Starry sky

Camping is for me the best way to spend a weekend, or even better, a long weekend. Catalina loves it too, and few years back we found the perfect place to camp: spotless bathrooms, close to the beach (20 min walking!), beautiful, shaded camping spots. We planned on going for a long time, and with summer coming to an end we finally packed the tent and went on the road.

We set up the tent, and daddy told the girls they can go to the beach while the boys start the grill. That sounded perfectly to the girls, so off we went. Tired after a long drive, Catalina fell and got a minuscule scratch on her knee. Being the high maintenance princess that she is we had to turn back sooner than we anticipated. Not before we took evidence that we witnessed this.

Amazing sunset on the way back to our tent

We followed with an evening of grilled meat, beer, and smores. Lots of smores. When the bellies were full, we went in the tent for scary stories. And then we made plans to wake up for the sunrise and went to sleep.

Catalina stood true to her initial statement, she was a lazy cat and did not want to wake up. But mommy and the other mommy that was with us went for a long walk and they were rewarded with amazing views and that peace you can only get at the very early hours of the morning on an empty beach.

Back at the tent Catalina was waiting un patiently for mommy. She wanted breakfast and she wanted to go to the beach. ASAP!

No warm coffee for mommy meant there was no reason to linger by the camping site. Fruits, a sandwich, some cold instant coffee (yuck!) and we were on our way!

Freedom!

The sand wonderful, but the waves way to dangerous. Knowing there are more smores at the tent, we hurried up to find them :)

More grilling, more juice, more sugar. All got us tired and after an absolutely delightful afternoon nap we woke up for the last part of adventures in our trip. The girls enjoyed some crafting, while the adults enjoyed some "doing nothing" :)

Part of the evening program was a show where the girls presented their art. Curtains and all :)

 We took an evening walk, it was getting dark, the girls were playing with their flashlights. Catalina was playing with mommy's phone and wanted a picture of them. We obliged :D

 Next day we put the tent back in the car, rested a little and took a short trip to the Nature Center on the campground.  

That's a whale's cranium!!

On our way back we stopped at Baltimore Aquarium. Catalina is absolutely, madly in love with everything that has to do with nature. We promised her for a while to take her to an aquarium (we have one close to home, that is VERY beautiful), but somehow we never got there. Since the Baltimore Aquarium is so famous, still close to home, and somehow on our way we stopped there for a short visit.

The aquarium is beautiful, but we were very very tired. Catalina enjoyed it slightly, but she was happy to go back to the car so we can drive home.

We'll probably return to this aquarium, but even for a first peak we were content. Only a week left till Catalina starts kindergarten at her new school. I can honestly say I am very very nervous about it! Till then, few more days of crazy camp :

Crazy hair day:

Before...

After

End result

Halloween blast!

The circus that almost wasn't

     This summer, before starting kindergarten, Catalina is in summer camp. It's the same daycare, the same schedule mostly, but the kids in camp vary in age greatly. Pretty much all parents who work at my institute and have kids younger than 10yo have the option of bringing them back for "camp". Catalina loves camp, her teacher is very easy going, they have pancakes daily, popcorn and movies almost daily. This does not make mommy very happy, but after the military style environment of her last class I feel she deserves a relaxed (even if too relaxed...) atmosphere. Funny enough, Catalina learnt some bad language in camp, but she also learnt to be very confident and to fight for what she needs. I guess being around a bunch of 10 yo kids when you are only 5 does this to you...

   That being said, from day one of camp we were told that the kids will write, direct and act a play. They get to choose the theme, what happens and what character they want to be. The teachers of course guide them, but everything starts from the kids. I was waiting impatiently for the play, I have to admit. Few weeks in rehearsals I heard the theme will be the circus, and the week of the play I learnt the title as well: "The circus that almost wasn't". Silly, right? My daughter told me she will be a horse (not surprising considering her continuous obsession with ponies).

I remember being around 7-8yo and I had to recite a very short poem in front of all the parents. I was so scared and intimidated that I messed up somewhere at the second verse. While not awfully traumatic (I survived the shame...), I did not want Catalina to feel the same pressure that everything has to be perfect. Knowing how shy she can get I prepared myself that she will not go "on stage", but rather she'll come sit in my arms. Well, my little actress was beyond my expectations. She went there, in front of all the parents, sang the songs and when her turn came she said her lines clearly. She acted her part, laughed with her friends and everything just turned our perfectly.

Back in the classroom there were few more photo ops, and my proud daughter posed happily for mommy.

Bye bye mommy, I am playing with my friends now!

Summer camp is soon coming to an end. Big girl school is just around the corner and I'm holding my breath, scared, excited and very very curious. I'm hoping Catalina is just excited :)

Interesting summer

    The summer is ending, there is no question about it. One morning I got outside and it was so chilly I had to ask Catalina if she is sure she does not want a jacket. Another day, as I was jogging I saw the reddest, most beautiful leaf on the ground. The days are still warm and cozy, but the mornings and evenings get just a little cooler. One day, Catalina told me that it's not summer anymore, but it's not fall either. It's just "interesting summer", because in the morning and evening it's fall, but during the day it's still summer.

   And because we are worried that the interesting summer will just become too interesting and turn itself into fall sooner than we expected, we decided to take full advantage of the last pool days.

We're going camping on the beach soon, but till then, we get a good wear for our swimsuits in the pool.
Life is good :)

Loving nature

     One of the perks of living where we do is that we have free access to a couple of nice parks in the area. With our busy lives, we don't take enough advantage of them as we could, but we try hard to remedy this.
      Briar Bush is a park/nature exposition setting where few animals are partially caged for kids to see. These animals have long days outside their cages, so it's definitely not a zoo kind of setting. It is also MUCH smaller than a zoo, there are no fancy lions or elephants. It's a nature center where little kids can learn about animals. There are some snakes and cockroaches that are always in boxes, but all the turtles, pigeons, frogs, spend most of the days in the wild and are "caged" once in a while for "academic" purposes. The place also has an area with probably a hundred different bird feeders. Needless to say, 10 minutes of bird watching puts you face to face with tens of wild bird species while you can read information and cool facts about them. People who work at Briar Bush take some animals (cute rodents, little birds) for day trips to daycares and schools around the area to teach kids about nature. Catalina loves these encounters and she asked us several times to take her there.

So, here we are, on a Saturday morning!

Aside from this, we take often "nature" walks as Catalina likes to call them. This means that while we walk we talk about flowers and leaves and bugs. Catalina knows a lot of things and she is happy to teach us! 

A closer park is just a nice place of dog free (Thank you!!!!) trails, with a nice playground, a cute mini golf course, a real golf course, a pond and few picnic tables. We see deer, squirrels, chipmunks and lots of geese there. Catalina likes the playground, but lately she was very interested in going there to catch insects to study them under the microscope. She also started a feather collection, and with so many geese there, there is never a shortage of feathers.

Get that bug, daddy!

We returned home with a nice collection of 3 ants, a flower, few leaves and some other "nature" stuff. Catalina has a hand held microscope that can be connected to a computer and you can see the magnified image on the screen. We never connected it, even though we had for almost 2 years. It was a very nice surprise to see Catalina excited about it. We started by looking at feather and rocks....

 just to move on to human subjects!

 Catalina loved seeing her hair on the screen. She is a lot of fun to be around, and we are lucky to have some friends who enjoy her and play very nicely with her as well.

Sometimes, there is all one needs, good, quiet laughs. We've had a few :)

Ready for school?

Are we ready for school? No, I am not. At least I am not ready for Catalina to be a school girl. I know it's just kindergarten, but the fact that she will actually go to an "official" school makes me very nervous. Is SHE ready? Probably yes, she matured a lot over the summer. She is more confident, she stands her ground and her mind sparkles! Yes, she is ready, so we have to be ready, too. Anticipating a more "serious" environment and also because the little table she had in her room was way too small for her, we decided that we should get Catalina a desk. After months of online shopping we finally decided!

She was excited to get a big girl desk, a place where she can put all her exploring books. We started really from scratch and we had a good long evening of hard work

puzzle....

 Catalina selected all her exploring book from the shelves, ready to stuff them in the new desk. This girl has a very deep and pure passion for animals, birds, insects, dinosaurs, and more recently, planets. When we go to libraries or book stores I pick up the books with stories, she brings the books with nature stuff. When we walk or have some moments together she always asks me what I know about insects, or birds, or animals. Lately she started asking me what I know about stuff I do at work. I found myself talking about DNA and proteins, how we need high temperature to unfold them. I explain all this in simpler terms of course, and I don't expect that she understands or remembers much. But she always asks questions about the stuff I am telling her, and she always tries really hard to understand what I say. No, I could not be prouder!

 Hard work pays off and at midnight (on a Tuesday!) we finished putting the desk together. She loved loved loved it! She hid her gems and jewelry in the back of the desk, she carefully put all the "science" books in the desk. She asked to play with the earth globe and she asked a thousand questions.

Waiting till midnight had its benefits, we ended out night with some freshly baked bread.

Warm, fresh bread. It smells like family to me. May we always be this happy!

BFFs

Catalina is following my steps closely in her behavior. She is on the shyer side, she likes to play with dolls and she is particular about who is her friend. This means that she has one very good friend that she likes to hang out with and that's it. Rory is invited for play dates and sleepovers, and the two girls have a (frightening actually) mature friendship. They are both on the controlling, domineering side, but somehow in different ways. And, they also take turns in bossing each other around. Catalina likes sparkles, Barbies and veggies, Rory likes monster girls and plain spaghetti. Somehow however they make it work!

With Catalina leaving her daycare soon, we decided the girls need one more play date before school starts. Catalina was very excited to show her friend her new room and how she knows how to whistle.
So, we braced ourselves for a fun and adventurous evening with two girls.

Both girls wanted a "nature walk" so we went around the complex in search of fun things to do. What can I say, we collected a lot of compliments along the way, 3 pretty girls (yes, I am the third!) are bound to stand out :)

When the evening came we took a walk in a close by cemetery. I like the quiet and the peace around, and the girls had some space to play around (while being very respectful!). On our way back they stopped to talk a little about aliens. Rory had an Elsa crown with light up "diamonds" and both girls decided that it looks like an alien. So, a very thoughtful and "academic" conversation started on the subject.

 My girl is growing up, and so is my love for her. It just amazes me how each day I discover new layers of her personality, but there is still nothing I would change in her. I guess I will have to just accept that she is just perfect.