Last Day of Day Camp

In case you are confused, I posted Thursday's activities on Friday, and I am now posting Friday's activities on Sunday! Got it???? :-)

Friday was the last day of the day camp. I was sad to see the end of this because the women from the church who coordinated the English lessons, arts & craft projects, songs, and gym activities were SO awesome! Two years ago I helped during the very first day camp, and we did not have all these wonderful ladies assisting us. I cannot express enough words to say what a benefit they were to the success of the day camp. We were truly blessed. The picture shows five of the women from this great group!

Friday’s English lesson consisted of some science weather words: snow, rain, sun, thunderstorm, tornado, hurricane, etc. Vanya again spoke up, willing to participate most of the time. He was also willing to take part in the memory game which used the same weather cards. He and I have been playing Memory at home as a way to learn some English words, so he was happy to play a familiar game. The craft that day was a very cool butterfly thermometer. We have it on the fridge.

After lunch it was a short trip to Science Central, a hands-on science and math center for kids (little AND big!) It was so hilarious to see the look of surprise on his face when, after turning on a high-pressure water hose on Tim (all water is contained in a Plexiglas case), Tim aimed one at him. He shrunk back, anticipating getting wet, until he realized it worked both ways—no one was going to get wet! He laughed good-naturedly.

He had three favorites that afternoon. One, way up above was a bike that you could ride around a ring. The only problem is that you lean to the left too much, and you’ll fall off the bike into a net below. Now, the bike is weighted so that shouldn’t happen, but it still put a large pit in my stomach to see him riding it. I was very happy to see the man who was overseeing the exhibit holding onto the back end all the way around! Vanya’s second favorite was an exhibit depicting a sewer system. It took some encouragement for him to climb down the hole and follow the tunnels around (I guess it was pitch black in there!) but once we got some other kids to show him how to do it, he went back in about 5 or 6 more times. The last thing we did before we left was travel up and down the main staircase MANY times. It was part musical, part sci-fi sound effects. The faster you ran up or down, the more music or sound effects you could create.

Dinner that night was at Carlos O’Kelly’s, a Mexican restaurant. According to Vanya, chips and salsa are good, but nothing else was! Prepared for this event, we made him some Mac and Cheese when we got home. Quick Russian/Ukrainian lesson for you: to say macaroni in his language, you say. . . . wait for it. . . macaroni!!!!

Because it was Friday, we let him stay up a little bit later to watch Scooby Doo on one of the TV channels. I tried to get him to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies, but he wasn’t too interested. Then, of course, it was shower time before bed. Vanya is so cute, because you can ask him if he’s tired (nyet=no!), but if you ask him if he’s ready for a shower, you always get a positive response. He knows bedtime comes right after the shower, and he doesn’t ever protest. We try to make it fun for him by letting him select a book for me to read to him, bringing in Papa and Teagan for a family snuggle time, and then providing lots of cuddles, hugs, and kisses before lights out. He thoroughly enjoys this routine, and it makes me wish, just a little bit, to keep him this age forever! We’ve learned how to say “good night” in Russian, and he’s learned how to say “good night” in English. Such a great partnership!