August Highlights

Sorry, had to post that. It's so cute ;) 

You know, it's near impossible to NOT know when the end of the month has arrived. Of course, there's always your calendar. But if you're a blogger, the first thing you notice are 5 or 6 "Farewell August", "August is Over" "August Highlights" posts all in a row. One after the other. It's very hard to miss ;) 

So, of course, I'm going to go add to that list of end-of-the-month posts ;) (Bethany, you sure did start something pretty awesome with these monthly highlight posts =)) 

August was a pretty good month. Lots of things done, and a lot of memories made! 

// We went to the amusement park with some church friends and had a blast! 

Enjoying the carousel! Toblerone loved it, and went on 2-3 times in a row :P
Out of the four 'older' people (Dad, Mom, Tiger Lily, and I ;) I'm the only one
who can handle the more dizzier rides, so guess who got to ride with Toblerone? =D 

And guys. We ate funnel cake. FUNNEL CAKE!!!!! (okay, so maybe I'm being a little too dramatic, but really, it's. so. good. And soooooo very expensive, which means we rarely ever eat it. The last time we ate it was like...7-8 years ago?)

Snow White and our friend S. riding Klockwerks! Due to the thunderstorms earlier on in the day, the park was quite empty. So they took advantage of it and rode on this 4 or 5 times. Just in and out and in and out, no lines whatsoever!

// We organized our books into this library book organizer thing. Weirdly enough, the name of the site is Library Thing. There was some miscommunication at first when Mom told me to go onto the library thing xD But yeah.....we logged in a lot of books. Title, author, genre, grade level, etc. Had three computers working at once. But it felt very library-ish, which I LOVED cause it's books! :D 

// Toblerone celebrated his third birthday!! Ahh....my little boy is growing up so fast!! :O He asked for a Bum'bee (Bumblebee) transformer cake, so Tiger Lily and I went through the joys of researching and creating his cake. Toblerone had also started having a sudden interest in dinosaurs, so we made him some dino toast for breakfast :) 

Oh yes, and smily-face potatoes and (plain) chicken nuggets for dinner. 

Construction of the cake:

Finished carving of the cake. Do believe it was the first time Tiger Lily and I had ever
carved and shaped a cake; but it actually went better than expected! :D

Crumb coat and chill! (How to Cake It reference :P)

And Voila! Final product! :)

Okay, so that's actually the Autobot's symbol, not Bumblebee, but we made it yellow
and Toblerone was satisfied ;)

The Birthday Boy

// ADVENTURE CAMP

The Awesome Crew!!! 

Probably one of the best and most favourite thing that happened this month. Seriously, it. was. amazing! Thank you so, so much for your prayers! Everything went great :) Got to meet new people, spend time with friends, and help kids have a fun time at camp! Olivia and I collaborated together and are currently in the middle of telling stories from Adventure Camp, so if you haven't already read them, you should go do so! You can find them on my blog or Liv's blog HERE.

// I am now officially in Grade 11. Which means next year will be Grade 12. Which means I'll graduate soon! Eeks! Don't know whether to jump up and down for joy or hide in a corner. . .

This year, Mr. Landry was very nice and pushed the start of school back a week so instead of going back to school on the 15th, we started on the 22nd. (which meant I didn't have to miss school while at camp! :D)

Not at all sure why the US starts school in August?! (maybe some of you Americans can enlighten me. . . ;)) but it's nice to be able to end in May :)
And I don't know about you, but I was actually pretty excited for school to start! Essays, peoples! The best! ^_^

"Shopping" for school supplies . . . at home 

Toblerone showing off his backpack ;)

All my stuff - ready for school! :D

Tiger Lily and I are both doing Chemistry together and our first assignment was to memorize the names and symbols of 42 elements from the Periodic table. One day we were quizzing each other and then reached "B". There was an awkward silence as we tried to figure out what it was, then we both suddenly looked up and said simultaneously: "Boron! Rhymes with moron!" xD 

// Our church youth group went to a locked room event thingy. Basically, you were locked into a room and had to use clues to try and get out. During that time, we found out that we could be very smart at times, and very stupid at times. It was SO funny xD

There was a picture of pencils and they formed something, but we couldn't figure out what. I was staring at it with one of my friends and said: I wonder if the pencils form Braille letters?
Friend: Wait, those are pencils?
Me: *blinks*
Friend: *dies laughing*

Ok, this isn't exactly what the picture looked like, it was more
like dashes, not forming anything interpretable. But it's close ;P

Or another time, there was this geography quiz thing and I was trying to figure it out. It was on American geography and seriously, I'm SO bad at that :P There I was trying to figure out what MN - MT + MI, etc was and not knowing AT ALL which states they were. After a few minutes of me trying to recall an image of the US in my head, my other friend, E, said, "Hey, look. There's a map on the wall." 

Me: looks up and sees a big map with North America stretched across it. RIGHT. IN. FRONT. OF. ME *slams head on desk* 

Oh, and guess what? I learned that there's actually a state called Mississippi. I thought there was just a river named that :P

// I had a photo-shoot with my friend. We have our own Cinder-elly now! 💕

 

Writing/Reading

Sooo...one night I was trying to think of a story plot and guess who I had with me? Tiger Lily. 

Me: Got to find a unique story plot

Tiger Lily: *grins* A haunted teddy bear takes someone's phone and buries it six feet underground. 

Me: . . . . 

Tiger Lily: No, seven feet under. You know, to make it unique! 

Books Read

Okay, so I've been getting desperate trying to find books to read that I haven't already read yet. No longer AS desperate as before, but hey, if you have a book suggestion, please let me know! :) This month, my friend, Eric, introduced me to 'The Ranger's Apprentice' and I'm LOVING it! :D The only problem was he only had the first two books and the second book ended on kind of a cliffhanger and now I've got to wait sooooo long before I can read them from the library. *sigh* A way to learn patience. . . 

Also, has anyone read The Series of Unfortunate Events before? We found the first five books at our book thrift store for 50 cents each, and I had flipped through the first book and found it interesting, so we got 'em. But then I read the the next three books and found that the plot was basically the exact same in all of them :/ Children are sent to a new relative, Count Olaf finds them, something happens to the guardian (they either die or are found to be working with Olaf), children uncover Count Olaf's disguise, Count Olaf gets away with his cronie, and it starts all over again. And Mr. Poe is soooo annoying. Really, you'd think he learn! :P

Anyway, the books I read this month: 

Through the Tunnel - Rebekah Morris

The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket

The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket

The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket

The Miserable Mill - Lemony Snicket

Holes - Louis Sachar 

The Amish Nanny - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Bride - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Seamstress - Mindy Starns Clark
The Amish Groom - Mindy Starns Clark

The Ruins of Gorlan - John Flanagan 

The Burning Bridge - John Flanagan 

The Bully Boys - Eric Walters
The Fiddler - Beverly Lewis

The Valley of Adventure - Enid Blyton

Fitting In - Rebekah Morris

The Beautiful Pretender - Melanie Dickerson

The Merchant's Daughter (reread) - Melanie Dickerson 

Dracula (abridged, children's version)- Bram Stoker (still found it super creepy though) 

And right now, I'm reading: 

The Graham Quartet and the Mystery of the Day Maid - Rebekah Morris

An Old-Fashioned Girl (reread) - Louisa May Alcott

Random Things

In which I place all the random thingamabobs that are too small to have their own category ;)

This month, I was working a bit more on aperture. During the photo shoot with my friend, I managed to not use auto at all! So happy ^_^ Also played around with textures, specifically with flowers. 

Has anyone heard Britt Nicole's new song, Through Your Eyes? It's awesome!! :D 

 

Oh, and a rather fun thing that's coming up; Tiger Lily and I will take control of the house while Mom and Dad go on a short anniversary trip. Muahahahahaha (of course we're not gonna be like the Josties xD) 

Goals 

Goals for August

Write at least 5,000 words and blogging don't count - was barely able to reach my goal in time, but in the end was able to get 7% over! Yay!! =D

Reach 30 followers - almost, but not quite! Thank you to the two new followers that joined this month! Really appreciate it :) And to all you other followers - you're awesome :D

Complete the "By the Book" Tag - check!

Finish memorizing Romans 6 - done! Now to just review over the first 6 chapters and keep it from leaking out my ears ;D

Be prepared for school - yep! Almost two weeks into school already and things have been going great :)

Read at least 10 books - yes sirree!

New Goals for September

Guest post on a couple of blogs

Write reviews and post interview for Rebekah Morris' new short story Fitting In
Look into finding a job
and a big event that I'm very much looking forward to. . .  

Participating in the Five Fall Favourites party! You're all invited!!! :D 

And that about wraps up August!
What are highlights from your month? Are you glad school's started/is going to start or sad that summer's ended? Anyone looking forward to this awesome upcoming book blog party?

Adventure Camp - Day 4

Helloooooo everyone!

Day 4 of Adventure camp was just posted on Olivia's blog, so you can check it out HERE.

Lots of fun things, talking about campers and BOUNCY CASTLES and the world-famous brownie cupcake!! :D So go check it out!! :)

Adventure Camp - Day 3

Third day of Adventure Camp!

- - - - - 

Tuesday was a very interesting day! According to the weatherman on the radio, it was “the rainiest day of 2016”!! 

Oh, really? It did rain quite a bit on and off, one of the reasons we couldn’t do the nature hike for that day. ;) 

Yes. I know when we first arrived, it was pouring. And poor Tiger Lily and C (the game/craft CIT's) had to go and work outside :P 

In a way, it’s fun being in the rain, but, I guess it might not be as fun when you’re soaking wet and cold. :P Anyway, we started off the morning with a devotion and counsellor meeting… not outside like the rest of the week. :D 

Hehe, yes, thankfully! 

So, instead of lining up for chapel outside the church, we lined up in the gym, because.. Well, it was raining! The kids made a mad dash to the chapel, right BC? :) I think some of the counselors did, too... Haha.

Ha, well, they tried! We didn’t want anyone tripping, so it was more of a brisk walk from gym to chapel :) 

Oh, okay. :) After chapel, was snack time, which we also ate inside the chapel. Goldfish crackers and cheese. Okay, funny story. J, head counsellor, was lactose-intolerant, so she didn’t want the cheese, so I ate them. Then one of my campers didn’t want her cheese either, so I ate it as well. Maybe it doesn’t sound that funny, but I think it was kinda funny at the time. :D

Well, I guess you got to eat a lot of cheese, then! ;) 

I think I ate six chunks of it.. :D

Very nice! If I remember correctly, the cheese was kinda room-temperature. So it tasted - interesting :P

Haha, yes. I think it was.

Yes. Well, after that, Green and Yellow stayed inside the chapel to do a scavenger hunt. Blue and Red did crafts, right? 

Yes, we did it inside the barn, and made these play-doh sculptures. They dried over the next few days, 

Oh right! Those were fun! Mixing them to make different colours was cool too. 

Two kids on my team made a pizza slice, and the other one was a hotdog. It was actually pretty good!

The kids’ creativity really did come to life there! One of the yellow campers made this really good model of a dog lying down, or anyway, so we thought. When Mr. S complimented it and said “Wow, that’s one of the best play-doh dogs I’ve ever seen!” the camper replied with, “It’s not a dog! It’s a pig!!” xD 

Haha, oh dear! :D After crafts, Red and Blue did the photo/ nature picture thing, and Yellow and Green did crafts. :) 

The photo scavenger hunt was really fun. When I was reading through the list of things to look for, it didn’t seem too hard. But having 16 or so people doing it all at once adds some. . . excited complications ;) 

It was quite excitable for the kids, I think. :) After the photo scavenger hunt, it was lunch! 

After lunch, it was chapel again. :)

Which meant more Reggie and Lena!!! I don’t know about yours, but my campers were p.r.e.t.t.y excited about that! ;) 

I think they were. They really liked that story! 

So did I ^_^ 

:) We had the group “Handicap” after that. 

The games started out with land skis! (If you haven’t heard about land skis already, you can go to our first post that has a picture of the counsellors doing it.) 

That’s right. The counsellor(s) from each team had to choose the smallest camper on their team, and another camper to do the land skis with a counsellor. So, because my other two counsellor helpers were not there at the moment, I had the responsibility of choosing the smallest camper and another camper, which I did. 

And a very good job she did of it too! :) It was kinda funny because the campers got to choose which counsellor to do the game, and at the time, no one knew what it was going to be. I got elected, and Mr. T looked at me and said “Well, you can’t miss it this time!” I didn’t understand at all what he was saying - until they brought out the skis :P 

Ha, that’s funny! You definitely didn’t miss it! 

Yep. A pretty dress couldn’t save me this time. . . xD After the teams had been assembled and everyone was balanced on their skis, we started moving around the big circle on the gym floor. 

It was really great to see the encouraging attitudes of the campers. 

YES!! They were very encouraging. And during the land skis, they cheered for the last team (which was, want to guess, green team :)) which showed a lot of good attitude and team spirit! :D 

Yes! For sure! I think everyone was chanting, “Green Team! Green Team! Green Team!” As you guys got close to the finish, everyone was so encouraging. 

It was very heartwarming to hear the cheers. I wish I could have hugged each and every one of them. Although realistically speaking, hugging more than 60 people would probably have taken too long ;) 

Plus, some of the kids might have thought it a little weird.. Haha! :)

Hehe, yes. Especially the older boys :P They don’t like to get embarrassed ;) 

Probably not. :P Any way, after the group handicap, in which we also did another game, the balloon game, where they had rows of chairs lined up in rows of six or seven, back to back. Then two teams sat in one direction, and the opposing teams sat in the other directions. Two balloons were thrown up, and the teams had to try to hit the balloons over the other team’s side, to get points. Whoever had the most points, won!

It was kinda like a game of foosball. Just with 60 or so people! 

Yeah! Wow, you explained that much shorter than I did. :P

Hehe, yep ;) Both ways work though. It was very exciting, lots of shouting and waving of arms. And one of the most important parts of the game, you absolutely positively could NOT get up from your seat. If you did, you instantly lost points. 

That’s right. We had snack after the group event. Do you remember what it was, BC?

Ummmm….I want to say cookies. Or was it chips? Help me, Liv! I don’t remember :P 

Uhh….. It wasn’t cookies. That was another day. It was either chips or something else, like watermelon, or something. 

Ohhh…..ok. Yeah, you’re probably right. The watermelon was SO good and juicy! (in case you didn’t know, watermelon is my FAVOURITE fruit ever!!!! :D) 

Really? Watermelon does taste good! We actually harvested two watermelons from our garden this week. They are already eaten, but they tasted really good! Sweet, juicy.. Mmmmm.. 

Now I’m hungry! Okay, back to the topic of camp before I go crazy thinking of red, juicy, fresh, cold watermelon - ;) 

Ok, okay. :) FREETIME!! Which usually means……

CAPTURE THE FLAG!!! 

YES! CAPTURE THE FLAG! (Google)

Okay, so that pretty much wraps up day 3! I think the posts are getting shorter…. :P

Hehe, yeah. Well, are there any stories that you remember that you want to share here? 

Hmmm…….. Well, when we were doing the photo scavenger hunt thing, two or three of my campers kept on going off, I think because they wanted to find the numbers or do something, so I had to keep going after them, and the other campers would do the pics and stuff, so I actually wasn’t really super involved in the photo scavenger hunt. :P I think I was in a couple photos, but yeah. Wow, that was not funny at all… :S Why can’t I really remember much of that day? :S :S

Ha, yeah, same here. I KNOW there were some awesome memories and things done, but I just can’t seem to remember right now :P 

Hmmmm.. Should we just leave it at that?

Yeah…. You readers will understand, won’t you? :D 

:D Until next time! 

(Oh, and quick note, apologies for the lack of photos. We're not allowed to post pictures of campers just because of privacy reasons! :)

Counting Our Blessings // Jesseca Dawn

Next up for our little blessings series is Jesseca! She blogs at Whimsical Writings and just recently published her first novel, The Silent Blade (which is a really good book, by the way, and if you haven't read it, you totally should!) 

Please welcome Jesseca to the blog! :) 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ 

Hi all! Blessing Counter contacted me a little while ago about doing a blessings post, sharing about a couple things that I count among my greatest blessings. An awesome idea, no?
So let’s get started! 

God’s Word.

Number one on my list of blessings would have to be the Bible. Growing up in a Christian home, it was something I really took for granted for a while. Sure, I took it out for family devotions and church, I memorized verses for school, but other than that, it pretty much just sat on the shelf. Unless my parents made me read it, or handed me a Bible reading plan and told me to finish it. 

And then me world came to a stop a few years ago when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and I had no where else to turn. I picked up my Bible, and just started reading. And, oh, what I had missed before! God’s Word came alive to me, and I realized that the words contained therein are truly sharper than any two-edged sword. Words that teach and convict, words that bring promise and hope, words that are for more than just words; they are, in fact, God’s letter to us! 

Friends.

These past few years I’ve better understood and realized the gift that friends are. They are truly one of God’s greatest gifts to us. They are there when times are good, and they are there when times are hard. They don’t ask you to be someone you aren’t, but at the same time they encourage you to continue growing the Lord. 

And they’re just all around awesome. I mean, who else can you be completely crazy with? ;) 

Words.

Words have the ability to convey so many things. Something we read can completely change our view of a certain subject. Words have the ability to persuade and to encourage, but they also can tear down and destroy. Words have such power! What we read impacts us, what we hear impacts us, and what we say can impact someone for the better or for the worse.  I’m so thankful for words. When used for God’s glory, they can change the world!

Music. 

Has there ever been a time when you were sitting and just minding your own business when suddenly a song comes on, and, for one reason or another, that single song affects the rest of your day?

I’ve had that happen to me. 

Music can tell a story, it can send a warning, and the way it can depict and effect emotions is truly marvelous. 

It is a wonderful gift and blessing from God above, and also a beautiful way we can praise our Lord and Saviour!

God gives us so many wonderful blessings, doesn’t he?!

Thanks so much for having me, Blessing! And thank you, readers, for reading. ☺ 

*All pictures taken from pinterest or google images

Adventure Camp - Day 2

Hello everyone! If you read my post from yesterday, you'll know that Olivia and I are collaborating together to tell you the tales of Adventure Camp 2016! ;)

Day 2 of camp is going to be posted on Olivia's blog today, so if you want to read more about camp (and I really hope you do! :D) hop on over to Liv's blog! You can click HERE for the post :)

Adventure Camp - Day 1

Hello everyone! Olivia from 9 Kids Plus 2 and I have collaborated together to share with you stories from Adventure Camp! We're going to be taking turns posting on each others blogs, which is going to be super fun! For the first day, we're going to start on mine. Olivia will be in red and I will be in green.  Soo...here we go!

Day 1- Sunday 

This was a day we had been looking forward to for weeks. Training day! We arrived at the church for the morning service, then afterwards ate at the BBQ and we began training. First off, a name game to help us learn each other’s names and one thing each person liked. 

It’s always helpful to be able to call your colleagues by their name! ;) 

After that, we did a little talk about different rules and regulations that were required for camp. We also learned a bit about First Aid, and what to do in a situation when the camper hurt himself. Now, came the fun part! Finding out what team you were put on.  

Yes, you can’t forget about that part! It was one of the most important parts! ;) I think everyone was looking forward to that just as much as they were camp :) 

The head counselors were announced first:

Blessing Counter- Green Team

(Hurray! :D OH, that’s why you chose red and green as colours. I feel silly now :P) 

J- Red Team

Eric- Blue Team 

Carrie- Yellow Team

Then, the counselors and CITs were: BC, you want to go now?

Sure! 

L + A - Green Team

J + (our very own ;) Olivia - Red Team

B + Lea - Blue Team

A + J - Yellow Team 

After the teams were assigned, we had some - team building exercises. Did we do land skis or hoops first, Liv?

We did the hoops first, remember? The head counsellor had to stand beside a wire thing that stuck in the ground. Then, the other two counsellors, from each team, would have to (one at a time of course;) try throwing a hoop and throwing it over the wire thing. I don’t really know what it’s called. :P

Ohhh….right. And the head counsellors had to throw the hoops to their teammates. I almost knocked Lea’s head off ‘cause my hoop throwing is a.w.f.u.l xD 

So, the race began! It took a bit of throwing back and forth to finally get it around the wire, but I finally got it around mine, and the next counsellor on my team went. Do you want to say who won?

Okaaayyy….um, I THINK yellow team won first. Not exactly sure since I was concentrating on not getting hit by big hoops that were flying rather dangerously close to my head. Would you agree, Liv? 

Thankfully, though, no one was hurt. Actually, I could be wrong about this, but I think red team actually won. That’s how we got in the lead for the next day, right BC?

Oh right! Yeah, you’re probably correct there. Funny thing, actually. I had no idea that those games earned the teams points :P 

I don’t think I knew they earned points either. But, getting on with the story…

Hehe yes. Sorry. Okay, after the hoop throwing, we ‘did’ land skis. I got to skip it because I was wearing a dress ^_^ 

Yeah, BC was pretty happy about that, I can tell you. ;)

Guilty as charged! xD ANYWAY, land skis can be - um - interesting. But as Liv was the one who actually did them, I’ll let her tell you what it’s all about. 

Haha, thanks alot! :D I’ll show you all a pic, which sorta explains what they look like, but in it you also have to have team work. Lifting your feet at the same time, saying, “Right foot, left foot.” Is helpful. Another tip is going fast if you can. But again, that requires teamwork. 

See? Teamwork. :) After this game, which the red team won again, (they were on a roll, you guys) I think that was pretty much it for the training. But, we had to help with moving some stuff and ductaping up the windows with black garbage bags. :)

Green team was actually enlisted to put up tarps for a sort of shelter under the trees. Which was actually quite fun. Mr. S, the camp director, was considering sending L up a tree with rope so that they could tie the tarp up. But yours truly suggested tying something heavy to the rope and throwing it over a branch instead. It was easier, let me tell you! :D 

Haha, really? I guess I was doing some other stuff, like removing the Bibles and hymnbooks from the pews, and checking out the girls’ bathrooms with Tiger Lily to make sure there were enough supplies.

After that, I think we were about done for the day. OH, we also had a group photo taken! 

That’s right, BC. This was the crew! 

Ha, see the problem with not counting before taking a picture is I don’t know when the button’s being pressed :P I felt much happier and excited than I look in that ^  

Hehe, I guess that’s why you should always have a smile on your face! ;) Oh, and she was, believe me, more excited than she looks. I think Tiger Lily was, too, but she looks so mysterious in the photo. :D

XD Yes, Tiger Lily was very excited. I think she had the same problem I did; not knowing when the picture was being taken ;) 

I think that was pretty much it for the day. We all had our sheets with our campers names on it, and I know I took mine home to a very excited couple of siblings who came as campers and were excited to find out what team they were on. What about you, BC?

Same here! Snow White especially was excited to see that her friends were coming back to camp! :) After we got back home, there was that very. Long. night before camp started :D 

Which brings us to day number 2 (although it was day 1 of the actual camp), but we’ll tell you all about that another time. 

Yes, haha. We were planning on doing a super fast overview of Sunday, but apparently when you get two word-lovers together, you end up with a LOT more ;) What’s our count right now? I think we’re on our fourth page or so? xD 

That’s true, but oh, well. Sometimes you can’t help it! Yes, we are! XD

Hehe, ok! Well, that about wraps up pre-Day 1. Goodbye until next time! :) 

Tally-ho!

Helens // Goodbye // Candy Haul

Okay, I'm FINALLY getting this post out. I am SO sorry for how long it took to publish this. And, Tiger Lily won't be here this time round; though a lot of her pictures will be! :) 

Alright, let's get this started. 

Sunday afternoon, first week campers who were staying another week prepared to greet new campers. Remember from that first post, we told you about how we were nearly scared to death by the loud welcome we received? Well, this time, Tiger Lily and I got to be in this loud welcome ;) Lots of clapping and shouting and greetings :D 

 And GUESS WHAT?! I got to meet my Literary Analysis teacher. Which was positively amaaazzziinnnggg!!!! It was SO exciting to finally get to meet her in person :)

 We also met this very special person, Amy, whom we quickly became friends with 

 The second week of camp, Tiger Lily took a cosmetology intensive (cosmetology as in make-up and hair and all that. NOT cosmology (stars) as many people believed :P), and I took a filmmaking intensive. Going to tell you now, you are going to see WAY more pictures from the cosmetology than filmmaking ;)

And, as Tiger Lily isn't here, I'm going to attempt to tell you everything she did at camp. Bear with me ;)

Okay, so I THINK the first thing they had to do was cut the mannikin's hair. There were only 6 Helens (yes, the heads had names) and 12 students, so it was 2 girls to 1 head. Soooo....half a head each. Tiger Lily said the end result usually looked a little strange since one half was always different from the other.

 They also got to curl the hair after cutting it.

 After the first day, Tiger Lily came up to me with a 'dangerous' glint and asked "Can I cut your hair?" I immediately said "NO!" xD Duh

She consoled herself with doing my hair instead in some complicated braid-y thing.

Interruption from the cosmetology stuff. Here's a quick picture from the filmmaking class. Cool cameras and set up; the whole schibang ;) Very interesting to be around.

 There was also field night again. I managed to snap a photo of the waterfall really quick while walking across the bridge.

 Ultimate Frisbee was being played on the field too, but as it looked a little rough-and-tumble, Tiger Lily, a few other girls, and I decided to skip out on it.

We played General Knowledge instead :)

 Back to cosmetology now ;) Tiger Lily had to do a perm. Which apparently is NOT a very easy thing to do. It took a very long time and at the end, the students were saying "If you ever have a perm done on yourself, please apologize to your hairdresser." xD

All that hair in them curlers ;) 

And the end result of the perm! 

 I think the next pictures were of bleaching the Helens hair.

 And this one was of them dying the hair. See how much stuff you can do on one single head? ;)

Random picture of Tiger Lily and Amy eating ice cream :D 

 And another picture from my filmmaking camp.

 The last day of camp was funny and sad all at the same time. Lots of giggles and tears and hugs that night, let me tell you!

Oh yes, and the Helen's were everywhere in the girls' dorm. Some in the foyer, some in girls' bedrooms, you get the point. It was a little creepy at first, but you got used to the sight after awhile :P

On the last night, we had a mini girl get-together :D Eating junk food, dancing the macarena, telling silly stories, and just having a fun time together.

The girls there, they were amazing, may I just say. We made some very good friends, and it was very sad having to leave. But I'm glad we got the chance to meet them and make new friends :)

And looking back now, (I know, it's only been around 3 months, but it seems like forever since camp ended ;) Tiger Lily and I both agree that Landry Camp really helped us more socially than educationally. We're both introverts, and we still kind of are, but we're not as painfully shy as we used to be. All those amazing people at camp really helped us to feel more secure and confident, and yes, even a little more extroverted too. Even the dancing helped us break out from our shell. So thank you SO very much, Landry and all you peoples. Love you guys so much!   

Okay, enough of the rambling ;) In the morning, we had a quick presentation before people with flights had to leave. It was bittersweet leaving. And yes, there were tears :) 

We drove 2.5 hours to the airport, and then ate lunch with some of the other students before their flights came in and they had to leave. Tiger Lily and I had to wait the longest, so we hung around and walked the airport for quite awhile. 

We were supposed to wait around 6 hours before our flight came in. But there were a few maintenance problems with the plane, so we waited for another 2 hours and a bit.

I'll admit, I kinda drank a lot of Starbucks while we were waiting for the plane.

 Tiger Lily had to take Gravol so she wouldn't get airsick in the plane. However, since the plane was delayed, the medicine ended up taking effect while we were still at the airport. My poor sister got very drowsy and fell asleep right there in her seat.

 On the other hand, I was all wide-awake and active after all that coffee. Hey, someone had to look after the luggage ;)

 By the time we got on the plane, we were tired, but happy.

We ended up arriving at our destination before Mom and Dad got there, so we had a bit more of a wait. I think we ended up hearing them before we saw them. It looked like a big crowd rushing at us, but it was really only Dad and Mom and Spiderman and Ironman and Snow White and Dare Devil and Toblerone and our grandfather. Lots of hugs exchanged there. Then we drove home and AHHH....I was greeted by an ecstatic Maple. My puppy missed me!! xD 

She literally bowled me over and then after I sat up, squirmed herself into my lap. Yes, my over 80 pound puppy tried to sit on me. I think I had pins and needles afterwards ;) 

The day after we got back home, Tiger Lily and I emptied our bags of all the candy and it was distributed between the younger children. They really enjoyed that ;P 

The end! It was a great experience and we both loved it so very much! Lord willing, we'll get to do it again next year! :) 

Our counsellor groups :) 

Thank you all for reading these (very delayed) posts and I hope you enjoyed them! :)