Jedi Summer Camp Update
By the time I got done with my last post, re-threaded the serger, and put two pins into the garment I was about to sew, it had been about 20 minutes and low and behold the padawans came in from the tent citing that they were too wound up and had too much pop - short for soda-pop, it’s the Midwest, whaddyagonnado? - that they couldn’t sleep. I had made up the futon just in case they couldn’t make it in the tent for whatever reason as it is their first time and suggested they lay on that to calm down and try to get sleepy and then make it back out to the tent. Of course by then and with them “sleeping” on the futon mere feet from the serger, I couldn’t work on the robes. I was exhausted anyway and decided to pack it all in for the night. We could survive seeing the movie without the costumes (especially since they didn’t know about the costume aspect until I told them that evening.)
I went to my bed and watched some tv. Checking on them periodically, they just had the hardest time settling down. Just before midnight I checked on them again and they were finally quiet.
The next morning I tried to sneak some tv time while it was still quiet (thinking they were asleep). RedPadawan scared me by sneaking into my room undetected. No rest for the wicked. We got up and I served breakfast. They didn’t like the conbreakfast (cereal with vanilla yogurt instead of milk) so I had to pull out the soymilk I had. I quick showered and we all dressed and headed out to the backyard with our rods and boatcoats (lifejackets). After a nice little practice session (casting party) where we all learned to cast - RedPadawan had a tough time, her reel was problematic and coupled with her not releasing the button at the right time made for some frustration. But with more practice and some tweaking, she was finally confident enough to join the rest of us across the street to the dock. Mr.Bob met us before our practice was over (owner of said dock and my landlord) and was impressed with our casting skills and how well we were doing with our boatcoats on and took some video of us.
We sunscreened and bugsprayed-up, grabbed some hats (sun was strong) and hit the dock. Mr.Bob had a cooler of bait waiting for us (yummy nightcrawlers - slightly chilled) I baited each hook and before I could get bait on my own, RedPadawan caught her first fish! Mr.Bob was ready with the camera. No sooner had I released her fish but PurplePadawan had one on her line too. I released and re-baited both spent rods but before I could get my pole in the water BluePadawan had one on his line too. I could tell it was going to be a long morning.
One after the other the fish came in (sunnys and bluegills). My bait was sunburnt during the 45 min I did nothing but liberate freshly caught fish from hooks and rebait. We only lost two hooks to the fish and three more to casting (and my apparent lack of knot tying skillz despite the graphic instructions on the package of hooks I bought) thanks to my dad introducing me to the use of swivels and pre-tied hooks, this job wasn’t as tedious or labor intensive as it could have been. I had to ask them NOT to put their hooks in the water until I had a chance to get mine wet for a couple minutes.
This was after RedPadawan, not as lucky as the others (despite having caught the first fish) got kinda bored and decided to closely investigate her bait (read= touch the icky worm-part). She freaked out and in the commotion of getting away from her icky worm-part cut herself with her hook. There was much screaming, crying and gnashing of teeth as well as a little blood. The convenience of having my house mere feet from the dock was awesome. We went in all together and cleaned her up, got a drink and snack and headed on out again.
We finished up around 12:30 and went inside to eat lunch. I eventually caught a few fish, Red caught 2. I lost track of Blue and Purple early on and have no idea how many each scored. Blue didn’t get any when he switched to his plastic lures and baits though.
We sat for about 15 minutes after I made our Quesedillas (real quick, real easy, and who doesn’t like grilled cheese?). As soon as we gulped it down, it was time to get dressed and get out to our cool-down at the beach (also right around the corner)
We spent a little less than an hour there - just enough to cool off and not long enough to get burnt. Water was cold but refreshing. Jumped back into the shuttle to get showered and dressed and make the movie.
We got there a little early and the padawans were troopers waiting for the movie to start - and even better hiding their extreme boredom during the actual movie. I really wish I had gotten tickets for the movie next door instead (FLY me to the Moon). SOOOO glad I didn’t finish the costumes. The huge fan I am, I think I would have been embarrassed to be seen in costume after *that* movie.
We met up with GSDestiny, Aeryn_SunShugru, Aura and Besh for dinner at Old Country Buffet. Jeez, my Padawans can pack it in! You’d never believe that they can be pretty finicky eaters sometimes after that meal!
We were toast afterward and like Purple said after the movie, “All I kept thinking was how much I wanted to go home, put on my pajamas and crawl into the tent and go to sleep!” After much negotiation, we agreed to watch SW Ep2 (since the girls hadn’t seen it yet and thought it would help explain events in the movie we had just seen.). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it. We resolved to see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and struggled to stay awake long enough for the end.
By that time, we were all at the end of our ropes and they staggered into the tent where we said goodnight through clenched teeth.
Sunday morning came without incident. I’m still not sure which children slept in the tent and which slept on the futon - but everyone slept in so I really don’t think it ever mattered.
I fed them after my shower and once we were all dressed and ready for church, we took down the tent (one pole broke - must replace - that’s what you get when you buy cheap). Packed the car and made it in time to still pick up Ms. Jenks on the way.
Apparently, I didn’t do too bad a job because they recovered pretty quickly at home (crashed at 6pm) and have been talking about it non-stop (their mom says as much as they love me, she’s getting pretty sick of hearing how “ChevronSha says this” and “Chevronsha says that”. I’ll try to keep it down next time.
I’m still trying to recover, however. I think I need to pretend that they’re still coming over to motivate myself to finish the house projects that didn’t get completed before they came. Having the clean living room is a treat, now I have to really work on the kitchen (have some dishes left to do) and the sewing room (need to get it all organized and start new projects before Faire is over)
It was a really special weekend and I hope I can host many more in the future.
I dunno, maybe one where we can do some of the other things i planned, like crafts or that awards night that was on the docket.
Darn tootin’ I’m going fishing again really soon!