CAMP CHLOE

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Chloe celebrated her birthday today (a couple of weeks early) with her friends before they all head off for summer vacations.
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We invited them to CAMP CHLOE for the afternoon. (Love the dollar store.)
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Carmen and Chloe and Jaclyn worked hard all morning getting ready for the camp. Here Carmen and Chloe pretend to roast marshmallows on the Oreo Sippers campfire cake.
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The campers were so delighted to make their own trail mix and shake it up in a ziploc before we headed out for our hike.
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We walked together to Fish Creek. The hike back up the hill earned them their hiking badge.

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My Alberta rose.
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Jaclyn taught camp songs to the girls while Carmen prepared the nature scavanger hunt. Jaclyn and Carmen were the best camp counsellors!
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I printed out the scavanger hunt list onto paper bags for each of the campers. (I'm sure I saw this idea from someone on my sidebar . . . )

Once the campers found everything on their list they earned their nature badge. You totally couldn't do this party with boys who are really going to be cub scouts one day - the value of the badge would be totally lost.

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Ojo de Dios - a classic camp craft. Later Carmen made a mini one for a necklace pendant with toothpicks and embroidery floss.

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Erica was only serious about the craft - silly for everything else, of course!

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The cookie campfire was difficult to blow around - leaving Chloe with 4 boyfriends, much to her horror.

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And of course the final gift had to be opened with her teeth. It is funny to me when the kids create their own traditions. I really don't know where this came from?

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Happy Birthday (Party) Chloe!

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See you next year!

Just when I think I can't love our school or our teachers more, they go and do something like this:
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As we pulled out of the parking lot today on our last day of school all the teachers stood at the corner to wave and call good-bye to us as we drove off. I almost teared up over it - I can't imagine what it will be like leaving this school for the last time seven years from now.

Most Dedicated

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Last night was our jr. high awards night - Steven kept me hopping in and out of my seat with my camera throughout the evening. He was awarded the Phys. Ed. Award, Jr. Boys Basketball Most Dedicated Player, Citizenship, and a drama award for sound tech. He was also recognized for being an honors student and got a certificate with 26 winnet (participation) stickers.
I love that the Phys. Ed. award is an 'academic' award because it is an honor for the top mark in the class. (Although until this year I sorta thought it didn't belong in the academic awards. Ha!)

Outstanding Female

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(We like to think so)
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A few weeks ago Jaclyn was notified by the school that she had been nominated for Grade 10 Citizenship, Grade 10 Outstanding Female, and the Principal's Award. And then, days later, someone from the awards committee gave me a call and invited me to the academic awards ceremony for grade 11 because Jaclyn would be receiving the French 20 Award, a grade 11 subject she studied this year.

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We weren't invited to the grade 10 academic awards ceremony, which was held an hour earlier, but we decided to attend anyhow to cheer for Jaclyn's friends.
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Well, it's a good thing we did, because they don't have you stand at the front this long for the French 20 award. I had to scramble for my camera when Jaclyn was honored as the Outstanding Female for Grade 10 in academics and school & community extracurricular involvement.
They just forgot to call and invite us to the Grade 10 Awards.
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It was awesome, actually, because it was such a surprise, and I couldn't stop laughing about it all through the next hour at the grade 11 awards. I'm glad Jaclyn is such a good friend, and maybe good sport, that she would want to go to an awards ceremony she didn't think she was involved in. I would have been choked to have missed this!

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Pancake Breakfast

One of our favorite school teachers is heading to Africa this summer to inservice local educators on teaching methods. As a fundraiser for her trip our school put on an early Stampede Breakfast for $5/plate.



Carmen was the only kid in our family to hear the announcement that the fundraiser was a western theme. Chloe jumped at the chance to dress up, and was even more delighted that Carmen's out-grown boots were up for grabs. (The fringed vest has made several more appearances at school since then.) Steven was not so excited to dress western - he was a little concerned no one else in the junior high would even know, let alone act upon, the 'boots-optional' dress code. So he played it safe. (If you took his sisters out of this picture would he look western at all? No, he would not.)

Jaclyn got sick this week, which shouldn't have come as a surprise considering she got sick during finals week in January also. (From now on she is starting a COLD-FX regime at the end of each semester.) She wrote her last school final today, but has her Royal Conservatory Grade 10 piano exam tomorrow morning. The Royal Conservatory is a nation-wide music education and examination standard in Canada. Quoting your Royal Conservatory grade might compare to quoting your SAT score. (?) (I don't really know if it compares at all.) (It's the closest thing I can think of, but we don't have ACTs or SATs or the like here.) Mostly I just threw in the comparison because I bought Jaclyn an SAT prep book this week and I wanted to tie it in somehow. She's planning on going "somewhere warmer than here" for college so we are rapidly learning about American college-entrance examinations. It is crazy to think that 6 months from now my baby could have an SAT score.

Steven has no exam writing in his immediate future. In our junior high if you achieve honor roll in a class you don't have to write the final exam, and he is completely exam exempt! Yee-haw! (to stay in keeping with the cowboy spirit of this post) (although my real reaction was: Hallelujah!) Today was his last day of classes - he will spend the next week-and-a-half trying to sleep through Carmen and Chloe getting ready for school in the morning. Although, I'm thinking maybe I should get to sleep in and he can see the girls off to school. (Just checking to see if you're reading my blog, buddy.)

I'm so done with school

My stress level and frustration with homework is suffocating me.
It is time for summer break!
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Homework in June is not as fun as it looks.

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Today I scrubbed a thousand feet of tile grout

But last Saturday I got dressed up and went for a walk in the park with my family.
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We met up with a talented photographer, Tere (say: Terri). She has an adorable personality and made the family photo shoot really fun. The kids were happy to do it (that's how good she is) and they're volunteering to do it again next year (shocker!).
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As amazing as Tere is, she still had to deal with pulling together six people into natural poses and smiles. I don't know about your family, but in my family that's a challenge.
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It was easier to get good results with smaller groups. (da girls)
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Me and my man.
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Da boys.
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Individual shots went the best:
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Jaclyn
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Steven

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Carmen
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Chloe
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Another stab at a family shot.
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And we're done!

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Next time I'm going to have to hire a videographer to capture Tere at work: "Work it baby!" "I luove it!"

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