amelia's plum

So my kids had their first week of summer camp and things went off relatively smoothly. No beads stuck up the nose, Oona's incident last year (which I somehow neglected to blog about, (she shoved a blue bead 'for honesty' up her nose and we had to take her to the ER, where she gave various not so honest stories about how it made it's way up her nose, to get it out) resulted in a policy change where they have a 'bead ceremony' but they give out stickers instead of beads. Sort of confusing I know. Owen and Oona are having some minor difficulties at camp because Oona idolizes her brother and wants to follow him everywhere and Owen is annoyed that Oona is trying to join drama club, which is Owen's thing. Being an only child I always feel lost with the sibling rivalry stuff, I just try to tell them both that they're going to be around each other for the rest of their lives so they might as well get along. But overall the week was a good one. They went swimming twice (I worry about them drowning even more now that I've been at Children's and since they don't really know how to swim, but it sounds like they have to stay in water under their armpits), went to the library and went to Soldiers and Sailors museum. I got Owen's report card in the mail and he did great, he got straight A's except for handwriting, where he got a B. Last term he got a C in handwriting. Truth be told he probably should get a D in handwriting because his writing is barely legible and this is only after we go over his homework repeatedly. The hardest part of his homework is being able to print well enough that someone can read it, we wound up having to erase and rewrite a lot. He gets so frustrated by this and it makes me feel awful, he'd be better off typing his homework. I just don't get how his handwriting can be so god awful, Oona's three years younger and her penmanship and drawings blow Owen's away. Oh well, what are you going to do, if that's his only trouble in life he's pretty well off. I still haven't gotten Oona's report card, don't know how to interpret this. Perhaps her behavior was so bad Mrs. M is at a loss for how many N's for needs improvement to give her? I'll leave you with Oona's article for the camp newsletter. I'm kicking myself for ever promising the kids a dog once I graduate from school.

About Dogs
Dogs are furry. You can play with them. I can play catch with them. They are fun. They live in your house. Dogs eat dog food and they can eat out of the garbage. They can sleep with you. They make me happy. Some are fast, some have no fur. They can be big or small. They can be nice or mean. And they are so lovable!