Camp Liberty

It is our second year of our co-op summer camp Camp Liberty. We get together with three other families and take turns hosting the camp at our house. This year we are doing it slightly different from last year. This year we picked two weeks out of the summer and have the camp monday through thursday of that week. That gives us each one day each week to host.
This year started with a bang! Our first week we learned about important people in our country's history.
Monday they learned about Abraham Lincoln and they realized how lucky we are for the freedoms we have.

On Tuesday, they learned about Susan B Anthony and her fight for woman's rights. They learned about the right to vote and how to have a peaceful protest. They all got to choose a cause they feel strongly about and then they had a picket line. Nathan said that "Women should be able to play Men's Lacrosse." MaryLynn said that "Teachers should be nice to their students." And JJ said that "People shouldn't drink and shouldn't beat up on the people they are married to."

Wednesday was my turn to host and we learned about Thomas Morton. (Don't feel bad if you don't know who that is. I just learned about him in one of my classes this spring.) He was an explorer who came to New England about the same time as the Pilgrims. We learned about being brave and trying new things. We then explored the area around our neighborhood. You should have seen our neighbors' faces as we marched past in our Camp Liberty shirts singing our songs. (We even had one lady who wanted to sign her boy up! I laughed.) 

We even had our own maypole in celebration of our successful journey into the unknown!

Thursday they learned about Amelia Earhart and they all made their own paper airplanes.

Brad also took our kids fishing later that evening. They tried to actually catch us dinner, but they only caught one fish and it wasn't really the size for eating!

But they had a great time. I put MaryLynn in charge of taking pictures because I stayed home to get some writing done. Looks like she had a good time with her assignment.

I was blessed to go to a get together for a friend who is moving this weekend. We are going to miss their family so much. They have been such great friends to us. I hope to see them sometime in Utah. Then a few of us headed to the movies to watch "Eclipse." It was a good movie, but mostly it was fun to be with friends. (Thanks to a friend who took my kids for a sleepover, since the movie didn't get over till midnight!)

Friday, we didn't have Camp Liberty, but the kids wanted to go to the Children's Museum here in the area. We have been there before, but it has been awhile. I really feel like it is geared toward younger kids, but they all had fun.

They pretended to whip up some stir-fry.

Climbed down into the real exploratory submarine.

Blew lots of bubbles at the bubble table.

And climbed up the mountain on the side of the building.

Today we are celebrating the fourth of July with some friends. They should be here soon and we will have hamburgers and get ready to see the fireworks. I'm glad the Navy decided to do fireworks on Saturday, so we can enjoy them without breaking the sabbath.

I decided my kids are going to be happy when school starts again. Maybe they can rest then! Hee hee!