Camp Mimi, Summer, 2010

For the past couple of summers, I have "Camp Mimi" with either one, two, or all three of my grandchildren. This summer, it was with all three of them. Julie always has to work a few days extra after the kids are out for summer vacation. Ainsley's mom always volunteers a week at Camp For All, a camp for children with muscular distrophy. This year, they coincided. John asked me to come to Houston. Julie asked me to keep M&M in San Antonio. I tried to figure out a way to be in two places at once, and just couldn't do it!!! So, Ainsley came to San Antonio for three days and three nights, and all three cousins got to spend those days together. Because Ainsley has just recently become potty-trained, I decided to play it safe, and stay pretty close to home those three days. We spent most of the days at Macy's and Marshall's house, because they have some pretty cool toys! One of the first things we did was make a cake! Not just any ordinary cake, but one with our special "secret ingredient." It never fails, whenever Macy and Marshall make a cake or brownies with me, they always ask, "Are we going to put in the secret ingredient?" Now Ainsley knows what it is too! I hope they will always remember what it is, because it truly does make anything sweet soooo much better. Ainsley quickly learned that she needed her own spoon, and very quickly, all three of them were licking their fingers. When we put the cake in the oven, Ainsley looked at Marshall with his chef's hat on, and said, "You're a good COOKER-BOY!"

We just went on three outings. One of them was to Target to get a few items, and as we checked out, Macy and Marshall begged for an Icee. Ainsley decided she liked them too!

It was kind of a rainy, cloudy day, so we decided to have a "picnic" indoors. The kids all got a beach towel and we spread them around on the floor, stuck in a DVD, and we had an "instant indoor picnic!"

Hot dogs with catsup, chips and lemonade!

I made the mistake of saying, "When you finish, you may have some cake!" Here is what Ainsley did:

Oh, Ainsley, I have so many pictures that are going to make people laugh at your rehearsal dinner some day!

It was a delicious cake! I put three M&M's on each piece, and they all thought it was the best cake they had ever eaten!

At two and a half, Ainsley still needs an afternoon nap. I knew this was going to be a challenging accomplishment since Macy and Marshall gave up naps a long time ago. I told her to lie down on the sofa, got her beloved buddy, George, the monkey, covered her up, put a DVD in the tv for M&M, and after just a few minutes, voila! She was out for over an hour!

When we first got out the Play-Doh, Marshall began making snakes and worms, which scared Ainsley. After she realized they were not real, she began to enjoy it. She made flat pancakes, then stamped them with a Dora stamp and never seemed to tire of it.

Macy began making pizzas with her Play-Doh and enlisted my help making the pepperoni!

On Tuesday night, Julie and I took them all to Chick-Fil-A because that's one of Ainsley's special treats every Tuesday night. At "her" Chick-Fil-A in Houston, they call it Family Night, and they even have a clown who will paint on your face! Well, ours doesn't do that, but we enjoyed our dinner and the kids all got an ice cream cone, which Ainsley needed absolutely no help with! Then, they enjoyed scrambling up in the jungle gym/play area! Again, Ainsley needed no help from her two older cousins!

Our "Monkey Boy!"

The next morning, we were off on our second outing, a trip to Krispy-Kreme Doughnuts! Ainsley in her car seat in the middle with M&M in their booster seats on either side. Thank goodness, M&M can fasten their own seat belts now, but it wasn't easy with the car seat in the middle.

Three excited kids watching the doughnuts going through the assembly line! We got a free hot doughnut, then they also ordered an iced one. The girls got pink with sprinkles, and Marshall got white with red, white, and blue sprinkles! M&M got apple juice and Ainsley got pink milk!

The children found some coloring sheets to occupy themselves while I ordered the food. Minutes after this picture was taken, Ainsley had to "go potty." There was only one other customer, a young lady with a little girl, so I left M&M sitting there while I took her to the restroom. When we came out of the restroom, Marshall was not sitting next to Macy. I said, "Macy, where is Marshall?" She looked at me bewildered, and said, "I don't know." I looked at the lady who was sitting next to them with her child, and she even said, "I didn't even see him get up!" My heart was pounding and my blood pressure was shooting up, as I ran to the boys' restroom door and yelled, "Marshall, are you in here?" And I heard a sweet little voice, "Yes!" I was so relieved! He did get a little lecture about how scared he made me---he has done this before---just disappeared innocently without telling me. So, that is all I can think about when I look at this picture. About 20 minutes later, Ainsley had to go to the bathroom again, and Macy said, "I'll take her." Since they were private restrooms with only one stall, I walked with them to the door, told Macy to lock it, which she did. They stayed and stayed. I went to the door and knocked, and said, "Macy, is everything ok?" She said, "Yes, I'm teaching Ainsley a dance!" They came out right away. Wow! How does Kate do it with EIGHT??

Enjoying her pink cupcake and pink milk...until we got ready to leave...

While I was cleaning up our table and gathering the left-over doughnuts, Ainsley picked up her bottle of milk to take home, and of course, it was hard for her to manage, it slipped, and this is the result! Needless to say, I was happy to get out of there and get everyone safely back in my car, headed back to Aunt Julie's house!

One of the things Macy and Marshall love playing with are some foam blocks. They spent a long time making beautiful creations---here is Macy and her "museum."

And Marshall just beginning to build a tower, which I didn't get a picture of, because they soon found out that it is no fun building towers and museums when there is a two-year old around. Ainsley loved sneaking up and knocking down their creations. We tried explaining the rule that you can only knock down what you build, but two-year olds haven't exactly learned the rules of fairness yet, so the blocks had to be put up!

I am truly one of the luckiest grandmothers in the world, and Macy, Marshall, and Ainsley made Camp Mimi of 2010 a most memorable one. We had lots of laughs. On the third afternoon, Papa and I had to load up Ainsley and George and head to Schulenburg where we met her dad for a quick meal at Frank's and then said "Good-bye." She slept the entire way. She was one pooped little girl, and I was one pooped "Mimi."