Camp Harlow for the Boys and I Go back to Work

So . . . my summer is officially over :(

It sure was a GREAT one though (with a few sad points).

The down part being the loss of my wonderful mother-in-law.  She was such a fun, caring lady that we all miss so much.  However, I know she would have loved to see all of the fun things that we did this summer,  like Vegas with my girlfriends, Sacramento Water Park, Knotts Berry Farm, visiting relatives, Great America, Redwood Forrest, Camping, Eagle Crest, Mining (the boys), Mommy-Daughter weekend (Lucy and I), Portland Soccer Tournament, and lots of time spent with family and friends.  It is hard to see such a fun summer come to an end, but the memories that we made were priceless to me!

Sam and Max are BOTH at Camp Harlow overnight camp this week.  I dropped them off there on Sunday afternoon and I will pick them up this Thursday afternoon.  Thats FOUR nights away from home!  This is the first time for both of them.  Max seemed pretty cool and unfazed by the whole thing at drop off.  I got a quick hug and a "bye mom".  Sam, was a little more nervous.  He kept asking me if I would write him a note every day, he told me that he would miss me A LOT, and gave me a long hug and a whispered "I love you Mom, I might want to come home early".  When I left though, he was playing football with all of his bunkmates and had a HUGE smile on his face, and I have not gotten a phone call yet.

Cabin #19

Sam is on the far right and he is good buddies with the 2 boys to his left.  He was so excited to go to camp with Lucas and Ryne.

Cabin #14

Max is in a cabin with all of his buddies.  Half of them are from his soccer team.  In fact, we all drove back from the Portland Soccer Tournament and drove straight to camp.  The other half of the boys are from his class at O'Hara.  This is a tight group, and they should have a lot of fun together!

Lucy is at "Camp Grammy and Papa" this week!  She is having so much fun every day having them all to herself.  My mom has taken her to the library, got her doing crafts, they are reading a chapter book together and more . . .

Pancho is on week two in California.  I took him back to the Portland Airport after the tournament was over so he could fly to Sacramento, then we rushed back to Eugene to get the boys to camp.

Me?  I'm back at work! 

It is so hard to see such a fun summer come to an end, but the minute I walked back into the school and saw all of the faces of the fun people that I LOVE to work with, it got me excited to face a new school year!

I've been working hard on my classroom, I can't wait to see my class list.  I am teaching Max's class this year and I will have a lot of his friends in my class.  I am working on all kinds of fun curriculum ideas for this year too!  I am teaching Science and Social Studies to BOTH 5th grades, and I want to make these subjects FUN!  I just ordered a class simulation game that the whole class can play in groups.  It involves them forming colony groups, studying and playing the parts of famous explorers and creating maps, games and brochures on the computer!  I love all of the fun things that 5th graders can do, I want to give them the chance to try it all! It should be a fun year!