Camp Mommy: Pressley's week

Evan is at karate camp this week. The original plan was to find Pressley a half-day camp to attend this week, just like she attended gymnastics camp during the week Evan was at Sports Camp. I made the mistake of asking Pressley (before I had done any research into the subject) if she would rather go to gymnastics camp for a second week or if she wanted me to find her a dance camp instead. She enthusiastically chose for me to find her a dance camp.

Well. Easier said than done.

I searched high and low for a dance camp. I talked to moms at swim team. I searched "the Google." I even sought out expert advice via Facebook, where I do my most intense research for such matters. I got some excellent leads, but all camps (of the dance and princess varieties) were either full, not offered this week, or not open to kids under five.

I finally broke down late last week (or maybe Sunday) and admitted to Pressley that mommy could not find a dance camp for this week. But I softened the blow by telling her that I had found a gymnastics camp to attend the week after we get back from vacation. So, Evan will go this week. Then we'll go on vacation. And, then you'll go to camp the NEXT week! (And that is when Evan will have a week of Camp Mommy.)

It worked like a charm until Evan got all dressed and ready to go on Monday and there were murmerings (or loud whinings) about it not being fair and "hmmmph!" and all.

I told her we would do fun stuff together while E was at camp and asked what she'd like to do today. Without missing a beat - and in a much more pleasant tone - she said she'd like to go to the mall to ride the train.

The $3 train ride is at the mall near my mom and dad's house, so I suggested we also go to the park near their house and feed the ducks. I stole that idea from Big Mama, my blog "friend", whom I've never met, but read without fail most every morning of the week while I eat my cereal.

So, we headed to the mall at 10:00 am. Come to find out, the train doesn't "open" until 11, so we had to kill some time at the Old Navy and the Claire's boutique. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to take Pressley to Claire's with the notion that we'd just look. I ended up being suckered into buying her a Princess watch that has four interchangeable faces. Camp Mommy could end up being very expensive if I'm not careful....

Anyway, here she is on the train:


And here she is on the quarter-fed cars at the other end of the mall. Luckily, she's happy just climbing in and out and turning steering wheels and never once asked for money to "ride" them.

Here's one in front of the fountain, showing off the new watch.

OK, so... on to the ducks at the park. As we were walking up, we didn't see any ducks and I was afraid this would be a bummer trip. But, we found the ducks, or rather, they found us.


Here are the ducks discovering that we've come to visit and that we've brought bread:

And here is the last one I snapped of Pressley before she started running from those aggressive little guys because she thought they were going to eat her.

For the rest of the time, she stood behind me with her hands planted firmly in my back pockets while I fed the ducks the rest of the bread. I tried to assure her that the ducks would not eat her or hurt her, but frankly, I wasn't all that confident. I think the heat has kept the kids and the bread away this summer, becuase those were some hungry ducks!