Happy and Not-So-Happy Campers

Camp. It's the stuff summer dreams are made of, right? I don't mean overnight, sleep-away camp, but day camp. I loved day camp. It was one of my favorite weeks of the summer when I was growing up.  In an effort to shake things up a little bit, I signed the boys up for camp this summer. My grand plan was to have them both do a rec. center camp in June, VBS in July and another camp in August. That way the grandparents would get a week "off" each month and it would give the kids something different to do.

But plans have a way of not working out exactly as you'd like them to.

When I registered the boys I was told that Ryan could not attend camp until he was six. Never mind that he has finished Kindergarten, the rec. center was firm about the six-year-old minimum age. That means that for June, Wesley would be attending camp alone. I thought it would be okay - especially since the brochure said it was "art extravaganza" week, so I went ahead and signed him up. I took the week off work to spend with Ryan so all the grandparents could have a break the same week. Sounds like a win/win/win, right?

Not exactly.

I was really nervous as today (the first day of Wesley's camp) drew near. Wesley wasn't going to know anyone at the camp and he's not one for new experiences. However, there may come a day when camp is how we work child care in the summer and trying it out a little at a time is probably better than a whole summer of it all at once.

Wesley was really quiet when I dropped him off. We didn't see anyone we knew in the room, so I did the obnoxious mom thing and found a few boys that looked his age to introduce him to. That couldn't have been embarrassing (she said sarcastically.) Luckily, as I was leaving the drop off area, one of my friends from PTA was there dropping her boys off. C. is a grade ahead of Wesley and B. is one of Ryan's good buddies, but I figured at least he knows them. Heck, we were at a cookout at their house the other night. I felt much better as I left the rec. center.

Ryan and I had our first day of "Camp Mommy." We went up to the Olentangy Indian Caverns to mine for gems and play some putt putt. We were practically the only people there, which was nice because we could just go at our own pace then.

Ryan was quite serious about his mining

You can see an arrow head in this screen, we ended up with four of them and a bunch of really cool rocks and gems

No hole in ones, but we didn't keep score, which was probably good.

 After we finished up at the caverns we headed to a pet store Ryan likes to visit. By this time, I figured Wesley was doing fine and was able to enjoy my time with Ryan.

They handed us this little guy to hold as soon as we walked in.

This little Manx kitten was very interested in my purse. Ryan was tickled to get to see this cat because he just checked a book about Manx cats out of the library.

This was Ryan's favorite little guy. This kitten looked right at Ryan through the glass, walked over so he was standing in front of Ryan and meowed at him as if saying, "Please pick me up."

Cute blue eyes and a little black nose

 Ryan also held a dwarf hamster and petted a ferret. I'd say it was a pretty good pet store visit.

We ate lunch out since Ryan has been asking for pizza for several days, then stopped by Grandma and Grandpa H.'s for a minute or two to show off them gem finds. Ryan was having so much fun that he even spelled out a message for me in rocks and gems.

It's a little hard to read, but it says "I love you."

We didn't have to pick Wesley up until about 4:00. I made sure to be there right on time because I was still a little worried about how the day went. The kids were all in the gym playing - wait for it - dodge ball. Wesley was sitting in the bleachers with a bunch of other kids who were "out" and boy, did he look relieved when he saw me.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

"Can we talk about it in the car? I'd rather not say in here," he told me.

Uh-oh.

As we walked to the car Wesley told me that his day was "horrible" That he tried all the activities, but didn't have fun and that dodge ball was the worst. "I thought this was an art camp!" he said.

"I thought so too," I told him. "But it looks like you are going to do a whole bunch of different things and not just art. Did you do any art today?"

"We made masks. That was about the only time I had fun." Which felt like a sucker punch to the gut to me.

The result of the only good part of the day, according to Wesley

Wesley was less than impressed that not only does he have to go back to camp for the rest of the week, but that there will be another week of it later this summer. He didn't cry, or really complain for more than a few minutes, which is good I guess, but I know he doesn't like it.

So now I get to be the mean mom who makes him go back and tough out the week. I really think tomorrow will be better because they are going to a movie in the morning, then they are going to go swimming after lunch. Those things are more his speed and I think he'll be more comfortable since he'll kind of know what to expect. Still, I feel so guilty that I'm sending him back - but not guilty enough that I let him off the hook after one day. And it's not just the money, I want him to really try this. I want him to be around other kids this summer. I want him to try new things (they did some gardening today). Surely that counteracts the mean, right? He needs to branch out a little bit and I feel like this is a good way to do that. I just hope I remember that tomorrow morning.