be cold again.  We headed back to Michael's for the Japan Passport to Fun activity.  Other than Passport to Fun, today didn't really have much a Summer of Fun component to it. 

Today's Academics:

• She completed last week's assigned paragraph for school

Meghan's Current Book(s):

• Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett

Rachel's Current Book(s):

• Lilibet, by Carolly Erickson

Today's Images:

There is also a photo with the bust of Mies Van Der Rohe, but that one doesn't seem to want to be uploaded, I'll work on it tomorrow.