sew proud

How's that for a cheesy title? :-)

Last week Clara did a Project Runway inspired sewing camp. The girls got to design and make their own dresses. On the first day of camp, they took a walk around the neighborhood to find inspiration for their dress. Clara was inspired by a "beware of dog" sign to make a dog dress. They worked on their creations all week and at the end of the week, they invited the parents in for a fashion show. I didn't take any photos of the fashion show, but I did video it. However, I'm a huge dork and once again forgot that I can't turn the camera sideways when filming so I shot the entire thing sideways... sigh. Is there a way to flip video?

Clara loves the dress she made... she wore it the whole rest of the day on Friday and decided to wear it again yesterday. While she had it on, we went outside for a little mini-photo shoot.

So, here she is.... Clara in her Dog Dress...

From the back....
Sad, puppy dog eyes to go with the puppy dog face on her dress....
Showing off the dog face and paw print appliques she made....
Clara love, love, loved the camp and is dying to take more classes/camps there so she can learn to make more complicated pieces!

kamp '10

The kids had a great time again this year at kamp. In fact, they had such a good time that we have already signed them up for next year!

On parents' night we went (along with my parents) to see the kids. That night they usually have the cabin award ceremonies.

Here's Clara in front of her cabin...
and Clara at her awards ceremony...
... she received the friendship award.

Then we booked over to the boy's side for Alex's cabin awards....
.... Alex received the heart award and...

along with one of his cabin-mates...
... receive the Starburst award.

It was HOT and I was so distracted with hugging my kids, listening to their stories and meeting their friends that I took very few photos. That night after we watched the camp movie from that term, Jeff and I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before camp awards and camper pick-up the next day.

Here are the kiddos on their last day at camp...
At the girls' awards, Clara got an award for swim activity.....
... and runner-up for honor tripper for her trip (Wilderness, I think)....
(she's hard to see... but that's the side of her face next to the girl in the white shirt)

Then it was time to say good-bye :-(

Clara with one of her counselors....
(she was also one of her counselors last year... which made going to camp for a month, so much easier)

And Clara with her other counselor....
We are so fortunate that they are able to attend this camp every summer. It truly is an amazing place filled with amazing people. Both kids have already gotten letters and emails from their friends from camp.... they're already making plans for next year. :-)

The City Museum

I've been a very bad blogger and have a TON of photos to post from the last month or so.... so let's get started with our trip to the City Museum in St. Louis on Memorial Day.

I had shown Alex the website, so this museum was on his "must see" list for our little weekend trip.

Since it looked like rain that day, we started with all of the outside stuff first.... MonstroCity...
It was absolutely amazing! I didn't get any good wide shots of the place, but search City Museum St. Louis in Google Images and you'll see some cool shots of just how big and fun this place is.

Alex really had to work on conquering his fear of heights.... :-)

After playing a while in MonstroCity, we decided to head up to the roof before it started to rain.

The kids had fun going across the stepping stones...
I got brave and joined Clara in the bus that sticks out over the side of the roof....
(click on this link to see photos of the bus and how it truly does hang out over the side)

We didn't stay in too long....
Clara then went off in search of Alex...
She found him in the dome... and they both came climbing down the inside...


Then we went inside and down to the first floor....
Where the kids found the roller slide....

And found crazy coiled tubes to climb through....
Then we went up to the third (?) floor to the skate-less park....
.. where the world's largest pencil resides....
Once Clara finally made it to the top of one of the ramps....
.... she loved sliding down....
Alex tried it too...

Next we went to see the model trains. The kids went through the tunnels to get a better view...
And in the Museum of Mirth, Mystery and Mayhem... we found Jeff's twin....
... well, not as much so now... but when we first met, his hair had a bit of a "Big Boy" flip to it :-)

We then went into the Elmslie and Sullivan section and the Renovated Architecture Hall....




And then I turned around and realized that I was alone and had to go off searching for my family!

I found Alex and Clara climbing down to the second floor, from the third floor...

Then it was back down to the main floor so Jeff and the kids could climb through the caves so then could go down the 10 story slide (or is it a 7 story slide? I can't find that info on their site, and I've heard people say both).

The view from where I sat and waited ....

I'm not sure why I stopped posting while the kids were away at camp! I have a ton of photos to post.... I have still been keeping up with my photo of the day BUT it's been so long since I took them all, it's daunting to try to figure out which photos were taken on which day since I used multiple cameras. I just need to sit down and do it!