Visiting Ainsley and Camp For All

The last few days of "Camp Mimi" were spent in Houston. My sweet daughter-in-law, Colleen takes a week of her vacation time to volunteer at Camp For All each summer to work with kids with muscular dystrophy. Julie got out of school for the summer on Wednesday of last week, and I left that afternoon to go help John with 19-month old Ainsley. I wish I had had my camera ready when John walked in his front door with her---she ran to the family room where I was sitting, and she yelled, "Mimi!!!" It was something I'll never forget! I have tried hard to see her every month or so since she was born, so that she would know who I am. Well, now I know....she does know who I am. Right away, she spotted my James Avery necklace and wanted to put it on. As soon as I put it on her, she ran out of the room. I asked John where she was going and he said into their bedroom to the full-length mirrors to see herself! Sure enough, the above pictures tell it all! She is already fascinated by jewelry.


She loves pushing her baby in her stroller and did this most of the time I was there.

She's just learning how to do puzzles. Her favorite piece: the farmer!

She found her dad's shoes in the family room, and took off running again! Where did she go? To the mirror in his room, of course! No, Ainsley, these will NOT fit!!

Just give me a few minutes to wake up.

On Thursday, Colleen's mom picked us up and took us to Camp For All near Brenham, so Colleen could see Ainsley for a few hours. We had a great day looking at this beautiful facility, which has visits from all kinds of handicapped children each year. Everything is handicapped-accesible with no steps or curbs of any kind, extra wide halls, large restroom stalls and showers. The activities there are much like the activities you'd find at any camp. One thing that impressed me the most is that all 95 campers had an able-bodied counselor assigned just to them to help them with everything!! Here is one of the beautiful cabins.

One of the gorgeous cypress trees on the river, near the floating dock where the kids go fishing.


Every year, Macy and Marshall have a "joint birthday party" and ask for no gifts, but for some sort of a donation to a special cause. This year, they asked their friends to bring water toys for Camp For All. They collected many, many fun toys. It just so happened that the same week Colleen was at this camp, Sean was at Camp Tejas, just down the highway in Giddings, Texas. Julie and the kids went to spend two nights with him there, and came over to Camp For All also on Thursday. It was great that M&M could see the kids who were benefitting from their donations! Marshall loved fishing, although he didn't catch anything.

Colleen took us to the big tree house, which is made for kids in wheelchairs.

After eating lunch in the cafeteria with all the kids, Colleen took us on a golf cart to see the swimming pool, the farm animals (every kind you can imagine), the rodeo arena, the archery area, and lots of great things for all the campers. Macy rarely sits down to rest, but by the time we were finished touring, she curled up on a bench for just a few minutes. It was a very special day for all of us to see where Colleen spends a week every summer (for the past eighteen years!) It made me realize how lucky I am to have three healthy grandchildren. Thank you, God, and thank you, Leenie, for giving up a week away from your family to work for such a worthy cause.
Below, is a short video of Ainsley saying, "Macy, Marshall, San Antonio." It didn't end up where I wanted it on the blog and is not wanting to move where I want it, so it will just have to stay here at the end!

The Last Few Days of Camp Mimi, 09

Julie had to work four more days after school was out for Macy, so I had promised her and Marshall that I would take them to the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels one day, and then to Landa Park to ride the train. The picture above was taken right after they had played at the water area, so Macy's dress has water all over the front. Julie dressed them both in green, which made it so easy to keep an eye on them at the museum and at the park.

Macy always enjoys the hospital nursery area where they have baby dolls. She put on her doctor's jacket, then handed me this naked baby doll and said, "Here, Mimi, would you put this baby up your shirt and pretend like you're having a baby?" Well....that didn't seem quite appropriate to me, since other people were around, so I just sat in the rocking chair and she pulled the baby from behind my back!!! Then she weighed it. I said, "How much did my baby weigh?" She said, "50 pounds!"

Marshall always loves the space area---you can tell I wasn't with him when he put on his space jacket!!

Inside the space ship---5-4-3-2-1----blast off!

They both love the grocery store area and you can see Marshall has filled his basket with pizza and ice cream!

The outdoor play area is full of huge animal sculptures the kids can climb on!

My favorite part of the museum are the beautiful hanging paper-mache fish!

We all enjoyed the train ride at Landa Park, and especially the rainbow popsicles afterward!

I wonder how old that big cypress tree is?

It was a great day, and we ended it with a picnic lunch and playing on the beautiful new playground in Landa Park.

Best Buds, Marshall and Sam

Larry's four-year-old grandson, Sam was out of school this week, as was Marshall, and they had a chance to play together two mornings (without their siblings, who were still in school!) They had a super time.

They did everything together...bathroom chores, playing hot wheels, painting and flying airplanes, playing with Banagram letters, playing with "poppers" in the driveway, going to the neighborhood playground (first picture), playing hide-and-go-seek, going with Papa down to the storage room, which they think is like visiting a castle, watching movies, eating Spiderman macaroni and cheese, and saying, "I'm hungry" about a hundred times!

And when it was time for Sam to leave, he ran back to Marshall and they hugged for a long time!

Macy's Last Day of School, '09 AKA First Grade, Here I Come!

Macy was very sad today when I picked her up from her last day of kindergarten. She said, "I don't want to leave kindergarten!" Here she is in her t-shirt which Julie helped make for each child in her class. Each child put their hand print on the shirts, all in the same place on each shirt, with paint. The teacher's hand print is in red in the upper corner on the front. Julie took on the task of printing each child's name on their own handprint, on each shirt. Let's see...that's 22 names on 22 shirts!!!? How many hours did that take you, Julie? (I know it took several hours on several nights, in between ball games, end-of-the-year parties, their birthday party, plus out-of-town company!) I'm making her practice the word "no" for next year!

It's quite a masterpiece!

Imagination Station

Macy and Marshall saw a pile of 1" X 12" strips of scrapbook paper left over from making "Squash Books" for my teachers this year, which I was about to throw away. The "wheels" began spinning, and all of a sudden, Marshall was making "tents" for a "city" and Macy was making "caterpillars." The caterpillar strips were cut in half, so they all became "twins." The next afternoon, they continued the fun, making policemen (black), putting glasses on some of them, and even making a set of quadruplet caterpillars. Oh, and a "mayor" and his "wife." This process occupied them for several hours over a two-day period!

There are about 25 pairs of "caterpillars" in all!

Marshall's "Tent City.

Then, he got his big Tonka dump truck, and transported all the "twin caterpillars" from their birth place, the dining room, to the hall where the city was.

The "policeman"